The 2nd Shock Army was formed from the
Volkhov Front's 26th Army in December 1941 and initially consisted of the
327th Rifle Division and eight separate rifle brigades. In January 1942 the Volkhov Front commander, Meretskov, had to request that the Army’s commander, General Lieutenant Sokolov, a former NKVD commissar, be relieved, as he was absolutely incompetent. Command was handed over to the former commander of 52nd Army, General Lieutenant Klykov. Later that same month the 2nd Shock Army was launched against
Lyuban, but its offensive saw the Army isolated, under a new commander, General Lieutenant
A. A. Vlasov. On 7 January 1942, Vlasov's army had spearheaded the
Lyuban offensive operation to break the
Leningrad encirclement. Planned as a combined operation between the Volkhov and Leningrad Fronts on a frontage, other armies of the
Leningrad Front (including the 54th) were supposed to participate at scheduled intervals in this operation. Crossing the
Volkhov River, Vlasov's army was successful in breaking through the
German 18th Army's lines and penetrated 70–74 km deep inside the German rear area. The other armies (Volkhov Front's 4th, 52nd, and 59th Armies, 13th Cavalry Corps, and 4th and 6th Guards Rifle Corps), however, failed to provide the required support, and Vlasov's army became stranded. Permission to retreat was refused. With the counter-offensive in May 1942, the Second Shock Army was finally allowed to retreat, but by now, too weakened, it was virtually annihilated during the final breakout at Myasnoi Bor. Vlasov was taken prisoner by the Wehrmacht troops on 6 July 1942. He later raised a
legion of Russians who fought alongside the German forces. . 2nd Shock Army again suffered severe losses during the
Sinyavino operation from 19 August 20 October 1942. Again, the remnants were returned to the Front reserves for rebuilding. In January 1943 it took part in the offensive which aimed to raise the
siege of Leningrad,
Operation Iskra. The Stavka then intervened in Leningrad Front offensive planning during September 1943, changing the plan so that 2nd Shock Army would attack from the Oranienbaum bridgehead. The offensive, under a newly appointed commander, General
I.I. Fedyuninskii, begun on 14 January, took part in breaking the almost 900-day siege of Leningrad, and
pushed west to the outskirts of
Narva, resulting in the
Battle of Narva. During its participation in the
Battle of Narva, the 2nd Shock Army consisted of five rifle divisions (
11th,
43rd Rifle Division,
90th Rifle Division,
131st, and 196th) along with 600 artillery pieces, a tank brigade, another tank regiment, two SPG regiments, and masses of ammunition and supplies. The 2nd Shock Army struggled to take Narva and German positions further west of the city until September 1944, when deep exploitation by Soviet forces in the
Baltic States forced a German retreat through Estonia. As a result of the strategic Soviet victory in this region, the 2nd Shock Army was moved south and assigned to the
2nd Belorussian Front. As part of the 2nd Belorussian Front, the 2nd Shock Army fought across Poland and northeastern Germany, with its route of march taking it north of
Warsaw and
Stettin. In late March, the army helped capture
Danzig. On 1 May 1945, the 2nd Shock Army took
Stralsund on the Baltic Coast, ending the war there and on the island of
Rügen. == Postwar ==