The Caucasus Front was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War .
122-510: Caucasus Front Crimean Front 38,362 21 December – 31 December: 6,654 men January 1942 – April 1942: 24,120 men 8 May 1942 – 19 May 1942: 7,588 men 8–12 tanks destroyed 3 assault guns destroyed 9 artillery pieces destroyed 37 aircraft destroyed 570,601 26 December – 2 January: 41,935 men 1 January 1942 – 30 April 1942: 352,000 men 8 May 1942 – 19 May 1942: 176,566 men 258 tanks destroyed 1,133 guns lost 417 aircraft destroyed (315 from Air Force of
244-489: A 2003 naval treaty . Since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, however, Russian forces have forcibly established a new status quo, now being the straits' sole controlling power. Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov campaigned for a highway bridge to be constructed across the strait. Since 1944, various bridge projects to span the strait have been proposed or attempted, always hampered by
366-469: A Soviet division and established an ascendancy over the 44th Army. The German counteroffensive continued on 16 January. Fretter-Pico reinforced Hitzfeld with more battalions as the Soviet 63rd Mountain and 236th Rifle Divisions lost ground and were pushed into narrow, isolated sectors close to the sea. In the afternoon, the 132nd Infantry Division began deploying for an attack into Feodosia. The Luftwaffe bombed
488-470: A combat-effective formation and would be completely routed from the peninsula in May. For four months, Manstein had conducted a successful defense on two fronts at once. The spring thaw arrived in early May, and both sides prepared for the battle that would decide the campaign. To slow the Soviet build-up, Alexander Löhr 's Luftflotte 4 was sent to the region to interdict shipping. The 7,500- ton transport Emba
610-637: A counterattack the next day. At 1350 hours on 26 December, IR 72 reported that a captured Soviet officer from Cape Khroni had revealed the extent of the Soviet plan – to land 25,000 troops at Kerch. Himer acted decisively and decided to bring up 2nd Battalion/IR 97 from Feodosia as well to crush the Cape Zyuk force with IR 97's full strength. IR 42 would contain the Kamysh Burun landings until the northern Soviet forces were destroyed. A mixed alarm unit consisting of infantry, artillery and combat engineers would deal with
732-617: A daily capacity of one thousand tons, was only adequate for the defensive needs of the Seventeenth Army in the Kuban bridgehead . Because of frequent earth tremors , this bridge would have required vast quantities of extra-strength steel girders , and their transport would have curtailed shipments of military material to the Crimea. The bridge was never completed, and the Wehrmacht finished evacuating
854-521: A defense against the impending German offensive, the Soviets were preparing for an attack. Caucasus Front (Soviet Union) The Caucasus Front was created on 30 December 1941 from Transcaucasus Front . The commander of the latter, Lieutenant General Dmitry Kozlov , continued in command of the front. Its chief of staff was Major General Fyodor Tolbukhin . It comprised the Were operationally subordinated to
976-469: A distraction and sent only a token watch force to keep the Soviets occupied. The Soviet landing force at Sudak initially resisted the counterattacks of two Romanian infantry battalions. The Germans used their airpower and artillery to reduce the Soviet force through attrition warfare . The 226th Rifle Regiment had no supporting artillery, anti-tank armament or mortars and could not fight back. Kozlov sent more troops to Sudak from 24 through 26 January to bring
1098-519: A dominant position over the 44th Army. In the north, 46 ID and the Romanian 8th Cavalry Brigade launched distraction attacks against 51st Army and succeeded in drawing the majority of the Soviet reserves into an irrelevant sector. Fretter-Pico's XXX Corps lost 500 men killed, wounded and missing in its 15 January attack against the 236th Rifle Division. In exchange, five German infantry battalions backed up by powerful air support and several assault guns crushed
1220-489: A further 1,075 men on 14 February. The next day, the minesweeper T410 brought in 650 and evacuated 152. On 17 February, the transport Byelostok brought in 871 men. The Black Sea Fleet regularly shelled German positions on the coast. The Luftwaffe increased its pressure, dispatching KG 27 , KG 55 , and KG 100 to bomb the ports at Anapa , Tuapse , and Novorossiysk on the Caucasian Black Sea coast. On 20 February,
1342-474: A ghost command. Kozlov's four major offensives from 27 February through 11 April were all defeated by Manstein's 11th Army with heavy Soviet losses. From 1 January to 30 April, Kozlov's Crimean Front, including the forces at Sevastopol, lost 352,000 men of which 236,370 were lost from February through April in the Parpach Narrows fighting. The Front's losses were the second-heaviest of any Soviet Front during
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#17330936462061464-588: A lack of whaleboats. West of Cape Khroni at Bulganak Bay the Azov flotilla landed 1,452 men, three T-26 tanks, two 76mm howitzers and two 45mm anti-tank guns . Two more landings at Kazantip Point and Yenikale were aborted due to stormy weather. By noon, the Red Army had 3,000 lightly armed men ashore north of Kerch in five separate beachheads . German resistance was minimal at first, but by 1050 hours He 111 medium bombers and Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers began attacking
1586-834: A major operation to cross the Kerch Strait and link up with the Soviet Separate Coastal Army holed up in Sevastopol , thereby liberating Crimea from the Germans. The ambitious operation, the first major amphibious operation in Soviet history, was founded upon Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin 's belief in the German Wehrmacht 's imminent collapse. The plan was drawn up by the Transcaucasian Front's chief of staff General-Major Fyodor Tolbukhin . Tolbukhin's plan
1708-445: A new defensive line to the east of Islam Terek . On 31 December, 250 Soviet paratroopers jumped from 16 TB-3 bombers to close the gap between the Red Army and the Sea of Azov. The bombers were unsuitable for airborne operations and the Soviet paratroopers were too dispersed for decisive action. They caused a degree of worry at XXXXII Corps headquarters due to the darkness, which concealed
1830-410: A patrol boat in the morning, but missed its chance to stop the main force from landing. By 0730, the Soviets were in full control of the port and began landing artillery and vehicles. The Soviets fought their way through the town and by 1000 hours the Germans fled after a brief fight. In a quickly executed operation, the Soviets landed 4,500 troops in the morning and parts of three divisions were ashore by
