Original subtitles

[Music]

[Music]

six weeks into the wall near the town of

stariha rusev German soldiers pondered a

strange contraption captured in recent

fighting it was an artillery system but

not like anything of their own each

truck carried a crude looking frame onto

which Rockets were loaded the Soviet

counter-attack here had been supported

by dozens of these rocket launchers it

had helped to stall the advance of the

entire German Army Group North striking

towards Leningrad they had bought time

time that would prove crucial

[Music]

the BM 13 multiple rocket launch system

given the girl's name Katyusha by the

troops was a rail launch rack on a truck

chassis gears elevated and rotated the

launcher rack into the correct firing

position as determined by an artillery

sight the Rockets were very inaccurate

and would rain down over a wide area

but the Katusha made up for this with a

fearsome rate of fire one Katyusha could

launch sixteen Rockets in less than 10

seconds

firing on mass they could devastate a

massive area in the blink of an eye

leningrad russia's baltic sea port was a

key objective of the german invasion

from here soviet submarines and the

baltic fleet threatened germany's supply

of iron ore which came by sea from

neutral Sweden the plans for the German

invasion stated that the assault on

Moscow could proceed only after

Leningrad and its naval base at

Kronstadt had been captured

[Music]

Hitler with growing confidence in his

own military genius was increasingly

involved in strategic planning

he was now determined that if necessary

the armored forces assaulting Moscow

should be diverted to Leningrad Army

Group North advancing on Leningrad had

been stopped at the so-called Luger line

in July this 175 kilometer of

fortifications had been hastily built by

soldiers of the reserve and citizens of

Leningrad in August army group North was

reinforced with tanks and dive bombers

from Army Group center they crashed

through the Luger line and encircled the

troops defending it

the Red Army fed its new kV heavy tanks

into the battle they were produced in

Leningrad itself at the Kirov factory

[Music]

the front armor of a kv-1 was 75

millimeters thick the German 37

millimeter anti-tank gun barely made a

scratch but early in the war fuel

shortages and poorly trained crews who

didn't know how to repair their vehicle

meant many kV ones and other Soviet

vehicles ended up abandoned at the

roadside on the 19th of August a company

of cavies commanded by senior lieutenant

kolobanov took up an ambush position

near the town of Kresnik var DS kala

Bonoff picked the position himself

overlooking the highway as it goes

through the marshes when a column of

German tanks appeared his tanks took out

the lead and rear vehicles and proceeded

to destroy all 22 enemy machines

after the battle collarbone oaf screws

counted a hundred and fifty six marks

where German shells had hit their tanks

but failed to penetrate

after hearing reports about the kV tanks

Hitler once more demanded the capture of

Leningrad and it's factory that was

churning out these monsters

but they weren't enough kV ones to stop

the Germans everywhere

while one German corps was held at

kresnik Verdes others broke through

nearly bond and toss knife on the 30th

of August the Germans cut the railway

and the highway connecting Leningrad

with the rest of the country Finnish

troops allies of the Germans approached

from the north the city's electricity

supply began to fail but still no

civilians were evacuated an act which

might appear defeatist on the 8th of

september the germans captured Silesia

burned on the shore of Lake Ladoga the

final act of encirclement it was the

beginning of a seeds that was to last

882 days

[Music]

when the siege began the city's

population was more than 2.5 million

including approximately 400,000 children

the city contains three hundred thousand

refugees from the Baltic republics and

surrounding area the city's supplies of

food and fuel were sufficient for just

30 days

[Music]

Soviet counter-attacks aimed at lifting

the siege were all unsuccessful

the German encirclement near

shlisselburg was only about 12

kilometers wide this sector was the

focus of Soviet attempts to lift the

blockade

[Music]

