Operation Spark (1943)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eastern Front
Barbarossa – Baltic Sea – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Belorussia – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans – Hungary – Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague

Leningrad and Baltics 1941 - 1944
Toropets-Kholm – Demyansk Pocket – Spark – Polar Star – Krasny Bor – Lenino– Leningrad Approaches – Narva – Vilnius – Baltic

Operation Spark (1943) was a military operation by the Red Army during January 12 —January 18, 1943 which intended to create a land connection to break the siege of Leningrad conducted by the German Wehrmacht.

The full-scale offensive of troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts started in the morning of January 12, 1943. After heavy and fierce battles, the Red Army units overcame the powerful German fortified zones to the South of the Ladoga Lake, and on January 18, 1943 the meeting of Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts units happened, opening a land corridor to the besieged city. Almost immediately, both truck and rail traffic began to bring supplies to Leningrad.

The city of Leningrad was still subject to at least a partial siege, as well as air and artillery bombardment, until a Soviet offensive broke through the German lines, lifting the siege in January 1944.