Editing Siege (section)

===World War II===
The [[Blitzkrieg]] of the Second World War truly showed that fixed fortifications are easily defeated by manoeuvre instead of frontal assault or long sieges. The great [[Maginot Line]] was bypassed, and battles that would have taken weeks of siege could now be avoided with the careful application of air power (such as the German [[paratrooper]] capture of [[Fort Eben-Emael]], Belgium, early in World War II).

[[File:Leningrad Siege May 1942 - January 1943.png|upright=1.8|thumb|right|Map showing Axis encirclement during the [[siege of Leningrad]] (1942–1943)]]

The most important siege was the [[siege of Leningrad]], which lasted over 29 months, about half of the duration of the entire Second World War. The siege of Leningrad resulted in the deaths of some [[List of battles by casualties|one million of the city's inhabitants]].<ref>[[Timothy Snyder]] (2010). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=n856VkLmF34C Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin]{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}''. Basic Books. p. 173. {{ISBN|0-465-00239-0}}</ref> Along with the [[Battle of Stalingrad]], the siege of Leningrad on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] was the deadliest siege of a city in history. In the west, apart from the [[Battle of the Atlantic]], the sieges were not on the same scale as those on the European Eastern front; however, there were several notable or critical sieges: the island of [[Malta]], for which the population won the [[George Cross]] and [[Siege of Tobruk|Tobruk]]. In the [[South-East Asian theatre of World War II|South-East Asian theatre]], there was the siege of [[Singapore]], and in the [[Burma campaign]], sieges of [[Myitkyina]], the [[Battle of the Admin Box|Admin Box]], [[Battle of Imphal|Imphal]], and [[Battle of Kohima|Kohima]], which was the high-water mark for the Japanese advance into [[British India|India]].

The [[Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)|siege of Sevastopol]] saw the use of the heaviest and most powerful individual siege engines ever to be used: the German [[Schwerer Gustav|800&nbsp;mm railway gun]] and the [[Karl-Gerät|600&nbsp;mm siege mortar]]. Though a single shell could have disastrous local effect, the guns were susceptible to air attack in addition to being slow to move.

====Airbridge====
Throughout the war both the Western Allies and the Germans tried to supply forces besieged behind enemy lines with ad-hoc [[Airbridge (logistics)|airbridges]]. Sometimes these attempts failed, as happened to the besieged [[6th Army (Wehrmacht)|German Sixth Army]] the [[Battle of Stalingrad#Sixth Army surrounded|Battle of Stalingrad]], and sometimes they succeeded as happened during the [[Battle of the Admin Box]] (5 – 23 February 1944) and the short [[Siege of Bastogne]] (December 1944).

The logistics of strategic airbridge operations were developed by the Americans flying [[military transport aircraft]] from [[India]] to [[Republic of China (1912-1949)|China]] over [[the Hump]] (1942–1945), to resupply the [[Second Sino-Japanese War|Chinese war effort]] of [[Chiang Kai-shek]], and to the USAAF [[XX Bomber Command]] (during [[Operation Matterhorn]]).{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

Tactical airbridge methods were developed and, as planned, used extensively for supplying the [[Chindits]] during [[Operation Thursday]] (February – May 1944). The Chindits, a specially trained division of the [[British Army|British]] and [[British Indian Army|Indian]] armies, were flown deep behind Japanese front lines in the South-East Asian theatre to jungle clearings in Burma where they set up fortified airheads from which they sailed out to attack Japanese lines of communications, while defending the bases from Japanese counterattacks. The bases were re-supplied by air with casualties flown out by returning aircraft. When the Japanese attacked in strength the Chindits abandoned the bases and either moved to new bases, or back to Allied lines.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The History Press {{!}} Special Force: Legacy of the Chindits |url=https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/special-force-legacy-of-the-chindits/ |access-date=23 February 2023 |website=www.thehistorypress.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>