Part 32: Turn 5 - Soviet Movement Phase: Fortifying Leningrad

The Soviets discard Na Berlin! to fortify Leningrad.

Following the gains of the German offensive, the people of Leningrad are rushed to strengthen the defences of the city. Barricades rise in the streets while the Red Army sappers mine what few paths of advance remain open to the Wehrmacht. Many citizens that have not been conscripted yet for whatever reason are grabbed off the streets and given a rifle, a bunch of grenades and assigned a platoon. The whole city is turned from a well-organised defensive position into a fortress.


In real life Leningrad had it a lot harder than it does in our game. The OTL Germans had no intention of taking the city, rather leaving it to their Finnish allies. Hitler insisted on starving out all the inhabitants - not to force a surrender, but rather to just kill them and take Leningrad without a shot. His generals agreed, since they knew that storming a city like Leningrad - with plenty of canals, densely populated and tightly packed with tenements - would be bloody, and after prior experiences of Smolensk and Orel they knew urban combat against the Russians was dangerous.

The city was ruled by Andrei Zhdanov, a man who feared no German - but completely shat his pants upon mere thought of angering Stalin. A spineless lackey, he ordered "defeatists" shot on the spot and prohibited any attempts at fortifying Leningrad or preparing it for the siege - he believed this would get him painted as someone who undermined the belief in the Red Army's imminent triumph and sent to a gulag. He therefore not only did not order food to be stockpiled, but actually told Moscow that his stocks were sufficient and any transport should be shipped away elsewhere.

After Marshal Kliment Voroshilov's (the guy KV tanks were named after) Northwest Front got smashed by the German push towards the north, Leningrad was surrounded. On September 8, it was completely separated from the rest of the Soviet Union. The city had enough food to last 30 days - until the Luftwaffe bombings set their food warehouses on fire.

We'll come back to this story later on.


Cavalry Raid is discarded to bring back Northwest Front.

The last two months have seen the Soviet strength rise as more and more men are dispatched to the front. The troops are still not as well trained or equipped as the Stavka would like to have them, but they're good enough for now.




I need movement orders from Hipster Rooster and cokerpilot.

Incidentally, I'd also like Fangz to list which units should be under which command once again, as it's getting confusing.

The deadline for this is Saturday, January 4, 7 PM GMT.