1952-527: A photograph of the aftermath of a mass execution near Kerch where seven thousand people, including Jewish Holocaust victims, had been shot in anti-tank trenches. The 51st Army moved with extreme slowness from Kerch, reaching the Parpach Narrows on 5 January but deploying only two rifle divisions in its forward elements on 12 January. It conducted no offensive action against the 46th Infantry Division aside from minor static warfare raiding. The Axis response
2074-433: A small and quickly withdrawn landing at Alushta on 1 March. The German strongpoint at Koi-Asan, held by IR 42 and 72 in the junction between XXXXII and XXX Corps was the pivot of Manstein's defense and its control allowed the Germans to feed reserves into the north with little difficulty. Kozlov directed two rifle divisions, three tank brigades and a tank battalion to take the village on 2 March. German obstacles slowed down
2196-598: A snowstorm in two days from 30–31 December. A number of vehicles were abandoned due to a lack of fuel. Moving from Feodosia, the Soviet 63rd Mountain Infantry Division established a roadblock by the morning of 31 December and after a brief fight, the 46th took a detour cross country through a narrow 10-kilometer gap between the lead Soviet elements and the Sea of Azov . The 46th avoided encirclement, but suffered moderate equipment losses and light personnel casualties. It established
2318-554: Is under construction near Taman. The straits are about 35 kilometers (22 mi) long and are 3.1 kilometers (1.9 mi) wide at the narrowest and separate an eastern extension of Crimea from Taman , the westernmost extension of the Caucasus Mountains . In antiquity , there seem to have been a group of islands intersected by arms of the Kuban River ( Hypanis ) and various sounds which have since silted up. The Romans knew
2440-871: The 44th and 47th armies were pursued to Kerch , where the last pockets of organized Soviet resistance were eradicated through German aerial and artillery firepower by 19 May. The decisive element in the German victory was the campaign of airstrikes against the Crimean Front by Wolfram von Richthofen 's 800 aircraft VIII. Fliegerkorps , which flew an average of 1,500 sorties per day in support of Trappenjagd and constantly attacked Soviet field positions, armored units, troop columns , medical evacuation ships, airfields, and supply lines. German bombers used up to 6,000 canisters of SD-2 anti-personnel cluster munitions to kill masses of fleeing Soviet infantrymen. Manstein's outnumbered 11th Army suffered 7,588 casualties, while
2562-402: The 46th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Kurt Himer [ Wikidata ] who had assumed his command on 17 December, two coastal artillery battalions equipped with obsolete World War I artillery pieces, a combat engineer regiment and a Luftwaffe anti-aircraft battalion. The 46th Infantry Division , mostly up to strength, was woefully overextended holding down
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#17330936462062684-535: The Caucasus Front ) leadership did not believe the Axis were strong enough to mount an attack and did not order his two armies to dig in. Prior to his planned main offensive, he landed 226 soldiers on board the destroyer Sposobnyi 40 kilometers southwest of Feodosia as a diversion but succeeded in drawing off only one company of Panzerjäger to contain it – which Kozlov translated as weakness. On 16 January, Kozlov landed
2806-586: The Krasnodar Krai ( Port Krym – Port Kavkaz line). Originally there were four train ferry ships; later three car-ferry ships were added. Train transportation continued for almost 40 years. The aging train-ferries became obsolete in the late 1980s and were removed from service. In the autumn of 2004, new ships were delivered as replacements and train transportation was re-established. The ferry line stopped operations in late 2020. A territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine in 2003 centred on Tuzla Island in
2928-639: The Soviet Crimean Front forces in the Kerch Peninsula , in the eastern part of the Crimean Peninsula . It began on 26 December 1941, with an amphibious landing operation by two Soviet armies intended to break the Siege of Sevastopol . Axis forces first contained the Soviet beachhead throughout the winter and interdicted its naval supply lines through aerial bombing. From January through April,
3050-567: The Soviet cruiser Krasnyi Kavkaz , the Fidonisy-class destroyers Shaumyan , Zhelezniakov , and Nezamozhnik and patrol boats and minesweepers steamed towards Feodosia in relatively favorable weather permitting speeds of 16 knots. The destroyer Sposobnyi struck a naval mine and sank with 200 casualties. The Soviet troops were exposed to freezing weather and suffered from hypothermia and seasickness. Two Soviet submarines waited above
3172-401: The docks at Kamysh Burun, allowing the third wave to land there and create a foothold by afternoon. The Luftwaffe sank several ships offshore and only 2,175 troops out of the 5,200-strong Kamysh Burun landing force got ashore. Lieutenant General Kurt Himer was aware of the Soviet landings by 0610 hours but was uncertain where the Soviet point of main effort was due to the disunited nature of
3294-443: The gunboat Don , the transports Krasny Flot and Pyenay , a tugboat , two motor barges that carried three T-26 light tanks and a few artillery pieces, and 16 fishing trawlers. Whaleboats were substituted for landing craft, resulting in tediously slow landings and the drowning of men and equipment. 697 men from the 2nd Battalion of the 160th Rifle Regiment landed at Cape Khroni by 0630 hours on 26 December and many drowned in
3416-467: The 1,900-ton transport Kommunist was sunk by KG 100. Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe had flown in the specialist torpedo bomber unit KG 26 . On 1/2 March 1942, it damaged the 2,434-ton steamer Fabritsius so severely that it was written off. The 4,629-ton oil tanker Kuybyshev was damaged on 3 March south of Kerch, which deprived the Soviets of much fuel. It was withdrawn to the port of Novorossiysk where it
3538-471: The 226th Rifle Regiment behind German lines at Sudak . Supported by the battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna , the cruiser Krasnyi Krym and four destroyers, the Soviet Sudak Landing [ ru ; uk ] quickly dispersed the small Romanian garrison in the town with naval gunfire. After wading ashore, the Soviet regiment sat tight and entrenched itself. Manstein correctly saw the operation as
3660-453: The 39th and 40th Tank Brigades and the 229th Separate Tank Battalion. It failed on the first day after immense losses and quickly died down. As a result of these operations, the 51st Army suffered losses of 9,852 killed, 4,959 missing, and 23,799 wounded for a total of more than 39,000 casualties between 10 and 31 March. Mounting Luftwaffe air superiority began to tell as Kerch port came under heavy and sustained German air attack, constraining
