Kerch-Feodosia operation
The Kerch-Feodosiya Operation ( Russian Керченско-Феодосийская десантная операция ) was an operation by the Red Army during World War II , which lasted from December 25, 1941 to January 2, 1942. As a result, the Kerch peninsula in the Crimea could be briefly recaptured by Soviet troops. The Kerch-Feodosia operation was the Red Army's largest amphibious operation in World War II.
prehistory
During the Soviet counter-offensive in the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Tikhvin , the situation in Sevastopol became critical for the Red Army. The German 11th Army under the command of Erich von Manstein came within 6 km of the city, so that almost the entire city was within range of their artillery. On December 7th, the Stawka ordered an operation to be prepared and carried out in two weeks to liberate the Kerch peninsula. The plan provided for troops to be deployed at Kerch and Feodosia at the same time in order to smash the 46th Infantry Division located on the Kerch peninsula (which belonged to the XXXXII Army Corps under General Graf Sponeck ). According to the announcements of the Soviet broadcasters, Sevastopol was to be horrified and then the entire Crimea was to be retaken. Only after the 11th Army was annihilated in the Crimea in 1944, the fighting would end.
The operation was scheduled to begin on December 21, 1941. The date was postponed because of the difficult situation in Sevastopol. Some of the units scheduled for the operation were relocated to Sevastopol as reinforcements and had to be replaced first. That made the plans more complicated. Now the operation should be carried out in three phases and additional airborne troops should be deployed.
Troop strength
The German side only had the 46th Infantry Division available for defense on the Kerch peninsula. A pioneer battalion, an anti-tank battalion and a few Romanian coastal batteries stood near Feodosiya. After the first landings, the Wehrmacht High Command also ordered the 4th Romanian Mountain Brigade around Simferopol and the 8th Romanian Cavalry Brigade (which secured the east coast of Crimea) to Feodosiya. The German-Romanian occupation thus had a strength of up to 25,000 soldiers with up to 180 guns and 118 tanks. From the beginning of January 1942, the last regimental group of the marching 73rd Infantry Division from Henitschesk to Feodosia was ordered.
The Soviet troops intended for the operation consisted of 8 rifle divisions, 2 rifle and 2 naval brigades - a total of 82,500 men plus 43 tanks, 198 cannons and 256 mortars. The Black Sea Fleet provided support with 2 cruisers, 6 destroyers, 52 patrol and torpedo boats and around 170 transporters.
- 44th Army (Major General AN Perwuschin ) with the 157th, 236th, 345th and 404th Rifle Divisions and 9th and 63rd Mountain Divisions, as well as the 9th Marine Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet.
- 51st Army (Lieutenant General WN Lwow ) with the 224th, 302nd, 390th and 396th Rifle Divisions, 12th Rifle Brigade and the 83rd Marine Brigade.
course
Landing at Kerch
On December 26, 1941, the Transcaucasus Front under General DT Koslow began its operations: The Azov flotilla under Rear Admiral Gorshkov left its ports of Temryuk and Kuchugury and landed parts of the 51st Army on the northeast coast of the peninsula, with a focus north of Kerch. Due to heavy swell, only two weak groups could initially be landed at Cape Zjuk and Cape Chroni. By December 29th, 5,870 men could already be gathered in the landing heads, who already had 9 tanks at their disposal. Also south of Kerch, Rear Admiral Frolow was able to bring 2170 men ashore in four places and increase them to 9050 men by December 29th.
By December 30, the 46th Infantry Division managed to remove most of the Soviet landing heads north and south of Kerch . Colonel-General von Manstein initially considered the attack on the Kerch peninsula to be a diversionary maneuver and allowed the attack on Sevastopol, which began on December 17, to continue.
Landing at Feodosiya
Completely unexpected for the German leadership, a squadron of the Black Sea Fleet (Vice Admiral FS Oktjabrski ) landed further strong troops at Feodosia on the night of December 29th. Under the fire protection of the cruisers Krasny Krym and Krasny Kavkaz as well as the destroyers Zeleznjakow , Schaumjan and Nezamoschnik , 4200 men of the 44th Army were brought ashore in several waves. The Wehrmacht forces stationed there could not prevent the landings because of insufficient strength; the Romanian reinforcement troops did not arrive until later that day. The following night, another 11,270 men from the 63rd Rifle Division arrived in port on 9 transporters. During the landings, the above-mentioned units of the Black Sea Fleet provided sufficient fire protection in the roadstead off Feodosiya. An attempt was made on the German side to crush the Soviet forces that had landed at Feodosia with the help of the Romanian allies, but this failed. On the night of December 31, the 157th Rifle Division was landed with a further 6,400 men and the port city was completely taken.
