July 3, 1942, the heroic defense of the Crimean peninsula, which resulted in colossal losses for the Red Army, ended with the retreat of our troops. The summary of the Soviet Information Bureau noted "selfless courage, fury in the fight against the enemy and the dedication of the defenders." The first years of the war were not easy for us, not everyone could even believe in the reality of everything that was happening - it seemed like a terrible dream. The brighter, but at the same time more tragic, the stoic defense of Sevastopol in 1941-1942 entered the history of the country. The heroism and courage of all those who were involved in the events of those days are immeasurable.
Surrender Odessa but keep Crimea
By September 12, 1941, the Germans came close to the Crimea. The peninsula was of strategic importance both to us and to the invaders. From here, a direct air route opened to the oil-industrial points of Romania, which supplied the Wehrmacht troops with fuel. With the loss of these routes, our aviation was deprived of the opportunity to destroy the fuel reserves of the Germans by bombing, and they, in turn, could receive not only Romanianoil products, but also Soviet ones - the road to the Caucasus, to our reserves, was opened for them. The headquarters of the Red Army understood the importance of free flights of aviation of the opposing sides, so it was decided to transfer additional units to the Crimea, recalling them from Odessa. Thus, to save the peninsula, an entire city had to be sacrificed. The battle for Sevastopol, which had to be held by any means, was carried out from water, air and land.
By the end of September, Kyiv and most of Ukraine, Smolensk, all approaches to Leningrad were under the Germans, it was scary to think about the blockade of which. In addition, the proximity of the enemy army and its too rapid advance inland spoke of a protracted and difficult war. By September, in the battles near Uman and Kyiv, units of the Southwestern Front were utterly defeated, and now the great war has come to the Crimea. The defense of Sevastopol became the last frontier on the peninsula, the successful defense of which could, albeit a little, but hold back the offensive breakthrough of the German army.
Along the Perekop Isthmus
The only land route through which it was possible to get to Crimea was the Perekop Isthmus. The 11th Army of the Wehrmacht opposed the 51st Separate Army formed in August, which was entrusted with the defense of the peninsula. The Soviet troops were commanded by Colonel-General f. I. Kuznetsov, German - commander Erich von Manstein. To the credit of the enemy, it is worth noting that one of Hitler's most talented military leaders spoke on the enemy side. Unfortunately, byquite worthy people fought on both sides of the front, sometimes against each other, who could compete in professionalism in peacetime, if the Great Patriotic War had not made them mortal enemies. Sevastopol and the defense of Crimea in this regard can serve as an indicator of the competence of the warlords of the opposing armies.
The 51st Separate Army included three rifle divisions: the 276th under the command of Major General I. S. Savinov, the 156th, commanded by Major General P. V. Chernyaev, and the 106th, subordinate to Colonel A. N. Pervushin. Savinov was supposed to defend the Chongar Peninsula and the Arabat Spit. Chernyaev was faced with the task of holding the Perekop positions directly to the last, and Pervushin’s division, stretched along the southern coast of the Sivash for 70 km, had to block the road of the German army on its way to Sevastopol on its sector of the front. The year 1941 became indicative for the Soviet Army not only in terms of the defense of the Crimea, but also in the degree of preparation for the war as a whole.
In the battles for Perekop
In addition to rifle divisions, the 51st Army also included cavalry divisions, there were also three of them: the 48th under the command of Major General D. I. Averkin, the 42nd Colonel V. V. Glagolev and the 40th I am Colonel F. F. Kudyurov. All three divisions of the 51st Army, plus the 271st Rifle Division under the command of Colonel M. A. Titov, were supposed to hold back tank attacks on the Perekop Isthmus and not let the enemy deep into the peninsula, where the battle for Sevastopol was already brewing. Four Crimeandivisions: 172nd, 184th, 320th and 321st - guarded the coast. They were commanded, respectively, by Colonels I. G. Toroptsev, V. N. Abramov, M. V. Vinogradov and I. M. Aliyev.
From September 24, the Germans went on the offensive. Two infantry units, supported by artillery and aircraft, made an attempt to break through the Perekop isthmus. By September 26, they stormed the Turkish Wall and captured the city of Armyansk. Two rifle and one cavalry divisions thrown to the defense of the city, organized by the commander of the operational group, Lieutenant-General P. I. Batov, did not create any special obstacles for the German army - their offensive was so powerful. By September 30, Soviet troops abandoned their previous positions and retreated.
Departure to the Taman Peninsula
Fixed in the Ishun positions, by October 18, when the 11th German Army launched a new offensive, the 9th Rifle Corps and several separate units of the Black Sea Fleet regrouped and prepared to adequately meet the enemy's blow. Of course, the forces were not equal. The leaders of the defense of Sevastopol understood that without reinforcements they would not be able to hold back the advance of the German army, but fierce battles were going on along the entire front, and there was no way to transfer additional units under the Ishun positions.
