Once again.
Quote:
A German directive issued on the 22nd of Septermber read:
The Fuhrer has decided to erase the city of St. Petersburg from the face of the earth. I have no interest in the further of existence of this large city after the defeat of the Soviet Russia... We propose to blockade the city tightly and erase it from earth by means of artillery fire and continuous bombardment from the air.
This message came only after desperate Soviet counter attacks at Sol'tsy, Staraia Russa, Krasnoe Selo and Siniavino. While these counter attacks achieved little, they did manage to inflict Irreplaceable casualties and eventually managed to slow the Germans to a halt at Leningrads doorsteps.
As for Zhukov. On Zhukovs recomendation, the Stavka ordered Kulik's 54th Army, still opperating under its direct control, and Zhukov's Neva Operational Group (NOG) to launch converging attacks toward Siniaviano. While progress was small and an advance of only 10km in 16 days, Schmidts XXXIX motorized corps forced a retreat. Forcing Zhukov to replace Kulik with Khozin. These were the thorns at the Germans side which eroded their forces little by little, forcing them to stop in front of Leningrad. Zhukov's main goal was to defend the city, NOT destroy the army.
On Sept 11th 41' Zhukov was assigned the task of defending Leningrad and to take over Marshal Veroshilov who was not up to the task. It was only on the evening of October 6th that Stalin called Zhukov IN Leningrad and oredered him to fly back for the defense of Moscow at once.
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It seems to me Jean that you may be simplifying too much. Zhukov was after all only a man. He was given the task of defending Leningrad and he did. Defenses were put in place new, units were conscripted and counterattacks were ordered by him in order to grind the Germans down and they did! Von Leeb even stated this in his letter to Hitler after which Hitler issued the order to stop the attack on Leningrad and to just bomb it and starve it into submission. This order came NOT on the 12 of sept. but on the 22nd. On the 12th was the order given only given to Guderians mechanzed units as they were moved for the assualt on Moscow.
Also liberating Leningrad was not an easy task as hundreds of thousands of Germans were dug in. Around 300,000 at a time. ( Also there were the Fins in the North and other allies )
The Russian were also a very different fighting force in 1941 then they were in 1943. The Red Army was simply incapable of liberating the city so quick.
Operation Barbarossa: Army Group North, part 2
Defending Moscow was more important then liberating Leningrad. To say that Zhukov let 1 million people starve is quite shallow.