HELL ON EARTH - LENINGRAD

1/27/1944 - Barbarity on an epic level, the monstrous human tragedy known as the Siege of Lenningrad finally comes to a end, two years, four months, two weeks, and five days after it begun on September 8, 1941 ... sadly, 3,436,066 Soviets will become casualties (1,017,881 are killed, captured, or go missing) before the Axis blockade is broken (additional to Soviet losses, 579,985 German soldiers also become casualties during the many battles around the city's perimeter).

Soviet Ski Troops At The Hermitage Museum

The city of Lenningrad begins its existence as a fort for Swedish colonists at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611 and is called Nyenskans.  Seeking a better seaport for expansion of his empire, Peter Alexeyevich, now known to history as the Russian Czar, Peter the Great, the city is captured by the Czar on May 12, 1703 and the "new" city of Saint Petersburg is built by conscripted peasant serfs and Swedish prisoners of war in an effort that kills thousands of workers.  In 1712, Peter moves his capital from Moscow to the rapidly growing city.  Capital returned to Moscow following Peter's death in 1725, the city is made the center of the Russian Empire once more by Empress Anna in 1732, and will remain the seat of the Romanov dynasty, Imperial Court, and the Russian government for the next 186 years (in 1914 though, the city briefly becomes known as Petrograd).  In November of 1917, when the Bolshevik revolution comes to Russia (in the form of Vladimir Lenin and his followers), it begins with the storming.of Petrograd's Winter Palace.  Revolution and the war that follows successful (and Moscow back as the capital), five days after Lenin dies on January 26, 1924, the city is rechristened, Leningrad.  In 1941, the location is famous for its history and wealth of cultural delights (the Hermitage is one of the largest museums in the entire world), and is home to over three million souls.  As main base of the Soviet Baltic fleet and the source of 11% of all Soviet industrial output, it is also one of three strategic goals for the Third Reich's Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany's invasion and conquest of Russia.

St. Petersburg

Allies at first when there is Polish territory to divide and conquer, turning away from efforts to knock Great Britain out of the World War II, on June 22, 1941, Nazi forces make the mistake of beginning a two-front war with their surprise invasion of Russia by over three million soldiers.  As part of the invasion plan, the conquest of Leningrad (and its destruction, Hitler has plans to raze the city to the ground) is assigned to the Wehrmact's Army Group North, commanded by Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb (supported by elements of the Finnish Army, seeking payback for territories lost in the three month Russo-Finnish War that ends on March 13, 1940).  Gobbling up men, equipment, and territory, the efforts of Army Group North are extremely successful at first, but when Hitler moves the wing's 4th Panzer Group south prematurely to help in the campaign to take Moscow, plans to conquer Leningrad change from an open push through the city, to ones in which siege warfare will cause the former capital to fall, with starvation being the German's principal weapon (it is at first believed that it will only take a few weeks).  On September 8, 1941, the city is officially encircled, cut off from supplies, and begins starving.

1941 Air Raid On The City

Ordeal begun with disruptions of water and energy utilities, death comes to the citizens of Leningrad by aerial bombardment, artillery shells, soldier bullets, exposure to winter (the temperatures during winter will drop to -22 fahrenheit), disease, starvation, and even residents murdering each other (killing for ration cards, with some cannibalism also occurring) in a quest to merely survive another day ... days that become weeks, weeks that become months, and months that become years as the slaughter goes on.  Young, old, middle-aged, man or women, no one within Leningrad's defensive perimeter is spared the siege's horrors (from November of 1941 to February of 1942, citizens will receive an allotment of only 125 grams of bread a day, bread that is 60% composed of sawdust and other inedible additives).  Reached by only a trickle of supplies that move across frozen Lake Ladoga in the winter (the dangerous route will be called The Ice Road and The Road of Life), the economic destruction and loss in human lives (people die on the streets and there are bodies everywhere as over 100,000 a month begin perishing) will exceed what takes place at the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Moscow, and the fire bombing of Tokyo (historian Michael Walzer will declare that the siege kills more civilians than the deadly bombings of Hamburg, Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki combined), and will be considered the most lethal siege in history, and by some historians, no siege at all, but just an outright act of genocide.

