On December 26, 1941, one of the most large-scale landing operations of the Great Patriotic War began - Kerch-Feodosia.
During it, the Soviet command planned to unblock besieged Sevastopol and liberate Crimea from the Nazis.
However, the Red Army managed to achieve only partial success, temporarily expelling the enemy from the Kerch Peninsula and pulling off part of the Wehrmacht units from Sevastopol.
In May 1942, under the pressure of the Nazis, the main forces of Soviet troops were forced to leave the eastern part of Crimea.
Kerch-Feodosia landing
According to historians, the main forces of the Red Army were first driven out of the Crimea by the Nazis in mid-November 1941.
“The only stronghold of Soviet troops in the Crimea was Sevastopol, which was under siege. However, the forces of the Primorsky army defending the city were not enough to defeat the Nazi troops besieging it, "said Alexander Arsenyev, employee of the Victory Museum, in an interview with RT.
The Nazis could not break through to Sevastopol either during the first assault on the city on November 11-21, or during the second, which began on December 17. However, the position of his defenders was extremely difficult. As historians note, it was unclear how long the Sevastopol defensive area could hold out without outside help. In this regard, the Soviet command decided to conduct a large-scale amphibious operation, landing a large military grouping in the eastern part of Crimea. The Red Army men were supposed to unblock Sevastopol and expel the Nazis from the Crimean Peninsula. The development and conduct of the operation was entrusted to the leadership of the Transcaucasian Front (commander - Lieutenant General Dmitry Kozlov).
According to historians, the main forces of the Nazis in Crimea were concentrated in the Sevastopol region, and the defense of the Kerch Peninsula was entrusted to a grouping of German-Romanian troops with a total number of about 25 thousand.
To participate in the landing operation, the Soviet command allocated the 44th and 51st armies.
The forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Flotilla were subordinated to the Transcaucasian Front at the time of its holding and were supposed to ensure the delivery of paratroopers, military equipment and equipment to the Crimea.
Marines in the Kerch region
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© Alexander Brodsky
The main blow was to be delivered by the 44th army in the Feodosia direction, and the 51st army was operating in the Kerch direction.
The operation began on December 26, 1941, and immediately did not go according to plan.
Due to a strong storm, only small detachments of paratroopers managed to land in the Kerch region and gain a foothold.
Full landing resumed only two days later - on December 28.
Due to the lack of heavy weapons, units of the 51st Army were forced to conduct mainly defensive battles.
The situation was changed by the Feodosia events.
After the Soviet assault group captured the lighthouse, and the Soviet boat burst into the bay and signaled that the path was clear, 23 thousand servicemen with tanks and artillery landed in Feodosia in a short time.
Scheme of the Kerch landing operation
© Wikimedia Commons
"The Germans understood that something like this could happen, but they did not know in advance either the exact plans of the Soviet troops or the timing," Maxim Sinitsyn, a graduate student at the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, emphasized in a conversation with RT.
The commander of the German 42nd Corps, which was responsible for the defense of the Kerch Peninsula, Lieutenant General Count Hans von Sponeck, fearing encirclement, ordered his troops to retreat.
He was put on trial for this and sentenced to death.
The death penalty was replaced by six years of the fortress, but later he was still shot.
Kozlov Dmitry Timofeevich (1896-1967), Soviet military leader
© Wikimedia Commons
Hitler's troops quickly left the Kerch Peninsula. Erich von Manstein, who at that time was the commander of the 11th Army of the Wehrmacht, argued that if the Soviet troops had time to take advantage of the prevailing circumstances, the situation for the Nazi group in the Crimea could become hopeless. However, the Soviet command was cautious. The Red Army grouping that landed in the Feodosia region moved not westward, but towards the 51st Army units, which managed to occupy Kerch and moved along the Kerch Peninsula. On January 2, 1942, Soviet troops reached the Arabat Gulf - Koktebel line and only after that turned their front to the west.
The Soviet forces could not quickly encircle or defeat the German troops in Crimea with a quick blow, but created a large foothold and forced the Nazis to begin an urgent transfer of troops from near Sevastopol to the eastern part of Crimea.
Crimean front
The Soviet command increased its grouping in the Crimea to more than 250 thousand servicemen, 347 tanks and about 3.5 thousand guns and mortars.
