Very soon humanity will celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II. This date is especially significant for residents of the countries of the former Soviet Union, whose grandfathers at the front and in the rear did everything to bring the day of the Great Victory closer. Do not erase from people's memory the truth about the disasters that fascism brought to mankind, about the feat of the heroes who saved the world from the "brown plague". For example, the defense of Odessa (1941) will never be forgotten. She entered the military history textbooks as one of the most successful examples of operations of this kind.
Defense of Odessa in the first year of the Great Patriotic War: beginning
As you know, the Soviet Union was unexpectedly attacked by the countries of the Nazi bloc on June 22, 1941, and just three days later, along with others, the Southern Front was formed by the Headquarters. Romanian troops fought against him on a territory stretching over seven hundred kilometers from the city of Lipkany to Odessa. Despite the success of the actions of the Southern Front, in the first two months of the war, it became necessary to retreat its units to the east. The fact is that the neighbors in the northwest have a situationdid not develop in the best way, and there was a high probability of getting into an environment. On August 5, fighting began on the outskirts of Odessa, and a week later, the military formations defending the city were completely cut off from the main troops of the Southern Front, as the Romanian-German troops managed to bypass the city from the east and encircle it.
Units participating in hostilities from both warring sides
At the moment when the city was surrounded on all sides by units of the Romanian army and the Wehrmacht, there were units of a separate coastal army commanded by Lieutenant General Georgy Pavlovich Safronov, troops of the Black Sea Fleet and the Odessa naval base, as well as detachments militias, consisting of the townspeople themselves. In total, the defending forces at the beginning of August 1941 amounted to 34,5 thousand people, and at the end of September - about 86 thousand military personnel and militias. As for the size of the Romanian army, commanded by Nicolae Chuperca, 340 thousand soldiers and officers took part in the siege of Odessa.
Odessa under siege
On August 9th, the Stavka decided to organize a defensive region (OOR) under the command of Rear Admiral Gavriil Vasilievich Zhukov, which consisted of the following regions:
- Fontanka.
- Kubanki.
- Kovalenki.
- Rewarding.
- Pervomaisk.
- Belyaevka.
- Mayakov.
- Carolino-Bugaz.
Immediately after that, work began on the construction of defensive structures, as well as the formation of militia detachments from among the inhabitants of Odessa, who were issued military weapons. In addition, by the end of August, the command of the Black Sea Fleet allocated 2.4 thousand people to help the defenders of Odessa, and on September 15, the 157th Infantry Division was transferred to the city from Novorossiysk. It was thanks to such powerful support by manpower that the territorial defense of Odessa was never broken through.
The defenders of the city not only held back the onslaught of the enemy, but also carried out a number of successful offensive operations. In particular, in the eastern sector of defense in mid-September, air and sea landings of Grigorievsky were thrown out and landed, and the villages of Chabanka, Staraya and Novaya Dofinovka were liberated. The shelling of the Odessa port and its water area was stopped, and the situation along the entire front line has significantly stabilized.
Retreat
The defense of Odessa was removed on October 16, 1941, and the city was surrendered to the Romanian troops. The reason was the strategic considerations of the Headquarters, which considered that in the situation prevailing at that time in the Crimean direction, it was more expedient to transfer the troops locked in the city by sea to Sevastopol.
In general, in the history of wars there are few examples of successful completion of operations to withdraw troops from the line of contact with the enemy with minimal losses and maintaining their combat capability. One of these is the evacuation of the units that carried out the defense of Odessa, which, as she wrote thenthe Soviet press, “left the city without tarnishing their honor.”
Occupation and sacrifices
The defense of Odessa and Sevastopol cost the Soviet army, in which representatives of all the peoples inhabiting the Soviet Union, including Ukrainians, served during the Great Patriotic War, thousands of lives. There were many casu alties among the civilian population. In particular, immediately after the defense of Odessa was removed (1941), mass executions were carried out there. Especially serious were the losses among the Jewish minority, in relation to which the Romanian occupation forces pursued a policy of total destruction. Moreover, prisoners of war were brought to the city, who, together with Soviet workers and those who could not prove their non-involvement in the “lower race”, were first held in custody in the former gunpowder warehouses, and then shot or burned alive, dousing the buildings with gasoline.
Liberation
The expulsion of the invaders from Odessa began on April 9, 1944, as part of a military operation carried out by the troops of the Third Ukrainian Front, commanded by General of the Army Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky. The next day, in the morning, the city completely came under the control of the Red Army, which continued its successful offensive towards the Dniester.
Medal "For the Defense of Odessa": who gets
This award was established in December 1942. It was intended to reward military personnel and civilians who took directparticipation in the defense of Odessa in the period from August 5 to October 16, 1941. It is customary to wear it on the left side of the chest, to the right of the medal "For the Defense of Moscow", if any.
What the medal looks like
This award is made of stainless steel or brass in the form of a circle with a diameter of 3.2 centimeters. The obverse depicts the figures of a Red Navy man and a Red Army soldier with weapons in their hands against the backdrop of the seashore, on which the lighthouse tower stands. Directly above them is the inscription "USSR", and even higher, along the edge of the circle, the phrase "For the defense of Odessa" is written in raised letters, enclosed between two miniature stars. The lower part of the obverse is decorated with a laurel wreath intertwined with a ribbon. As for the reverse, the traditional inscription for Soviet awards during the Great Patriotic War - "FOR OUR SOVIET MOTHERLAND" - is made on it, and a sickle and a hammer are engraved above it. The medal "For the Defense of Odessa" with the help of a ring and an eyelet is attached to a block in the form of an elongated pentagon, covered with a silk two-color striped ribbon (three blue and two green stripes of the same width). According to 1985 data, this award was presented to thirty thousand soldiers of the Red Army, military personnel of the Navy and the NKVD troops, as well as civilians.
Memorial
The heroic defense of Odessa went down in history as one of the brightest examples of the patriotism of the Soviet people. In memory of those who sacrificed their lives defending this city by the blue sea, in 1975 at the place where at the beginning of the GreatDuring the Patriotic War, the positions of the 411th coastal battery were located, a memorial was opened. The complex is an exhibition of military equipment, a sculptural composition in the form of figures of women mourning over the body of the deceased, as well as the Katyusha stele. In addition, the Church of St. George the Victorious was built on the territory of the memorial.
Another large-scale structure, designed to serve as an eternal reminder of the heroic deeds of the heroes who carried out the heroic defense of Odessa in the first year of the Great Patriotic War, is the "Belt of Glory", which consists of 11 monuments. They were built on the places where the most fierce fighting took place. Every year in April, Odessa hosts a walking marathon and a cycling marathon along the Belt of Glory, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the city's liberation from Nazi invaders.
Now you know how long the defense of Odessa lasted, which units took part in it and what were its results.
