Siege of the quarries of Aji Mushkai
The siege of the Adschi-Muschkai quarries was an event of the German-Soviet War in the Crimea in 1942. In the underground catacombs, 13,000 Red Army soldiers fiercely resisted the attacks of the German Wehrmacht for 170 days .
After the Wehrmacht had won a victory over the Soviet troops as part of the Trappenjagd operation , the still intact parts of the Soviet Crimean front withdrew to the Taman peninsula . A formation of around 13,000 men under the command of Colonel Pawel Jagunow covered the retreat. From May 13th he holed up in the quarries of Adschi-Mushkai ( Crimean Tatar Acı Muşqay), a northern suburb of the city of Kerch . The limestone quarry in this area dates back to antiquity, so far insisted there branched underground catacombs. Around 10,000 men found refuge in the large catacombs and around 3,000 in the small catacombs.
Initially, the Germans could not understand where the parts of the Red Army suddenly attacking in their rear area came from. But the hiding place was soon discovered and additional Wehrmacht units were requested. The German troops were able to force the Red Army soldiers into the interior of the underground quarries through intense attacks, but any attempts to storm the catacombs proved unsuccessful. Jagunov's troops repelled all attacks.
The catacombs were not designed for long-term sieges. There were no large stocks of food, medicine, weapons, and ammunition, and the wells were outside. Every failure to get to the water was accompanied by fighting. The survivors later wrote that each pail of water had to be paid for with a pail of blood. Soon the Germans were able to recognize the water problem of the besieged on the basis of the Soviet failures and filled the wells.
The situation became increasingly critical for the besieged as there was a lack of ammunition, food and water. German pioneers blew up tunnel entrances. On October 30, 1942, the Germans finally captured the catacombs and captured the few surviving defenders. Of the approximately 13,000 Red Army soldiers who went to the catacombs, only 48 survived after a 170-day siege. Some of them were executed by the Germans in Simferopol .
The defense of the Adschi-Mushkai quarries is covered in several literary works. A museum has existed in the catacombs since 1966, and an above-ground memorial since 1982.
literature
- С. М. Щербак: Легендарный Аджимушкай. , Таврия, Симферополь 1989. 93 с. (SM Shcherbak: Legendary Adschi-Muschkai. Taurus-Verlag, Simferopol 1989. 93 pp.)
- Всеволод Абрамов: Керченская катастрофа 1942. Эксмо, Москва 2006. ISBN 5-699-15686-0 . (Vsevolod Abramov: The Kerch Catastrophe 1942. Eksmo-Verlag, Moscow 2006)