3782-590: The 44th Army were pursued along the Black Sea coast, unraveling the Soviet forward positions to the north. On 20 January, the XXXXII and XXX Corps reached the Parpach Narrows, greatly shortening the front-line. Kozlov was thrown into a panic and predicted the Soviet landing force's complete destruction. The Soviets paid the price for their slow westward deployment from Kerch, as they lacked the reserves to throw back this new and potent German threat. Soviet generals complained about
Battle of the Kerch Peninsula - Misplaced Pages Continue
3904-586: The 44th, 47th and 51st Armies belonging to it organically and the Separate Coastal Army and Black Sea Fleet falling under its operational command. Kozlov had little command experience beyond the regimental level and his staff was as inept. Stavka representative Lev Mekhlis arrived at the Crimean Front HQ in late January and introduced his own ideas into the planning stage. Stalin and Mekhlis wanted to liberate Crimea with an offensive on 13 February, but
4026-407: The 633rd Rifle Regiment of the 157th Rifle Division [ ru ] at the mole. The Germans concentrated all of their fire on the cruiser, hitting it 17 times and setting its No. 2 gun turret on fire. Krasnyi Kavkaz responded with its 180 mm batteries, landed its troops in three hours and then departed the harbor. The Luftwaffe arrived above the battlefield and sank a minesweeper and
4148-477: The Black Sea amid Russia's increasing military presence near Ukraine. The Biden administration withheld the destroyers after fighting intensified between Ukrainian and Russian-backed separatist forces in an effort to alleviate the tension. Putin had threatened the safety of the US Navy ships, saying that they should stay away from the area “for their own good”. After the destroyers were withheld, Russia took advantage of
4270-455: The Bulganak Bay landing. Army Corps commander Lieutenant General Sponeck requested permission to use the Romanian 8th Cavalry Brigade to reinforce Himer. The counterattack against Zyuk was launched only at 1300 hours on 27 December due to the muddy roads. The beachhead was flat and devoid of flora , offering no cover for either side. The Soviet 2nd Battalion/83rd Naval Infantry Brigade spotted
4392-566: The Caucasus Front Front with nine rifle divisions. Soviet engineers built an ice road across the frozen Kerch Strait, enabling 96,618 men, 23,903 horses and 6,519 motor vehicles to reinforce the Kerch peninsula forces. The 47th Army was deployed to the area, initially with only two rifle divisions. The Stavka created the Crimean Front under, with Kozlov as its commander, on 28 January, with
4514-813: The Cimmerian Bosporus. The Kerch Strait was a nearby site of a major naval battle (that became known as the Battle of Kerch Strait ) in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) . It was fought in 1790 and ended in Russian victory. During the Second World War , the Kerch Peninsula became the scene of much desperate combat between forces of the Soviet Red Army and Nazi Germany . Fighting frequency intensified in
4636-468: The Crimean Front armies were repeatedly cut off, and engineers had not constructed field works of any kind. Under pressure from Stalin, Kozlov started his attack anyway. The 51st Army planned to attack in the north on 27 February across a flat, 80-square kilometer plain dotted only by a handful of small villages. The Germans fortified the villages of Tulumchak , Korpech’ [ ru ] , and Koi-Asan . The German 46th and 132nd Infantry Divisions held
4758-432: The Crimean Front launched repeated offensives against the 11th Army, all of which failed with heavy losses. The Red Army lost 352,000 men in the attacks, while the Axis suffered 24,120 casualties. Superior German artillery firepower was largely responsible for the Soviet debacle. On 8 May 1942, the Axis struck with great force in a major counteroffensive codenamed Trappenjagd which concluded by around 19 May 1942 with
4880-445: The Crimean Front lost 176,566 men, 258 tanks, 1,133 artillery pieces and 315 aircraft in three armies comprising twenty-one divisions . Total Soviet casualties during the five-month-long battle amounted to 570,000 men, while Axis losses were 38,000. Trappenjagd was one of the battles immediately preceding the German summer offensive ( Case Blue ). Its successful conclusion allowed the Axis to concentrate their forces on Sevastopol, which
5002-572: The Crimean Front) The Battle of the Kerch Peninsula , which commenced with the Soviet Kerch-Feodosia Landing Operation ( Russian : Керченско-Феодосийская десантная операция , Kerchensko-Feodosiyskaya desantnaya operatsiya ) and ended with the German {{ Operation Bustard Hunt ( German : Unternehmen Trappenjagd ), was a World War II battle between Erich von Manstein 's German and Romanian 11th Army and
Battle of the Kerch Peninsula - Misplaced Pages Continue
5124-453: The German deployment and launched an immediate attack with three T-26 tanks and several infantry companies. A 3.7 cm Pak 36 anti-tank gun fired 42 rounds and knocked out all three Soviet tanks. Several German bombers showed up to support the German infantry and helped drive the Soviet naval infantry back to its beachhead but the Germans delayed their main attack until the next day. At dawn, the two deployed infantry battalions of IR 97 attacked
5246-598: The Germans were distracted by this, the 44th Army would land at Feodosiya in the German rear. Naval gunfire support would be provided by the Black Sea Fleet . The Soviet Air Forces , would contribute air cover from the Taman Peninsula . The Soviets had the men and troop transports on hand but were compelled to use fishing trawlers for the actual landings due to the lack of landing craft , had little experience with large-scale joint operations and were impeded by
5368-517: The Kerch Peninsula, as well as its precipitate withdrawal from the Peninsula, I hereby declare 46. Infanterie-Division forfeit of soldierly honor. Decorations and promotions are in abeyance until countermanded." 302nd Mountain Division attacked from its Kamysh Burun bridgehead to capture Kerch on 31 December after 46th Infantry Division's retreat. The 51st Army had four rifle divisions ashore and liberated
5490-514: The Kerch Strait where it sought shelter from the above storm. During the storm the tanker split in half, releasing more than 2000 tonnes of fuel oil. Four other boats sank in the storm, resulting in the release of sulphur cargo. The storm hampered efforts to rescue crew members. Another victim of the storm, the Russian cargo ship Volnogorsk , loaded with sulfur, sank at Port Kavkaz on the same day. Russia and Ukraine agreed to guarantee each other freedom of navigation for ships of both nations in
