Battle for Novgorod. January 1944

Veliky Novgorod was left by Soviet troops on August 19, 1941. For 883 days the city was under the fifth Nazi invaders. The main task of the Troops of the Volkhov Front, fighting on Novgorod land, was the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad. For almost three years, the front fought at MGI, Sinyavin, Lyuban, Chudov. The task of the liberation of Veliky Novgorod was in 1942-1943. secondary in the eyes of the Soviet command. Attempts to free the city made in the first half of 1942 as part of the Luban operation and March 15-20, 1943, were unsuccessful.
In January 1944, during the strategic Leningrad-Novgorod offensive operation, Soviet troops completely removed the blockade of Leningrad. The most important part of the Leningrad-Novgorod operation was the Novgorod-Luga operation, which began on January 14, 1944. The Volkhovsky Front, released Veliky Novgorod on January 20, 1944
In the book proposed by the reader, the famous military historian S.N. Biryuk considers the first two stages of the Novgorod-Luga operation (January 14–31, 1944)