Leningrad 1941-44 (Campaign): No. 215

Very enjoyable and full of details

I've previously read the author's "Moscow 1941" and "Sevastopol 1942" and thought very highly of them so I expected this book to be good as well and so it is. This book covers from Sept 1941 when von Leeb was closing the ring around Leningrad through Feb 1944 when the Russians finally broke out and pushed the Germans back to the Panther Line. The coverage from June to August 1941 is covered in another campaign.Mr Forczyk has a talent for covering a lot of ground in a relatively few number of pages. This book is laid out in typical Osprey format; all chapters are adequately covered but the battle action is predominate, having 63 pages. Its not possible to give day to day coverage but the author does cover all key engagements, giving new students a good understanding of the siege.In the first chapter, "The Origins of the Campaign", the author gives a brief history of the city when it was named St Petersburg and how it grew to be Russia's second largest city with over two million people as well as one of the most important industrial cities in the country where KV-1 heavy tanks are built. Before the German invasion, the war with Finland is discussed. Though gaining land near Leningrad, Russia had a dismal performance in the war. This poor performance was a key reason for Hitler attacking Russia in 1941. Other topics covered are the takeover of the Baltic States, Hitler's hatred for Bolshevisim and a brief summary of the first months of the war for AGN.Next is a two page Chronology with 43 entries which was very good. It covered the main events from 6/22/41 to 1/29/44 and will help the reader visualize the sequence of events described in the Siege section.Opposing Plans was good but a little brief but that's the Osprey effect taking over. On the German side, it covers the encirclement of Leningrad, the linking with the Finns, losing most of its armor to AGC and going from assault to siege mode. The Russian plans were simple: keep the Germans out of Leningrad and find a way to breakout.Opposing Commanders had good coverage. On the German side Leeb, Kuchler, Lindermann, Wengler and Leyser are covered. The Russian side was more extensive and included Popov, Voroshilov, Zhdanov, Khozin, Meretskov, Govorov, Fediuninsky and Simoniak. The portraits of most of these generals were present. I was surprised to see von Leeb's picture was missing.Mr Forczyk devotes 10 pages to Opposing Forces which includes Orders of Battle for the start of 1942 and 1944. The rest of the chapter was not devoted to the individual listing of divisions that deployed for each side but the coverage of select topics that were very interesting and not usually covered very well in other books. Topics include : the Lodoga Flotilla, the Red Banner Fleet, coastal artillery, artillery bombardment capabilities among other things.The battle action begins in this campaign in September 1941 with Leeb trying to close the ring around the city. Battles include Krasnogvardeisk, Tikhvin, Kirishi, Uritsk. Coverage of Myasnoy Bor, Lyuban and the Volkhov line is also given. As time passes, Manstein arrives with his 11th Army and Operation Northern Light, Pulkovo Heights, Kolpino salient and the destruction of 2nd Shock Army, crossing the Neva River, the Siniavino Offensive and Oranienbaum is covered. In Aftermath, coverage of the breakout in early 1944 is given with the pushing of the German front back to the Panther Line. The author ends the narrative with his Analysis. The German assault of Leningrad was a strategic failure but it tied up nine Soviet Armies for 3 years. The author provides the cost of the campaign and gives low marks to 18th Army and the Luftwaffe for lackluster performance. Other key points are also covered. At the beginning of the war, Hitler was so determined to flatten the city and kill all of its citizens but when the demands on AGC and AGS increased, the priority on Leningrad slipped.There are six 2-D maps and two 3-D maps and all of them are excellent, especially the 2-D maps. They include Axis advance from August 20th to November 9th, the Lyuban Offensive in Jan 1942, Operation Northern Light, the second Siniavino Offensive, Operation Spark in 1943 and the Oranienbaum breakout in Jan 1944. Its customary to have commentary with the 3-D maps but this time, the 2-D maps also received helpful commentary. It was a nice touch. These maps are good enough to use while reading other books on the campaign. There were several colorful illustrations and many photos to study. A good Bibliograhy and Index is provided.I thought this to be an excellent summary and a great place to begin. If you want further reading the bibliography provided will help. I highly recommend this book to new students and collectors alike.

Robert Forczyk (the author) has at least written at least 2 other Osprey Campaign Books, Moscow 1941 Hitler's first defeat and Sevastopol 1942: Von Manstein's Triumph and I must say I liked both a lot better than this one. I found myself rereading chapters because I lost track the first time and the epic scale of the Siege was somehow lost on me reading through the book.The problem has probably to do with the scale, the Siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days (or 880 depending on how you count) and there was hard fighting and many Military Offensives and Operations undertaken. All of this has been made to fit a single Volume while Osprey devotes no less than 5 to Normandy and it is just too much to fit in 96 pages. The action becomes a listing of Armies, Corps and Divisions and detail is lacking but occasionally appears in the strangest places but on the whole leaves me unfullifiled.Having said that the book is accessable and the maps are good (better than in Glantz's book) and I will find it useful as a sourcebook for wargaming. It simply lacks detail and depth to be any fun to read.If you like the Osprey series this is o.k. but nothing to rave about. Maybe one day a well written book on the Siege of Leningrad will be available but this is not it.

I confess to not knowing a great deal about the Siege of Leningrad prior to reading this book other than stories around the horrors of the 1941-42 first winter when something in the region of 600,000 civilians died of from starvation, the cold and, to a less extent, the German bombardment. In this title the focus shifts to the military aspects of the siege and the Soviet attempts to relieve the city.As the author makes clear, once the siege gets underway in September 1941 this becomes something of a backwater for the Germans and likewise post-war histories of the Eastern Front have more or less ignored this campaign. Therefore any coverage of the series of Soviet operations over the next two years must be a welcome addition to Osprey's catalogue. Sadly the attempt to get all this into the 96 page format doesn't quite work. Whilst Mr Forczyk is one of Osprey's more engaging stable of writers, in this case even he has to resort to the less than enthralling `Unit X attacks Unit Y' style of military history in order to cover the all the operations during the period encapsulated in this title.The artwork by Peter Dennis is of his usual superb standard and the maps and 3D views are satisfactory, although their positioning is often out of sync with the text.Overall this is a pretty reasonable effort and I'm certainly happy to have it in the collection as it does cover actions usually ignored in other histories but it feels more workmanlike than crafted with care.