The battle went on for 5 days, during which the enemy pushed the Soviet troops even further deep into the peninsula. The arrival of the Primorsky Army did not save the situation either. Manstein, havingwith fresh forces, he threw two infantry divisions to the front line, which on October 28 broke through the defenses. Parts of the Red Army were forced to withdraw near Sevastopol. The history of the city has been replenished with new, most tragic pages in all the years of its existence.
It was not easy near Kerch, where our troops also retreated. All the mountainous terrain in the district served as one battlefield. All attempts by the Red Army to gain a foothold on the Kerch Peninsula were unsuccessful - the 42nd German Army Corps of three divisions defeated the main forces of our 51st Army, and on November 16, its surviving battalions were evacuated to the Taman Peninsula. The future Hero-Cities of Sevastopol and Kerch experienced the full power of the Wehrmacht. In order to break through to the southern coast of Crimea, the German army was replenished with the 54th Army Corps, which included two infantry divisions and a motorized brigade, and the 30th Army Corps, also consisting of two infantry divisions.
On the approaches to Sevastopol
Impenetrable power at the beginning of the war was the Sevastopol Defensive Region (SOR), which was perhaps the most fortified place in European territory. This included several dozen gun positions fortified with pillboxes, minefields, forts armed with large-caliber artillery, or, as they were called in those years, armored turret batteries (BB). The defense of Sevastopol in 1941-1942 dragged on for several months, largely due to the very fortified defensive area.
The whole of November 41st, the battles went onapproaches to the city. The defense was held by the infantry of the Black Sea Fleet, since by that time there were practically no ground forces of the 51st Army on the peninsula - they were evacuated. Separate anti-aircraft, artillery and training units, as well as coastal batteries, helped the infantry. The remnants of Soviet divisions scattered along the coast also joined the ranks of the city's defenders, but they were negligible. So we can safely say that the heroic defense of Sevastopol in 1941-1942. carried out exclusively by the forces of the Black Sea.
The Soviet group by November consisted of about 20 thousand sailors. But at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, they understood how important it was to hold this last frontier of the Crimea, and the Sevastopol garrison was reinforced by units of the Primorsky Army, which had previously defended Odessa, commanded by Major General I. E. Petrov.
Reinforcements were transferred by sea, as there was no other way. The defensive garrison was replenished with 36,000 manpower, several hundred guns, dozens of tons of ammunition, tanks and other weapons. From November 9 to 11, the Wehrmacht army managed to completely surround Sevastopol from land, and in the next 10 days wedged into the defense line in several places. Then there was a pause in the fighting.
United Front
The hero-cities of Sevastopol and Kerch in those difficult days of the war for the country received their immortality at the cost of the death of thousands of their defenders, who found the strength to resist the more powerful enemy army. After a short lull, fighting in the Crimea resumed with particular ruthlessness in the first days of January 1942.of the year. In Evpatoria, occupied by that time by the Romanians, an uprising broke out, organized by the local population and the partisan formations that had rushed to it. On January 5, units of the Black Sea Fleet that landed on the coast were transferred to the city.
The first battles brought a small victory to the united Soviet troops - the Romanian garrison was driven out of the city. But the superiority of the defenders was short-lived: on January 7, having pulled up reserves, the Germans defeated the landing units. Many of our soldiers were taken prisoner. The weapon was also lost. At the turn of Alushta - Sevastopol, which for a long time was held by defensive troops, the Germans were also now in charge. From now on, all hopes were turned to the coast, where the defense of Sevastopol was reliably carried out for a long time. There were practically no days of silence, shelling of the city was carried out constantly.
Under the blows of the Luftwaffe
On the city, in addition to artillery, Manstein threw his striking forces - the Luftwaffe. The Army Group "South", which consisted of two air corps, which numbered about 750 aircraft, was also supported by the German fleet. For the complete capture of the Crimean peninsula, Hitler spared neither equipment nor manpower. The fifth air corps of the Luftwaffe was deployed near Sevastopol just at the beginning of the winter of 1941, and already in May 42, this deadly equipment was able to provide tangible support for the ground operation conducted by Manstein. The defense of Sevastopol in 1941-1942, despite the resilience and courage of the Black Sea sailors, did not last long after enemy aircraft attacked the city. Temmoreover, just in the spring, the eighth air corps, commanded by W. von Richthoffen, was transferred to this sector of the front. Hitler assigned one of his best military commanders to the most difficult and responsible ground operations.
The heroes of the defense of Sevastopol, who survived and remained alive after those fierce battles, shared their memories of the ongoing bombing of the city. Every day, Luftwaffe planes dropped tons of high-explosive bombs on Sevastopol. Our military recorded up to 600 sorties daily. In total, more than two and a half thousand tons of bombs were dropped, including large-caliber ones - up to a thousand kilograms each.
All German power to storm the city
The conquerors paid tribute to the artillery forts of Sevastopol. For so long, it was possible to resist the many times superior forces of the opponent only if there were long-term defensive structures, which were exactly in the Crimea. To destroy them, the Germans had to use large-caliber siege artillery. Over two hundred batteries, which consisted of heavy guns, Manstein placed along a line 22 kilometers long. In addition to heavy 300 mm and 350 mm howitzers, super-heavy 800 mm siege guns were also used.