Evacuation of the Kerch Peninsula
General Graf von Sponeck feared the threat of cutting off the 46th Infantry Division and ordered - contrary to an order from OKW that was no longer received - the precautionary evacuation of the Kerch peninsula. After the capture of Feodosia and the discovery of the mass graves of the Feodosia massacre , there were attacks on captured German soldiers and collaborators. After the city was retaken by the Wehrmacht, Red Army soldiers and those Jews who had been able to hide during the first occupation were held responsible for this and murdered.
The 46th Infantry Division finally reached the Straits of Parpach , although it had most of their big guns have to leave. In addition, the fighting strength of the division was greatly reduced because the soldiers were exhausted as a result of the forced march.
To the north of Feodosia, Soviet troops were brought to a standstill by quickly thrown German units, which were soon reinforced by two German divisions withdrawn from the siege ring around Sevastopol ( 132nd and 170th Infantry Division).
From January 2, 1942, the Red Army and the Wehrmacht faced each other in the line Kiet - Koktebel . The operation had failed and only gave the besieged in Sevastopol a brief relief.
Losses and consequences
The Red Army recaptured the Kerch peninsula and lost 42,000 soldiers (32,500 dead). Because of the supply of troops in the direction of Feodosiya, the Wehrmacht broke off a planned second attack on Sevastopol on January 1, 1942. On January 5, Soviet forces tried to land in the port of Yevpatoria ; at the same time a riot broke out in the city. After two days, both the Soviet attempt to land and the uprising were put down.
On January 15th the German XXXXII. and XXX. Army corps on the Parpatsch-Enge with three divisions launched the counter-offensive to recapture the Kerch peninsula. Finally, the city of Feodosiya was recaptured on January 18 after three days of fighting by the 72nd Infantry Division . The Soviet 44th Army (General Tschernjak) had losses of 6,700 dead and wounded as well as 10,600 prisoners. In the following months there were several fighting between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht, but neither side was able to achieve strategic success. It was not until May 1942 that the Kerch peninsula was recaptured by the Wehrmacht ( Operation Bustard Hunt ).
Consequences for General von Sponeck
General von Sponeck had the Kerch peninsula evacuated, believing that the 46th Infantry Division would be cut off by the Soviet forces that landed at Feodosiya. The unauthorized evacuation of the peninsula meant that the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group South , Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau , had all awards of the 46th Infantry Division blocked. General Graf von Sponeck was initially sentenced to death in a court martial chaired by Hermann Göring . Adolf Hitler commuted this sentence to six years imprisonment ( Germersheim ). Multiple attempts at rehabilitation on the part of Erich von Manstein were unsuccessful. After the end of the war it became known that General Graf von Sponeck had been shot on Himmler's orders after July 20, 1944 .
literature
- Nimitz / Potter / Rohmer: Seemacht, Manfred Pawlak Verlag, Herrsching 1986, p. 628
Web links
- Kerch Feodossier Operation in Soldat.ru ( Memento from March 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kerch Feodossier Operation in Soldaty 20 weka (Russian)
- ^ Nimitz: Seemacht, Pawlak Verlag Herrsching 1986, p. 629
- ^ Norbert Kurz: The Crimea under German rule, 1941–1944. Germanization utopia and the reality of occupation. Publications of the research center Ludwigsburg of the University of Stuttgart, Volume 5. Edited by Klaus-Michael Mallmann. Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2005, ISBN 3-534-18813-6 , p. 201.
- ↑ Report by Major Teichmann, Ortskommandeur Feodosia to Korück 553 of February 28, 1942 cited in: Marcel Stein, Field Marshal Von Manstein, A Portrait. The Janus Head 2007, ISBN 1-906033-02-1 , p. 372