December 15th, 1941

Pogostje

From December 15, 1941 to May 8, 1942, the almost uninhabitable area with endless swamps near the Pogostje station on the Mga-Kirishi railway line became a tough battlefield between the XXVIII. Armeekorps and the Soviet 54th Army. The frozen railway embankment was turned by the German 269. and 291. Infanterie-Division into a kind of fortress wall with firing points, bunkers and a labyrinth of trenches.

On January 13, 1942, the Soviet 54th Army, being part of the Luban Offensive Operation, in an attempt to unblock the city of Leningrad, started the assault towards the German entrenched positions. The operation did not achieve its operational goals and turned into a series of bloody battles for separate fortified areas. In less than 6 months, tens of thousands soldiers were killed around this small village.

Germany	Russia
Ground Forces
Opel Blitz S 3.6 PzKpfw 38(t) Ausf. B PzKpfw IV Ausf. D Sturmpanzer KW-IIB 754(r) Opel Blitz S 3.6 (Zwillingssockel Typ 36)	ZiS-5 BA-10M T-26 model 1933 BT-7 model 1937 T-34 model 1941 KV-1 model 1940 s ekranami ZiS-6 (ZPU)
Aircraft
Messerschmitt BF 109F-4 Junkers Ju 87B-2 "Stuka"	Curtiss P-40E "Kittyhawk" Polikarpov Po-2
Stationary Weapons
2 cm Flak 38 8.8 cm Flak 18 2 cm Flakvierling 38 3.7 cm PaK 5 cm PaK 38 8.1cm Granatwerfer 34 10.5cm LeFH 18	40mm Bofors PM-39 82mm Mortar 122mm Howitzer M1938