5612-649: The Kuban bridgehead in September 1943. In 1944 the Soviets built a "provisional" railway bridge ( Kerch railway bridge ) across the strait. Construction made use of supplies captured from the Germans. The bridge went into operation in November 1944, but moving ice floes destroyed it in February 1945; reconstruction was not attempted. After the war, ferry transportation across the strait was established in 1954, connecting Crimea and
5734-576: The Luftwaffe flew only three sorties in the area. After a five-kilometer Soviet penetration, Gruppe Hitzfeld sealed off the attack with artillery, anti-tank and machine-gun fire. Strongpoint Korpech’ remained in German hands and subjected the attacking Soviets to withering machine gun and mortar fire. Kozlov added the 77th Mountain Rifle Division into the right-wing attack at the plain, while Mattenklott redeployed Hitzfeld's IR 213 and I./IR 105 to help out
5856-591: The Red Army at Feodosia with impunity. The Soviets mistakenly located the German main point of effort at Vladislavovka to the north of Feodosia and launched a battalion-sized armored-infantry counterattack there. They were stopped in their tracks by Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 190 StuG IIIs, which knocked out 16 T-26 tanks. 32 ID assaulted Feodosia at dawn on 17 January. The Red Army troops in the town fought on through heavy street combat but were badly hampered by constant Stuka attacks as well as German artillery and machine gun fire. Impenetrable black smoke clouds formed above
5978-461: The Romanian 4th Mountain Brigade and gained ground. The Soviets advanced only 10 kilometers in three days after landing at Feodosia on 29 December. Their failure to cut off the 46th Infantry Division and destroy the Romanian brigades was criticized by Manstein as a missed Soviet opportunity to destroy the entire 11th Army. On 1 January the 44th Army had 23,000 troops ashore in three rifle divisions but this
6100-456: The Romanians. Hitzfeld attacked on 28 February and took back a part of the lost ground. The Romanians proved brittle and 100 were captured as the 77th Mountain Rifle Division made a small penetration and captured Kiet hamlet, threatening to outflank all of 11th Army. Hitzfeld counterattacked and retook Kiet, stabilizing the line. The Soviet attack against the Romanians continued on 1 March until it
6222-417: The Soviet beachhead at Cape Zyuk. The Soviet beachhead at Cape Khroni was also wiped out by IR 72 on 28 December, with only 12 men swimming to safety. Himer's division took 1,700 prisoners and only the 1,000-strong Soviet force at Bulganak Bay remained, along with the Kamysh Burun beachhead as well as isolated pockets of Soviet resistance inland. Feodosia , a mid-sized town with a pre-war population of 28,000,
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#17330936462066344-428: The Soviet forces were unequal to the task. Soviet troops lacked food and three 76mm artillery regiments had no ammunition at all. The backward nature of the Kerch peninsula's road network, the muddy roads and the Luftwaffe's bombing campaign against ports and Soviet cargo shipping prevented a sufficient logistical buildup and made Stalin's demand unrealistic. On 27 February Kozlov finally had available for his operation
6466-494: The Soviet forces. He ordered Colonel Friedrich Schmidt's 72nd Infantry Regiment to wipe out the Soviet force at Cape Khroni but lacked the troops to deal with the Bulganak Bay and Cape Zyuk formations. Himer improvised by ordering a headquarters company, 3rd Battalion/97th Infantry Regiment and an artillery battery of 10.5 cm howitzers to tackle the Cape Zyuk landing. By midnight, infantry regiment (IR) 97 had its 1st and 3rd Battalions and two artillery batteries in position for
6588-536: The Soviet landing forces. The cargo ship Voroshilov at Cape Tarhan was bombed and sunk with 450 troops aboard. One vessel with 100 men from Group 2 was bombed and sank off Cape Zyuk. Lacking radios, the lightly-armed and half-frozen Soviet formations north of Kerch moved only one kilometer inland before stopping and digging in for German counterattacks . The Soviet regimental commanders , with little to no communications link to headquarters, decided to wait for planned reinforcements that were delayed for three days due to
6710-413: The Soviet leadership into chaos. Otto Hitzfeld's IR 213 attacked, supported by two battalions from the 46th Infantry Division (ID) and three StuG IIIs. The Germans achieved complete surprise and swiftly overran the Soviet positions. The StuGs knocked out two T-26 tanks but lost one of their own to a Soviet 76.2 mm anti-tank gun. The ridge-line west of Feodosia was in German hands by afternoon, along with
6832-574: The Soviet position, supported by two 10.5 cm howitzers. A combat engineer company blocked the Soviet escape route to the east. The Soviet defensive position was hopelessly exposed. Six He 111 bombers and a few Stukas bombed the Soviet troops. The Soviet defenses were smashed and by 1200 hours the Germans reached the beach. A number of Soviet troops fought on while waist-deep in the water. Their resistance fell apart by evening; 458 were captured and approximately 300 were killed. Infantry Regiment 97 lost only 40 men killed or wounded in two days of destroying
6954-771: The Soviet tanks, turning them into easy targets for German anti-tank units and artillery. The Luftwaffe made its presence felt with 40 Stuka sorties on the overcrowded Soviet tank masses. The Soviets admitted to losing 93 tanks in one day. Their gains were comparatively minor: four Czech-made German howitzers were destroyed and the Soviet Air Forces bombed and destroyed a 23-ton ammunition dump at Vladislavovka. The Soviets called off their attack on 3 March. Kozlov's big push failed and from 27 February he suffered extremely heavy losses of infantry and tanks, including 28 KV-1s. He had gained an exposed salient, which he could hold only with light forces due to its lack of cover. Kozlov blamed
7076-570: The Strait of Kerch. Ukraine and Russia agreed to treat the strait and the Azov Sea as shared internal waters. On Sunday 11 November 2007 news agencies reported a very strong storm on the Black Sea . Four ships sank, six ran aground on a sandbank, and two tankers were damaged, resulting in a major oil spill and the death of 23 sailors. The Russian-flagged oil tanker Volgoneft-139 encountered trouble in
7198-620: The Taman Peninsula side of the strait, sits on Taman Bay , which is separated from the main Kerch Strait by the Chushka Spit to the north and the former Tuzla Spit to the south; the Tuzla Spit is now Tuzla Island , connected to the Taman Peninsula by a 2003 Russian-built 3.8-kilometre-long (2.4 mi) dam, and to mainland Crimea by the Crimean Bridge opened in 2018. A major cargo port
7320-466: The Thracian Bosporus did. Most geographers, such as Posidonius , Strabo ( Geographica 11.7.4), and Ptolemy , considered the boundary between Europe and Asia to be the river Tanais ( Don ), which flows into the Sea of Azov from the north; an alternative view, found in the poet Cornelius Gallus was that it was the river Hypanis ( Kuban ), which flows into the Sea of Azov from the east, close to
