At that time, the 8th, 2nd, 54th, 52nd, 4th, and 59th Armies of the Volkhov Front were placed under the command of the Volkhov Front after the withdrawal of the 8th Army from the Oranienbaum Peninsula, and the 54th Army was transferred from the Leningrad Front to the Volkhov Front ( The 54th Army, which was the same strategic purpose at the time of the Battle of Liuban, actually belonged to the command of the Leningrad Front, which greatly interfered with the command coordination of the Soviet Army, and it seems that this time the Soviet Army learned a lesson and brought all the troops on the banks of the Volkhov River under one command) Meretskov planned to use the 8th Army as the main direction of attack and place the 8th Army under the command of General Starikov south of the Siniavino Heights, and the 6th Guards Infantry Army (3rd Guards 19, 24th Infantry Division, 265th Infantry Division) as the main attack, the target of the attack was the MGA station south of Siniavino, and to destroy the German troops on the heights of Siniavino on the second line of the Soviet army, Meretskov prepared the 4th Guards Infantry Army of Gagen, who was tasked with expanding the results and intensifying the assault, To complete the entire breakthrough and achieve the task of uniting the troops of the Leningrad Front, after the 8th Army, there was a Soviet assault on the 2nd Army, due to the heavy losses in the just-concluded Battle of Liuban, the assault 2nd Army was being rebuilt at that time, and within its establishment there was only 1 infantry division and 1 infantry brigade, and according to the plan, only the task of cleaning up the battlefield was planned, in fact, it could not be relied on as a combat-ready force at all, in addition, due to the lessons of the Battle of Liuban, Meretskov prepared a strong reserve to deal with the eventuality, this reserve consisted of 5 infantry divisions and 1 infantry brigade, assembled at the junction of the 8th Army and the 54th Army on the southern flank, this offensive differed from the previous offensive in that Meretskov greatly strengthened the troops in terms of material forces, especially artillery fire and tanks, due to the fact that the rapid mechanized corps was almost useless in the north (the Germans built an offensive in the entire defensive area, and there was no depth of the campaign to speak of), So the tanks are mainly used to support the infantry The 8th Army has a total of 2 tank brigades, 5 ** tank battalions, and a large part of the tanks are KV, this slow heavy tank has the most suitable stage in this kind of offensive operations In addition, on the artillery, Meretskov provided 12 artillery regiments and 9 mortar regiments, 4 ** mortar battalions, USHA artillery battalions, USHA artillery battalions, Thus establishing a density of 100 guns per kilometer, it seems that the Soviet army has realized that artillery support is the most effective weapon in this form of operation

According to the original plan, it would have been much better for Leningrad to launch a simultaneous attack on the 55th Army and the Neva battle group, but Stalin canceled this plan for fear that crossing the Neva River would be a difficult task, and the Leningrad Front only supported Meretskov's offensive with artillery fire, and did not cross the river until Meretskov's troops approached the Neva River, which meant that Meretskov's troops had to ** penetrate the entire German defense (about 20 km) This is by no means an easy task

On the German side, in the narrow choke point was the heavily fortified area of the German army, where the 26th Infantry Division of the 18th Army with the 227th Infantry Division on the left flank, the 223rd Infantry Division on the right flank to defend the west bank of the Volkhov River in the face of the main offensive of the Soviet 8th Army and on the other side, the SS Police Division of the 5th Infantry Corps was responsible for defending the Neva River against the 55th Army of the Leningrad Front and the 96th Infantry Division on the right flank of the 1st Infantry Corps was also defending here. Because not only the 18th Army's tactical reserves, the 12th Panzer Division and the 5th Mountain Infantry Division, were assembled in the MGA, the Soviets would inevitably engage them, but Manstein's troops had also reached the south of the MGA and could quickly enter the battle, and the command of the 18th Army was Lindemann

