Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, Episode

140 of Two Minds.

Last time we covered the various German assaults in the far north from Finnish territory

into Soviet Russia that accompanied Operation Barbarossa.

Basically, there were two purposes for these.

One, to capture the port city of Mermansk.

So Lenin Lee's material from the UK and the US could not get to Soviet Russia and two

to tie down as many Soviet troops as possible in the far north, so they would be unable

to come to the rescue of Lenin grad.

But as we saw, the five major offensives, the one aimed at the port city of Mermansk,

another at Sala, along the north central border between the two countries that was to push

to the Sea of White at Kandalaksha, a third to the south of that, as the Germans were aiming

for Castigah, the fourth around Yuka, and the last, the most southern, not counting the

conflicts near Lake Legoda, that started at Roboli that pushed north eastwards.

All of these had some initial success.

But between the terrain that severely limited Panzer movement, the Sturven Russian resistance,

not to mention their ability to reinforce from further east, the Germans and those

fins involved pushed themselves into exhaustion and stalemate, along the entire northern

and central border.

By November, the five major assaults to the north of Lenin grad were halted by Berlin.

The men on the ground were ordered to dig in and hold.

Jumping ahead a bit, Mermansk would stay in Soviet hands and receive Lenin lease aid

...