Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha Offensive

Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha Offensive
Part of Eastern Front (World War II)
Soviet map of operations
Date 14–30 January 1944 Location Leningrad Oblast, Soviet Union Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Georg von Küchler	Leonid Govorov
Strength
One army 110 armoured vehicles	Three armies 681 armoured vehicles 1200 artillery
Casualties and losses
21,000 all causes 85 artillery

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.

The 2nd Shock Army was moved 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.

As a part of the Leningrad-Novgorod Strategic Offensive, due to commence on 14 January 1944, the Soviet Volkhov and Leningrad Fronts 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.

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 The Blue Division and three German divisions had been withdrawn by October, while the Army Group had acquired sixty miles of additional frontage from Army Group Center during the same period.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.

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