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The German
army advanced so rapidly toward Leningrad, the second-most important
city in Russia, that by August 30, 1941, the last of the railroad
tracks that led to the town had been cut. Several days later, German
tank units completed their stranglehold on the town. German troops
under Field Marshal Ritter von Leeb from the southwest, and Finnish
Marshal Mannerheim’s army from the northwest, rushed to the city
outskirts quickly and began to shell the city fiercely. However, the
Nazis’ hopes of a swift occupation of Leningrad faded when Marshal
Zhukov was placed in charge of organizing the town’s defense. He
turned the city into a maze of strongholds and firing positions. |
