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Schlüsselburg, the cornerstone in the battle of Leningrad was to be seized in a special operation.
The man chosen to lead it was Harry Hoppe, the colonel commanding 424th Infantry Regiment, 126th Infantry Division. The rank and file knew him simply as "Harry," because the colonel invariably tackled all tasks and problems in a clear and simple manner which gained the troops' immediate confidence and their absolute belief in the success of every operation.
Kray, one of the motor-cycle messengers, had experience of this before Schlüsselburg. The colonel was standing outside a workers' settlement on the edge of the town with a plan in his hand, and said to him, "You drive along this road right into the town, then you take the first right, and there you wait for me."
The motor-cyclists roared off. They were quite sure that Harry would turn up.

It was a corner of Europe rich in history. Two hundred and thirty-five years before Harry Hoppe, Peter the Great fought a battle here in order to take from the Swedes the key to the Baltic Sea. He succeeded. For the first time the Tsar of Russia gained for his country access to Europe's most important inland sea, and to protect this conquest he founded the fortress of St Petersburg, now Leningrad. It was that fortress that was being fought for now at Schlüsselburg.

Under cover of this flanking operation the combat groups of Colonels Count Schwerin and Harry Hoppe, with their reinforced 76th and 424th Infantry Regiments, were to reach the starting positions for an assault on Schlüsselburg by 8th September 1941, the day for which the large-scale attack on Leningrad had been fixed—Hoppe's combat group on the right and Count Schwenn's on the left.
They went into action on 6th September. At first everything went according to plan. Tanks of 12th Panzer Division supported the attack. Panzerjägers and AA batteries—including an 8.8—provided cover against enemy tank attacks. Motorcyclists and sappers formed the vanguard.
The main weight of the attack was in the sector of Hoppe's group. The I and VIII Air Corps provided Stuka support. The troops charged over the famous railway embankment of Mga. They burst into the forest along both sides of the road to Kelkolovo. But there the Russians were waiting for them in well-camouflaged machine-gun and anti-tank positions.
The attack got stuck. Infantry guns, anti-tank guns, and mortars were not much use in this wilderness. Colonel Hoppe was crouching by the railway embankment. A runner from 3rd Battalion came scurrying over the line. "Heavy casualties at Battalion. Three officers killed." Calls for support also came from 2nd Battalion.
"We've got to find a gap," Hoppe was thinking aloud, bent over his maps. "The Russians can't be equally strong everywhere. It's just a matter of finding their weak spot."
Hoppe's idea was either to probe the enemy's weakness by a frontal attack or to outflank him altogether. He combined in himself the dash of a First World War assault troop commander with the sound tactical instruction received in Seeckt's Reichswehr.

The runner scuttled off again. Major-General Zorn appeared at the command post. He no longer believed in the possibility of forcing a break-through in Hoppe's sector. He therefore dispatched the tanks over to Schwerin's group. That was where the main push was now to be made.
But it proved to be a case of a general proposing and a lieutenant disposing.
No sooner had the tanks been withdrawn from the line than Second Lieutenant Leliveldt, with his 11th Company, discovered the looked-for gap, the weak spot in the enemy's line. He thrust into it, applied pressure to the right and left, and tore a wide breach into the front.
"Buzz over to Harry," the Second Lieutenant shouted at his runner. "We've got the gap. The front is open!"
The runner raced off. Half an hour later the entire combat group was moving. Kelkolovo fell. The notorious rail-track triangle formed by the line from Gorodok to Mga and Schlüsselburg was taken and Poselok 6 was stormed.

At 1600 hours Sinyavino with its huge stores and ammunition depots fell into the hands of 3rd Battalion.
From a small hill north of the town the vast sheet of water of Lake Ladoga could be seen and a light sea-breeze felt. There was a good deal of shipping on the lake.
"Keep going,'' Hoppe commanded.
His men took Poselok 5 and moved on as far as Poselok 1. From there the "Red Road" led to the "Red Bridge" over the canals and coastal railway-lines. This was the spinal cord of the Schlüsselburg nerve centre.

Night fell over the battlefield. From Sinyavino a gigantic fireworks display lit up the sky: some Russian ammunition dumps had been hit and were now going up. Unfortunately the vast explosions also wrecked the combat group's communications with Division.
On the following morning, 8th September, Schlüsselburg was to have been stormed. But at what time? Hoppe did not know, since Division was going to co-ordinate the time of attack with the Stuka formations. But now, with communications out of action, there was no contact with divisional headquarters. It was an awkward situation.

Over to the west, at Leningrad, the Corps launched its general attack at first light on 8th September. But in Schlüsselburg everything remained quiet. When the sun rose the town with its pointed spires and massive old ramparts lay in front of Hoppe's battalions. The shrub-grown ground favored the attack. But there was still no contact with Division.
The 9th Company made a reconnaissance in force as far as the eastern edge of the town. At 0615 hours Sergeant Becker reported to 3rd Battalion: The eastern edge of the town is held by weak enemy forces only. Clearly the Russians were not expecting an attack at this point, from their rear. It seemed a unique chance.
Hoppe was in a quandary: should he attack or not? If he stormed the town and the Stukas did not come until his battalions were inside, the consequences were not to be imagined.
But he could not just sit there waiting. To wait without doing anything was the worst thing of all—that was what the Service manual said. Better a wrong decision than no decision at all. Hoppe decided accordingly.

