Battle of Velikiye Luki

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Battle of Velikiye Luki
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Velikiye Luki (red, upper left) and the nearby rail trunks, in the context of the Soviet 1942–1943 offensives. (click to enlarge)
Date 19 November 1942 – 16 January 1943 Location Velikiye Luki, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Kurt von der Chevallerie	Maksim Purkayev Kuzma Galitsky
Strength
LIX Korps – ~50,000 (on 19 Nov) Reinforcement forces: ~50,000[1]	3rd Shock Army – 95,608 (on 19 Nov) Reinforcement forces: 86,700[2]
Casualties and losses
Western estimate[3]: 5,000 KIA and MIA; 15,000 WIA Soviet estimate: ~60,000 killed, missing or wounded, 4,500 captured[4]	104,022 31,674 killed or missing 72,348 wounded[5]

The Battle of Velikiye Luki, also named Velikiye Luki offensive operation (Russian: Великолукская наступательная операция), started with the attack by the forces of the Red Army's Kalinin Front against the Wehrmacht's 3rd Panzer Army during the Winter Campaign of 1942–1943 with the objective of liberating the Russian city of Velikiye Luki as a previous part of the northern pincer of the Rzhev-Sychevka Strategic Offensive Operation (Operation Mars).

Sometimes known as "The Little Stalingrad of the North", the Soviet forces encircled the city on 27 November 1942, but were unable to make much progress against German units further west nor retake a key railway to Leningrad. The German garrison in the city was ordered to hold out for a relief force and put up a concerted defense. As was the case at Stalingrad, repeated German counterattacks were unable to reach the city, and the garrison surrendered on 16 January 1943.