September 8, 1941: Leningrad Cut Off

Monday 8 September 1941

Ann Teal, a model, appears on the cover of the 8 September 1941 issue of Life magazine. She is the face of a feature entitled "College Girl's Pigtails." Miss Teal served in the U.S. Navy during World War II with the rank of ensign. She was a communications decoder in Naval Operations at the War Department in Washington, D.C. A longtime resident of New Canaan, Connecticut, Ann Teal married Charles Bradley and became Ann Teal Bradley. She passed away on 20 February 2013.

Eastern Front: On 8 September 1941, the Wehrmacht's Army Group North captures the small town of Schlusselberg on the shores of Lake Ladoga. Leningrad is now cut off from all land communication from the south, while Finnish troops on the Karelian Isthmus blocks all communications from the north. Really, though, the siege began when the Germans cut the last rail line in late August at Mga. The besieged city's only source of supply from this point forward is by ferry across Lake Ladoga. This begins the "900 days" of Leningrad's siege.

There are 2,950,000 civilians, including many women and children who have crowded into the city as refugees, and 450,000 soldiers/sailors left in Leningrad. The Wehrmacht is within ten miles of the city to the south, with 1st Panzer Division (Lieutenant General Friedrich Kirchner) advancing up the left bank of the Neva River and 6th Panzer Division (Major General Franz Landgraf) following the railway line embankment on the Moscow line. Soviet militia forces (Opolchenye) man the line and there is artillery support from navy ships in Leningrad Harbor and Kronstadt Naval Base on Kotlin Island, but those are targets for constant Luftwaffe attacks.

Hitler has a choice to make. Does he attack Leningrad, or invest it through the winter and await a capitulation or starvation? He is inclined to wait it out despite the wishes of the commander of Army Group North, Field Marshal Ritter von Leeb, to seize it quickly. The decision is complicated by the outright refusal of Marshal Mannerheim to use Finnish forces in an attack on Leningrad. Hitler ultimately decides to wait it out and use artillery to soften up the Leningrad defenses because he has more pressing places to use his troops and armor.

Newsweek of 8 September 1941 features Adolf Hitler on the cover enjoying his "flaming war."

September 1941

September 1, 1941: Two Years In
September 2, 1941: Germans Pushed Back at Yelnya
September 3, 1941: FDR Refuses to Meet with Japanese
September 4, 1941: Hitler Furious at Guderian
September 5, 1941: Germans Evacuate Yelnya
September 6, 1941: Japan Prepares for War
September 7, 1941: Hitler Orders Drive on Moscow
September 8, 1941: Leningrad Cut Off
September 9, 1941: Germans Attack Leningrad
September 10, 1941: Guderian Busts Loose
September 11, 1941: Convoy SC-42 Destruction
September 12, 1941: Starve Leningrad!
September 13, 1941: Zhukov at Leningrad
September 14, 1941: Germany's Growing Casualties
September 15, 1941: Sorge Warns Stalin Again
September 16, 1941: Soviets Encircled at Kiev
September 17, 1941: Iran Conquest Completed
September 18, 1941: Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in Action
September 19, 1941: Germans Take Kiev
September 20, 1941: Death at Kiev
September 21, 1941: Raging Soviet Paranoia
September 22, 1941: Defense of Nickel Mines
September 23, 1941: Air Attacks on Leningrad
September 24, 1941: Japanese Spying Intensifies
September 25, 1941: Manstein at the Crimea
September 26, 1941: Kiev Pocket Eliminated
September 27, 1941: Massacre at Eišiškės
September 28, 1941: Ted Williams Hits .400
September 29, 1941: Babi Yar Massacre
September 30, 1941: Operation Typhoon Begins

2020