At 2:10 a.m. on August 27, the Soviets began to attack, the main attack of the 6th Guards Infantry Corps 4 Infantry Divisions attacked with the support of the left and right flanks of the group army, just hit the junction of the first infantry division, the 24th Guards Infantry Division was on the right, the 265th Infantry Division was on the right, the first day was very successful to seize the first line of tortolove, opened a width of about 5 kilometers, and advanced more than 3 kilometers The second day, the follow-up Guards 19th Division took advantage of the results of the first day to successfully think of the breakthrough, By the end of the first day, the Soviets had advanced 5-6 kilometers and reached the vital southern edge of the Siniavino Heights, and it should be said that the first two days of the Soviet offensive were quite good

The Soviet offensive caught the Germans off guard, because the Germans were mainly attracted by the feints on the south flank of the Soviet 42nd Army, and the Germans were nervously preparing for the upcoming Northern Lights offensive, and when it became known that the Soviets had begun a large-scale offensive on the banks of the Volkhov River, General Kuechler immediately stopped all his work and sent all the troops that could be sent to Japan, Kuechler ordered his 5th Mountain Infantry Division and 28th Hunter Division, which were preparing for the Northern Lights Offensive, to go to the MGA area to prepare for a counterattack on the right flank of the Soviet 8th Army, in addition, the 12th Panzer Division went to Neva to prepare for a possible attack by the Leningrad Front, and the 170th Infantry Division and part of the 96th Infantry Division were sent to the Siniavino Heights, and finally, Kuechler put 4 new Tiger tanks into the Siniavino Heights, although, 2 of them entered the battle and were lost immediately

Due to the large number of troops in the depth of the German army, all Soviet troops began to advance significantly slowly from the 29th, almost stagnant, the 170th Infantry Division was guarding the Siniavino Heights on the left flank of the 8th Army, and the repeated attacks of the Soviet troops did not achieve any results, but the 11,268th Infantry Division on the right made some progress, but on the whole, the Soviet troops were rapidly losing their offensive momentum, and it was obvious that there were no strong reinforcements, The combat capability of the first echelon of the Soviet army had been exhausted Meretskov realized this, and he judged that the time had come to throw into the second echelon on the 29th, and he ordered Gagen's 4th Guards Infantry Army (259th Infantry Division, 22nd, 23rd, 32nd, 33rd, Infantry Brigade, 98th and 122nd Tank Brigades) into battle, much earlier than originally planned, and the 259th Infantry Division was thrown into battle with the support of the 122nd Tank Brigade, The rest of the troops were also put into battle the next day, but unfortunately the troops were already a little late in the operation, and to make matters worse, the offensive organization of the 4th Guards Infantry Corps was poor, General Gagen was a little negligent in his duties, and since Meretskov reinforced most of the artillery to the 8th Army, the coordination between the 4th Guards Infantry Army and the artillery was very poor, although N was dismissed, the offensive energy of the 4th Guards Infantry Army was exhausted, and the Soviet army advanced another 2-3 kilometers after heavy casualties, The breakthrough depth reached 10 kilometers, which was also the maximum limit that the Soviet army could achieve, and the Neva River was only 5 kilometers away, but the German 170th Infantry Division and the 28th Chasseur Division joined forces to stop the Soviet army, and the Soviet army suffered considerable losses, and because the Siniavino Heights were always in the hands of the Germans, all Soviet efforts to attack north were unsuccessful, and the Soviet attacking troops were trapped in the forest swamps

Seeing that the Meretskov offensive had clearly lost momentum, Stavka was clearly not willing to end the offensive, and since the Volkhov Front was not capable of hitting the Neva River, then it was time for the 55th Army of the Leningrad Front and the Neva Campaign Cluster to act, as long as 5 km forward, then the troops north of the Soviet assault cluster (including the German SS Police Division, a part of the 12 Panzer Division, the 227 Infantry Division and a battle group of the 170 Infantry Division stationed there) will all be cut off

On September 3, the 55th Army began the offensive of the 43rd Infantry Division and the 268th Infantry Division, one left and one right, and launched an attack from the small bridgehead Iam-Izhora on the right flank of the 55th Army on the Neva River It turned out that it was a big mistake to attack from the bridgehead, and the German defense of the bridgehead was the tightest, and here the troops of the SS Police Division were in full position, and such a strong defense made the Soviet army in the battle report describe it as hitting a wall of fire, In the end, after 2 days of fierce fighting and nothing was gained, on the left flank of the 55th Army, the 86th Infantry Division, and the 11th Infantry Brigade were preparing to cross the Neva River to attack the Moskovskaiadubrovak area, just in time to collide with the 12th Panzer Division, which felt that it was strengthening its defense here on August 29, compared to the German and Soviet forces, the firepower, organization, and coordination were inferior, and the attack here only advanced a few hundred yards before it stopped, and by the 9th, Stavka finally admitted that the offensive had failed, and the troops withdrew to their original positions

