![\"Troops](\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Wleningrad3-e1422075678133.jpg\")
<\/a>Troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts meet near Workers Settlement #5 [Attr: RIA Novosti archive, image #602484\/ Dmitriy Kozlov\/ CC-BY-SA 3.0, wiki]<\/p><\/div>This week in the war, on 18 January 1943, Soviet forces finally broke through the German lines. Troops on the Leningrad Front were united with troops from the Volkov Front. After\u00a0497 days of encirclement<\/a>,\u00a0a narrow corridor barely five miles wide was opened and Leningrad was no longer cut off.<\/p>\n Although the blockade was broken, the siege continued. The German defenses were four miles deep and strongly fortified. Trains and trucks passing along the route into Leningrad could only travel at night due to heavy bombardment from the German lines.<\/p>\n In his book Leningrad: State of Siege<\/em>, Michael Jones reports how German artillery continued to bombard the city for\u00a0many months and was at its worst as late as August and September.<\/p>\n The city was finally liberated on 27 January 1944 by a force of a million and a quarter men, commanded by Lieutenant-General Leonid Govorov. Later that year, he was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week in the war, on 18 January 1943, Soviet forces finally broke through the German lines. Troops on the Leningrad Front were united with troops from the Volkov Front. After\u00a0497 days of encirclement,\u00a0a narrow corridor barely five miles wide … Continue reading