[Applause]

that summer Soviet counter-attacks had

robbed Army Group north of valuable

weeks it was time that could not be got

back now the attack on Moscow would rob

Army Group north of its best units in

his diary the commander of army group

North Field Marshal von Leeb wrote 11th

of September desperate shortage of time

the army High Command demands seven

mobile divisions be handed over to its

control on the 15th of September his

tanks were on their way towards Moscow

it was a desperately needed respite for

Leningrad the same day

general Zhukov was appointed commander

of the Leningrad front his deputy major

general fedyuninsky came with him

Evon ivanovich fijian insky spent most

of his military career in the Russian

Far East in 1939 he was made a hero of

the Soviet Union for his bravery

fighting the Japanese at the Battle of

Cowpens gong in 1941 he commanded a

Soviet Rifle Corps in Bella Russia where

he was badly wounded

Zhukov appointment immediately inspired

the defenders of the city there was new

confidence that Leningrad would be saved

[Music]

with characteristic energy Zhukov began

to organize the city's defenses

artillery was to be the king and his

secret weapon will be the massive guns

of the red banner Baltic Fleet

powerful naval gunnery halted the first

German offensive just seven kilometers

from the city

[Music]

the 12-inch guns at the coastal thought

of Krasnaya Gorka also served to hold

the German army at bay

[Music]

the shockwaves from their exploding

shells were powerful enough to hold

German tanks into the air

[Music]

but where the German army had failed the

Luftwaffe might still succeed three

months into the German invasion of the

Soviet Union Army Group North was held

up outside Leningrad by the heavy guns

of the Soviet Baltic Fleet so Field

Marshal von Leeb turned to his dive

bombers to sink the enemy warships

[Music]

their first victim was the old

battleship

Maura

- 1000 kilogram bombs struck her bow

causing her forward turret magazine to

explode she quickly sank to the bottom

of the bed three warships were sunk in

total depriving the city's defences of

35 powerful guns

around the city 1,500 loudspeakers

broadcast Leningrad City radio now it

was also used to issue

air-raid warnings

[Music]

when there are no radio programs a

metronome was put on the air

slow ticking meant all clear fast

ticking meant take cover it became known

as the beating heart of Leningrad above

the city German bombers were met with

heavy anti-aircraft fire but the

Luftwaffe only made a few large-scale

rays

[Music]

shelling by German heavy artillery

proved much more lethal signs went up on

street corners with the warning citizens

this side of the street is more

dangerous during shelling the Germans

didn't target Leningrad's tallest

buildings or church spires they were

needed as reference points by the

artillery spotters who instead guided

shells onto the city's bridges houses

and chops Leningrad was truly a city on

the front line

[Music]

monuments were protected by sandbags and

wooden screens but many would not

survive German bombardment on the city's

outskirts the Germans captured the

Catherine Palace and the grand peterhof

palace both were looted and destroyed

the world-famous Amber Room was shipped

to Germany today its whereabouts remain

a mystery on the 8th of September German

bombers targeted the wooden bat AF

warehouses where the city's food

reserves were stored the glow of the

fires could be seen across the city soon

everyone knew that the flour and sugar

supplies had been destroyed but the

situation was even worse than many

feared the city needed a thousand tons

of food every day to prevent starvation

but less than 200 tons were getting

through the blockade

the little that could be brought in by

air was nowhere near enough to feed the

city's population

[Music]

the main supply route into Leningrad now

lay across Lake Ladoga 50 kilometers of

open water

but the lake was notorious for its

strong winds and sudden storms

it was why in 1718 Peter the Great had

ordered the construction of the Ladoga

canal along the lakes southern shore to

provide a safe waterway to the city but

the Germans had reached the southern

shore of Lake Ladoga cutting the canal

and rail links into the city the people

of Leningrad had to build a new port

from scratch on the lakes western shore

in the first week of the siege barges

were unloaded straight onto the beach it

was the beginning of a supply route that

would come to be known as the road of

life

[Music]

food rationing had been introduced at

the start of the war

Leningrad workers received 800 grams of

bread a day their defendants received

400 grams by the beginning of October it

had been reduced to half that amount it

wasn't nearly enough to sustain those

required to do physical work at the end

of November the city was on the brink of

starvation bread rations were cut

further 250 grams for a worker 125 grams

for everyone else the quality of the

bread was falling too as the authorities

turned to unlikely ingredients to

increase its bowl Baker's used burnt

flour recovered from the ruins of the

bad AF warehouses they used oats

intended for the horses soya barley and

even cellulose from the goshawk paper

mill people often had to queue for hours

in the freezing cold to receive these

meager rations

in November 11,000 died from starvation

350 each day the medical staff could

only look on helplessly

[Music]

