World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseWhen Operation Barbarossa launched in mid-1941, the Crimean Peninsula in Russia (now Ukraine) was not even in the plans. It was assumed that when major Soviet political centers such as Moscow fell under German control, the entire Soviet Union would just fall apart. That thinking quickly changed in Jul 1941, when two Soviet naval aircraft attacks on Axis oil fields at Ploiesti, Romania, launched from Sevastopol, destroyed 11,000 tons of oil. On 23 Jul 1941, Adolf Hitler issued Directive 33 which not only called for the conquest of Crimea, but it was also to be done as a priority. On 21 Aug, Hitler further stated that "the seizure of the Crimean Peninsula has colossal importance for the protection of oil supplies from Romania."

ww2dbaseThe German force tasked for this conquest was the 11th Army, newly assigned under Colonel General Erich von Manstein. In Oct 1941, the 11th Army was relieved of other duties from Operation Barbarossa, thus it was now focused on the attack on Crimea. Lacking ample tanks, Manstein could not perform the kind of mobile war he advocated and succeeded in France. Instead, he now must rely on his infantry. Under his command were also Romanian troops. Some of the Romanians, particularly the Mountain Brigade troops, were known to be elite fighters, but overall the Romanians were ill-equipped, therefore never deployed independently without direct German support.

ww2dbaseAxis Invasion of Crimea

ww2dbaseBeginning on 18 Oct, General Erik Hansen of the German LIV Corps, with 22nd, 46th, and 73rd Infantry Divisions, attacked the Soviet 51st Army at Ishun. Although the Soviets had greater numbers and local air superiority, Hansen's troops slowly advanced, taking Ishun on 28 Oct after the arrival of three groups of Bf 109 fighters that defeated the Soviet air forces. The Soviet troops fell back to Sevastopol, which marked the start of the siege.

ww2dbaseSiege of Sevastopol

ww2dbaseEven before the remnants of the Soviet 51st Army began to flee into Sevastopol, the senior naval commander there, Vice Admiral Filip S. Oktyabrsky, had already drafted thousands of men from the region to construct defenses. He also formed several naval infantry units by removing sailors from their ships; the sailors were not trained in ground combat, but they helped boost the numbers Oktyabrsky desperately needed to man the front lines. On 30 Oct, the Soviet Navy Black Sea Fleet brought in the 8th Naval Infantry Brigade from Novorossiysk to further alleviate the situation.

ww2dbaseOn 30 Oct 1941, forward units of the German 132nd Infantry Division were detected. Soviets opened fire with 305-mm coastal defense guns on the next day on suspected German locations; the location of these guns, Coastal Battery 30, would soon to be dubbed "Fort Maxim Gorky I" to the Germans. Meanwhile, Soviet naval infantry held off the initial attack on Sevastopol. On 9 Nov, 19,894 troops, ten T-26 tanks, 152 guns, and 20 mortars arrived by sea. By this point, 52,000 troops were available under Oktyabrsky's command.

ww2dbaseOn 10 Nov, Manstein finally felt he was prepared enough to begin a formal assault. The German 50th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Friedrich Schmidt attacked first, capturing Uppa near the Chernaya River, southeast of Sevastopol. On the next day, the 132nd Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Fritz Lindemann took the village of Mekenzya to the northeast. By 15 Nov, the attack was halted by the ferocity of Soviet sailors and soldiers, aided by naval gunfire support from battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna. Manstein called off the offensive on 21 Nov after suffering 2,000 casualties, though Soviet casualty numbers were much higher.

ww2dbaseBetween 7 and 13 Dec 1941, Oktyabrsky received, by sea, the 11,000-strong newly formed 388th Rifle Division. Soviet engineers also took the opportunity to lay extensive minefields while Manstein's men regrouped for the next attack.

ww2dbaseThe next German offensive began on 17 Dec. At 0610, a bombardment by artillery pieces, 34 Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers, and 20 level bombers prepared for the assault, which began with the 22nd Infantry Division attacking grounds held by the Soviet 8th Naval Infantry Brigade north of the Belbek River. Shortly after, German 50th and 132nd Infantry Divisions also launched their attacks against the center of the defensive line. On 22 Dec, the 8th Naval Infantry Brigade gave way, falling back toward the city. On 23 Dec, German 170th Infantry Division and the Romanian 1st Mountain Brigade captured Chapel Hill, a strategic position southeast of the city.

