First Ladoga battle
The First Battle of Ladoga (also Sinyavinsk Operation , Russian Синявинская операция ) was an offensive by the Red Army in World War II that lasted from August 19 to October 10, 1942.
prehistory
After the end of the German advance in late 1941, the Soviet troops in the Battle of the Volkhov in early 1942 failed to end the Leningrad blockade .
The Leningrad Front under Leonid Govorow and the Volkhov Front under Kirill Merezkow were supposed to horror Leningrad and prevent the planned German enterprise Northern Lights . The German 18th Army (Colonel General Lindemann ) was reinforced for the planned offensive by units of the 11th Army from the Crimea and other units from Western Europe. In their memoirs, Merezkow and Erich von Manstein , then commander of the 11th Army, agreed that the terrain was very difficult for the attacking side.
course
On August 19, the first operation by the 55th Army (Lieutenant General Sviridov ) on the Leningrad Front began. Parts of the 268th Rifle Division and the separate 86th Panzer Battalion (21 tanks) went on the offensive with strong artillery and air support. The order was to force a breakthrough over Tosna and to capture the settlements of Ivanovo and Ust-Tosno and the railway bridge there.
On August 27, the troops of the Volkhov Front (General Merezkow) attacked after 1657 guns had carried out the artillery strike. The first season consisted of the units of the 8th Army (General Starikow ). The main thrust in the direction of Sinjawino was the 6th Guards Rifle Corps (Major General ST Bijakow ) with four rifle divisions, three other rifle divisions covered the flanks of the attack group. The German defense was breached, German counterstrikes were repulsed and Sinyavino was reached. The front of the German XXVI. Army corps was torn open at the seam between the 227th and 223rd infantry divisions on the Lipka - Tortolowo line. As a second season, the 4th Guards Rifle Corps (Major General NA Gagen ) was deployed in the direction of Mga. Finally, the 2nd Shock Army (General NK Klykow , later Romanowski ), decimated by the Volkhov battle , was deployed as the third squadron to reach the Dubrowka - Krasny Bor line and establish a connection with the troops of the Leningrad Front.
The next attack by the Leningrad Front (Lieutenant General Govorov ) began on September 9 in the direction of Sinyavino . Parts of the 86th, 46th Rifle Divisions with the support of the 11th Infantry Brigade crossed the Neva River and captured a bridgehead that could be held. This offensive was stopped for the time being on September 12: the losses of Goworov's troops in the first phase of the attack amounted to 738 dead and 2,254 wounded.
The second attempt to force a breakthrough across the Neva was made by the Leningrad Front at the end of September, when the Volkhov Front troops had already stopped. The Neva operational group (Major General Nikitin ) launched another attack in the direction of Sinyavino and widened the bridgehead. On September 26th, Soviet infantry units were able to set up several bridgeheads at Dubrowka, Arbusowo and Annenskoje with the support of waterway T-38 tanks. The German command reinforced the defense with parts of the 121st Infantry and 5th Mountain Divisions, which were withdrawn from the Sinyavino area.
The German counter-offensive
The Wehrmacht High Command moved six divisions to the section and was able to stop the Soviet troops. The German counter-offensive began on September 21:
- in the north with the XXVI. Army Corps (General der Artillerie Wodrig ) with the 121st Infantry Division and the 5th Mountain Division .
- in the west with the 28th Jäger Division .
- In the south with the XXX. Army Corps (General Fretter-Pico ) with the 24th , 132nd and 170th Infantry Divisions
In the section of the 170th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Sander ), some new Tiger tanks were also used, which did not prove themselves due to technical defects. By September 24, the German troops succeeded in crowding the already exhausted Soviet units into a small basin on the western bank of the Chernaya. The remnants of 8 Soviet divisions and 6 rifle brigades were enclosed, a corridor was only held in the east via Gaitolowo. Because the German units involved in these battles could no longer advance, the 3rd Mountain Division (General Kreysing ) had to be brought in via Mga from September 28th . On the following day, the main direct thrust against the center of the pocket, where the Soviet 24th Guard Division was deployed, took place on the southern boiler front. At the same time, parts of the 12th Panzer Division together with the 132nd Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Lindemann ) tried to cut off the base of the Soviet burglary wedge near Tortolowo. The 73rd Marine Brigade, which kept a narrow corridor at Tortolowo open until the beginning of October, prevented the German wedges from closing immediately. Because a continuous front line could not yet be established, a considerable part of the 2nd Shock and 8th Armies managed to get out of the pocket between September 29th and 30th.
The Wehrmacht was able to clear the boiler by October 1st and took 12,000 prisoners, destroyed or captured 300 guns, 500 mortars and 244 tanks. The Volkhov Front withdrew to their original positions on October 5th and the Leningradians on October 10th.
losses
The German Wehrmacht reported 4,893 casualties (including 172 officers) and 21,043 wounded between August 28 and September 30. According to Soviet data, the number of German deficits totaled 60,000 men.
On the other hand, the archives of the military archive in Freiburg confirm that in the period from August 20 to October 10, 1942, the German 11th and 18th armies suffered a total of 41,164 deficits, including 7,911 dead, 31,713 wounded and 1,540 missing or prisoners.
The losses were significantly higher on the Soviet side. All Soviet forces (Volkhov Front, Leningrad Front, parts of the Baltic Fleet and Ladoga War Flotilla) had a total of 113,674 casualties between August 19, 1941 and October 10, 1942, including 40,085 dead, missing and prisoners.
consequences
The Red Army was unable to break up the siege of Leningrad, but its attack thwarted the German offensive plans (Operation Nordlicht) near Leningrad. In early 1943, Soviet troops again attacked the siege ring in the Second Battle of Ladoga .
literature
- Paul Klatt : The 3rd Mountain Division 1939-1945. Podzun, Bad Nauheim 1958.
- И. Б. Мощанский : Прорыв блокады Ленинграда. Эпизоды великой осады. 19 августа 1942 - 30 января 1943 года . - Вече, Moscow 2010. - ISBN 978-5-9533-5289-5 .
- Алексей Валерьевич Исаев (AW Isajew): Когда внезапности уже не было. История ВОВ, которую мы не знали . Яуза, Эксмо, Moscow 2006. ISBN 5-699-11949-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Human Losses in World War II Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Army / Army Group, 1942 (BA / MA RW 6/556, 6/558) ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was used automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- Jump up ↑ Russia in the wars of the 20th century. Soviet armed forces lost in independent frontline operations
