Kuban bridgehead

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Eastern Front 1943. The bridgehead is in the southernmost part

The Kuban bridgehead (also called the Gotenkopf ) was a German catchment position on the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia , which existed from January to October 1943. It had originally been held after the withdrawal of German troops from the Caucasus in order to enable a renewed attack on the oil wells of the Caucasus. After the general retreat of the German Eastern Army on the Panther-Wotan Line , the troops in the bridgehead were evacuated across the Kerch Strait to the Crimea .

prehistory

As part of their summer offensive in 1942 ( blue case ), the Wehrmacht began an advance towards the Caucasus in July with the aim of capturing the Grozny and Baku oil fields . Within a few weeks, the German units combined to form Army Group A advanced up to 500 kilometers, and at the beginning of August the Maikop oil fields were captured (although the facilities there were permanently destroyed when the Soviet defenders withdrew). Due to a lack of supplies and resistance from the Soviet Transcaucasus Front , the advance finally came to a standstill in front of Grozny and Ordzhonikidze , without the operational goals having been achieved. With the encirclement of the 6th Army near Stalingrad ( Operation Uranus ) at the end of November a serious threat arose for the troops south of the Don, and strong Soviet counter-attacks began in the area south of Mozdok . After the relief attack for the 6th Army ( Operation Wintergewitter ) had also been repulsed, Hitler gave the order to withdraw from the Caucasus region, which began on December 31.

course

Defensive battles in the Kuban bridgehead in 1943

While the 1st Panzer Army retreated north via Rostov until February 6 and was subordinated to Army Group Don , the 17th Army (Colonel General Ruoff , from June 25 Jaenecke ) during the North Caucasian operation in the direction of the Black Sea coast , Crimea and the Taman Peninsula withdrawn. The LII, which was previously assigned to the 1st Panzer Army . Army Corps (General Ott) was subordinate to the 17th Army, which had fallen in the western Caucasus. At the end of January 1943, a catchment line had formed there on the lower reaches of the Kuban River . Originally intended as a base of operations for a renewed advance on the oil wells in the Grozny area, the bridgehead could be held for months despite repeated attacks by the Soviet North Caucasus Front . On February 1, the German XXXXIV. Army Corps (Group Angelis) built a solid defense in the south of Krasnodar with the 125th and 198th Infantry Divisions, which was blocked by the Soviet 56th Army. The 101st Jäger Division (Major General Vogel ) had taken up a strong defensive position south of Krasnodar near Shendzhiy. The eastern approaches to Krasnodar were made by XXXXIX. Mountain Corps secured. On the morning of February 12, the rearguard of the 198th Krasnodar Infantry Division gave up and blew up the bridge over the Kuban. To the north of it, General Haccius , the commander of the 46th Infantry Division, had died in these battles .

On February 24th the LII. Army Corps and the XXXXIX. Mountain Corps behind the Protoka River returned to the so-called Poseidon Line , while south of the Kuban section the Angelis group, opposite Grechko's 56th Army, retreated via Severskaya and took over the defense in the Krymskaya area . By February 25, the 17th Army had to retreat to a line that was easier to hold, in which twelve German and four Romanian divisions held a front about 120 km long. At the end of February the front ran in the bridgehead from north to south on the line Petrovskaya-Poltavskaya- Slavjanskaya - Troitskaya- Krymskaya-Abinskaya to the coast to Novorossiysk.

Soviet leadership

At the southern coastal section in space Tuapse , the headquarters of the Soviet Black Sea Group (General was Ivan Petrov ) formed from the 18th, 46th, 47th and 56th Army of the 5th Air Army (Lieutenant General Sergei K. Gorjunow) and the Black Sea Fleet (Vice Admiral FS Oktjabrski ) supported. The command of the Transcaucasus Front continued to function and solved the logistical work for replenishment and replacement.

North Caucasus Front (Colonel General Iwan Iwanowitsch Maslennikow )

Transcaucasus Front (General Ivan V. Tjulenjew )

Front reserve

  • 10th Rifle Corps
  • 4th Guards Cavalry Corps (9th and 10th Guards and 10th Cavalry Divisions)
  • 5th Guards Cavalry Corps (11th and 12th Guards and 63rd Cavalry Divisions)

Landing at Novorossisk

Front situation in February and April 1943

At the beginning of February lay in front of the northern section of the German LII. Army Corps took the troops of the Soviet 9th and 58th Armies on the Brjnkowskaya and Varenikowskaya line and tried to break through in the direction of Slavyanskaya, while the 56th Army advanced from the south to Krasnodar. The Stawka planned the main attack in the south: while the Soviet 47th Army attacked the positions of the German group Wetzel (VAK) off Novorossiysk from the east, the Black Sea Fleet attempted the enemy defenses on February 4th by amphibious troop landings (Soviet 18th Army) to roll up in the Osereika Bay and at Stanitschka in the rear of the German front. Another diversionary attack was carried out concurrently with destroyers in the port of Anapa . The first available German 198th Infantry Division was deployed against the Soviet bridgehead. The Grenadier Regiment 305 fought under difficult conditions in house-to-house fighting near Stanitschka and suffered heavy losses. On February 8, the 73rd Infantry Division carried out counterattacks against the landing section at Stanitschka, but could not storm the established Soviet positions on Myshako Mountain.

The counterattack of the German 5th Army Corps against the Soviet bridgehead ( Operation Neptune ), which began on April 17th, tried in vain to smash the Soviet bridgehead around Myshako. The ground attack by the 4th Mountain Division (Lieutenant General Kreß ) was supported by air strikes with Stukas and other ground attack aircraft. With this company, the German Air Force carried out a total of 1,560 missions over the Kuban bridgehead. The attack of the 125th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Helmut Friebe ) against the western slope of the Myschako position on the next day also got stuck. On the other hand, the Soviet 16th Rifle Corps failed to break out south of Novorossiysk either. On April 23, Admiral Oktjabrski was replaced by Admiral LA Wladimirski from the High Command of the Navy because of his weak leadership and transferred to the reserve of leaders .