ww2dbaseMeanwhile, Axis forces also marched eastward toward Kerch on the eastern side of the peninsula. Soviet Lieutenant General Vladmir N. L'vov performed a daring amphibious landing with 5,000 soldiers of the 51st Army on 26 Dec, followed by a larger landing of 23,000 men of the 44th Army, with a battalion of tanks, at Feodosiya on 29 Dec. This move forced the Germans to delay the next attack on Sevastopol so that this new contingent could be dealt with.

ww2dbasePreviously, Hitler had dictated that Sevastopol to be taken before the end of the year to improve morale damaged as the invasion of Russia ground to a halt. That order was not to be met. Thus far, German casualties were much greater than originally expected. The Germans suffered 8,595 casualties in the period of 17 to 31 Dec alone. The Soviets, typical for any WW2 battle involving the Soviets, suffered greater losses; 7,000 Soviets were killed and 20,000 were captured.

ww2dbaseOn 15 Jan 1942, Manstein called for a hasty counterattack which captured Feodosiya. Although this attack was launched before his troops were truly ready, therefore unable to wipe out the Soviet 44th and 51st Armies, but he knew by such an attack he would prevent the Soviets from gaining initiative in this campaign. The Soviets knew that they must gain the initiative as well, and in this attempt a series of offensives were taken between Feb and Apr 1942. Every single on of these offensives failed to break the German lines, which continued to besiege Sevastopol by land.

ww2dbaseAfter a long period of preparation, Manstein finally decided he could take major action again. On 8 May 1942, he launched Operation Trappenjagd, which called for General Maximilian For-Pico's XXX Corps to attack the Soviet 44th Army on the southern coast. The operation launched at 0415 that morning with a 10-minute artillery barrage. By 0730, the Soviet front line troops were completely smashed at the pressure of German frontal attacks and the small landing by the 902nd Assault Boat Command and the 436th Infantry Regiment behind their lines. As the Soviet lines broke, multiple German and Romanian forces moved eastward toward Kerch. By 9 May, the important airfield at Marfovka 30-km from where the offensive began was already under German control, destroying 35 I-153 fighters on the ground. The Soviet commander, Lieutenant General Dmitri T. Kozlov, panicked, leading to a state of indecisiveness from Soviet command. Pressing on, Manstein sent in the German 22nd Panzer Division, which very quickly destroyed much of the 51st Army, which promptly surrendered. On 14 May, German troops entered the city of Kerch on the eastern tip of the Crimean Peninsula, and on 20 May they declared the city secured. Due to Kozlov and his staff's panic and inaction, only 37,000 Soviet troops were evacuated from Kerch. 28,000 Soviet soldiers were killed and 147,000 were captured. This meant that Manstein's victory in central and eastern Crimea effectively destroyed three Soviet Armies at the cost of only 3,397 casualties.

ww2dbaseAfter Operation Trappenjagd, the 22nd Panzer Division was withdrawn from Crimea and sent north to prepare for operations at Kharkov.

ww2dbaseWith pressure from the east alleviated, Germans concentrated on Sevastopol again by launching Operation Störfang. At 0540 on 2 Jun 1942, a large bombardment began on defensive positions near Sevastopol. At 0600, the German air force, the Luftwaffe, joined in and dropped 570 tons of bombs on the first day. Over the next few days, the bombardment continued, with ferocity increasing every day. The bombardment focused generally on the northern portion of the Soviet defensive line. Between 2 and 6 Jun, 42,595 rounds, equivalent to 2,449 tons of munitions, were fired, which included heavy shells from the 80-cm "Gustav" railway gun and the "Karl" mortars, though these super-weapons were largely inaccurate and ineffective. The failure of "Gustav" could be blamed on General Arty Johannes Zuckertort, who fired too few "Gustav" shells at too many targets, making the monster weapon inconsequential in the outcome of the battle. Zuckertort's misuse of the "Gustav" gun actually brought scolding from Hitler by cable.

