The Battle of Lyuban, Lyuban offensive operation or Battle of the Volkhov (7 January 1942 – 30 April 1942) (Russian: Любанская наступательная операция; German: Schlacht am Wolchow) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

offensive operation of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was conducted by the

Volkhov Volkhov () is an industrial types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Volkhovsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the river Volkhov (river), Volkhov east of Saint Petersburg, St. Petersbu ...

and

Leningrad Front The Leningrad Front () was formed during the 1941 German approach on Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) by dividing the Northern Front into the Leningrad Front and Karelian Front on August 27, 1941. History The Leningrad Front was immediately ...

s of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

with the goal of relieving the

siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

and encircling and destroying the German forces carrying out the siege. The offensive used no tanks because of the terrain, therefore it was down to the infantry and the artillery. The attacking Soviet forces found themselves under intense fire from German defensive positions, and the Red Army lacked proper artillery support against the German lines. The offensive stalled and the Soviets went over to the defensive. Field Marshal Georg von Küchler counterattacked with an operation called 'Wild Beast" (''Operation Raubtier'') and the Soviet

2nd Shock Army The 2nd Shock Army (), sometimes translated to English as 2nd Assault Army, was a field army of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. This type of formation was created in accordance with prewar doctrine that called for Shock Armies to ''o ...

was cut off and surrounded. It was destroyed in June 1942 and its commander Andrey Vlasov was taken prisoner. Vlasov later became a leading member of the collaborationist

Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia The Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (, ', abbreviated as , ') was composed of military and civilian Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, collaborators with Nazi Germany from territories of the Soviet Union, mo ...

and Russian Liberation Army.

Aftermath

Analysis

The Volkhov and Leningrad Fronts lacked the armored vehicles, artillery ammunition, manpower reserves, fuel and food to mount sustained offensive operations against the German 18th Army. Inadequate Soviet firepower could not reduce the German system of fortified strongpoints in the forests. The Germans inflicted heavy losses on the attacking Soviet forces and forced the exhausted Red Army to the defensive. According to general Mikhail Khozin, Soviet armored forces and artillery firepower did not exist in sufficient quantities to exploit penetrations and defeat German counterattacks.

Casualties

Out of 327,700 men deployed into battle from 7 January – 30 April 1942, the Volkhov Front lost 308,367, including 95,064 killed or missing and 213,303 wounded or sick.

Citations

Bibliography

* * * Lyuban 1942 in the Soviet Union Siege of Leningrad Tosnensky District {{WWII-battle-stub