At the same time, Hitler was also dissatisfied with the situation of Army Group North, the Soviet offensive seriously disrupted the original plan of the German army, and Operation Northern Lights had been inevitably postponed, for which he was very dissatisfied with the commander of Army Group North, Kuechler, believing that it was his unfavorable defense that would put the German troops in the MGA-Siniavino area into such a dangerous situation, in order to improve the local command, he ordered all German troops in the MGA-Siniavino area to be under the command of Field Marshal Manstein, Manstein would also be in command of his original 11th Army, and he had gained Hitler's great trust because of the success he had just achieved on the Crimean Peninsula, in fact, it would be better to put Mann's troops under the command of Lindemann, because Lindeman was fighting on the ground and knew the situation, while Mann had come from afar and Man received an order to immediately counterattack to restore the original Volkhov front

Stavka did not want to give up, Stalin was still putting pressure on Meretskov, Meretskov had no choice but to put the assault 2nd Army into battle, I have already said his strength earlier, it is clear that this is a drop in the bucket, although after efforts, the assault 2nd Army captured several support points, but it was still out of reach of the goals of the Soviet army for the Soviet army, and even worse, the 28th Infantry Division, the 28th Chasseur Division of the German 28th Army, The 5th Mountain Infantry Division launched a counterattack from September 6 to 9, regaining the lost positions step by step, and this counterattack hit the right flank of the Soviet attacking force, and the local 4th Guards Infantry Corps and the 6th Guards Infantry Corps belonged to two different command systems, and the coordination between them was very poor, so that the Germans quickly seized the key points on the northern flankKruglaiagrovemeretskov realized the weakness of his troops, in order to improve the command, These 2 corps were transferred to the command of General Klykov of the assault 2nd Army

Finding that the Soviet offensive on the Siniavino heights was becoming weaker, Manstein decided to concentrate his forces and begin a counterattack, he gathered his 24,170th Infantry Division and the 12th Panzer Division together and launched an attack on the south flank of the Soviet attacking forces in a southwesterly direction, targeting the Volkhov River, the time of this offensive was set for September 10, and the attack failed immediately at the beginning due to the improved command and superior artillery of the Soviet army, And the losses were quite serious, Manstein realized that the defense of the Soviet troops was quite strong, and as he always did, he stopped the offensive, and the assault on one flank could not work

From September 10, the Germans mainly relied on their own artillery and aviation (the Germans had achieved complete air supremacy at that time) to tilt fire on the Soviet troops surrounded on three sides, in addition, the 121st Infantry Division and the 5th Mountain Division were in the north, the 28th Chasseur Division was from the west, and the 170th Infantry Division was firmly trapped in the South on three sides, but the Soviet troops still refused to admit defeat

In the hesitation of the Soviet army, Manstein completed his preparations for the counteroffensive, due to 3 days of heavy rain, Manstein set the date of his counteroffensive on September 21, after nearly 10 days of preparation, Manstein formed 2 assault groups at the root of the north and south flanks of the salient formed by the Soviet offensive forces, the northern group formed by the 26th Infantry Division of the 112th Infantry Army, and the 30th Infantry Division (the unit of Manstein's 11th Army, which is also the main force scheduled to launch the Northern Lights) launched an assault In addition, The 3rd Mountain Infantry Division and the 28th Chasseur Division, which held the main forces of the Soviet 8th and assault 2nd armies, the German assault directed towards the root of the salient Gaitolovo, right on the banks of the Volkhov River

The Soviet army did not anticipate this attack, Meretskov could not make up his mind about the attack or retreat, the Soviet resistance was scattered and uncontrollable, and the advance of all German troops was unexpectedly smooth, and by the 25th, the southern group arrived, and the northern group also arrived, completing the encirclement of the Soviet 8th Army and the assault 2nd Army