Nevertheless, the Soviet troops were unable to advance deep into the Crimea.
“The port facilities at the disposal of the Soviet troops were not designed for the volume of cargo required for such operations.
In my opinion, the calculation for the supply of troops before the operation itself was simply not carried out, "military historian Grigory Popov said in a conversation with RT.
The Nazi troops transferred from near Sevastopol in January 1942 launched a counterattack and again captured Feodosia.
The situation with the supply of the Soviet group after the loss of a large port became even more complicated.
On January 28, 1942, a new Crimean Front was separated from the Caucasian (former Transcaucasian) Front.
Lieutenant General Kozlov became its commander.
The head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, army commissar of the 1st rank Lev Mekhlis, was sent to the Crimea as a representative of the Headquarters, who immediately developed bad relations with Kozlov.
Brigadier Commissar Veselov (right) trains soldiers.
Crimean Front, April-May 1942
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© Anatoly Garanin
In the period from February 27 to April 13, 1942, the troops of the Crimean Front went on the offensive three times, but were able to advance only a short distance.
Nevertheless, large forces of the Nazis were shackled in the Crimea.
In addition to the troops that had entered the peninsula earlier, Manstein received a fresh 22nd Panzer Division at his disposal.
Historians note that after the failure of the Nazi offensive on Moscow and the collapse of the "blitzkrieg" strategy, the Nazis relied on breaking communications between Moscow and the southern regions of the USSR, from which the Red Army received oil.
And the events in the Crimea held back the German advance to the east.
Red Army soldiers occupy the village of Karpech.
Crimean Front, April-May 1942
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© Anatoly Garanin
To defeat the Soviet group in the eastern part of Crimea, the headquarters of the 11th Wehrmacht Army developed a plan for an offensive operation, code-named "Hunting for the Bustard." On May 8, 1942, Manstein imitated an offensive along the entire front, but dealt the main blow in his 6-kilometer section, which was defended by the 63rd Infantry Division of the 44th Army. At the same time, the Nazis landed a landing in the rear of the Soviet troops. The interaction between the Soviet units was disrupted, and they began to retreat east.
The Soviet Headquarters demanded to inflict a counterstrike on the enemy, but the command of the Crimean Front could not fulfill this order due to the lack of communication with the troops.
In Moscow, they were unhappy with both Kozlov and Mehlis.
The commander-in-chief of the North Caucasian direction, Marshal Semyon Budyonny, urgently went to Kerch.
However, having familiarized himself with the situation, he was only able to give the order for the evacuation of Soviet troops from the eastern part of Crimea, which began on May 15 and lasted five days.
At the same time, on May 16, street fighting began in Kerch.
At night after the battle, orderlies provide assistance to the wounded soldiers.
Crimean Front, April-May 1942
RIA News
© Anatoly Garanin
It was possible to withdraw about 140 thousand Red Army soldiers from Kerch to the Taman Peninsula.
The Soviet combined detachment, covering the evacuation, retreated to the Adzhimushkai quarries and resisted the enemy there until October 31.
According to historians, the retreat of Soviet troops from the eastern part of Crimea made the situation of Sevastopol desperate.
A German-Romanian grouping of more than 200 thousand soldiers and officers was thrown against the city.
It was fired upon by hundreds of large-caliber guns.
On June 7, the Nazis launched the third assault on Sevastopol.
Despite desperate resistance from the Red Army and Red Navy men, in the first half of July the city was captured by the Nazis.
Soviet soldiers are on the attack at Strelka.
Crimean Front, April-May 1942
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© Anatoly Garanin
Kozlov was removed from the post of front commander and demoted to major general.
Some historians believe that, despite deep theoretical knowledge, he was not competent enough for the practical leadership of the front troops, other experts believe that Kozlov became a victim of circumstances.
Mekhlis was also removed from office and demoted to the rank of corps commissar.
According to Maksim Sinitsyn, despite the defeat of the Crimean Front troops, it was thanks to the landing of Soviet troops in the eastern part of Crimea that Sevastopol was able to hold out until the summer of 1942.
"The Kerch-Feodosia landing operation and the military operations of the Crimean Front not only brought temporary relief to Sevastopol, but also slowed down the process of Nazi troops' advance eastward, to the Caucasus to Baku oil," summed up Grigory Popov.