Searching For Food

Another Day

And Another

Young Victim

Slowing Starving

Death everywhere, it is no different on the perimeter of Leningrad than within the city as German forces battle with Soviet troops over encirclement.  In August of 1942, Soviet troops launch Operation Sinyavino to relieve the city, but that offensive fails by October (at a cost of 113,674 casualties).  More successful, but inadequate to supply the total needs of the city, Operation Iskra, set in motion in January of 1943, opens up a small land corridor (between six and seven miles wide that remains within range of German artillery) to the south of Lake Ladoga into the besieged location (its cost are another 100,000 casualties).  Tide finally turned with German defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk in 1943, another offensive of over 800,000 Soviet soldiers to break the siege begins on January 14, 1944.  A success (at a cost of another 300,000 Russian casualties that also push German forces back from Moscow), troops liberate enough of the southern section of Leningrad to allow supplies to be received once more from the Moscow-Leningrad Railroad line.  Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin, declares the siege officially lifted on January 27, 1944 ... a terrible victory that is celebrated by a 324-gun salute by Katyusha rocket launchers and artillery pieces at 8:00 in the evening.

Attacking Soviets

Gathering Water From A City Shell Hole

Broken Siege 

Bloodbath finally ending, the city almost immediately begins rebuilding itself (Stalin will name Leningrad a "hero city" on May 1, 1945) ... repairing damaged buildings and making new monuments and museums to the victory of its citizens.  Renamed Saint Petersburg by a vote of its citizens on September 6, 1991, the city and region at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea is now Russia's second largest city (behind Moscow) and home to over five million citizens, along with being the home to the Constitutional Court of Russia, the Heraldic Council of the President of the Russian Federation, the National Library of Russia, and the planned location of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.  It contains the Lakhta Center, the tallest building in Europe, and in 1991 is declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO ... but it has never forgotten its WWII ordeal, and how could it when every January 27th, the lifting of the siege is celebrated by a military parade, featuring troops of the Western Military District and the St. Petersburg Garrison, historical reenactors, WWII equipment such as T-34 tanks, wartime flags and banners, and martial music, at the city's famous Palace Square.

Lakhta Center

St. Petersburg

Winter At Palace Square

Hero City Obelisk

Defenders Monument In Victory Square

2019 Celebration 

1/27/1944 ... the siege of Lennigrad is lifted.

Siege

ISANDLWANA

Culture clashes with culture in South Africa, and on this day in 1879, below a 4,213 foot mountain near the Buffalo River called Isandlwana, the British get their own "Custer Massacre" moment (though on a much larger scale ... the Battle of the Little Bighorn costs the 7th Cavalry 268 dead ... at Isandlwana, 1,837 members of the British command go to their glory).

The Battle of Isandlwana by Charles Edwin Fripp

The war between Great Britain and the Zulu Empire, a scheme concocted by Sir Henry Bartle Frere to gain the English more African lands, begins on the morning of 1/11 with a three-pronged invasion of King Cetshwayo's territory by 15,000 soldiers and their supports under the command of General Frederic Augustus Thesiger, the 2nd Baron Chelmsford, a veteran of actions in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Frere

Lord Chelmsford

Cetshwayo

The debacle for British arms begins with several miscalculations. The invasion of Zululand takes place at the beginning of the harvest season when it is believed the native forces will be scattered, but have actually gathered at the capital village of Ulundi to participate in the annual First Fruits ceremony (Cetshwayo sends his warriors off with the command, "March slowly, attack at dawn and eat up the red soldiers!") ... and January is a rainy season in South Africa, wet from the sky that severely hampers Chelmsford's advance.  Most importantly though, the British go into the war with a mindset that no Zulu warrior, armed with only an assegai stabbing spear, a knobkierre club, and a cowhide shield can best an English soldier.  They are in for a rude awakening!

