What was the process of building the Lake Ladoga military road?

In the early morning of November 18, 1941, the long-awaited northwest wind blew on Lake Ladoga. The weather was bitingly cold. By dusk, the temperature suddenly dropped by 12 degrees Celsius. On November 20, the thickness of the ice on the lake reached 180 mm. At this time, the Military Commission of the Leningrad Front Army believed that the situation was pressing and time was running out. They decided to immediately use horse-drawn sleds to start experimental transportation on the ice road where the road construction and exploration team members risked their lives to mark the direction with benchmarks, and piled the piles in the east of the lake. A large amount of food and other urgently needed supplies from the Rednevo transfer station on the shore were quickly transported to Borisova-Griva station and Ladoga Lake station on the west bank.

Although the people selected to drive the horse-drawn sleighs at that time were experienced and good drivers carefully selected from the suburban collective farms, there were still many horse-drawn horses during the first day of ice transportation. The sled fell into the lake when the ice broke. In addition, considering that the horse-drawn sled not only carries less cargo, but also consumes feed, especially when encountering a snowstorm, it is easy to lose direction and fall into an ice hole. Therefore, this mode of transportation was soon abandoned.

On November 21, the first ice car transport line was built 12 to 13 kilometers away from the southern shore of Lake Ladoga, that is, within the range of German artillery fire in Shli Kjellburg, passing through Leninger. Thanks to the selfless work of the army and the people, the railway was finally opened to traffic successfully. The next night, the first convoy of 60 large trucks carrying goods destined for Leningrad departed from Kabauna on the east bank of Lake Ladoga and drove to Osinowitz on the west bank via the ice road.