7442-504: The XXXXII Corps front along with the Romanian 18th Infantry Division. Gruppe Hitzfeld waited in reserve. The Axis defensive preparations were extensive and in accordance with German tactical doctrine. Reinforced German strongpoints had all-around defenses, neutralizing the effects of simultaneous Soviet frontal and flank attacks, and the Germans created a system of engineering works permeated with augmented artillery fires. Mattenklott made
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#17330936462067564-462: The all-clear for the follow-up forces. The German II./AR 54 gunners engaged the Soviet patrol boats without hitting them. Beginning at 0426 hours, the destroyer Shaumyan inserted a company of naval infantrymen in 20 minutes into the harbor. The destroyers Zhelezniakov and Nyezamozhnik landed more reinforcements soon after. Shaumyan was damaged by German artillery fire. At 0500 hours, the cruiser Krasnyi Kavkaz began unloading 1,853 soldiers from
7686-429: The boggy terrain. The supporting Red Army tanks were easily destroyed by StuG IIIs and anti-tank guns. Lieutenant Johann Spielmann's StuG III destroyed 14 T-34s in one day while Fritz Schrödel's StuG III destroyed eight Soviet tanks, of which two were KV-1s. Soviet tank losses were large, with 157 tanks destroyed in three days. The 56th Tank Brigade lost 88 tanks. The Soviet attempt to capture Koi-Asan failed yet again but
7808-512: The bridge to reach Mariupol in November 2018, Russian forces responded by blocking the straits with a large container ship. Upon turning back, the Ukrainian ships and crews were fired upon and seized by the Russian coast guard. Two gas carriers collided and exploded in 2019, killing 14 people. On 15 April 2021 Russia decided to close the area of Kerch Strait to "warships and other state vessels" from 24 April to 31 October. The stated rationale for
7930-432: The buildup of Soviet armor and artillery. Mekhlis demanded that massed tank attacks be made against the unbroken German lines. Manstein received more reinforcements in the form of the 28th Light Infantry Division , which was equipped with the new, easily concealed, low-silhouette 2.8 cm sPzB 41 light anti-tank gun. One of its soldiers, Obergefreiter Emanuel Czernik, destroyed seven T-26s and one BT tank in one day with
8052-422: The burning buildings. Owing to ceaseless German airstrikes, a Black Sea Fleet evacuation of the trapped 236th Rifle Division failed. The formation was destroyed and 5,300 prisoners were taken by Fretter-Pico's men on 17 January. Its commanding officer escaped but was convicted and executed by a Soviet military tribunal three weeks later. XXX Corps' attack intensified on 19 January as the remaining two divisions of
8174-471: The closure are military exercises . The closure partially cut off the Ukrainian ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol from the Black Sea. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry protested against the decision, stating that "such actions by the Russian Federation are another attempt to violate the norms and principles of international law to usurp the sovereign rights of Ukraine as a coastal state, as Ukraine has
8296-546: The coldest months of year when the strait froze over, allowing the movement of troops over the ice. After the Eastern Front stabilized in early 1943, Hitler ordered the construction of a 4.8-kilometre (3.0 mi) road-and-rail bridge across the Strait of Kerch in the spring of 1943 to support his desire for a renewed offensive to the Caucasus. The cable railway ( aerial tramway ), which went into operation on 14 June 1943 with
8418-451: The cost of 995 casualties, of which 243 were killed or missing. The Caucasus Front, having lost 115,630 men in January, was too shaken and weakened by Manstein's rapid counter-stroke and the Luftwaffe's anti-shipping campaign to mount large-scale offensive operations for more than a month. The Germans lacked armor and sufficient air units to maximally exploit their victory. Stavka reinforced
8540-407: The difficult geologic and geographic configuration of the area. Construction of an approach was actually started in 2003 with the 3.8 kilometres (2.4 mi)-long dam, provoking the 2003 Tuzla Island conflict. After the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea the government of Russia decided to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait. The 19-kilometre Crimean Bridge opened to road traffic in 2018 and
8662-683: The division's battalions had to stop after meeting a minefield , while another lost cohesion in the fog. The Soviet 55th Tank Brigade blocked the road to Korpech’ with a battalion of T-26s and four KV-1s. A battalion of Regiment 204 lost 40% of its tanks destroyed or damaged after running into a concentration of Soviet 45 mm anti-tank guns. After three hours the German attack was called off. 22nd Panzer lost 32 of 142 tanks destroyed or damaged, including 17 Panzer 38(t), nine Panzer II and six Panzer IV . Manstein conceded he had prematurely committed an inexperienced, half-deployed division into an all-out assault but pointed out that an immediate counterattack
8784-625: The east. The strait is 3.1 kilometres (1.9 mi) to 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) wide and up to 18 metres (59 ft) deep. The most important harbor, the Crimean city of Kerch , gives its name to the strait, formerly known as the Cimmerian Bosporus or Straits of Taman . It has also been called the Straits of Yenikale after the Yeni-Kale fortress in Kerch. Taman , the most important settlement on
8906-414: The eastern Kerch Peninsula on 1 January. By 1 January XXXXII Army Corps had a defensive line 20 kilometers west of Feodosia. Gruppe Hitzfeld , led by Otto Hitzfeld , arrived with IR 213 from the 73rd Infantry Division, an artillery battalion, an anti-tank gun battalion ( Panzerjäger -Abteilung 173 ), four StuG III assault guns and an anti-aircraft detachment. The Soviet 236th Rifle Division attacked
9028-483: The end of March, the Black Sea Transport Fleet had been reduced from 43,200 tons of shipping to 27,400 tons. Six transports had been lost and six were under repair. On 17 April, the 4,125-ton steamer Svanetiya was sunk by KG 26 during an attempt to supply Sevastopol. Approximately 535 men were lost. On 19 April, the tanker I. Stalin was damaged along with three other transports. On 21 April, KG 55 damaged
9150-438: The end of the day. Sponeck immediately ordered the Romanian 8th Cavalry Brigade and 4th Mountain Brigade [ ru ] to turn around and form defensive positions around the Soviet bridgehead at Feodosia. He requested permission from 11th Army commander General der Infanterie Erich von Manstein to withdraw the 46th Infantry Division from Kerch to avoid its encirclement but Manstein refused, ordering Sponeck to throw