the early winter led to hopes that Lake

Ladoga would quickly freeze solid

allowing trucks to bring in supplies

across its frozen surface but the ice

took time to harden

the Soviets had hoped to establish a

road bridge across the ice using the

shortest route but this would put

convoys within range of the German

artillery batteries on the southern

shore

slowly the ice thickened on the 20th of

November across a hundred and eighty

millimeters of ice

the first horse-drawn sleighs crossed

the lake two days later the first trucks

cross

it was a perilous crossing the two ton

vehicles carried much less than their

full load but several still crashed

through the ice disappearing into the

frozen death

[Music]

drivers stood on their running boards

ready to leap clear if the ice began to

crack on their return journey the same

trucks were used to evacuate as many

civilians as possible

the road of life was 30 kilometers long

it included garages rest stops and field

hospitals

there were several alternative routes

depending on the ice and driving

conditions to defend the road to

defensive lines were constructed on top

of the ice eight kilometers from the

german-held shore they included

machine-gun nests and ice trenches the

road was also protected by anti-aircraft

guns and air cover but German bombs and

shells still claimed many victims

in the first week alone 52 trucks were

lost

[Music]

despite these extraordinary efforts to

keep the city supplied and to get the

civilians out 53,000 leningraders died

in december most from starvation

there were reports of people dropping

dead in the street without warning each

day burial detachments had to remove a

hundred corpses from Leningrad's

pavements the diary of one Leningrad I

recorded how despair gave way to apathy

people now died in a very simple manner

first they lose interest in everything

then

they lie in bed and never rise again

they die as if falling asleep and the

surrounding people half-dead themselves

pay them no attention many drivers on

the road of life made two trips every

day one by day one by night dozens of

trucks were wrecked in traffic accidents

more than when destroyed by German

aircraft so the order was given for

vehicles to start using their headlights

trucks that crashed through the ice sank

so fast that for several minutes the

ghostly glow of the headlights could be

seen at the bottom of the lake

almost 300 trucks were lost in the first

month of the road but they had kept the

city alive

you

hundreds of thousands perished from

starvation in that first winter the

scale of the suffering was almost beyond

imagination

[Music]

more than a million would die before

this the most devastating siege in

history was finally home

[Music]

Leningrad encircled by German and

Finnish forces witnessed hundreds of

civilian deaths every day but these were

not collateral casualties

Hitler had decided that Leningrad shall

be wiped off the map secret orders

entitled the future of Leningrad stated

after Soviet Russia has been defeated

the further existence of this population

center is of no interest in this war for

existence we have no interest in keeping

even part of this great city's

population for the Soviet Union it was

vital that Leningrad be held at all

costs

it was an important industrial city with

many factories and the home base of the

Baltic Fleet its loss would mean the

loss of the northern port of Murmansk

where the Arctic Convoys arrived

carrying military aid from Britain and

America and for many Leningrad remained

the cultural and spiritual capital of

the USSR its fate was watched by people

from across the Soviet Union they came

to see their fate entwined with that of

the city the Soviet High Command decided

to breach the encirclement at its

thinnest point the shlisselburg senior

vina corridor here only 10 kilometers

separated troops of the Red Army's

Leningrad front from the front line of

the Volkhov front but it was heavily

defended with three lines of

fortifications

on the night of the 19th of September a

small force led by captain Vasily doback

crossed the neva river in fishing boats

[Music]

