Krasnoye Selo – Ropsha Offensive The Krasnoye Selo – Ropsha Offensive , also known as Operation January Thunder and Neva - 2 was a campaign between the Soviet Leningrad Front and the German 18th Army fought for the western approaches of Leningrad in 14 – 30 January 1944 . Preparations . The 2nd Shock Army was dropped from Leningrad and Lisiy Nos to the Oranienbaum Bridgehead during a number of nights starting from November 1943 . At daytime , the barges returned , disguised as committing an evacuation of the bridgehead . In charge of the bridgehead , Lieutenant General B . Z . Romanovskiy was replaced with Lieutenant General Ivan Fedyuninsky . Design . Soviet . As a part of the Leningrad - Novgorod Strategic Offensive , due to commence on 14 January 1944 , the Soviet Volkhov and Leningrad Front s designed the Krasnoye Selo – Ropsha Offensive aimed at forcing the German Generalfeldmarschall Georg von Küchler ' s Army Group North back from its positions near Oranienbaum . In the process , the attack was expected to encircle Generaloberst Georg Lindemann ' s 18th Army . German . The situation of the German Army Group North at the end of 1943 had deteriorated to a critical point . The Blue Division and three German divisions had been withdrawn by October , while the Army Group had acquired sixty miles of additional frontage from Army Group Center during the same period . As replacements , Field Marshal Georg von Küchler received the Blue Legion and three divisions of SS troops . In such a weakened state , the Army Group staff planned a new position to its rear that would shorten the front lines by twenty - five percent and remove the Soviet threats posed in many salients on the current lines . The plan , Operation " Blue , " called for a January withdrawal of over 150 miles to the natural defensive barrier formed by the Narva and Velikaya Rivers and Lakes Peipus and Pskov . This position , the so - called " Panther Line " , was buttressed by fortifications that had been constructed since September . The retreat would be carried out in stages , using intermediate defensive positions , the most important of which was the Rollbahn Line formed on the October Railway running through Tosno , Lyuban and Chudovo . There the two most exposed Army Corps , the XXVI and XXVIII , would regroup and catch their breath before proceeding farther back to their positions in the Panther Line . The fate of Army Group North turned for the worse in the new year , for Hitler rejected all proposals for an early withdrawal into the " Panther " position , insisting that the Russian forces be kept as far as possible from Germany and that they be forced to pay dearly for each meter of ground . Finally , Hitler transferred three more first - rate infantry divisions out of Army Group North to reinforce Erich von Manstein ' s Army Group South as it reeled back from the Dnieper River under continuous Soviet assault . Field Marshal von Küchler now held an extremely precarious position , and could only await events on the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts with great pessimism . Combat activity . Fedyuninsky ' s 2nd Shock Army and General Ivan Maslennikov ' s 42nd Army fell on the sector of Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner ' s III ( Germanic ) SS Panzer Corps , hitting the area of the 9th and 10th Luftwaffe Field Division s . By the third day of the offensive , the 2nd Shock Army broke through the German lines with a penetration 23 kilometers wide . The Luftwaffe units crumbled quickly , and the Army Group North fell back to new positions along the Narva river in Estonia . In a key Soviet assault on January 19 , the 63rd Guards Rifle Division seized German positions to the front of Krasnoye Selo . On January 19 , the 2nd Shock Army took Ropša and the 42nd Army liberated Krasnoye Selo . Aftermath . By January 30 , the Soviet attacks by the 2nd Shock and 42nd Armies cost the Germans around 21 , 000 casualties , captured 85 artillery pieces ranging in caliber from 15 cm to 40 cm , and pushed the Germans back by between 60 to 100 kilometers . Overall , the Krasnoye Selo – Ropsha Offensive was part of the operations of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts that broke the Siege of Leningrad concluding an almost 900 - day struggle . Launching the Kingisepp – Gdov Offensive on 1 February , the 2nd Shock Army ' s 109th Rifle Corps captured the Kingisepp town . The III Panzer Corps brought up the rear , fighting many bloody rearguard actions until it reached the positions on the eastern bank of the Narva river .