9272-434: The enemy back into the sea with the help of reinforcements in the form of Gruppe Hitzfeld from the 73rd Infantry Division and the entire 170th Infantry Division , which would crush the Soviet landing force at Feodosia. Sponeck then disobeyed orders, cut off contact with 11th Army headquarters and at 0830 hours on 29 December, ordered the 46th Infantry Division to retreat west from Kerch to avoid encirclement. Sponeck's order
9394-486: The entire Kerch Peninsula against potential Soviet landings. Sponeck's only backup was the Romanian 8th Cavalry Brigade [ ru ] near Alushta . On the evening of 25 December 1941, the Soviet 224th Rifle Division and 83rd Naval Infantry Brigade were packed into small craft on the Taman Peninsula and began to pass the Kerch Strait. Group 2 disembarked at Cape Khroni to the northeast of Kerch. It consisted of
9516-439: The evacuation of the Kerch region. Stalin refused, and on 21 April ordered preparations for an offensive to retake the Crimea. On 6 May, he changed his mind and issued Order No. 170357, which ordered all forces to assume a defensive posture. He also refused to send more reinforcements. Mixed in with this order, was a limited offensive operation against German lines to improve the defenders' tactical positions. Instead of preparing for
9638-463: The fall of Sevastopol and seized the initiative. They did not succeed in their main objective of relieving Sevastopol. Casualties were high. The Soviet forces involved in the Kerch-Feodosia landing operation from 26 December 1941 through 2 January 1942 lost 41,935 men, including 32,453 killed or captured and 9,482 wounded or sick. During the offensive, Soviet photojournalist Dmitri Baltermants took
9760-518: The fighting had been bitter. The German 46th Infantry Division repulsed at least 10 Soviet attacks during the three-day offensive. On 24 March, strongpoint Korpech’ fell to the 51st Army after the Soviet infantry suffered heavy losses. The Crimean Front had fired off most of its artillery ammunition and could not proceed further despite its limited success. II./ JG 77 , a German fighter wing, arrived in Crimea after refitting and began to weaken Soviet air superiority. The 60-ton ammunition dump at Vladislavovka
9882-538: The front : The troops of the front completed the Kerch–Feodosiya Landing Operation , began on 25 December by the Transcaucasus Front and Black Sea Fleet, gaining a bridgehead in Crimea and pushing back the defending German forces. On 28 January 1942, the front was split, with the 44th, 47th, and 51st Armies becoming part of the new Crimean Front , while the 45th and 46th Armies joined
10004-574: The help of Chinese companies was contemplating building a Crimean tunnel. In order to improve navigational capabilities of the Strait of Kerch, which is quite shallow in its narrowest point, the Kerch–Yenikale Canal was dredged through the strait. The main channel can accommodate vessels up to 215 meters long with a draft of up to 8 meters with a compulsory pilot assistance. The canal is not straight, and its geometry further complicates safe navigation. The narrowness, limited depth, and turns of
10126-445: The impassable roads, although this did not stop the German 46th Infantry Division from executing a fast march over the same terrain in late December. Both sides began to construct defensive positions reinforced by dugouts , trenches and barbed wire . XXX Corps defeated the 44th Army in five days, threw two Soviet armies on the defensive, killed an estimated 6,700 Soviet troops, destroyed 85 tanks and took 10,000 prisoners and 177 guns for
10248-523: The light high-explosive rounds. German artillery responded with its own fire and the Soviets lacked the counter-battery capabilities to suppress them. The open terrain provided no cover for the Red Army soldiers, who were systematically killed and wounded in great numbers by incessant German artillery strikes. The heavy Soviet KV-1s sank into the mud and could not get forward. Vehicles were also stuck and Soviet artillery shells had to be carried by hand. Confused Soviet soldiers trampled their comrades to death in
10370-462: The limited nature of the operation. Sponeck was relieved of his command on 29 December for insubordination and court-martialed in Germany three weeks later. He was replaced by 72nd Infantry Division commander General der Infanterie Franz Mattenklott . Army Group South commander-in-chief Generaloberst Walther von Reichenau ordered that, "because of its slack reaction to the Russian landing on
10492-402: The liquidation of the Soviet defending forces. Manstein used a large concentration of airpower, heavily armed infantry divisions, concentrated artillery bombardments and amphibious assaults to break through the Soviet front in its southern portion in 210 minutes, swing north with the 22nd Panzer Division to encircle the Soviet 51st Army on 10 May and annihilate it on 11 May. The remnants of
10614-461: The main channel together with the often unpredictable effects of wind and visibility (fog) mean that there are strict procedures regulating strait transit. Transit of large vessels occurs on a one-way (alternating) group convoy basis. Transit procedures have remained unchanged, whether under Soviet, Ukrainian, or Russian jurisdiction. The Vessel Traffic Control Post in Kerch controls and oversees all traffic. Several fish-processing plants are located on
10736-675: The minesweeper Komintern and sank a transport ship. By this time the Black Sea Fleet's ability to supply the Soviet forces in Sevastopol was severely curtailed. The Germans launched Operation Trappenjagd on 8 May 1942. ("Trappenjagd" is a German compound noun meaning " bustard hunt".) Prior to the offensive, the Luftwaffe succeeded in applying severe pressure to the Soviet supply lines. By late April food and other resources were virtually exhausted. Everything, including firewood had to be brought in by sea. The Stavka asked Stalin to consider
10858-506: The mistake of putting the Romanian 18th Infantry Regiment into a difficult and exposed position in a salient on the northern part of the line. The Soviet planners, led by Tolbukhin, failed to account for the warm weather that turned the terrain into a sea of mud. 51st Army's offensive kicked off at 0630 hours on 27 February with a 230-gun artillery preparation of which most were light 76 mm guns and only 30 were heavy 122 mm guns. The fortified German strongpoints were largely unharmed by
10980-420: The mud. The German strongpoint at Tulumchak was overrun by T-26 tanks and infantry, although seven tanks were lost to German Teller mines ; and the Romanian 18th Infantry Regiment was routed. A German artillery battalion in support of the Romanians lost all 18 of its 10.5 cm leFH howitzers and 14 3.7 cm PaK guns. Kozlov's push was supported by 100 Air Force of the Crimean Front sorties that day, while
