File:Trenches in Leningrad (35029019555).png

Exhausted but thoughtful Soviet soldiers in the trenches of the Leningrad Front before an offensive. The Battle of Leningrad was one of the most interesting and deadliest battles during WWII. The Soviets defended the city as nobody had done before, camouflaged historic buildings with nets that prevented determining their profile and came to place explosives throughout the subsoil to blow up the city if it was taken, implying the dead both enemies and the civilian population that remained in Leningrad. Hundreds of thousands of families died of cold and hunger in their homes. The lack of food led the population to feed on pigeons, cats and rats; there were also acts of anthropophagy and sale of corpses. The defence of Leningrad reminds me of battles such as Madrid, especially because Franco’s troops participated in the massacre. Spain had sent the Blue Division, which, along with 725,000 other effectives from Germany and Finland. The Axis suffered 579,985 casualties in front of 1,000,000 for the Soviets, the 90% of their forces. The siege of the city lasted from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944: 2 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 days.

01/09/1941