Siege of Leningrad time period World War II
Timeline
The timeline is based on various sources such as work done by David Glantz.1941
April: Hitler intends to occupy and then destroy Leningrad, according to plan Barbarossa and Generalplan Ost.
22 June: The Axis powers' invasion of Soviet Union begins with Operation Barbarossa.
23 June: Leningrad commander M. Popov, sends his second in command to reconnoitre defensive positions south of Leningrad.
29 June: Construction of the Luga defence fortifications (Russian: Лужский оборонительный рубеж) begins together with evacuation of children and women.
June–July: Over 300,000 civilian refugees from Pskov and Novgorod escaping from the advancing Germans come to Leningrad for shelter. The armies of the North-Western Front join the front lines at Leningrad. Total military strength with reserves and volunteers reaches 2 million men involved on all sides of the emerging battle.
19–23 July: First attack on Leningrad by Army Group North is stopped 100 km (62 mi) south of the city.
27 July: Hitler visits Army Group North, angry at the delay. He orders Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb to take Leningrad by December.
31 July: Finns attack the Soviet 23rd Army at the Karelian Isthmus, eventually reaching northern pre-Winter War Finnish-Soviet border.
20 August – 8 September: Artillery bombardments of Leningrad hit industries, schools, hospitals and civilian houses.
21 August: Hitler's Directive No.34 orders "Encirclement of Leningrad in conjunction with the Finns."
20–27 August: Evacuation of civilians is blocked by attacks on railways and other exits from Leningrad.
31 August: Finnish forces go on the defensive and straighten their front line. This involves crossing the 1939 pre-Winter War border and occupation of municipalities of Kirjasalo and Beloostrov.
6 September: German High Command's Alfred Jodl fails to persuade Finns to continue offensive against Leningrad.
2–9 September: Finns capture the Beloostrov and Kirjasalo salients and conduct defensive preparations.
8 September: Land encirclement of Leningrad is completed when the German forces reach the shores of Lake Ladoga.
10 September: Joseph Stalin appoints General Zhukov to replace Marshal Voroshilov as Leningrad Front and Baltic Fleet commander.
12 September: The largest food depot in Leningrad, the Badajevski General Store, is destroyed by a German bomb.
15 September: Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb has to remove the 4th Panzer Group from the front lines and transfer it to Army Group Center for the Moscow offensive.
19 September: German troops are stopped 10 km (6.2 mi) from Leningrad. Citizens join the fighting at the defence line
22 September: Hitler directs that "Saint Petersburg must be erased from the face of the Earth".
22 September: Hitler declares, "....we have no interest in saving lives of the civilian population."
8 November: Hitler states in a speech at Munich: "Leningrad must die of starvation."
10 November: Soviet counter-attack begins, and lasts until 30 December.
December: Winston Churchill wrote in his diary "Leningrad is encircled, but not taken."
6 December: The United Kingdom declared war on Finland. This was followed by declaration of war from Canada, Australia, India and New Zealand.
30 December: Soviet counter-attack, which began at 10 November, forced Germans to retreat from Tikhvin back to the Volkhov River, preventing them from joining Finnish forces stationed at the Svir River on the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga.
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