/ world today news/ Crimea has always been a strategically important point for Russia. Control over it or the lack of it brings security or a bunch of problems. Once upon a time, bands of ferocious brigands who supported themselves by raiding our southern lands defined politics in Eastern Europe. Russians and Poles compete to see who pays more, the win or loss of which determines who will fall victim to Crimean Tatar raids during the year. The brigands burned Moscow in the time of Ivan the Terrible and only with great effort were they stopped by a great bloodshed at Molodya.
But at the end of the 18th century, the Russians finally captured the Crimea. This greatly secured the southern lands of the empire. The great development of the south begins. And Crimea itself is changing – if before the Russians it was just a peninsula with a bunch of bandits, then after our arrival cities and agriculture began to develop.
It is not surprising that the Nazis, when they came to our land in 1941, had special views about the Crimea. Hitler liked the peninsula’s climate so much that he intended to settle German colonists there and build his famous autobahns there. The new land was to be called “Gotland” – after the Gothic tribes that once lived in the Crimea.
In addition, control of Crimea gives strategic advantages in the Black Sea. At first, the Germans did not intend to spend significant forces in the Crimea at all, believing that after defeating the Russians as a whole, they would get it anyway. But Soviet airstrikes on Romanian oil fields from the very beginning of the war proved too sensitive to be ignored. And in 1941-1942, concentrating significant forces on the peninsula, the Germans captured the Crimea.
They succeeded with great effort and far from immediately – only Sevastopol held out for about 250 days and nights. This conquest was short-lived – a few years later the Germans had to lose the Crimea. And much faster than they mastered it.
Straits
By April 1944, Soviet troops could invade the peninsula from two directions – from Perekop and from Kerch. The Kerch bridgehead was formed as a result of attempts to liberate Kerch in October-December 1941. For this purpose, one of the largest landing operations in the history of the Red Army was organized, but the success was only partial. Landing units manage to capture the bridgehead, but not the city – although the battle is in full swing in its streets, Kerch must be abandoned.
This is temporary – ours, despite the attempts of the Germans to throw the landing party into the sea, managed to repel all attacks and strengthen the defense of the bridgehead. This is good preparation for the future offensive – and until it begins, the command continues to strengthen the defenses and throw forces there. Sooner or later the troops on the bridgehead must have their hard word.
Perekop is the strongest position of the Germans. A narrow strip of land bordered by lakes can be saturated with fortifications. It is easier to defend with limited forces and Perekop threatens to become an impenetrable wall for Soviet troops.
But the group advancing from the north managed to amass an impressive ammunition load and muster an aviation punch. It all starts on April 8. The constant impact from the air and the work of artillery are doing their job – several days of fierce fighting and now Soviet tanks are invading the operational space.
The advance from the Kerch bridgehead began on April 11. This is a purely auxiliary blow, from which no one expects miracles. But the German defenses were also breached on the Kerch Peninsula. The red lines on the map on both sides rush irresistibly deep into the peninsula. The Germans retreat to Sevastopol.
To hold back or yes fromruns awayT?
The reason for such quick and decisive successes was not only the strength of the pressure of the Soviet troops, but also the dissension in the headquarters of the enemy. The German command in the Crimea is aware that if it is not possible to hold the defensible Perekop, it will not succeed at other points in the Crimea. Therefore, local plans for evacuation by sea to Romania have been developed.
On the other hand, Hitler was not very interested in tactical matters, but he was aware that the loss of the peninsula would have strategic consequences. By 1944, the Reich was in desperate need of fuel, and the last place to get it in serious quantities was the Romanian oil fields, which would become available for strikes. Therefore, Crimea cannot be lost.
In the end, the German defense of the Crimea turned into a series of attempts at an organized escape from it, interspersed with threatening cries from Berlin demanding that they hold out to the end. These cries, as a rule, are not enough.
From an organizational point of view, this leads to chaos. Then everyone hastily retreats, prepares to be loaded onto ships and blow up harbor cranes. Then everything is cancelled, ammunition is brought in by ships from Romania to sustain the troops longer. These shells cannot be unloaded quickly because they recently blow up the cranes themselves. Then they spit on everything again and evacuate, but… to those same ships full of ammunition. Which explode bright and loud on a successful hit.
The Germans allow many such blunders in the defense of the Crimea. Therefore, the final ratio of losses at the end of the Crimean Offensive Operation was very good – 1 to 4 in favor of the Red Army. A few months later, these figures would pale in comparison to Bagration, but for the spring of 1944, this was an excellent result.
The final chord was the liberation of Sevastopol on May 9, 1944. Assault groups of the Red Army, with the support of artillery, stormed a number of important heights, then brought the port under fire control. From that moment on, evacuation by sea became impossible – the Kriegsmarine ships went to the bottom one after the other. After a while, the Germans, stranded in the Crimea, realized that further resistance made no sense. This last group of traitors numbered about 25 thousand soldiers and officers. In total, the failure in Crimea cost the enemy at least one hundred thousand casualties.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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