[烛光生存狂]-列宁格勒的重炮兵[开始了！]

One of the most ferocious and large-scale battles employing the large number of heavy artillery units in the World War II took place in the vicinity of Leningrad, where the German advance was stopped on the outskirts of the city in autumn 1941, with the assistance of numerous coastal artillery of the Soviet navy.

在二战中有大量重炮兵部队参与的最为激烈和最大规模的战役之一发生在列宁格勒的周围，1941年秋，在大量的苏联海军海岸炮兵部队的协助下，德军的攻势被阻挡在这座城市的外围。

In the prolonged period of positional warfare that followed the siege of Leningrad in 1941-1944 artillery palyed prominent role as well. The first explosions of German artillery shells within the city were registered on September 4, 1941, and in autumn the German command deployed three artillery regiments with the guns of 105-150 mm, reinforced by the two heavy artillery units of the High Command Reserve and several railway artillery platforms. Their positions were situated in the areas of Uritsk and Volodarsky, 8-12 kms from the frontline. The artillery raids took place in the daytime, usually from 10.00 am to 19.00 pm; an intense artillery barrage was followed by metodical shelling for some 2-4 hours a day until the end of 1941. In September 1941 the Germans have fired 5,364 artillery shells, in October--7,950, in November--11,230, and in December-15,610. There were some days when the city was under fire for more than 18 hours: on 15th of September the fire lasted 18 hours 32 minutes, and on 17th of September--18 hours 33 minutes. By the end of 1941 the Germans have deployed their artillery positions in the wooded areas western, south-western and southern of Leningrad in the areas of Uritsk, Finskoe Kojrovo and Pushkin--Slutsk. The road network in these locations was develped so that it enabled rapid maneuvers of artillery hardware, and from the rroftops of the tall building in Uritsk and the nearby ridge the German artillery observers received superb view of the southern and southwestern sectors of Leningrad.

The evaluation of the effectiveness of German artillery in the siege is a rather complicated undertaking since: 1)the reports of the damage caused were kept secret in Soviet era; even today the official Russian point of view is that the royal palaces at Peterhof and Pavlovsk were demolished by the Germans, while in fact they were wiped off by the Soviet 152 mm guns. 2) it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between damages caused by the german air-raids and artillery strikes. The official Soviet data claims that there were some 5000 bombs dropped and 150,000 artillery shells fired at the city, damaging 840 industrial objects, destroying 3,200 stone or concrete houses and further 7,100 damaged heavily.

It is rather easier, however, to judge about the effects of the German artillery barrages on the naval forces of the Red-banner Baltic Fleet. For instance, on the 18th of September, 1941, between 11.47 and 13.37 the Soviet heavy cruiser "Petropavlovsk"(previously known in Kriegsmarine as "Lutzow" before being sold to Soviet Union in 1939) came under fire of the German 210 mm guns of the 768-th Motorized Artillerie Abteilung, receiving up to 12 hits. The cruiser received heavy damage under the water-line, its artillery systems were not functioning, and a fire had erupted; 10 crewmembers were KIA and 20 MIA, while "Petropavlovsk" slowly sank for the depth of some 1-2 metres in the Coal haven of the Leningrad Commercial port. On September 27th, 1941, the German artillery has sunk the cannon boat "Pioner"; on the 7th of October--old coastal defence battleship "Smerch", decommissioned several decades ago, which was repaired and sunk again in 1942; on the 4th of October the notorious trainina cruiser "Aurora" was sunk in Oranienbaum after seveal artillery shells hit its deck; on the 24th of April 1942 the hull of the cruiser "Butakov", still under construction, was sunk too. All in all, the German artillery alone is responsible for sinking 44 naval units, including, except of those covered above, submarines L-1, M-72 and M-96, torpedo boats N 103 and N 123, trawler N172 and many other.

Many Soviet naval vessels were heavily damaged by the German artillery fire in 1941-1942. The battleship "Marat", which was ostensibly "sunk" by Hans-Ulrich Rudel on September 23, 1941, but soon repaired so that turrets N3 and N4 became active again, was hit by 5 shells on 15.09.1941, piercing the decks and blowing up the engine, on 12.12.1941 it suffered 3 more hits of the 203 mm shells and on 28.12.1941 3 direct hits and several German shells exploding near the battleship. The deck was reinforced by the granite plates of the Neva embankment, and yet the ship was targeted again successfully on 25.10.1942 with 3 305 mm shells, one 203 mm shell on 06.11.1942 and one 203 mm shell on 08.10.1943. The repeatedly battered vessel was decommissioned in 1953.

On the other hand, the Soviet battleship "October Revolution" was hit by German artillery fire on several occasions(6 direct hits on 8-10.10.1941, one hit on 14.12.1941, two hits on 23.03.1942, several hits on 16 and 18 April 1942), and as a result of these episodes the vessel was siginficantly damaged, as probably any other Soviet ship based in Leningrad or Kronschtadt. The reason they eventually survived was the germans usually employed 105-210 mm artillery systems not capable of sinking a heavily armoured cruiser or battleship, but causing enough damage to make the vessels inactive for long periods of time. Moreover, the crews often performed remarkably in salvaging their vessels after direct hits and resulting fires.

The other target of German artillery attacks was the Scientific Research Artillery Range near the railway station of Rzhevka, where Soviet artillery systems were tested and large stocks of ammunition were stored. On the 29th of March, 1942, a Luftwaffe reconnaissance plane detected a large number of railway freight-cars, and between 17.00 and 19.00 the German artillery pounded the spotted targets ferociously, mounting the barrage on the following morning. Eventually a load of ammonal explosive was detonated, causing chain reaction of the Soviet ammunition echelone, killing several hundreds of people.

The Soviet command attempted to decrease the immense pressure on civilian morale by conducting precise artillery attacks on the enemy positions, in order to suppress relentless and accurate German fire. Already in 1941 the Baltic Fleet donated 360 heavy artillery pieces, 130 mm and above, while the Red Army deployed 137 guns(37*122 mm, 90 152 mm howitzers, 9*152 mm and 220 mm mortar). However, in general the German artillery positions were quite well disguised and in case of heavy Soviet fire the guns were quickly moved to reserve positions. For instance, on 30-31.07.1943 the Soviet 130 mm guns fired 886 shells at the spotted German 180 mm artilery piece, which renewed fire exactly 5 hours after the assault. All in all, the Soviets have succeeded in destroying three German 105 mm guns and two 170 mm systems in the third quarter of 1943 with coastal artillery, whereas the other targets appearing destroyed displayed activity some 7 days after the carefully prepared Soviet artillery strike. Apparently the Soviet artillery assaults also caused casualties among German artillery personnel, even when the guns remained intact or insignificantly damaged.

Order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Northwestern Strategic Direction Concerning the Employment of the Red-banner Baltic Fleet and Coastal Artillery for the Defence of Leningrad

30 August 1941

N.0019

To Shaposhnikov, Kuznetsov

Since the current naval assets, employed at the defence of Leningrad and Kronschtadt, are not sufficently co-ordinated, and in order to employ all available resources of the Red-banner Baltic Fleet directly for the defence of the city, I hereby order:

1. Concerning the naval vessels.

It should be henceforth considered that the main goal of

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