his men quietly landed on the far bank

and took the German trenches by surprise

with this foothold across the river

a Soviet marine Brigade moved rapidly to

reinforce do Biggs position this strip

of land called by the soldiers the

Netscape piata chalk the neva patch

would become legendary

two German parachute regiments

redeployed from Crete were amongst the

reinforcements sent to crush the Soviet

bridgehead they were plunged straight

into the ferocious fighting

they failed to eliminate the bridgehead

but had squeezed it until it was just 2

kilometers long and 500 meters deep in

October this tiny strip of land was the

only hope for lifting the siege of

leningrad all red army reserves were on

their way to moscow where another

desperate battle raged the struggle at

the bridgehead was brutal attritional

warfare German shells swept back and

forth across the whole area forcing the

Soviet soldiers to dig deep to find

cover

another attempt to break through was

planned for November by now

bread rations in the city were down to

125 grams they weren't much more for

frontline soldiers one commander

conducted an exercise to test the

strength of his men most were exhausted

after walking just 400 meters in a

speech at Munich on the 8th of November

Hitler declared Leningrad has nothing to

count upon it will fall sooner or later

there are no forces to raise the siege

Leningrad 'is doomed to die from

starvation

at the beginning of November the Red

Army got tanks across the neva

and captured more German trenches in

turn the Germans fed in their own

reinforcements

in November the Red Army lost 5,000 men

killed in the neva patch the Germans too

suffered heavy losses

the tiny bridgehead had become a

slaughterhouse in Leningrad itself 4,000

were dying every day from starvation on

some days this figure rose to 7,000

January 1942 became the worst month of

the entire siege non workers had their

food ration stopped entirely the

electricity supply failed water pipes

froze solid in temperatures of minus 30

degrees centigrade furniture wooden

fences anything that would burn was used

for firewood

[Music]

one Leningrad er Yelena scriabin er

wrote in her diary death has become a

phenomenon observed at every turn when

you step outside in the morning you

stumble over corpses lying in the

gateway and in the street the dead

bodies lie there for a long time because

there's nobody to dispose of them

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

even in the worst months of the siege

the people of Leningrad still went to

work the Kirov factory just four

kilometers from the front line didn't

stop producing tanks for a single day

half assembled tanks were even used to

fire on the enemy from the factory floor

the Leningrad Institute of plant

industry was dedicated to the research

of commercial crops he contained the

world's largest seed bank 28th Institute

workers died from starvation during the

siege but the plant breeding collection

containing several tons of crops rice

and potatoes remained intact

[Music]

in February 1942 the food situation

gradually began to improve the ration

was increased to 500 grams for workers

400 grams for office workers 300 grams

for children and non workers

[Music]

the revolting additives to the bread we

use less and less people now receive

their rations on time and almost in form

on the 16th of February meat in the form

of frozen beef and mutton was

distributed amongst the population for

the first time in months things were

starting to look up so far in the war

the Red Army's prospects of lifting the

Leningrad siege had been limited because

the fighting around Moscow had sucked up

all available reserves but by January

1942 the German army was retreating from

Moscow now a large-scale operation was

possible at Leningrad Soviet divisions

on the Volkhov River prepared to assault

the flank and rear of German Army Group

North swampy broken ground meant that

tanks were of little use the success of

this offensive will be down to the

infantry and the artillery

[Music]

meanwhile general fedyuninsky was put in

command of the 54th army tasked with

breaking through to the besieged city

the Germans turned the high railway

embankment near the village of pegasi a

into a formidable earthwork

[Music]

Red Army losses were horrendous their

progress minimal

the second shock army under general

click off attacked German positions near

the town of you ban to the south of the

fortified corridor

[Music]

but in their haste to raise the siege

the Stavka High Command ordered attacks

that were not properly planned and

lacked proper artillery support

one divisional commander general and

chief AF reported after crossing the

river and climbing the left bank our

infantry came under intense machine-gun

and mortar fire our artillery couldn't

suppress the enemy fire it couldn't even

make a proper ranging and didn't have

enough ammunition the survivors had to

return to their starting positions

Red Army units had advanced 30

kilometers through the frozen forests

and swamps

it was the same distance again to reach

Leningrad the threat of encirclement

hovered over the German troops the

logical decision seemed to be to order

at retreat but Hitler had forbidden any

more retreats Field Marshal von Leeb

commander of army group North asked to

be relieved of command general von

kuchler was now in charge von kuchler

concentrated on holding key roads and

railways this approach was the German

Salvation Army Group North was able to

keep its units resupplied and reserves

could be moved quickly to threatened

areas

[Music]

meanwhile the lead units of the second

shock army had to be supplied by the

only road that ran along a corridor just

five kilometers wide between the

villages of samosa and Spassky a

polished

[Music]

the forward units were short of

ammunition food and fuel the Soviet

offensive was called off in February now

the men prepared to defend the ground

they captured but it wasn't easy digging

in in the middle of a swamp and the

supply problems meant many soldiers

began to suffer from malnutrition in

March Hitler demanded that von kuchler

encircle the Soviet troops that had

dented the German life the operation was

codenamed wild beast a simultaneous

assault by five German divisions

effectively sealed off the Soviet

penetration the Soviet 2nd shock army

was virtually cut off from the rest of

the army just a tiny corridor 1.5 to 2

kilometers wide was left open all that

remained was for the Germans to crush

the encircled Soviet units

[Music]