Shortly before 0700 hours he ordered: "The 424th Regiment will take Schlüsselburg and drive through to the 1000-yardwide Neva river, at the point where it leaves Lake Ladoga, dividing Schlüsselburg from Sheremetyevka and the southern bank of Lake Ladoga from its western bank. Time of attack is 0700 hours." Harry had made his plan.
At 0730 hours the battalions were bursting through the weakly held eastern fringe of the town. The Russians were thrown into confusion by the unexpected attack.
At 0740 hours Sergeant Wendt hoisted the German flag over the tall steeple of the church. Ever since the start of the attack Second Lieutenants Fuss and Pauli had been sitting in front of their walkie-talkie transmitter, trying to make contact with the nearest heavy battery, at Gorodok. It might be possible to re-establish contact with Division HQ through them. Fuss had been talking into his microphone ceaselessly for three-quarters of an hour. Calling—switching over to receiving —calling again. Nothing happened.
"Suppose we don't get through? Suppose the Stukas come?"
At last, at 0815 hours, the battery at Gorodok responded. They had been heard. "This is Group Harry. Urgently pass on to Division: Schlüsselburg already stormed. Stukas must be stopped. Have you got that?"
"Message understood."
The battery officer immediately passed on the signal. The Stukas had already taken off because Hoppe's attack had not been scheduled until 0900 hours. Most of the machines could be recalled. But one squadron had gone too far for the new order to reach it. Via the battery at Gorodok a signal was sent to Hoppe to warn him of his danger.

At 0845 exactly the JU-87s appeared in the sky. Hoppe's men waved aircraft signaling sheets. They fired white Very lights:We are here.
Would the pilots see them? Or would they think this was a trick? Their orders were to bomb Schlüsselburg.
The Stukas banked steeply—neatly, one after another. But suddenly the first one leveled out again, roared on, and dropped its bombs into the Neva. The others followed suit. At the last moment a signal from the squadron commander had reached them. Harry Hoppe and his men heaved a sigh of relief. At 1000 hours the battalions of combat group Schwerin also moved into the southern part of the town.

The conquest of Schlüsselburg meant that Leningrad was sealed off to the east. The city now was an island surrounded by troops and water. Only a narrow corridor was still open to the western shore of Lake Ladoga, because the Finns in the Karelian Isthmus were still standing by. They were waiting for the Germans to drive past Leningrad to Tikhvin. Only then did Mannerheim intend to drive along the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga, across the Svir, and thus form the eastern prong of the pincers closing around a huge pocket with Leningrad in it. That, unfortunately, proved too ambitious an objective.

Continued tomorrow: Soviet Reaction

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German panzers before an attack-Ukraine summer 1941

Heavy German PzKw. at a narrow bridge trying to drive over with a chain- slipped off the road. It is pulled by a second heavy tank to the rear of the bridge. When pulling through the second heavy armor breaks the bridge railing July 1941

Two soldiers in the Luftwaffe in a dugout in front of furnace with eating utensils

Woman and daughter on street of a German occupied city in the Soviet Union.

Column of German tanks-Army Group Center around Oct 1941

Inside a Panzer IV-Oct 1941

German pickets keep watch east of Smolensk guarding a highway. Aug 1941

Supply column halts to examine Soviet tank on the side of the highway-east of Minsk Aug 1941

Two Soviet T-34/76B tanks lie abandoned on the steppe east of Kiev Sept 1941

German cemetery off the Kiev highway in July 1941

German Panzer troops cross an anti-tank ditch east of the Dneiper river during the Kiev encirclement-Sept 1941

Hitler meets with von Bock at Army Group Center's headquarters on Aug 4th, 1941.

The commander of the 11th Panzer division Major General Ludwig Cruewell in the Ukraine in July 1941 (German photo captured by Soviets)

The commander of Panzer Group 2 Colonel General Guderian having a discussion with Panzer Corps commander Lieutenant General Walter Model August 1941 (German photo captured by Soviets)

German flak troops say goodbye to a comrade-Oct 1941 near Vjasma.

Hitler & Mussolini on visit to the East front-Summer 1941

A 47mm Pak 181(f)AT gun from the 17th or 18th Panzer Division in firing position.

A Soviet train, transporting troops & military equipment captured by the 4th Panzer division over the Beresyna river in the Svisloch area on June 30th, 1941

Most of the KV tanks that the Germans came across in Lithuania were abandoned due to mechanical breakdowns, lack of fuel or minor combat damage. Note the hole in the gun barrel near the mantlet.

German "88" used to protect the flank of an infantry unit on the steppes of the Ukraine-Sept 1941

German infantry unit moves to trap Soviets attempting to flee from Kiev pocket Sept 1941

Foot-sore German infantry march south as they attempt to catch mobile German units heading toward Kiev pocket-Sept 1941

Soviet tank stuck in swampy meadow not far from Uman Aug 1941

German infantry cross huge Soviet anti-tank ditch outside a town in the Ukraine Sept 1941

Surrounded Soviet troops who refused to surrender near Bryansk in August 1941

Unusual photo of German tank unit attempting to halt a Soviet freight train-unknown date or location.

Good shot of the Moscow highway in Sept 1941.

Another T-35 "tourist attraction" Notice a section of track was "borrowed" by German tank crews.

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Panzer unit near Leningrad moves to assist recce platoon which has run into an ambush in a small village-Aug 1941-unable to ID unit or exact locale.

German cavalry, guarding a supply convoy come upon a Soviet KV-2 sitting on a road north of the Pinsk marshes. Aug 1941