Being these . . . .in October 1942, on the Leningrad front, after the Russian people and their
great city had endured so much, so heavily, and suffered so grievously since the German
Wehrmacht crossed the Soviet frontier in June the year before. For 16 months, the chances of
Russia holding out seemed highly problematical. By the beginning of November 1941, having
advanced 500 miles in four months and destroyed or captured over 2 million men. Joseph
Goebbels claimed the Germans had destroyed the incredible figure of 10 million Russian
soldiers. Despite Hitler’s repeated claims that Russia’s resistance was at an end, and though her
capital was almost within gunfire, her second city, Leningrad, completely encircled, was still
refusing to surrender. Since the fall of the first winter snows that October the German advance
had been dramatically slowed down, and there were rumors of an impending Red Army
counterattack. But good news was on the way. In that fateful month of October 1942, the city’s
Soviet Military Command, which thus far not possessed an offensive capability to crack the iron
encirclement, began receiving reinforcements, including tanks and artillery, to raise its strength
from three to four armies. On 12 January 1943, General “Govorov, the front commander, and
his colleague on the east, Meretskov, mounted simultaneously assaults on both sides of the
enclosure “bottleneck”. Their points met east of Shlisselburg on 19, January. Moscow
celebrated the breaking the blockade with artillery salvos. On 7 February, a month later, a train
steamed into Leningrad across the Neva lifeline on track laid over the ice. The line, although
exposed to artillery fire and had to be repaired daily, operated continuously thereafter. The
German Army Group North slowly began its retreat to Berlin.
IN JUNE OF 1941, HITLER CLAIMED, “LENIN’S CITY” WOULD “FALL LIKE A LEAF”. 900 DAYS
LATER, THE LEAF WAS STILL AIRBORNE! UNCLE JOE STALIN, SURVEYING THE WORLD FROM HIS
KREMLIN OFFICE OVERLOOKING RED SQUARE, KNEW THAT DURING THE NEW YEAR OF 1944
HE WOULD EASILY WIN THE WAR ON THE EASTERN FRONT SINCE IT WOULD BE “THE YEAR OF
TEN VICTORIES”, DEEMING THE RELIEF OF LENINGRAD AS THE FIRST.
. .
Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi
“TO BESIEGE A CITY – – Leningrad 1941 – 42”, by Prit Buttar. OSPREY PUBLISHING/Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc: 2023, 464 pages, 6 ¼” x 9 ½”, hardcover, $40. Visit, www.ospreypublishing.com.
When it comes to the World War II history of the Eastern Front, military historians
worldwide acknowledge there is no greater creditable writer than Osprey author Prit Buttar. His
previous titles listed below testify to that. Here, he creates a masterful account of the first year
of the relentless, horrible siege of once Europe’s greatest, most beautiful city. The loss of
innocent civilian life was appalling, especially during the first year, 1941, when it began in
September. Few realize how close Leningrad came to being completely inundated with SS
troops, followed by the Gestapo, and ever-present extermination units. Ironically, it was Herr
Hitler, himself, who slowed the German advances into the metropolis because he feared heavy
losses in close encounter urban fighting. The Fuhrer felt Leningrad would topple almost
immediately due to the prospect of starvation. What followed was unfathomable: a winter-long
unbelievable suffering. Thanks to Prit’s research, carefully selective and rarely as meticulous, us
buffs are at last privy to eye-witness accounts from both Russian and German soldiers alike,
many hitherto unpublished or even read by historians. When added to those stories yielded by
the trapped civilian sufferers, we have an astonishing panorama of hell itself.
Throughout the siege, Soviet forces repeatedly tried to break through the German lines to
reach the starving city, although the resolute Red Army was far from the victory-steamroller it
became by year’s end. Trying to reach the besieged city with food and munitions, the Russian
military suffered huge casualties in the swampy and forested terrain surrounding the city’s
outskirts. Nonetheless, a “Road of Life” across frozen Lake Ladoga was somehow maintained
allowing a thin tract of supplies to get through, especially at night. “TO BESIEGE a CITY”, details
the costly strategic and tactical mistakes that bled the armies on both sides throughout the first
year of the siege.
Prit Buttar’s previous OSPREY titles include the acclaimed “Battleground Prussia: The Assault
on German’s Eastern Front 1944-45”, “Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War
II”, and most recently, “Meat Grinder: The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942 -43.” Unknown to
our WWII enthusiasts, other the three mentioned, he studied medicine at Oxford and London
before joining the British Army as a doctor. He now writes from his home in rural Scotland
where he can indulge in his hobbies of wildlife preservation and Astro-photography.