but first they launched a fresh assault

against the neva patch by April a

thousand Soviet soldiers were dug in

there

the Germans waited until the river neva

was full of drifting ice making it

impossible for the Soviets to reinforce

the bridgehead then they unleashed a

torrential artillery barrage the last

sign of life seen from across the river

was a crude banner bearing the single

word help

[Music]

meanwhile the encircled 2nd shock army

received a new commander Lieutenant

General and Ray of Las off by the

beginning of May the Stavka had decided

to try to extricate the remnants of this

battered force but the day before the

planned withdrawal the Germans attacked

the Soviets fought desperately to hold

the perimeter as units began to withdraw

through the tiny corridor back to the

frontline but it was slow progress and

four days later the Germans finally cut

off the 2nd shock army a Soviet

artillery officer recorded conditions

inside the pocket the entire area was

swept by German fire the dead and

wounded lay all around some were

delirious others cried out for water to

drink some even asked us to shoot them

because they couldn't do it themselves

the Germans didn't attack they kept us

trapped like an animal in its lair and

bombed and shelled without mercy

the last soldiers to escape slipped out

under cover of darkness by the end of

June 10000 had got away but the Germans

had 30,000 prisoners

[Music]

amongst them was the commander of the

2nd shock army general Andrey Vlasov

blasts off agreed to cooperate with his

German captors and became a willing to

love Nazi propaganda

he wrote pamphlets entitled the appeal

of the Russian liberation committee to

soldiers and commanders of the Red Army

and why have I taken up the struggle

against Bolshevism in them he appealed

to Red Army soldiers to join a new

anti-bolshevik Russian Liberation Army

blasts off helped to recruit Russian

prisoners of war to fight against Ally

general Vlasov became so notorious that

Russians referred to all Soviets who

sided with the Germans as blasts oft see

but most had no allegiance to general

Vlasov

the so called heavies were Soviet

prisoners of war who hoped the Germans

in non-combat roles and many anti

Bolsheviks and nationalists from the

USSR fought in their own ver marked

units known as the eastern legions most

of Blas offs Russian Liberation Army was

captured near Prague in 1945 it's men

were sent to the gulag blasts off and

other officers were hanged as traitors

[Music]

the Red Army had failed to break the

Leningrad siege in the spring of 1942

now the road of life across Lake Ladoga

began to melt

on just one day the 20th of April about

80 trucks were lost through the thinning

ice the road of life was closed to heavy

vehicles the Russians waited anxiously

for the lake to open to shipping they

knew that when he did ships and ports

would come under heavy air and artillery

attack the severe winter meant it wasn't

until the 22nd of May that the lake was

clear of drifting ice the first ships

made their crossings evacuating

civilians and bringing in supplies

Soviet air defenses proved highly

effective only 1% of incoming supplies

were lost to German air attack the

Germans sent for Italian mas torpedo

boats which had proved effective in the

Mediterranean and sea ball armed ferries

which had been designed for the invasion

of England

but despite grand expectations axis

naval forces failed to make an impact

Russian tugs and barges had an extremely

shallow draft so torpedoes passed

harmlessly underneath them their naval

bases and ships were hit hard by the Red

Army Air Force

axis naval operations were abandoned

[Music]

it remained critical to break the siege

of leningrad the road of life by water

or ice brought in the bare minimum to

keep the city fed and the troops

supplied with fuel and ammunition

six months later in november 1942 the

front commanders general Zhukov and

marshal Voroshilov began to plan

operation Iskra it was decided to attack

once more at the bottleneck where the

German encirclement was thinnest units

of the Volkhov front would attack from

without as troops of the Leningrad front

attacked from within the artillery

barrage began at dawn on the 12th of

January 1943

[Music]

[Applause]

as the last shells whistled overhead the

assault began but everywhere the Red

Army run into fierce resistance from

well entrenched German troops t-34s

could only crawl across what was

effectively a heavily cratered peat bog

[Music]

they were easy pickings for the German

anti-tank guns

but the simultaneous attack on both

fronts began to bear fruit after two

days just two kilometers separated the

Soviet troops these final meters proved

the hardest Soviet tanks were knocked

out or got stuck in the bog it was up to

the infantry to storm the German

positions

[Music]

general fedyuninsky now deputy front

commander repeatedly visited the

frontline to urge his men armed he

ordered attacks around the clock there

was to be no letter for the German

defenders the German tactic as before

was to hold key positions along the

transport network work settlements

number one and number five on the only

Road between the lake and the rail

terminus were turned into fortresses if

the Red Army could just cut the road the

German defense was doomed

[Music]

