German Northern Theater of Operations 1940-1945 [Illustrated Edition] by Earl Ziemke

Author:Earl Ziemke [Ziemke, Earl]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Verdun Press
Published: 2015-11-06T05:00:00+00:00

Eastern Karelia

In the latter half of August, with the Army Group North back in motion and rapidly approaching Leningrad, the question of the fate of that city came to the fore in German planning. In the advance planning for Barbarossa and the occupation of Russia, Hitler, whose knowledge of the economic geography of the Soviet Union may have been somewhat wanting, decided that the population of the Ukraine and southern Russia was worth preserving for the sake of industrial and raw materials production and because it could produce an agricultural surplus. The north imported food, and, therefore, in order to prevent its draining off the agricultural surplus of the south, which he intended to divert to Germany, he decided that the population there would have to be reduced by some millions, principally through the natural process of starvation. Leningrad he regarded as both a symbol of the Russian nation (which he intended to destroy for all time) and a concentration of several million useless mouths to feed.

Starting from the premise that the city would in no case be occupied, he and his advisers in the OKW turned to the problem of how to deal with the city. One thought was to hem it in as closely as possible, surround it with an electrified fence and machine guns, and leave the population to starve. Another was to let out the women and children and shove them across the Russian lines to create confusion behind the enemy’s front. This was regarded as a good idea in theory but difficult to execute and likely not to be effective since the Russians themselves were insensitive to things of that sort.

It was certain that the city would be leveled to the ground and the population removed. Since the Finns had expressed a desire to have the Neva as a boundary, all the territory north of the river would go to them. While awaiting a final decision on how to deal with Leningrad, the Army Group North was to encircle the city but not enter it and not accept a surrender if it were offered. The OKH was uneasy, fearing for the moral effects on its troops should they be called upon to slaughter unarmed civilians by the thousands. It favored a compromise solution which would let starvation and destruction do their work as far as possible within the city and then permit the last desperate remnants of the non-combatants to filter through the German lines and disperse across the countryside.{494}

To isolate Leningrad, Army Group North planned to cross the Neva River near Schlüsselburg, make contact with the Finns, and establish a line between the city and the western shore of Lake Ladoga. It intended also to push via Volkhov and join the Army of Karelia in the vicinity of the Svir River. It wanted the Finns to advance south of their old border on the Isthmus of Karelia and south of the Svir to meet the German spearheads. These proposals Keitel, in a letter written on 22 August, laid before Mannerheim.

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