Readying to Rumble

Reaching Isandlwana, Chelmsford shows his disdain for the fighting abilities of the Zulus ... standard orders for entrenching and circling the wagons are ignored, and with no information as to the whereabouts of the Zulu (he is totally unaware that over 20,000 warriors are now behind him and intend to attack at dawn of the 23rd), he splits his force, advancing in the direction of Ulundi with over 2,000 soldiers, while leaving another 2,000 or so men to man his base camp.  Grave errors, the mistakes are further acerbated by leaving the base in the command of a man who has never been in combat, Brevet Lt. Colonel Henry Burmester Pulleine.  Additionally, there will be leadership issues of who is in charge when Lt. Colonel Anthony William Durnford arrives at Isandlwana with a contingent of Natal cavalry and a rocket battery ... a member of the Royal Engineers, Durnford outranks Pulleine!

Pulleine

Durnford

Pieces in place for the upcoming tragedy, the Battle of Isandlwana begins at around 11:00 in the morning, when a British patrol chasing a small group warriors, stumbles on to the valley hiding place (featuring tall grasses and many ravines, the area around Isandlwana is excellent for concealment) the terrain of the main Zulu army under the command of inDunas (Princes) Ntshingwayo kaMahole Khoza and Mavumengwana kaNdlela Ntuli. Shifting plans on the fly, the Zulu army instantly abandons its plans for an attack the next day and instead rushes forward at the camp ... using their standard battle plan of having their forces configured in the form of a buffalo ... left and right horns, and a larger grouping as the chest, with envelopment and total destruction of the enemy the goal.

 

Yikes!

Spears and clubs against horses, revolvers, Martini-Henry rifles, artillery shells and rockets, for over an hour the British hold back charge after charge of the Zulus, but things begin to fall apart when Dunford's group of soldiers, keeping the left horn in check, run out of ammunition (fighting too far forward, the bullets he needs come out of their sealed containers too slowly to be of help) and are forced to retreat into the camp ... and the dominoes begin to fall.

Last Stand of Dunford

Flanked and then enveloped, the clash soon breaks down into a series of desperate last stands ... ammunition gone, the British stand back-to-back and fight their attackers with bayonets, rifle butts, and bare knuckles.  It is not enough against thousands of angry warriors. And during this bloody nightmare, a solar eclipse for a few minutes places the camp in darkness.  It is all over by about 4:00 in the afternoon.

 

Last Stand

Along with over a thousand slaughtered soldiers (casualties for the Zulus are unknown, but is believed they lose roughly 1,000 warriors in the battle), the British lose 1,000 rifles, two field guns, 400,000 rounds of ammunition, 2,000 draft animals, 130 wagons, and an army's worth of supplies that include canned goods, biscuits, beer, uniforms, hundreds of tents, and three color flags.  And it is the loss of one of those flags that eventually results in the eventual posthumous awarding of the Victoria Cross to 25-year-old Lt. Nevill Josiah Aylmer Coghill and 36-year-old Lt. Teignmouth Melvill.

 

Melvill

Coghill

Ordered by Pulleine to save the Queen's Color of the 24th Regiment of Foot, the two men make a wild ride through the camp (with Melvill carrying the flag), closely pursued dozens of Zulus, but are stopped trying to cross the swollen Buffalo River at a "shallow" area that will come to be called Fugitives' Drift.  When Melvill loses his horse in the river, Coghill goes to his rescue (riding back though he had reached the far bank of the river's safety) ... and the two put up yet another of the day's valiant, but doomed last stands.  Not entirely in vain though. Somewhere in the melee that takes place at the river, the flag is swept away and floats down the river ... where it is found 10 days later, 500 yards downstream.  

Saving the Colors

Escape

Death Ride

At the Buffalo River

Last Sleep of the Brave, 1879

by Alphonse de Neuville

Later returned to Great Britain in the care of an honor guard, Queen Victoria crowns the flag with a wreath of Immortelles, orders that henceforth a silver wreath will be borne on the peak of the staff of the Queen's Color of the Twenty-Fourth, and retires the pennant to a place of honor at Brecon Cathedral in Wales (the 24th is a Welsh regiment) ... where it resides to this day.

The Flag

A big butt kicking, the British react much as the United States did to Custer's bad day in Montana ... more troops are sent to South Africa, troops that eventually defeat Cetshwayo's forces decisively at the Battle of Ulundi.

 

The Burning of Ulundi

Why today mattered?  Among other things, it mattered because of the Battle of Isandlwana ... 1/22/1879!

Isandlwana Today