Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. The Siege of Leningrad was a prolonged military blockade undertaken from the south by the Army Group North of Germany against the Russian city of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on the Eastern Front in World War II. The Finnish army invaded from the north, co-operating with the Germans until they had recaptured territory lost in the recent Winter War, but refused to make further approaches to the city.

The siege started on 8 September 1941, when the last road to the city was severed. Although the Soviet forces managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the siege was not lifted until 27 January 1944, 872 days after it began. It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, and possibly the costliest in casualties suffered.

This is an authentic hand carved souvenir walking stick or Wolchow Stock, named after the Wolchow / Volkhov area of the eastern front, made by a German Luftwaffe soldier serving on the Eastern Front. The stick measures 35 1/4 inches tall with a ball handle on a column and a flare gun shell casing heavily dented used as the ferrule. Just below the top it is marked LENINGRAD, and below this it features a German Iron Cross and a Swas next to a car. Below this it is marked with 1943 - LUHAN(?) and below this are depictions of aircraft, a ship, and a horse within a horseshoe. Below this is two German Luftwaffe aircraft with a bear drinking alcohol between them, a very silly detail. Below this are different patterns.

This is a fantastic personalized piece of historical remembrance from one of the most brutal theaters of war in world history.

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theater of conflict between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans) from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. It has been known as the Great Patriotic War (Russian: Великая Отечественная война, Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna) in the former Soviet Union and modern Russia, while in Germany it was called the Eastern Front (German: die Ostfront), or the German-Soviet War by outside parties.

The battles on the Eastern Front of the Second World War constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, and the majority of pogroms, was central to the Shoah. Of the estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theater of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of NSDAP Germany and the Axis nations.

The two principal belligerent powers were Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in military action in the Eastern Front, the United States and the United Kingdom both provided substantial material aid in the form of the Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front. In addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may also be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front.