Sinyavino offensive (1942)

Sinyavino offensive
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

A typical road for vehicles on the Volkhov Front
Date19 August – 10 October 1942
Location
Southern shore of Lake Ladoga, near present-day Sinyavino and Saint Petersburg, Russia
Result Soviet offensive defeated, German offensive cancelled.
Belligerents
Nazi Germany Germany  Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Nazi Germany Erich von Manstein
Nazi Germany Georg von Küchler		 Soviet Union Kirill Meretskov
Soviet Union Leonid Govorov
Soviet Union Filipp Starikov
Strength
18th Army
Reinforcements:
11th Army		 2nd Shock Army
8th Army
Elements of Leningrad Front
Total 190,000 men
Casualties and losses
Total 26,000[1][2][a]
5,893 dead		 Total 113,674[3]
28,085 dead and missing
12,000 captured
73,589 wounded and sick

The Sinyavino offensive (or third Sinyavino offensive) was an operation planned by the Soviet Union in the summer of 1942 with the aim of breaking the siege of Leningrad, which had begun the previous summer, to establish a reliable supply line to Leningrad. At the same time, German forces were planning Operation Northern Light (German: Nordlicht) to capture the city and link up with Finnish forces. To achieve that heavy reinforcements were arriving from Sevastopol, which the German forces captured in July 1942.[clarification needed] Both sides were unaware of the other's preparations, and this made the battle unfold in an unanticipated manner for both sides.

The Soviet offensive began first in two stages. The Leningrad Front began the offensive on 19 August and the Volkhov Front launched the main offensive on 27 August. From 28 August the German side shifted the forces which were building up for their own offensive to gradually halt the Soviet offensive. Initial German counterattacks failed, but the Soviet forces could not advance either. After a ten-day stalemate, the significantly reinforced Germans launched a counterattack against the Soviet forces on 21 September. After five days of heavy fighting, the German forces linked up and cut off the bulge formed by the Soviet offensive.[4] By 10 October the front line returned to the position before this battle; heavy fighting continued until 15 October, as the last pockets of Soviet resistance were destroyed or broke out.

In the end, the Soviet offensive failed, but heavy casualties caused the Germans to order their forces to assume a defensive stance. In November, the German reinforcements and other units were stripped from Army Group North to deal with the major Soviet offensive at Stalingrad and Operation Northern Light was aborted.[5]

  1. ^ Glantz p. 226
  2. ^ Isayev p. 142, only between 28 August and 30 September
  3. ^ Glantz (1995), p. 295
  4. ^ Glantz p. 224
  5. ^ Glantz p. 230


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