Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive
| Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive | |||||||||
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| Part of the Eastern Front of World War II | |||||||||
 Soviet machine-gunners near Detskoye Selo railway station in Pushkin, January 21 |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Germany
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 Soviet Union
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Georg von Küchler (until February 1) Walter Model (from February 1) |
Kirill Meretskov Leonid Govorov
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| Units involved | |||||||||
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Army Group North: 44 infantry divisions |
Leningrad Front Volkhov Front 2nd Baltic Front Baltic Fleet: 57 divisions |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 500,000 men 2,389 artillery pieces 146 tanks 140 aircraft |
822,000 men 4,600 artillery pieces 550 tanks 653 aircraft |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 24,739 dead and missing 46,912 wounded Total: 71,651 casualties (per German military medical reports) |
76,686 dead and missing, 237,267 wounded Total: 313,953 casualties |
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The Leningrad–Novgorod strategic offensive was a strategic offensive during World War II. It was launched by the Red Army on January 14, 1944 with an attack on the German Army Group North by the Soviet Volkhov and Leningrad fronts, along with part of the 2nd Baltic Front, with a goal of fully lifting the Siege of Leningrad. Approximately two weeks later, the Red Army regained control of the Moscow–Leningrad railway, and on January 26, 1944 Joseph Stalin declared that the Siege of Leningrad was lifted, and that German forces were expelled from the Leningrad Oblast. The lifting of the 900-day-long blockade was celebrated in Leningrad on that day with a 324-gun salute. The strategic offensive ended a month later on 1 March, when Stavka ordered the troops of the Leningrad Front to a follow-on operation across the Narva River, while the 2nd Baltic was to defend the territory it gained in pursuit of the German XVI Army Corps.
The Germans had suffered nearly 72,000 casualties, lost 85 artillery pieces ranging in caliber from 15 cm to 40 cm, and were pushed back between 60 and 100 kilometers from Leningrad to the Luga River.
After Operation Barbarossa, German troops had encircled Leningrad, and the Siege of Leningrad began. Several operations had been designed by the Soviet commanders in the area to liberate the outskirts of Leningrad from the Germans. In the fall of 1943, preparations had begun to design another plan to retake the outskirts of Leningrad from the Germans, after the only partially successful Operation Iskra in January of that year which had followed the failed Sinyavino Offensive of late 1942. The first staff meeting was held on September 9, 1943, two years and a day after the beginning of the siege. Two plans, Neva I and Neva II, were conceived. Neva I was to be implemented if the Germans, pressured on different fronts, withdrew their forces from Leningrad on their own accord to reinforce the pressured areas. Both Stavka and Leningrad believed this was possible. Neva II, therefore, would be implemented if the Germans did not withdraw from Leningrad within the coming months. The offensive would be three-pronged, driving from the foothold at Oranienbaum that had been captured earlier that year, the Pulkovo Heights and from the fortifications around Novgorod. The offensive was planned to start in the winter, when sufficient amounts of troops and artillery could be moved across the ice without incident.
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