11102-463: The opening to close the Kerch Strait. On 9 December 2021 Ukrainian command ship Donbas departed from Mariupol and approached Kerch Strait. It didn't give a notice in advance to pass the strait and was warned by Russian coast guard such a notice should be given for the safety of maritime traffic. At the moment around 80 civilian ships were waiting to pass the strait. In the morning of 8 October 2022 at 06:07 (Moscow time), an explosion occurred on
11224-456: The period. The offensives cost the Crimean Front 40 percent of its manpower, 52 percent of its tanks, and 25 percent of its artillery. Axis 11th Army casualties from January to April 1942 were far fewer at 24,120 men. The result was an unbalanced loss ratio of 14–1. Insufficient artillery and air support and ignorance of the German defenses were singled out by Soviet critics as the causes of the failure. The Crimean Front had been all but destroyed as
11346-476: The rail section opened in 2019. Russian state-backed media claims that construction of the bridge caused increases in nutrients and planktons in the waters, attracting large numbers of fish and more than 1,000 endangered Black Sea bottlenose dolphins . However, Ukraine claims that the acoustic noise and pollution from both the bridge construction and military exercises may actually be killing Black Sea dolphins. When two Ukrainian navy vessels tried to pass under
11468-459: The reestablished Transcaucasus Military District . This Soviet Union –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kerch Strait The Kerch Strait is a strait in Eastern Europe . It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov , separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from the Taman Peninsula of Russia 's Krasnodar Krai in
11590-443: The required 93,804 troops, 1,195 guns and mortars, 125 anti-tank guns, 194 tanks and 200 aircraft. These forces were assembled in nine rifle divisions at the front along with numerous tank brigades containing T-26, T-34 and 36 KV-1 tanks . The Soviets were far from ready. Their tanks and aircraft lacked fuel supplies, many weapons did not work, the Soviet artillery had not organized a fire system, communications between Kozlov's HQ and
11712-527: The rifle divisions instead of massing them in a strike force. Stalin reinforced the Air Force of the Crimean Front to 581 aircraft by early March, though they were largely obsolete models. The Germans laid down 2,000 Teller mines near the Koi-Asan position and Manstein concentrated assault guns for its defense. The Soviets attacked at 0900 hours on 13 March with three rifle divisions that were quickly cut to pieces in
11834-693: The right to regulate navigation in these areas of the Black Sea". According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the decision is a violation of the freedom of navigation under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea . The decision to close the strait was preceded by Russia's warning the United States after the Biden administration 's plan to send two destroyers ( USS Roosevelt and USS Donald Cook ) to
11956-459: The road portion of the Crimean Bridge, causing major damage. Seven fuel cars of a passing railway train also ignited, causing an extensive fire on the parallel rail bridge, and two half-sections of the road bridge collapsed. On 17 July 2023, explosions under the bridge of two suicide sea drones damaging a span of the road bridge. In late 2023 The Washington Post reported that Russia, with
12078-448: The siege of Sevastopol to lead a counteroffensive composed of four Axis divisions that were in place by 13 January. The objective was to recapture Feodosia and throw the 44th Army off balance. Luftwaffe reinforcements poured in to meet Manstein's demand for air support and a new Special Staff Crimea was created under the command Robert Ritter von Greim to lead operations in the peninsula. Kozlov's Transcaucasian Front (which had now become
12200-467: The sinking of the 2,960-ton steamer V. Chapayev , with the loss of 16 crew and 86 soldiers. KG 51 returned to Tuapse on 24 March and sank the transports Yalta and Neva . On 2 April, the Kuybyshev was intercepted and sunk. So great was the loss of shipping that Soviet land forces were ordered to cease all offensive operations to conserve supplies. In the eight-week air offensive, from early February to
12322-409: The stormy winter weather. A German Messerschmitt Bf 110 reconnaissance aircraft noted the buildup of Soviet naval forces and reported it to Lieutenant General Hans Graf von Sponeck 's XXXXII Army Corps headquarters . Sponeck issued a general alert for enemy amphibious landings in the Kerch Peninsula. The mass of Sponeck's units had been transferred for the assault on Sevastopol and he had only
12444-615: The strait as the Cimmerian Bosporus ( Cimmerius Bosporus ) from its Greek name, the Cimmerian Strait ( Κιμμέριος Βόσπορος , Kimmérios Bosporos ), which honored the Cimmerians , nearby steppe nomads . In ancient times the low-lying land near the Strait was known as the Maeotic Swamp . The Cimmerian Bosporus in ancient times was regarded as separating Europe from Asia, just as
12566-528: The surface at Feodosiya harbor to mark the port entrance with lights. At 0350 hours on 29 December, the Soviet destroyers Shaumyan and Zhelezniakov showed up at Feodosia, fired star shells for illumination and followed up with a 13-minute barrage on the German defenses. Four MO-class small guard ships carrying 60 naval infantrymen secured the lighthouse at the harbor mole . The naval infantrymen, led by Lieutenant Arkady F. Aydinov, captured two 3.7 cm Pak anti-tank guns and launched green flares to signal
12688-514: The total number of troops landed to 4,264. XXX Corps deployed more reinforcements to crush the Soviet units and by 28 January the battle was over. 2,000 Soviet troops were killed at Sudak, another 876 prisoners were taken and executed, 350–500 joined local resistance groups , while the rest laid low in the wilderness . Fretter-Pico tasked a Romanian mountain infantry battalion with mopping up operations, which continued for five months until June. The Soviet 236th Rifle Division's forward security zone
12810-484: The unfavorable winter weather and never arrived to help them. The 302nd Mountain Rifle Division landed at Kamysh Burun south of Kerch and ran into extremely effective German resistance. Two German battalions from Colonel Ernst Maisel 's 42nd Infantry Regiment held perfect defensive positions on high ground that dominated the sand beaches. The landing at 0500 hours was stopped by an onslaught of German MG 34 machine gun , mortar and light-artillery fire that prevented
12932-401: The waves or were incapacitated by hypothermia . Another rifle battalion landed at Khroni later that day with a platoon of T-26 tanks and light artillery pieces. At Cape Zyuk [ Wikidata ] , 290 troops got ashore in six hours but a few vessels foundered on the rocky beach. At Cape Tarhan only 18 soldiers got to the beach out of Group 3's landing force of 1,000 men due to
