Chapter 717: A Red Spark
Known as Operation Operation Iskra (Russian: операция Искра, Operation Spark), the Soviet Union tried to break the Imperial Russian hold of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and retake the capital city of their ideological and mortal enemy. Part of a new Red Army offensive operation across the whole front, the main front was here at St. Petersburg and in southern Russia in hopes to regain Ukraine and deal a heavy blow to the enemy morale. To help with the operation a railroad was swiftly build to the frontline here and hold the retaken city as well as splitting up German, Imperial Russian and Finnish forces. The Sinyavino Offensive had tried so before, but had failed, so after this failed attempts in 1942, the Red Army began planning a new offensive in October 1942, calling it Iskra (Spark) as it was meant to be the spark that started the Red Army's push westwards towards Berlin. As the area to Leningrad was forested wetlands and heavily fortified by the Soviet Union and later the Germans along the Russian Empire, the situation got worse, as the forest shielded each side from visual observation. Both factors greatly hindered the mobility of artillery and vehicles in the area, providing a considerable advantage to the defending forces. The Sinyavino heights were a key location, with terrain 150 meters (490 ft) higher than the surrounding flat terrain. Because the front line had changed very little since the blockade was established, German and Imperial Russian forces had built an extensive network of interconnected trenches and obstacles, interlocking artillery and mortar fire, making them well prepared for any Red Army offensive on the important city of St. Petersburg. Thanks to the German, Imperial Russian, Austrian-Hungarian and Second Ottoman victories in the south in the Caucasus and north in Finnland a whole new army and nine other divisions could be send north to help strengthen the St. Petersburg Front. When the Red Army attacked, the German and Imperial Russians used their reserve divisions to keep the Soviet Union from pushing in their defenses, but as the frontline had virtually changed little here in the area the Germans and Imperial Russians were also well fortified. The Red Armies Sinyavino Offensive had tried to encircle the German and Imperial Russian forces in the city and therefore went to far south, leaving it's flanks open for Axis Central Powers attacks. This time the Soviet Union planned a more direct assault on the city because of this. This removed the threat of encirclement and flanks from the north, but also made their own offensive push and front rather narrow. After a month of training and received significant reinforcements in December the 67th Army, the 2nd Shock Army and the 8th Army commanded by Major General M.P. Dukhanov, Lieutenant General V.Z. Romanovsky and Lieutenant General F.N. Starikov started their offensive on Leningrad. This time the Soviets even had air superiority with around 800 planes, mostly fighters. As large tank forces could not operate well in the swampy terrain, the tanks were used primarily as battalions reinforcing divisions or slightly larger brigades, which were to operate independently. Poor ice conditions in the swamps forced the offensive to be delayed until 12 January with heavy artillery fire and a attack on German and Imperial Russian headquarters, artillery positions and airfields. After nearly two and a half hours of artillery preparations, the Soviet Offensive started 5 minutes before their own artillery ended with a Katsyusha barrage.
While Red Army divisions with supporting tanks managed to break into the frontline roughly 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) wide and 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) deep they had constructed pontoon bridges in the swamps to allow their second group to advance, however their attack failed as they did not manage to take the Germen trenches, while further south at least a few German and Imperial Russian trenches could be captured. With this bridgehead the Soviets hoped to further advance onto the city, but the German and Imperial Russian strongpoints remained intact, supported by heavy German and Imperial Russian flanking fire. The Axis Central Powers side reacted by deploying their reserves to the region throughout the night. Fresh infantry, support artillery and Tiger tanks were moved in alongside a motorized and a mechanized division. The next few days the Red Army tried to advance slowly, but German and Imperial Russian counterattacks repelled them while on 13th January bad weather prevented the Red Army to deploy their air force, giving the Germans and Imperial Russians a secure path to the front for their heavy equipment and reinforcements. The Soviet Union had gained no additional ground while the Germans and Imperial Russians had increased their reinforcements and defenses. With good weather again on 14 January the Red Army advanced once again, but slower this time, using Ski Brigades to cross frozen lake terrain, cutting off a few German and Imperial Russian front forces from the rest of their defenses. For their advance from 15 to 17th January Govorov was promoted Colonel General. However on the 18th January the German and Imperial Russian counter attack with a tank division, two motorized and one mechanized division began, using the overstretched Red Army spearhead to their advantage and relieving the cut off German and Imperial Russian forces, while encircling the Soviet Union spearhead in the west. Heavy German and Imperial Russian artillery meanwhile held of the Spearhead at the trenches and bunkers before St. Petersburg. At the same time the defenses around St. Petersburg were further increased by Police and Army forces of the Teutonic Order and the Russian Empire, alongside local militias from the city itself. The cut of Soviet Forces of the Red Army were now completely encircled and slowly eliminated, while the main German and Imperial Russian forces that had encircled them prevented any attempt of the Red Army to break them free much to the relief of Tzar Vladimir in St. Petersburg. In the End the Red Army lost around 210,000 soldiers (147,000 of them as prisoners of war) when most of their 20 divisions, 15 brigades, 4,600 artillery, 500 tanks and around 364 of their 900 aircraft were destroyed during the operation, another 81,274 were wounded. The Germans and Imperial Russians thanks to their encirclement of the Red Army spearhead had only lost 14,600 forces and 64,327 wounded. As a result of the Battle the Red Army planned the future Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda (Polar Star), a even more ambitious plan to encircle the whole German and Imperial Russian Army in Leningrad, but their operations in this area would only contain several other small offensives, when the Germans and Imperial Russians started their own renewed attack on Moscow and the Red Army had to defend the city by engaging them in the Battles of Rzhev, Mozhalsk, Tula and Kalomna. Because of this the Frontline in St. Petersburg stabilized for most of 1943, as the Germans too concentrated their forces around Moscow, even if they planned to further push east in the north to in hopes to better secure St. Petersburg from future attacks.