Vaughn Cutler had to decide whether to

hold on or withdraw from the bottleneck

he opted to hold on

[Music]

under unrelenting assault from both

sides the German defenses began to

crumble

the Red Army sustaining massive losses

all the way fought through the intricate

German defenses at the last moment

German units at shlisselburg made a dash

for safety but not many made it at

midnight on the 18th of January 1943

Yuri Levitan the voice of Soviet wartime

radio was able to announce after seven

days of fighting troops of the Volkov

and Leningrad fronts met on the 18th of

January and raised the siege of

leningrad in just three weeks

a railway was built across the cratered

landscape of the bottleneck

[Music]

it was just five kilometers from the

German lines and under constant

shellfire

Leningrad was still on the front line

but at last it was getting enough food

and fuel the Red Army lacked the

strength to push the Germans back any

further the reserves of German Army

Group North had arrived and were dug in

on the high ground German defenses were

traditionally built around the mg34 or

the mg42 machine gun the rest of the

infantry were effectively there to

support the machine-gun team by autumn

1943 the Red Army had developed tactics

for attacking German infantry Soviet

rifle platoons supported by artillery

and mortars aim to wipe out enemy

machine gun positions in the first few

minutes of the assault

the remaining rifle armed Germans would

be seriously outgunned by Soviet troops

armed with submachine guns but from late

1943 the Germans began to change the

balance once more with the introduction

of the mp40 three now if the infantry

squads machine-gun team was knocked out

a squad armed with the new mp40 threes

could still provide heavy accurate fire

against enemy attackers Hitler himself

gave the new weapon its name stone given

the assault rifle

it wasn't until the beginning of 1944

that the Stavka launched the operation

that would finally end the siege of

leningrad

by then German army group North had had

nearly two years to dig in on the

outskirts of the city the Stavka planned

to begin the operation at the Iranian

bound bridgehead which had stubbornly

held out against the Germans thanks to

the heavy guns of its coastal fort from

here the Red Army would launch itself

against the flank of German Army Group

north leading the attack will be general

fedyuninsky at the head of the second

shock army which had been secretly

redeployed to the bridgehead under the

cover of darkness by attacking from the

coast the massive firepower of the

Baltic Fleet could be used to support

the assault with more than a hundred

heavy naval guns available for the

operation they included the guns of the

battleship mera refloated after being

sunk by Stukas in 1941 and the enormous

coastal guns of the Krasnaya Gorka fort

the assault began on the 14th of January

1944 Soviet newspapers and radio carried

no reports about the operation but the

people of Leningrad could hear the

distant Thunder of the bombardment they

knew what it meant that the final

offensive was underway the one that

would end the siege once and for all

no one doubted its success

the attack from Iranian bomb caught Army

Group North by surprise in the face of

an overwhelming Soviet assault German

defences collapsed

a week later Soviet troops laden with

captured trophies met at the town of

rupture German Army Group North retreat

became a rout the front line raced away

from Leningrad the rumble of guns

receded into the distance

at long last silence descended over the

city of Leningrad according to official

reports 642 thousand civilians died

during the siege of leningrad but many

deaths never made it into an official

report the real total was probably near

a 1 million 3% were called by bombs and

shells 97% by starvation about 1.8

million people were evacuated from

Leningrad during the war by 1945 the

city's population was just one-fifth of

what it had been at the start of the war

this was the longest siege of a large

city in world war ii and the costliest

siege in history army group North was

bogged down in the forests and swamps

around Leningrad for more than two years

it comprised one-fifth of German

strength on the Eastern Front

but pinned outside Leningrad it was

unable to influence the war's decisive

battles all of which were fought on

other fronts far to the south in the

vast open expanse between Kharkov and

the Volga River the Red Army would have

to learn to fight another kind of war

highly mobile armored warfare and it was

here in the South in 1942

that the world would learn the name of

another Soviet city Stalingrad

[Music]

you