21. The siege of Leningrad, 1941-1944
The siege of Leningrad is often commemorated as the 900 days. It involved Finnish, German, and Soviet armies, the navies of Great Britain, Poland, the United States, Germany and the Soviets, and hundreds of thousands of civilians. It accounted for over 2 million military casualties among the armies, and an unknown, but brutally high number of civilian casualties. Soviet secret police (NKVD) records left reports of cannibalism, including the murder of individuals to use them as food. A division of Spanish troops, known as the Blue Division, served with the German Army during the siege, though officially Spain remained neutral throughout the war. The Soviets lost over 44,000 men against the Blue Division.
Leningrad was the target of the German Army Group North when Operation Barbarossa launched on June 22, 1941. Finnish troops entered the war to recover territory lost to the Soviets during the Winter War, and helped isolate Leningrad from the north, while the Germans advanced rapidly to the north and east. By early September, 1941, the Germans controlled all the roads entering Leningrad, effectively besieging it that month. Hitler made the reduction of Leningrad his first priority for the massive operations on the Eastern Front, and the Soviets fought with ferocity to prevent the city from falling into German hands.