Crisis month in the defense of the city
Having broken down the defense of the Red Army units near Tallinn, the Nazis broke into the city at the end of August. All ships of the Baltic fleet left the main base and arrived in Kronstadt with heavy losses. The subordination of the ships of the Baltic Fleet was transferred to the newly created Leningrad Front, and the distribution of ships across the Neva, the sea channel and the bays of Kronstadt began. And the troops of the Leningrad Front continued to retreat, the German military units of the Army Group "North" outnumbered the parts of the Leningrad Front in numbers and weapons. By the end of August, the Germans occupied the stations of Chudovo and Mgu. The October Railway stops the work on the evacuation of factories and residents of Leningrad. After the capture of Tosno, German long-range artillery begins shelling the city. Only the heroism of soldiers and commanders could oppose the enemy at this moment. The Germans were stopped in the Oranienbaum region, and Finnish troops on the old border in the Sestroretsk region. Daily, the irretrievable losses of our troops amounted to about three thousand soldiers, and in four days the Leningrad Front lost the division. The headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief recognized the organization of the defense of Leningrad by the front command as extremely unsatisfactory, if not in other words.
Therefore, September 9 immediately after the surrender of Shlisselburg to the Germans GK arrived in the city. Zhukov, to lead the Leningrad Front, K.E. Voroshilov was removed from command and urgently recalled to Moscow, and a directive on this came to the front headquarters a day later. A group of generals, arrived with G.K. Zhukov, immediately revised the sector of fire support of the troops ships of the fleet, coastal and railway batteries to eliminate the advancing fascist units. The Sinyavino operation began, the Oranienbaum bridgehead was strengthened, and the Nevsky Penetula was captured. But, despite the fact that the remnants of the 4-second tank group of Colonel-General E. Gepner began to be transferred to Moscow, units of the Red Army were forced to leave Krasnogvardeisk, Krasnoye Selo and Pushkin. The front command believed that the danger of the capture of Leningrad by the fascists was still high, so on all ships, coastal batteries kept a strange secret order, which was developed by the former front command, and with which the ship commanders could be found only after special notification.
In September, Hitler left the 8 Volhram von Richthofen air attack corps on the Leningrad front to support the Army Group North. This corps was faced with the task of destroying the Baltic fleet and coastal artillery batteries. The new commander, having familiarized himself with the order that was sent in secret packages to ships in early September, could not come to his senses for a long time. It was difficult for him to imagine what could happen to the country in the event of the explosion of all the ships along the seven established lines and the surrender of Leningrad to the Germans. In this case, the six hundred thousandth grouping of the armies "North" would have been near Moscow in three days, and further events could lead to a complete collapse. Therefore, the tough leadership of the troops that were subordinate to G.K. Zhukov and carrying out preventive strikes against the enemy, was fully competent. The fears of the front command regarding the use by the fascists of the 8 th attack aircraft corps were justified. The duty shift of the Redut-3 radar station, which was located in the Greater Izhora on the Oranienbaum bridgehead, on September 21 recorded the movement of three groups of fascist bombers totaling about 200 units to Kronstadt. The alarm alert announced on time provided a response to this attack.
In the next two days the picture of the fascist raid aviation repeated, but the fleet survived, repulsed the attacks of the bombers with minimal losses. And on September 23 a secret order from ships and batteries was withdrawn and transferred to the archive. 8 th attack aircraft corps was transferred to Moscow. The city on the Neva survived, the situation on the Leningrad front stabilized. In order to reflect the attacks of enemy aviation 24, the 6 th anti-aircraft artillery regiment was transferred to Kronstadt, and the 71 fighter regiments began to be stationed at the Bullfield airfield. To repel the attacks of the fascist units, only the ships of the Baltic Fleet in September fired at the enemy more than 25 and thousands of shells from the main caliber guns. And the main caliber of artillery from 130 to 350 mm, the weight of the shells with terrible destructive force ranged from 30 to 450 kg. Understanding the tremendous power of all the artillery of the fleet, coastal and rail batteries, the front command began to develop measures to coordinate their interaction. Scientists in the besieged city, together with the Navy Hydrographic Office, were able to implement original methods of sound-optical adjustment of artillery fire using long-focal stereo cameras, stereocomparators, reference and working films, and spaced serif points. As a result, at a distance of 20-25 km, the error in firing the main-caliber guns was no more than 40 meters. Now not a single shot of the enemy remained without an answer to the suppression, and this in a few seconds. But fierce fighting throughout the Leningrad Front continued under the blockade. The government of the country made every possible effort in negotiations with the United States and Britain to open a second front. To stabilize the situation, it was necessary to draw off the 50-60 divisions of the fascists from the East. Because of the failure of the capture of Leningrad, Hitler replaced the commander of the Army Group "North". The new commander had the same task of capturing Leningrad, but at a different price. The plan was to break through the Georgian, Budogoshch, Tikhvin to the Svir River and, together with the Finnish troops, isolate the city from the whole country. On October 23, the fascists captured Budogoshch, the Soviet troops, having missed time to strengthen the 4 army covering Tikhvin, were forced to leave the city on November 8. Leningrad lost its last communications base, as the railroad to Volkhov was also seized. Having strengthened the 52 and 54 units of the SVG army and created an advantage on this sector of the front in more than 40 thousands of fighters, the command of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts planned the liberation of Tikhvin. Having destroyed the strongholds of the fascists by specially prepared assault groups, the Red Army 20 November liberated Malaya Vishera. And then, defeating the Tikhvin garrison, as well as the fascists, the French, Italian and reserve 61 divisions into the city for its defense, 52 and 54 of the army 8 December, liberated the city. This victory inspired not only the fighters of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, but also the inhabitants of our whole country.
