Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

On this day, Yannick held a high-level military meeting to discuss the situation on the German-Soviet battlefield.

"200,000 Finnish troops have approached the northwest defense line of Leningrad." Marshal Rundstedt couldn't help but sigh when he saw the movements of the Finnish troops marked on the huge operational map by the combat staff. "The combat effectiveness of the Finnish army is not inferior to that of our army. If their country were not small and sparsely populated, they would probably be a very difficult opponent."

Yannick nodded with deep understanding. Did he know that Finland was a ruthless master who could punch the Soviet Union and kick the Germans?

However, after the Soviet-German War broke out in the original time and space, although the Finnish army also jointly attacked the Soviet Union with the German army, they only wanted to recover the territory occupied by the Soviet Union in the Soviet-Finnish War in 1940. Therefore, as soon as they reached the previous border, the Finnish army stopped to defend. Despite Germany's persuasion, Finland did not move forward until the end of the war, but only faced off with the Soviet Karelia Front along the border between the two sides.

At this time, Finland's backbone, Marshal Mannerheim, who strongly opposed Finland's joining the Axis powers in the original time and space, had long since passed away (Chapter 340). Finland also joined the European Union and naturally declared war on the Soviet Union. In order to avenge Marshal Mannerheim, who died of overwork in resisting the Soviet invasion, the Finnish army, from generals to soldiers, shared the same hatred of the enemy and fought bravely to kill the enemy. In terms of morale, it was better than the Soviet army. In addition, most of the Finnish army's weapons were German-made advanced equipment. The Soviet army was defeated steadily.

"200,000 Spanish troops are approaching the southwestern defense line of Leningrad. In addition, 300,000 Italian troops and 300,000 Foreign Legionnaires have also approached the southeastern defense line. A joint fleet will arrive in the Gulf of Finland in the near future to bombard Leningrad."

"Very good." Yannick nodded with satisfaction.

Leningrad, the cradle of the October Revolution and the birthplace of Bushilvik, is the second largest city in the Soviet Union and an important industrial center and transportation hub. Therefore, in the "Barbarossa Plan" of the German army's invasion of the Soviet Union, Leningrad was a city that Germany must capture. The mustache even shouted, "Leningrad must be wiped off the face of the earth!"

The German army marched forward with great momentum and launched an all-out attack on Leningrad.

Facing the German troops approaching the city, the Commander-in-Chief of the Northwest Front of the Soviet Union issued a call to all soldiers and civilians, "At the gate of Leningrad, use our breasts to block the enemy's path!" With all the soldiers and civilians in Leningrad fighting against the enemy, the German army could no longer fight against the enemy. It was difficult to move forward. As the German Fourth Armored Division was transferred to Moscow, the German army began to change its strategy and planned to besiege Leningrad, trying to make the soldiers and civilians in the city run out of ammunition and food.

What's even more terrible is that when the German army bombed Leningrad, several incendiary bombs hit the Badaev Warehouse, which stored a large amount of living supplies. Despite efforts to save it, the building could sustain the needs of more than three million residents for half a year. The warehouse was still burned to the ground.

In July 1941, each worker could get 800 grams of bread, and his family members could get 400 grams of bread, less than two kilograms of bread a day, and this was after one day of labor. By the beginning of October, only half of the bread was left. It will be even worse by the end of November. Workers only have 250 grams of bread a day, and others only have 125 grams.

Not only is there less and less bread, but the quality is also getting worse and worse. The original wheat bread has changed to black bread. In order to make more bread, edible fiber was even obtained from the waste of the money printing factory. Inside brown bread. Starting in November, people continued to starve to death. Within a month, 11,000 people had died, and by December, 53,000 people had died of starvation. And winter is coming again, exacerbating the dilemma.

Knowing the serious situation in Leningrad, Stalin ordered the Moscow Special Aviation Group to airdrop supplies to Leningrad. But even if this air transport team transports supplies day and night, it is not enough for the millions of people in the city.

Moreover, the food obtained must be given priority to the army. After all, only with a full stomach can the soldiers have the strength to fight and continue to guard the city. The remaining food was distributed to the common people. The number of people and the materials were very different. Many people ran out of food before they saw what it was like. Once back before liberation, the Soviet people began to look for anything they could eat in order to survive.

They eat sparrows, pets, and even rats. In the winter of 1941, more than 600,000 people died throughout Leningrad, nearly half of them from starvation. Throughout 1942, nearly 100,000 Leningraders starved to death almost every month.

The brutal siege lasted until early 1944. It was only then that the Soviet counterattack troops broke through the German siege and delivered food to the citizens of Leningrad who had been besieged for two and a half years.

When statistics were compiled after the war, Leningrad was besieged by the German army for more than 900 days. During this period, 1.5 million Soviet soldiers and civilians died of hunger alone, and more than half of the residents died in this protracted siege.

Compared with other battles in World War II, the death siege of Leningrad was definitely the most brutal, and the death toll far exceeded the subsequent explosions of the two atomic eggs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima (the total casualties in the two explosions were 390,000 ), nearly 500,000 people are buried in a public cemetery in Leningrad, which shows how tragic this battle was.

Leningrad used unimaginable losses to hold back the German Army Group Northern, one of the three armies of the "Barbarossa Plan", and all Finnish troops participating in the war, creating conditions for the victory of other battles on the Eastern Front.

However, the troops attacking Leningrad this time included 1 million troops, plus more aircraft, artillery and tanks, which were several times the size of the original time and space. Yannik was confident that he could capture Leningrad in the shortest possible time.

"When Leningrad is captured, I will change this name."

Marshal Rundstedt asked. "Your Highness, are you planning to return to St. Petersburg?" Leningrad was originally named St. Petersburg. This name comes from Saint Peter, a disciple of Jesus, and is directly translated from the German "Sankt Peterburg".

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, anti-German sentiment emerged in Russia, and the tsarist government renamed St. Petersburg to Petrograd. After the Soviet Union was established, the city's name was changed to Leningrad after Ulyanov's death in 1924 to commemorate the leader Ulyanov who launched a revolution in the city during the October Revolution. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the city returned to its original name of St. Petersburg, marking the end of the Soviet era.

Yannick shook his head. "I plan to change the name to St. Frederick's Castle." Frederick was referring to Frederick II, a generation of iron-blooded emperors in Europe in modern history who personally built the Kingdom of Prussia into an emerging military power in modern times. "As for Stalingrad, let's change its name to Hohenzollengrad." After saying this, Yannick couldn't help laughing. Will Stalin be furious when he hears this?