Battle of the Crimea

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Major military operations during the German-Soviet War

1941: Białystok-Minsk  - Dubno-Lutsk-Rivne  - Smolensk  - Uman  - Kiev  - Odessa  - Leningrad blockade  - Vyazma-Bryansk  - Kharkov  - Rostov  - Moscow  - Tula
1942: Rzhev  - Kharkiv  - Company Blue  - companies Braunschweig  - company Edelweiss  - Stalingrad  - Operation Mars
1943: Voronezh-Kharkov  - Operation Iskra  - North Caucasus  - Kharkov  - Citadel Company  - Oryol  - Donets-Mius  - Donbass  - Belgorod-Kharkov  - Smolensk  - Dnepr
1944: Dnepr-Carpathians  - Leningrad-Novgorod  - Crimea  - Vyborg-Petrozavodsk  - Operation Bagration  - Lviv-Sandomierz  - Jassy-Kishinew  - Belgrade  - Petsamo-Kirkenes  - Baltic States  - Carpathians  - Hungary
1945: Courland  - Vistula-Oder  - East Prussia  - West Carpathians  - Lower Silesia  - East Pomerania  - Lake Balaton  - Upper Silesia  - Vienna  - Oder  -  Berlin  - Prague

The Battle of the Crimea ( Russian Крымская операция , Krimskaja Operazija , Crimean Operation ) took place during the Second World War in the period from April 8 to May 12, 1944 on the Crimean peninsula between the 17th Army of the German Wehrmacht and the attacking 4th Ukrainian Front of the Soviet Union held. It ended with the defeat of the German troops.

prehistory

In November 1943, with the Kerch-Eltigen operation , the Red Army captured a strong bridgehead in eastern Crimea, which was to serve as the starting point for the reconquest of the entire peninsula. Furthermore, the 10th Rifle Corps under Major General KP Neverow had built a bridge over the Sywasch near Hajji-Budak from November 1 to 6, 1943 and formed a bridgehead on the south bank. From February to March 1944, dams were built and the load capacity increased to 30 tons, which made it possible to cross T-34 tanks and heavy artillery.

Adolf Hitler was suggested several times by Erich von Manstein , Ewald von Kleist , Kurt Zeitzler and the Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu that the troops should be evacuated from the Crimea, who refused to give the appropriate order. When the Soviet attack began, he approved the evacuation. Sevastopol was declared a fortress to be kept at all costs. Five divisions were in the north, four on the Kerch peninsula and three were to guard the coast.

Opposing forces and planning

Marshal FI Tolbuchin

The Soviet plans provided that the 4th Ukrainian Front under Fyodor Tolbuchin should prevent the assumed evacuation of Crimea by the German-Romanian troops. At the beginning of the Crimean offensive, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front and the independent coastal army consisted of around 30 rifle divisions, 2 fortified rooms, 2 naval brigades with around 470,000 soldiers. These units had 5982 field guns, 772 flak, 559 tanks and self-propelled guns, which were supported by 1,250 aircraft. The 51st Army under General Kreiser and the 19th Panzer Corps under General ID Wassiljew were to penetrate the peninsula from the Sywasch Isthmus, while the 2nd Guard Army under General GF Sakharov (later General Tschantschibadze ) was supposed to break through the defensive positions on the Isthmus of Perekop . The Independent Coastal Army under Andrei Yeryomenko had to support from the Kerch peninsula by attacking the Parpach position. The Soviet Black Sea Fleet (Admiral FS Oktjabrski ) and the Azov Flotilla under the command of Rear Admiral S. Gorshkov secured from their bases from the ports of the Taman Peninsula .

The defense of the Crimean peninsula transferred the high command of the Wehrmacht to the German 17th Army under Colonel General Erwin Jaenecke . It consisted of five German and six Romanian divisions and numbered around 200,000 soldiers, 3,600 guns, 200 tanks and 150 aircraft.

course

Breakthrough on the isthmus

Soviet soldiers pass through the Sywasch area
Perekop isthmus

On April 8, 1944, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front launched the offensive. At 8:00 a.m., artillery fire of the front armies and air units of the 4th Air Army under Colonel General KA Vershinin began for 2.5 hours . The main attack against the front of the German XXX. Army Corps was led by the 51st Army from the bridgehead on the south bank of the Sivash with the 1st Guard and 10th Rifle Corps under Major General KP Neverow. In the evening of the day, the regiments of the 3rd Guards Rifle Division dug into the first positions they had captured and tried to pull the artillery in. On April 9, infantry and artillery worked together in a more coordinated manner, and it was finally possible to overcome the first German defensive position and advance towards the second defensive position at the level of the two lakes. After another hour of artillery fire, the 63rd Rifle Corps under Major General Pyotr Koschewoi achieved its first success. The 267th, 417th and 263rd Rifle Divisions penetrated the positions of the German 111th Infantry Division (Major General Erich Gruner) and the 279th Assault Gun Brigade in sustained fighting and advanced 7 km deep by evening.

On the morning of April 10, a rifle battalion landed southwest of Kurayevka in the rear of the German defenders, quickly took the key position Kart-Kasak No. 1 and thus forced the Germans to retreat to the line of Lake Staroye. The 346th Rifle Division reached Lake Aigulskoye. Associations of the 51st Army moved quickly against the flank of the German Perekop position and thus undermined the German defense. The 2nd Guards Army, which did not force a breach of the Ishun position until the morning of April 12, reached the defensive line along the Chatyrljk River and was able to break through on Armjansk .