From Germany, secretly, specifically for a breakthrough in the Sevastopol direction, a gun with a total mass of over a thousand tons was delivered. It was placed in the rocks not far from Bakhchisaray. It was impossible to resist such power. Participants in the defense of Sevastopol said that such a deafening roar andnone of the weapons had destructive power.
For a long time the German troops could not start the assault on the city - the partisans, the weather and the lack of a clearly developed offensive plan interfered. But by the spring of 1942, everything was ready. For the summer assault, the German 11th Army was reinforced with six new corps: the 54th, 30th, 42nd, 7th Romanian, 8th Romanian and 8th Aviation Corps. As can be seen from the description of the corps, they had both ground troops and air forces.
In the ring of fire
The 42nd and 7th corps were deployed on the Kerch Peninsula, they were planned to be used for ground operations and put into battle only to replace the defeated divisions. The 4th Mountain and 46th Infantry were to enter at the last stage of the battle, so that the enemy had four divisions with relatively fresh forces for the final capture of the city. So in the end it happened - under the powerful onslaught of German units, the multi-day defense of Sevastopol ended. The Second World War lasted only a year, there were three more ahead, and the losses of Soviet troops on the Crimean sector of the front alone were colossal. But no one thought to surrender to the superior forces of the enemy - they stood to the last. They understood that the decisive battle would be fatal for the majority, but they did not see a different fate for themselves.
The Wehrmacht was also preparing for big losses. The command of the 11th Army, in addition to the reserve hidden on the outskirts of Sevastopol, requested from the headquarters an additional three infantry and several anti-aircraft artillery regiments. Three divisions of self-propelled guns, a separate tank battalion and redeployed batteriessuper-heavy guns were biding their time.
Many years later, when WWII researchers summed up the results of the battle that went down in history as the Defense of Sevastopol in 1941-1942, it turned out that Hitler did not use such a massive use of aviation and artillery throughout the Second World War.
As for the ratio of manpower, then at the beginning of the defense, according to experts, it was almost equal, on one side of the front, on the other. But by the summer of 1942, the numerical superiority of the German army was undeniable. The decisive assault on Sevastopol began on June 7, but the Soviet troops held the line for almost a month.
The last assault
Stubborn confrontation did not subside for almost the entire first week. Perfectly protected in pillboxes and forts, the Black Sea sailors put up deadly resistance - a lot of Wehrmacht soldiers died on the outskirts of Sevastopol.
The decisive battle, which changed the course of the confrontation, took place on June 17 in the southern sector. The Germans took up a position known in history as the "Eagle's Nest" and approached the foot of the Sapun Mountain. By that time, the fort "Stalin", which held the defense on the north side, had already been captured by German soldiers. The Mekenzian Height was also in their hands. By evening, several more forts passed to the advancing, among which was Maxim Gorky-1, as the Germans called it, with a BB-30 battery. The entire North Bay could now be freely fired upon by German artillery. With the loss of the BB-30 battery, the defenders lost contact with the regular Red Army, located alongthat side of the front. The delivery of ammunition and the approach of reinforcements became impossible. But the inner ring of defense was still dangerous for the Germans.
The southern coast of the Northern Bay was fortified quite strongly, Manstein did not dare to storm it on the move, without tactical preparation. He gambled on the surprise factor to avoid losing too much. On the night of June 28-29, on almost silent inflatable boats, the advanced units of the 30 Corps approached the bay unnoticed and began the assault. By the evening of June 30, Malakhov Kurgan was captured.
The defenders were running out of ammunition and food, at headquarters they decided to evacuate the senior and senior command staff of the defense forces of Sevastopol, as well as the party activists of the city. There was no talk of rescuing sailors, soldiers, including the wounded, as well as lower officers…
Terrible loss figures
The evacuation plan was carried out using aviation, submarines and light watercraft, which are in the assets of the Black Sea Fleet. In total, about 700 people of the top leadership of the troops were taken out of the peninsula, aviation delivered about two hundred more people to the Caucasus. Several thousand sailors were able to escape from the encirclement on light ships. On July 1, the defense of Sevastopol was practically stopped. At some lines, the sounds of shots were still heard, but they were of a local nature. The Primorsky Army, abandoned by its commanders, withdrew to Cape Khersones, where it also stubbornly resisted the enemy for three more days. In an unequal strugglethousands of Crimean defenders died, the rest were taken prisoner. Established in memory of those events, the medal for the defense of Sevastopol was received by a few survivors. As the German command reported to its headquarters, at Cape Khersones they managed to capture over a hundred thousand Soviet soldiers and sailors, but Manstein denied this information, declaring only forty thousand prisoners. According to Soviet data, the army lost 78,230 captured soldiers from the survivors. Information about weapons is radically different from those provided by the Germans to their command.
With the loss of Sevastopol, the position of the Red Army deteriorated significantly, until the days when our troops entered the city as winners. It happened in the memorable year 1944, and there were long months and miles of war ahead…