ww2dbaseDuring the night of 6 Jun, the Soviets, who had held their artillery fire thus far to avoid counter-battery fire, finally opened fire on suspected German assembly areas. Oktyabrsky knew that a major attack had to be coming at the northern part of his defensive line, otherwise the bombardment would not have lasted so long. As Oktyabrsky suspected, the Germans were on the move. Men from the 132nd Infantry Division moved toward the Belbek River and men of the 22nd Infantry Division moved toward Ölberg. Advance was slow, but the Germans did advance amidst heavy Soviet mortar and aerial attacks. In the afternoon, at 1850, the first and only counterattack was launched by a battalion of the Soviet 747th Rifle Regiment; this counterattack was repulsed. Although the initial day of the attack was successful, casualties were high. The Germans suffered 2,357 casualties, including 340 killed.

ww2dbaseAlso on 7 Jun, Fretter-Pico, whose XXX Corps manned the southern portion of the Soviet defensive line, decided he was not going to sit while the generals to the north gained glory during the large offensive and began probing the Soviet defenders. Although he made some minor advances, his attack caused too many casualties, and he was told by Manstein not to attack in a piecemeal fashion again.

ww2dbaseOn 8 Jun, the Soviets struck first with a counterattack. Although supported by tanks, coordination between infantry, artillery, and tank units was poor, thus the offensive was a failure. At 1000, the German LIV Corps struck. After suffering 1,700 casualties, the LIV Corps dented the Soviet line by driving 3-km closer to Sevastopol on a 15-km front. On 9 Jun, the German 132nd Infantry Division of the LIV Corps attacked Coastal Battery 30, "Fort Maxim Gorky I", but was repulsed twice, at 1000 and 1200, by the Soviet 95th Rifle Division. 9 Jun also saw other Soviet counterattacks, some with tanks, but the counterattacks were indecisive.

ww2dbaseOn 11 Jun, Soviet Major General Ivan Efimovich Petrov organized a major counterattack utilizing every piece of artillery available in Sevastopol against the German 132nd Infantry Division at Haccius Ridge. Some pincers of the counterattack reach as deep as 1-km behind German lines, but in the end the Soviet units were too depleted, in both spirit and ammunition, to leverage this success. The territorial gains were given back by the end of the day, especially in the face of effective German aerial attacks. In the south, Fretter-Pico's XXX Corps made another attempt to advance. The German 72nd Infantry Division's 401st Regiment seized Chapel Hill, which enabled the rest of the division to drive 2-km into Soviet defensive lines, taking Kamary. As the Soviet defenses broke down further, Fretter-Pico sent in his reserves, the 266th Infantry Regiment, and took control of Fort Kuppe.

ww2dbaseOn 13 Jun, Hansen's LIV Corps took control of Fort Stalin, which was a weakly-defended reinforced concrete anti-aircraft position with three machine gun bunkers. Although it was only manned by about 200 Soviets, the defenders fought bravely for an hour before giving way. At 0530, as the Soviets realized Fort Stalin had fallen, the nearby Fort Volga opened up its artillery pieces on Fort Stalin, followed by a counterattack at 0630, which failed to regain the fort. Most of the 200 defenders at the fort were killed by 1500 that day. Small-scale but yet tough combat such as the one that took place at Fort Stalin repeated through the next few days, making the battle one of attrition.

ww2dbaseOn 17 Jun, Hansen launched the 132nd Infantry Division against Coastal Battery 30, "Fort Maxim Gorky I", while the 22nd and 24th Infantry Divisions marched through the center of the Soviet defenses. At 0330, the 22nd and 24th Divisions broke through the Soviet lines held by the 95th Rifle Division and surrounded a contingent at the train station. The Soviet line collapsed by 0520, leaving Coastal Battery 30 on its own. The German 436th and 437th Infantry Regiments reached the fort by 0900, and the attack began in the afternoon. At 1630, a dive bomber hit destroyed the fort's western turret, while the other turrets were slowing down because they were running low on ammunition. Under this kind of pressure, the whole Soviet defense to the north, dubbed Defensive Sector IV, completely collapsed between 18 and 23 Jun. As German pioneer forces methodically cleared out Soviet bunkers with grenades and flamethrowers, the German troops caught sight of the Severnaya Bay by 20 Jun. On 21 Jun, after a two-day battle, German troops captured Fort Lenin along with 182 prisoners. On 23 Jun, Fort Konstantinovsky was captured. With the northern defenses defeated, Hansen's troops moved south, where Fretter-Pico's advances were much slower.

