The Defense of Luga

As the panzers drove deeper into Russia, intent on even greater encirclements, many potentially dangerous Russian armored groups were bypassed. The German infantry, being primarily foot or horse bound, was forced to keep up as best they could to safeguard …

1941-07-19

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As the panzers drove deeper into Russia, intent on even greater encirclements, many potentially dangerous Russian armored groups were bypassed. The German infantry, being primarily foot or horse bound, was forced to keep up as best they could to safeguard the panzer's lines of communication. Hence when the Russians attempted to break out, their armored attacks often had to be dealt with, not by their armored counterparts, but by infantry and anti-tank units. One such instance occurred at Luga, where elements of the German 269th Infantry Division were assigned to hold the western approaches to the German drive on Leningrad. Desperate to stop or delay the advance, bypassed remnants of the 21st Tank Division, 16th Rifle Division, and the 2nd DNO (a militia unit), were hastily declared Operational Group Luga and ordered to take the city.

Luga, Russia

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, which started on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. The operation put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goal of conquering the western Soviet Union so as to repopulate it with Germans. The German Generalplan Ost aimed to use some of the conquered people as slave labour for the Axis war effort while acquiring the oil reserves of the Caucasus as well as the agricultural resources of various Soviet territories. Their ultimate goal included the eventual extermination, enslavement, Germanization and mass deportation to Siberia of the Slavic peoples, and to create more Lebensraum for Germany.

Wikipedia: Operation Barbarossa

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