Operation Iskra

Operation Iskra
Part of the siege of Leningrad
Front lines late January showing the efforts to displace the 18th Army (bottom) and link up the encircled Leningrad Front (left) with the Volkhov Front (right)
Date 12–30 January 1943 (1943-01-12 – 1943-01-30) Location South of Lake Ladoga 59°54′00″N 31°04′03″E / 59.9000°N 31.0675°E / 59.9000; 31.0675 Result Soviet victory breaking the Siege of Leningrad
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Georg Lindemann	Kirill Meretskov Leonid Govorov
Units involved
18th Army	2nd Shock Army 8th Army 67th Army
Strength
26 divisions[1] 700 artillery 50 tanks[2]	20 divisions 15 brigades 4,600 artillery 500 tanks 900 aircraft[2]
Casualties and losses
R. Forczyk, based on German archives[3]: 1,630 KIA 1,546 MIA 5,729 WIA Estimate by Glantz (without reference to the source of information): 12,000 killed 32,570 wounded[4]	Krivosheev's official soviet data: 33,940 killed 71,142 wounded[5]

Operation Iskra (Russian: операция Искра, lit. 'Operation Spark'), a Soviet military operation in January 1943 during World War II, aimed to break the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad. Planning for the operation began shortly after the failure of the Sinyavino Offensive. The German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942 had weakened the German front. By January 1943, Soviet forces were planning or conducting offensive operations across the entire German-Soviet Front, especially in southern Russia; Iskra formed the northern part of the wider Soviet 1942–1943 winter counteroffensive.^[6]

The operation was conducted by the Red Army's Leningrad Front, Volkhov Front, and the Baltic Fleet from 12 to 30 January 1943 with the aim of creating a land connection to Leningrad. Soviet forces linked up on 18 January, and by 22 January, the front line had stabilised. The operation successfully opened a land corridor 8–10 km (5.0–6.2 mi) wide to the city. A railroad was swiftly built through the corridor and allowed more supplies to reach the city than the Road of Life, across the frozen surface of Lake Ladoga, which significantly reduced the possibilities of the capture of the city and of any German–Finnish linkup.^[7]

The success led to Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda less than two weeks later, which aimed to decisively defeat Army Group North and to lift the siege altogether. Polyarnaya Zvezda failed by achieving only minimal progress.^[8] Soviet forces made several other attempts in 1943 to renew their offensive and to lift the siege completely, but they made only modest gains in each one. The corridor remained within range of German artillery, and the Red Army did not finally lift the siege until a year later, on 27 January 1944.^[9]