ww2dbaseTo make up for XXX Corps' slow advance, the Romanians were called in to assist. Before this time, Major General Gheorghe Avramescu's troops had not been tasked to perform any major offensives. However, as they launched their first multi-division offensive, they proved their worth by defeating Soviet defenses near the Chernaya River where the Germans had failed, went on to take a Soviet strongpoint dubbed Bastion II, and then fended off a counterattack. On 27 Jun, Hansen's troops linked up with those of Avramescu's east of the Chernaya River.

ww2dbaseAt 0100 on 29 Jun 1942, German troops of the 132nd Infantry Division achieved total surprise by crossing 600-m of water of Severnaya Bay, assisted by the German 902nd and 905th Assault Boat Commands and their 130 boats. It was not until 0200 when the Soviets realized what was happening and fired off red flares to warn their headquarters, but it was too late as the beachhead had already been secured. Petrov had six T-26 tanks in reserve that could be used to attack beachhead, but again he was indecisive and the opportunity was lost. To the south, the German XXX Corps attacked Sapun Ridge at 0130, defeating the Soviet 7th Naval Brigade and the 775th Rifle Regiment by 0715, though scattered battles lasted through the afternoon. The German victories at the edge of the Severnaya Bay in the north and at Sapun Ridge in the south cut off Soviet troops in pockets, making them relatively inconsequential for the remainder of the attack on Sevastopol.

ww2dbaseAt 0130 on 30 Jun, Soviets destroyed a major ammunition dump near Severnaya Bay to prevent German capture. The ammunition dump was located inside a champagne factory, which also acted as a field hospital for 2,000 wounded men. Many of the wounded might still be in the building when it was demolished.

ww2dbaseAt 0950 on 30 Jun, Moscow ordered Sevastopol to be evacuated. Whatever defense was left soon turned to nothing as soldiers fled every way to try to save themselves. At 0300 on 1 Jul, Petrov and Oktyabrsky fled via submarine, giving little thought to the 23,000 men still left in the city, many of them wounded. Later that day, German troops entered the city. Manstein tried to exclude his Romanian comrades from sharing the glory by ordering them to stay out of the final drive, but Major General Gheorghe Manoliu disobeyed the order by driving his 4th Mountain Division into Sevastopol and placing a Romanian flag on the Nakhimov Monument in the city. The final act of defiance was committed by troops of the Soviet 109th Rifle Division fighting from the bunkers around Coastal Battery 35 and men who fought at the Cape Chersonese airstrip. Both pockets were defeated on 4 Jul.

ww2dbaseConclusion of the Battle

ww2dbaseThe battle of Sevastopol was costly for both sides even by the most conservative of estimates. About 18,000 Soviets were killed and 95,000 were captured; only 25,157 were successfully evacuated. The German 11th Army saw 4,264 killed, 21,626 wounded, and 1,522 missing for a total of over 27,000 casualties. Manstein estimated the German losses at about 24,000. The Romanians suffered 1,597 killed, 6,571 wounded, and 277 missing for a total of 8,454 casualties. Other sources quoted higher casualty numbers, though the counts are likely to be inflated by various intentions.

ww2dbaseThe city of Sevastopol also suffered dearly, largely to the long artillery campaign. In the city limits, only 5 to 10 buildings were left standing, the rest were reduced to rubbles.

ww2dbaseEpilogue

ww2dbaseBefore the city was even fully secured, Manstein was given the rank of field marshal for the victory, and was given a vacation in Romania for him to rest. As soon as he left, SS-Einsatzgruppe D moved into Sevastopol and began a systematic genocide of Jews. For the following two years that the Germans held the city, the killing spree continued as it was controlled by the SS official SS-Gruppenführer Ludolf von Alvensleben.

Photographs

Battle of Sevastopol Timeline

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