Meretskov was slow to react to this offensive, and in fact on the 21**** was still proposing to Stavka to launch an offensive jointly by the Volkhov Front and the Leningrad Front, for which he was ready to withdraw the 1st Infantry Division and the 73rd Infantry Brigade fighting on the Sinivino heights from the battle, move to the center of the assault forces to attack the Neva River, and launch an offensive assault with Govorov's Leningrad Front, but Manstein's offensive disrupted the plan, So that Meretskov's troops could only be exhausted, and this offensive could only be completed by Gomorov's troops

On September 26, the troops of the Leningrad Front began the offensive, this time Govorov focused his attack on the Neva River, launched an offensive from the area of the 55th Army and the Neva Campaign Group in the area of Dokno1, and compared to the previous offensive, this offensive was better organized This time the 70th, 86th Infantry Divisions and the 11th ** Infantry Brigade of the Neva Campaign Cluster captured a bridgehead on the banks of the Neva River relatively smoothly, These important support points on the bank of the river, Ovskaiadubrovka, also fell into the defensive positions of the German 12th Panzer Division defending this place in the hands of the Soviets, and after the establishment of a small wedge bridgehead, the Soviets formed a small battle group with the 86th Infantry Division as the core, and with the support of all the heavy weapons they could get to cross the river (28 guns, 281 mortars, 12 tanks), they launched an attack on the German depth, but the offensive suffered huge losses and achieved nothing. In addition, the 12th Panzer Division, which was a little dizzy at the beginning, immediately returned to normalcy and began a fierce counterattack, and by the 29th, the two support points of the nskoe had been recaptured, and the fierce fighting continued for another week, and the Soviets could not get any further progress, at this time, The 12th Panzer Division had been reinforced by Manstein's 28th Chasseur Division, and the 55th Army had to abandon this bridgehead and retreat, but a small company-sized battle group of the 70th Infantry Division occupied a small foothold along the river, breaking all German attempts to destroy them, which remained until January 1943, when the Soviets withdrew across the Neva River

The defeat of the Leningrad Front put the troops of the 2nd and 8th armies in a situation of fighting alone, these two armies had been fighting in an encirclement since September 25, for them, the German artillery fire and air attacks were making their battle increasingly difficult, and although Manstein could not destroy this Soviet army at once, he kept encroaching on the Soviet encirclement in September, and it was not an easy task, The fierce fighting lasted for more than half a month, and it was not until October 15 that the Soviet army opened a breakthrough, re-crossed the Volkhov River, abandoned all heavy weapons, and the formation of the troops that broke through was in disarray, and the assault 2nd Army suffered another annihilating blow after the battle of Liuban, less than half a year after the last blow

By the end of October, the fighting had subsided, the Soviets had lost almost all tactical points between the Hov River, and the battle lines on both sides were almost as good as they had been before the battle began, and although Meretskov claimed in his memoirs that he had caused the Germans to lose one tank, 200 guns, 400 mortars, and a large amount of other equipment, the fact was that the Germans lost only about 26,000 men and less than 100 tanks. The losses of the Soviet army were very staggering, and the Leningrad Front and the Volkhov Front in the battle lost a total of 40,085 people, including 40,085 killed, captured or missing, and there is no doubt that the Soviet army suffered another real defeat

However, the Soviets did not gain nothing from this offensive, first of all, the Soviets disrupted the Northern Lights plan, especially the losses of the German army's 26,000 men were not minor, most of these losses were concentrated on several divisions of the reserve of the 18th Army and the 30th Army of Manstein, which were scheduled to launch the Northern Lights Offensive, due to heavy losses, these troops needed a long time to reorganize, and some companies had less than 20 infantry so there was no choice, The Germans had to significantly delay the Northern Lights program, and then the development of Stalingrad caused the troops of the 11th Army to leave Leningrad on November 20, and the Northern Lights were stillborn before they could be carried out

The Soviets organized the fall of Leningrad at a high cost, and from this point of view, the Meretskov offensive cannot be said to be useless, but this battle was undoubtedly a defeat

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