In the northern sector of the Kuban bridgehead the LII was already in March 1943. Army corps pulled out and delivered to the Kempf Army Department in the Kharkov area . The tour there now remained with the XXXXIX alone. Mountain Corps, from which the 46th Infantry Division was soon withdrawn.

Division of the 17th Army on July 7, 1943

Battle of Krymskaya

On May 4, 1943, the 97th Jäger Division (Lieutenant General Rupp, now General Müller ) had to give up Krymskaja . On July 16, artillery fire by the Soviet 56th Army (General Grechko) launched a new offensive west of this town. The first main blow was directed at the positions at 114.1. A second attack was at height 121.4, which was defended by parts of the 98th Infantry Division (General Gareis ). Both points had to be held by the Wehrmacht, because otherwise a Soviet offensive on the Taman Peninsula would have been possible. More intense aerial battles were also conducted on both sides, with German dive bombers successfully bombing Soviet troop concentrations. Day-long artillery duels reached their climax on July 22nd. On July 24th, a new high at 114.1 followed. The 97th Jäger Division held its positions, but suffered heavy losses. On July 26th, the attack force of the Soviet troops seemed exhausted around noon, but at 4:00 p.m. 80 tanks were thrown onto the battlefield with the second squadron, followed by two fresh rifle regiments. The defensive battle was supported by the 191 Assault Gun Brigade. By July 27, the 98th Infantry Division had lost 42 officers, 188 NCOs, and 1,537 soldiers.

In the Novorossisk-Tamaner operation , the Soviet fleet under Rear Admiral Cholostjakov landed around 8,930 soldiers under strong fire protection on 129 landing craft in the Novorossisk Bay on the evening of 9-10 September. The city district was defended by parts of the 73rd Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Böhme ), the 101st Jäger Division and the 1st Romanian Mountain Division. The 4th Mountain Division was still fighting in the western part of Novorossisk and against the Soviet bridgehead at Stanichka. On September 16, troops under Lieutenant General Konstantin N. Leselidze were able to completely occupy the city. To the north of this, the Soviet 56th Army also attacked the section of the 79th Infantry Division (General Kreipe ) at Kievskoye .

Company Brunhild, September 15 to October 9, 1943

Front situation in September and October 1943

In view of the changed overall situation on the Eastern Front (defeat of the Wehrmacht in the Battle of Kursk , general retreat of Army Group South to the Dnepr ), it was decided on September 3rd to abandon the Kuban bridgehead.

The transport via the Kerch road, which is around four kilometers wide at its narrowest point , was partly carried out with a marine ferry , partly with a material cable car stretched across the strait . One of the Organization Todt erected combined road and rail bridge across the strait was just blown up before completion.

On September 25, another Soviet landing took place in the north of the bridgehead in the area 6 km west of Blagovetschenskaya, which forced the withdrawal of the 370th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Becker ) from the defensive section between Temryuk and Golubiszkaya. From the land side, the 11th Rifle Corps of the Soviet 9th Army pushed forward on both sides of the Kurchanskaya-Temryuk road against the position of the 50th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Sixt ). The troops of the 56th Army broke through Starotitarovskaya and Taman to the tip of the peninsula. The 17th Army had already moved to a smaller intermediate position in the so-called “Little Gotenkopf”: In the north, the Becker group (50th and 370th divisions) held the Konrad group (97th Jäger- and 98th Inf.- Division) and on the southern section the Sixt group (4th mountain division and Romanian 19th division). The vacated V Army Corps was transferred to the Crimea , the XXXXIV. Army Corps and Divisions 9th, 101st and 125th were transferred to the 6th Army on the lower Dnieper front.

The evacuation of the entire bridgehead was completed on October 9, 1943. By October 9, 239,669 soldiers, 16,311 wounded, 27,456 civilians and 115,477 tons of war goods (mainly ammunition), 21,230 motor vehicles, 74 tanks, 1,815 guns and 74,657 horses had been evacuated to the Crimea. The air force flew an additional 15,661 men from a field airport (near Slavyanskaya ) in the bridgehead. The withdrawal from the northwestern Caucasus in 1943 was one of the few military retreat operations by the Wehrmacht in which the bulk of the troops and heavy equipment were not lost.

Kuban shield

Kuban Shield (replica)

On September 20, 1943, the Kuban shield was donated by Adolf Hitler . This was awarded to the German participants who had been involved in the fighting on the Kuban bridgehead on land, in the air or at sea since February 1, 1943. The size of the Kuban shield was 52 × 62 mm with a cloth pad of 64 × 77 mm and was worn on the left sleeve.

Trivia

See also

literature

  • Friedrich Forstmeier : The clearing of the Kuban bridgehead in autumn 1943. Wehr und Wissen Verlags-Gesellschaft, Darmstadt 1964 ( Contributions to defense research 2/3, ISSN  0067-5253 ).
  • Robert Forzych: The Kuban 1943: The Wehrmacht's last stand in the Caucasus , Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2018.
  • David R. Galbraith: The Defense and Evacuation of the Kuban Bridgehead, January - October 1943. History National University of Ireland Maynooth Supervisor of Research: Dr Harry Laver July 2014.
  • Andrei A. Grechko : Битва за Кавказ , 2 изд., М., 1973: Завьялов А. С., Калядин Т. Е., Битва за Кавказ. 1942–1943, Moscow 1957.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ R. Forzych: The Kuban 1943, p. 21
  2. ↑ Schramm: OKW-Kriegstagebuch, Volume II, p. 731.