The Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha offensive, also known as Operation January Thunder and Neva-2, was a campaign between the Soviet

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 ...

and the German 18th Army fought for the western approaches of

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in 14–30 January 1944.

Background

The

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 moved from Leningrad and Lisiy Nos to the

Oranienbaum Bridgehead The Oranienbaum Bridgehead ( in Russian) was an isolated portion of the Leningrad Oblast in Russia, which was retained under Soviet control during the siege of Leningrad in World War II. It played a significant role in protecting the city. Histo ...

during a number of nights starting from November 1943. At daytime, the barges returned, disguised as committing an evacuation of the bridgehead. In charge of the bridgehead, Lieutenant General B.Z. Romanovskiy was replaced with Lieutenant General Ivan Fedyuninsky.

Design

Soviet

As a part of the Leningrad–Novgorod Strategic offensive, due to commence on 14 January 1944, the Soviet

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

s designed the Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha offensive aimed at forcing the German Generalfeldmarschall Georg von Küchler's

Army Group North Army Group North () was the name of three separate army groups of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Its rear area operations were organized by the Army Group North Rear Area. The first Army Group North was deployed during the invasion of Pol ...

back from its positions near Oranienbaum. In the process, the attack was expected to encircle Generaloberst Georg Lindemann's 18th Army.

German

The situation of the German Army Group North at the end of 1943 had deteriorated to a critical point. The Blue Division and three German divisions had been withdrawn by October, while the Army Group had acquired sixty miles of additional frontage from

Army Group Center Army Group Centre () was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created during the planning of Operation Barbarossa, Germany's invasion of the So ...

during the same period. As replacements, Field Marshal Georg von Küchler received the Blue Legion and three divisions of SS troops. In such a weakened state, the Army Group staff planned a new position to its rear that would shorten the front lines by twenty-five percent and remove the Soviet threats posed in many salients on the current lines. The plan, Operation "Blue," called for a January withdrawal of over 150 miles to the natural defensive barrier formed by the

Narva Narva is a municipality and city in Estonia. It is located in the Ida-Viru County, at the Extreme points of Estonia, eastern extreme point of Estonia, on the west bank of the Narva (river), Narva river which forms the Estonia–Russia border, E ...

and Velikaya Rivers and Lakes Peipus and Pskov. This position, the so-called " Panther Line", was buttressed by fortifications that had been constructed since September. The retreat would be carried out in stages, using intermediate defensive positions, the most important of which was the Rollbahn Line formed on the October Railway running through Tosno, Lyuban and Chudovo. There the two most exposed army corps, the XXVI and XXVIII, would regroup before proceeding farther back to their positions in the Panther Line. The fate of Army Group North turned for the worse in the new year, for

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

rejected all proposals for an early withdrawal into the "Panther" position, insisting that the Soviet forces be kept as far as possible from Germany and that they be forced to pay dearly for each meter of ground. Finally, Hitler transferred three more first-rate infantry divisions out of Army Group North to reinforce Erich von Manstein's Army Group South as it reeled back from the

Dnieper River The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

under continuous Soviet assault. Field Marshal von Küchler now held an extremely precarious position, and could only await events on the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts with great pessimism.Kenneth W. Este
A European Anabasis — Western European Volunteers in the German Army and SS, 1940-1945. Chapter 5. "Despair and Fanaticism, 1944-45"

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

Combat activity

Fedyuninsky's

and General Ivan Maslennikov's 42nd Army fell on the sector of

Obergruppenführer (, ) was a paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and adopted by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissioned SS rank after ...

Felix Steiner's III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps, hitting the area of the 9th and 10th Luftwaffe Field Divisions. By the third day of the offensive, the 2nd Shock Army broke through the German lines with a penetration 23 kilometers wide. The Luftwaffe units crumbled quickly, and Army Group North fell back to new positions along the

Narva river The Narva, formerly also Narwa or Narova, flows north into the Baltic Sea and is the largest Estonian river by discharge. A similar length of land far to the south, together with it and a much longer intermediate lake, Lake Peipus, all togeth ...

in Estonia. In a key Soviet assault on January 19, the 63rd Guards Rifle Division seized German positions to the front of Krasnoye Selo. On January 19, the 2nd Shock Army took Ropša and the 42nd Army liberated Krasnoye Selo.

Aftermath

By January 30, the Soviet attacks by the 2nd Shock and 42nd Armies cost the German forces around 21,000 casualties, captured 85 artillery pieces ranging in caliber from 15 cm to 40 cm, and pushed them back by between 60 and 100 kilometers. The Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha offensive was part of the operations of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts that broke 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 ...

concluding an almost 900-day battle. Launching the Kingisepp–Gdov offensive on 1 February, the 2nd Shock Army's 109th Rifle Corps captured the town of

Kingisepp Kingisepp ( or ), formerly Yamburg (), Yam (), and Yama (; Votic language, Votic: Jaama), is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Kingiseppsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located along the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krasnoye Selo-Ropsha Offensive Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War Military campaigns involving the Soviet Union Conflicts in 1944 Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II Battles and operations of World War II involving the Soviet Union 1944 in the Soviet Union 1944 in Russia Military operations of World War II involving Germany Leningrad in World War II Narva in World War II Campaigns of World War II Military campaigns involving Germany