13054-423: The weapon. Manstein estimated the Soviet attack strength as six to eight rifle divisions and 160 tanks. After three days of heavy losses, Kozlov called off his fourth and as it turned out, final offensive. He withdrew back to his February starting positions by 15 April. The Crimean Front was now heavily weighted toward its right flank – 51st Army – leaving the 44th Army on the left depleted and the 47th Army in reserve
13176-485: The weather for his failure, while Mekhlis decided the fault lay with Tolbukhin's inept planning and had him fired. Stalin ordered the second offensive to proceed in ten days. The Soviet planning staffs saw Koi-Asan as the priority target and decided to mass 51st Army's striking power against it. The 44th Army would launch a significant feint attack on the 132nd Infantry Division along the coast. Kozlov had 224 tanks, but on Mekhlis' recommendation he decided to share them between
13298-439: The whaleboats and fishing trawlers from advancing to the shore. The 2nd Battalion of the 42nd Infantry Regiment devastated a Soviet landing at Eltigen [ ru ] . A Soviet naval infantry company landed at Stary Karantin [ ru ] but was annihilated by a counterattack from Major Karl Kraft's 1st Battalion/42nd Infantry. The second wave landed at 0700 hours and was also thrown back. Soviet troops seized
13420-403: Was 20 kilometers west of Feodosia and the main line of resistance ran atop a major ridge 15 kilometers from the town. At daybreak on 15 January, He 111 medium bombers and Stuka dive bombers began attacking the Soviet positions on the ridge and were preceded by a quick artillery preparation. German bombers located the 44th Army headquarters, destroyed it and severely wounded its commander, throwing
13542-430: Was again blown up by Soviet bombers. The 22nd Panzer Division was a fresh German armored division and was tasked by Manstein with the recapture of Korpech’. The division was not yet fully equipped with its supporting elements and its tanks were mostly obsolete Czech-built Panzer 38(t)s . Its attack at 0600 hours on 20 March in dense fog ran headlong into an offensive buildup of Soviet armor and went badly wrong. One of
13664-503: Was conquered within six weeks. The Kerch Peninsula was used as a launching pad by German forces to cross the Kerch Strait on 2 September 1942 during Operation Blücher II, a part of the German drive to capture the Caucasus oilfields. On 8 December 1941, Stavka , the Soviet supreme command , ordered General-Lieutenant Dmitry Kozlov 's Transcaucasian Front to begin planning for
13786-483: Was crippled by Ju 88s of KG 51 on 13 March. On 18 March, KG 51 Ju 88s sank the 3,689-ton transport Georgiy Dimitrov . Further damage was done on 23 March when nine Ju 88s of KG 51 sank the minelayers Ostrovskiy and GS-13 and a motor torpedo boat in Tuapse harbour. They also damaged two submarines ( S-33 and D-5 ). That evening, He 111s of KG 27 claimed one 5,000-ton and two 2,000-ton ships sunk. Soviet records recorded
13908-469: Was far quicker. Mattenklott's XXXXII Corps received the 170th and 132nd Infantry Divisions as reinforcements along with two battalions from the 72nd Infantry Division, c. 5 StuG III assault guns and the Romanian 18th Infantry Division [ ru ] . Its task was to hold the line against the 51st Army. Manstein also diverted the XXX Corps under Generalmajor Maximilian Fretter-Pico from
14030-417: Was highly controversial. There were insufficient German forces at Feodosia to stop further Soviet advances, but there were 20,000 Romanian troops in the vicinity and strong German reinforcements on the way. Two Romanian brigades launched a counterattack on 30 December, but were defeated in large part due to their insufficient air and artillery support. The 46th Infantry Division retreated 120 kilometers through
14152-415: Was in reserve near Feodosia. Two more Romanian mountain infantry and cavalry brigades were halfway toward Kerch to crush the Soviet landings there. The 44th Army began loading up men and equipment at 1300 hours on 28 December into an invasion fleet at Novorossiysk , which consisted of two light cruisers , eight destroyers , 14 transports and dozens of small craft. At 1730, the advance guard consisting of
14274-419: Was insufficient for sustained offensive operations against Manstein. A Soviet infantry- armored attack on the XXXXII headquarters at Islam-Terek failed after 16 T-26 tanks were knocked out by the fresh Panzerjäger-Abteilung 173 . By 2 January, the follow-up effects of the Soviet success at Feodosia fizzled out and the 44th Army's combat operations degenerated into a static defense. The Soviet landings prevented
14396-507: Was lightly defended by two coastal artillery battalions and 800 combat engineers under the command of Oberstleutnant Hans von Ahlfen , which were refitting from the assault on Sevastopol. The artillery units had 17 obsolete World War I-era German and Czech 15 cm and four 10 cm howitzers. The engineers had only small arms. A boom at the harbor entrance was supposed to deny the enemy access but had been left open due to negligence. The Romanian 3rd Rosiori motorized cavalry regiment
14518-434: Was necessary as his army was in danger of losing its critical defensive positions. Also, the division did succeed in disrupting the Soviet attack preparations. Kozlov's third drive on Koi-Asan began after a week of replacements, restocking and reinforcements; it was a smaller operation conducted by the 390th Rifle Division and 143rd Rifle Brigade of the 51st Army, supported by two T-26 companies, six KVs, and three T-34s from
14640-445: Was severely damaged on 29 January, but the Luftwaffe failed to prevent the transport of 100,000 men and hundreds of artillery pieces to Kerch between 20 January and 11 February. At Sevastopol, 764 tons of fuel and 1700 tons of supplies arrived at the port. On 13 February, the cruiser Komintern and destroyer Shaumyan brought in 1,034 soldiers and 200 tons of supplies. The cruiser Krasnyi Krym and destroyer Dzerzhinskiy brought in
14762-400: Was stopped by the arrival of the German 170th Infantry Division. The rest of the Soviet effort slackened. The 44th Army's weak attacks failed to tie down all German troops opposite it and could not prevent reinforcements from moving to the threatened north. The Soviets lost 40 tanks in three days from 27 February – 1 March. Soviet naval bombardments of Feodosia and Yalta achieved little, as did
14884-498: Was too complicated for the Red Army 's and Soviet Navy 's abilities. It was based on multiple small landings at separate locations at separate times instead of one large, simultaneous landing. Five transport groups from Rear-Admiral Sergey Gorshkov 's Azov Flotilla would land 7,500 soldiers from the 224th Rifle Division and 302nd Mountain Rifle Division of the 51st Army on eight isolated beaches north and south of Kerch. After
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