In the north, the Finnish troops, despite the warnings of the British and US governments about the cessation of hostilities by the Finns on the territory of the USSR, continued offensive operations. Finnish President R. Ryti and Marshal Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, commander of the Finnish army, against the will of the Finnish people not to participate in the war on the side of Germany against the USSR, on Hitler's orders, moved troops to capture Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. These two criminals created concentration camps in the occupied territories, where not only prisoners of war, but also Russian children were kept. Such camps they created more than 20. At the insistence of the USSR Government 8 December 1941, England nevertheless declared war on Finland and, together with the US Government, warned Ryti and Mannerheim that after the defeat of Germany they would be declared war criminals who would face the death penalty by hanging. This sobered two Finnish leaders. 8 December 1941 on the White Sea-Baltic Canal after the Finnish armored battalion captured the village of Povenets in command of the 131 regiment of the 7 Division of the Karelian Front ordered the first Kanral dam to be blown up. The ice rink washed the equipment and personnel of the battalion into Lake Onega. On the Karelian front on 3, the relative calm was finally established, preserving the line of contact of the troops, fixed on December 8 of 1941.
Analyzing the statistics of irretrievable losses, one wonders why snipers were not widely used at the beginning of the war on the Northern Front. After all, the war with Finland 1939 of the year showed the effectiveness of their use on the advancing enemy. One experienced sniper can do up to 8 rounds per minute, and the separation of snipers, as experience has shown in subsequent battles, can stop the advance of a whole infantry battalion.
So what made it possible to stop the fascists near Leningrad, to exhaust their troops and in the 1944 year to drive to the West? Analyzing the provisions expressed in the literature, it can be noted. We were taught that the city was defended by the Communists and the activities of the party organization. It’s hard to disagree. The party was the organizer of the defense and defeat of the enemy. But when Tallinn, Luga, Kiev, Minsk and other cities were handed over, was there a different kind of communists? How the communists of the "first grade of Leningrad" could admit that the fascists, not having a fleet, took possession of the Baltic Sea at the beginning of the war. The city was defended by its inhabitants and fighters who went into battle, preventing the enemy from gaining a foothold in temporarily occupied territories, strategically and tactically competent leadership of the two fronts, permanent counterstrikes in individual sectors, and not a dull defense of the Red Army units, coordinated use of fleet, coastal artillery and railway batteries, each shot of which caused great damage to the Nazis. Massive use of artillery did not allow the fascists to go on the offensive and use tank groups. Since 1942, on the Leningrad front, Soviet aviation has already dominated the air. Leningrad plants during the blockade continued to produce weapons and ammunition not only for the Leningrad, but also other fronts. The Supreme Commander and the Supreme Headquarters personally provided great support to the defense of Leningrad.
PS By the nature of my work, I had to be in the combat areas of limited contingents of troops. Upon my return from business trips, I asked myself the question: "Why?" After all, we will lose these territories and influence on the governments of these countries. Only the United States declares faraway territories, where military operations are conducted "as territories of their vital interests." The leadership of the country, Gorbachev, during this period of time pursued other goals, so as not to create programs for the development of the country with the participation of foreign countries, where our limited contingents of troops and advisers fought.
I often thought back to my childhood and imagined what my father could think about before he died? He died December 27 1941 of the year on the Leningrad front, providing work "Roads of Life". I am sure that he said goodbye to us and prayed that the family would survive and be well after his death. He did not die with the name of Stalin on his lips, as Lev Z. Mehlis fooled the Soviet people. My father fought against the fascists for his family, and also for the fact that there were not 14 millions of Russians left after the war, as Hitler had planned, but hundreds of millions. The co-workers, who so respected and appreciated my father, buried him in a separate grave at the Theological Cemetery, and this is in December 1941 of the year! I constantly come to my father’s grave and talk with him for a long time about everything, as if he had never died and had lived all my life next to me. I remember him a little, although I was three and a half years old, I remember his letters that he wrote to us with his mother from the besieged city. Apparently the protection of their homeland and family - this is patriotism, which needs to educate all the growing population! And in our country now there are more than 100 thousands of children without parents. How could this happen, who is responsible for this to the people? What a feeling of patriotism these guys will have when they grow up. It is necessary to immediately change the vector of work to preserve and strengthen the family. The family should become a state value and its national wealth.
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