Recapture of the peninsula

The Romanian destroyer Regele Ferdinand used in the evacuation

The main German efforts on the Kerch peninsula were concentrated at Cape Tarchan, where the German 5th Army Corps (98th and 73rd Infantry Divisions) defended a 17 km long front. The troops of the coastal army, which set out to break through on the night of April 11th, captured the fortified Kerch the following morning . The port city was liberated by the 16th Rifle Corps under Major General Konstantin I. Prwalow with parts of the 318th, 339th and 383rd Rifle Divisions, the 255th Marine Brigade and the 244th Tank Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel Michail G. Malyshew). During the following breakthrough at the Acs-Monay position, the 11th Guards Rifle Corps under Major General Roschdestwensky stood out.

On the morning of April 11th, the Soviet 19th Panzer Corps under Major General Vasilyev had been introduced into the breakthrough sector , occupied Dschankoi and stormed on to Simferopol . The 2nd Guard Army developed its offensive along the west coast of the Crimea to Eupatoria and the 51st Army took advantage of the success of the 19th Panzer Corps and followed over the steppe to Simferopol. The coastal army advanced through Karasubasar (Belogorsk) via Feodosia to Sevastopol. As a result, Eupatoria , Simferopol and Feodosia were occupied on April 13, and Bakhchysarai , Alushta and Yalta followed on April 14-15 . The persecution of the German-Romanian units in the direction of Sevastopol began in all directions . In order to avoid the encirclement, the German-Romanian troops withdrew to Sevastopol. Partisan units loyal to the Soviet Union in the Crimea (in the Jaila Mountains ) carried out successful actions in the rear of the enemy, destroyed the connecting lines and railways, set up ambushes on mountain roads and prevented the enemy from destroying cities, industrial plants or infrastructure behind him .

Final battle for Sevastopol

On 15./16. The Red Army reached Sevastopol on April 1st, but only attacked after a long period of preparation on May 5th, because it was only during the fighting that it learned how strong the German lines of defense were. Marshal AM Vasilevsky , in agreement with the Commander-in-Chief of the 4th Ukrainian Front, decided that the main attack on Balaklava should be carried out by the 51st Army and the center with the Coast Army. The 2nd Guards Army was supposed to break through the German defense in the southeast of Belbek by the armed forces of the 13th Guards and the 55th Rifle Corps and lead the offensive against the east coast of Severnaya Bay in order to push the German group to the coast. On April 19 and 23, the Soviet attackers made two attempts to break through the main line of defense of the Sevastopol fortifications, but both failed.

On May 1, Erwin Jaenecke was replaced on the German side by Karl Allmendinger because Jaenecke thought the fight was lost.

On May 7, at 10:30 a.m., the Soviet troops, with massive support from the entire air force, launched a general attack on the fortified area of ​​Sevastopol. The troops of the main strike group broke through the enemy defenses over a width of 9 kilometers and captured the Sapun Heights . On May 9th, Soviet troops from the north, east and south-east invaded Sevastopol and occupied the city. The remnants of the German 17th Army, pursued by the 19th Panzer Corps, withdrew to Cape Chersonese . There they tried (around 30,000 men) to continue fighting in the hope of being evacuated. The remaining closely packed 21,000 soldiers suffered heavy losses from Soviet artillery strikes and were eventually forced to give up and go into captivity.

consequences

According to the military historian Rolf-Dieter Müller "Hitler approved the evacuation of Odessa" so that 18,845 soldiers could be evacuated from there, "but he had the transport of the 17th Army from the Crimea stopped" because he was around the Sevastopol fortress wanted to keep any price. By the time the transport was stopped, 45,000 Germans and Romanians, 16,000 Eastern Legionnaires and 3,800 prisoners of war had been brought out of the Crimea by air and sea. When another 100,000 men finally had to be evacuated from Sevastopol, which was no longer defensible, "60 ships were lost, 31,700 Germans and 25,800 Romanians were killed". These included, for example, the ships Teja and Totila , whose sinking each resulted in several thousand deaths. According to other German sources, 42,000 men drowned in the Black Sea from May 3rd to May 13th. According to a Russian source, the 17th Army lost 100,000 soldiers (including 62,000 prisoners) and all heavy weapons and equipment. The Red Army's official losses amounted to 85,000 soldiers (including 18,000 dead), 521 guns, 171 tanks and 179 aircraft.

The Black Sea Fleet got her with this operation the main base back Sevastopol.

126 Soviet soldiers were honored with the Hero of the Soviet Union award.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf-Dieter Müller: The last German war. 1939–1945, Stuttgart 2005, p. 290.
  2. ↑ United International Biographical Center: Soldat XX weka . Kiev operation (Russian).
  3. ↑ GF Krivosheev: Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century, London 1997 Table 98th

Web links

When looking at Soviet sources, with the exception of samizdat and tamizdat literature that was published up to 1987, the activities of the Soviet censorship authorities ( Glawlit , military censorship) in revising various contents in line with Soviet ideology must be taken into account. (→ censorship in the Soviet Union )