Retreat from Leningrad

Most histories of the northern sector of the Russian front concentrate on the siege of Leningrad, and focus little attention on the heavy fighting during the Wehrmacht's withdrawal into the Baltic countries. Retreat from Leningrad begins where those books end, with the massive January 1944 Soviet offensive which was designed not only to break the siege completely but also to destroy Army Group North. Enjoying huge superiorities in men and material, the Red Army attempted to crush two German armies which lacked more than a handful of tanks, contained a high percentage of unreliable foreign volunteers, and were hampered by Adolph Hitler's inflexible "no retreat" strategy. This untold story is recovered here in great detail, primarily as told by the German officers who served as commanders and chiefs of staff for Army Group North and its constituent armies. Their accounts were drafted soon after the war ended at the request of the United States Army, but have languished in poorly translated manuscripts until Steven Newton re-translated, corrected, and annotated them, as well as providing substantial amounts of new material direct from the army group's operational records. The result is the most comprehensive and detailed operational study of sustained combat in the northern sector of the Russian front ever published in English.