Neva caused the offensive to be delayed until 12 January. A number of measures were taken to prevent the details of the operation being revealed to the Germans. Only a limited number of senior officers were involved in the planning, all redeployments took place in bad weather or at night and simulated attack preparations were made elsewhere to confuse the German side. On January 10, Stavka sent Georgy Zhukov as its representative to coordinate the battle. The rifle divisions occupied their jumping-off positions on 11 January, and first echelon tanks moved into their advanced positions early on 12 January. Battle Start of the battle The night before the start of the operations, the Soviet night bombers attacked the German divisional headquarters and artillery positions to disrupt the German command and control. The bombers also attacked German airfields and communication centres to disrupt the flow of reinforcements. Operation Iskra began at 9:30 on 12 January, when the two Soviet fronts began their artillery preparation, which lasted for nearly two and a half hours on the western side and nearly two hours on the eastern side of the bottleneck. The Soviet attack started five minutes before the artillery preparation finished with a Katyusha barrage, to fully exploit its effects. The Leningrad Front forces achieved their greatest success between Shlisselburg and Gorodok 1 when the Soviet 136th and 268th Rifle Divisions with supporting tanks and artillery captured a bridgehead approximately wide and deep. At 18:00 the sappers constructed bridges near Mar'ino to allow second echelon troops to advance. The attack further north at Shlisselburg failed, and attacks further south near Gorodok only resulted in the capture of the first line of German trenches. By evening, the Front command decided to exploit the formed bridgehead and troops attacking Shlisselburg across the Neva were redeployed across the river to attack it from the south. The Volkhov Front attack saw less success as the forces of the 2nd Shock Army managed to envelop but not destroy the German strong points at Lipka and Workers Settlement No. 8. The latter was an impressive defensive position with a garrison of 700 men and 16 bunkers. Heavy flanking fire from these strong points prevented any further advance, but the 2nd Shock Army penetrated the German defenses between these points. Further south, between Workers Settlement No. 8 and Kruglaya Grove the advance was deep, while even further south, the flanking