On August 19, 1942, the heroic defense of Novorossiysk began.
On this day, units of the 17th German Army attacked the insufficiently protected villages of Severskaya, Abinskaya and Krymskaya.
On August 21, all three settlements were captured, which allowed the enemy, having passed the passes, to reach Novorossiysk.
To capture the city, Nazi Germany concentrated forces far superior to the grouping of the Novorossiysk Defensive Region (NOR), under the command of Major General Andrei Grechko.
The Soviet troops were inferior to the enemy in terms of the number of personnel four times, in tanks and aircraft - twice, in guns and mortars - seven times.
At the same time, the NOR forces were supposed to hold a front with a length of about 1 thousand km - from the Dzhubga River to the mouth of the Kuban.
As experts interviewed by RT recall, Novorossiysk was of great strategic importance to the Soviet Union.
Since November 1941, the main staff of the Black Sea Fleet headquarters was located there.
Also, the supply of the Red Army and the evacuation of enterprises inland were carried out through the city port.
“Novorossiysk was an important logistical point of the region.
The German command assessed it as a key to the defense of the Taman Peninsula and as a springboard for an offensive along the Black Sea coast towards Batumi, ”Boris Yablokov, associate professor of the GAUGN Faculty of History, Candidate of Historical Sciences, explained in a RT commentary.
Defense sectors
Taking advantage of the superiority in manpower and technology, the Germans continued to advance towards Novorossiysk.
To deter the enemy after the capture of the villages of Severskaya, Abinskaya and Krymskaya, the deputy commander of the NOR, Rear Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, ordered the commander of the Novorossiysk naval base, Georgy Kholostyakov, to urgently form detachments from the available human resources and send them to defend the passes adjacent to the city.
At the same time, the entire coastal artillery of the naval base was united into three artillery battalions, and eight correction posts were created at the dominant heights.
Thus, the NOR forces were able to conduct all-round observation and timely strike at concentrations of occupying troops.
In total, during the defense of Novorossiysk, coastal artillery fired almost 6.5 thousand shells at the Nazis.
The ships of the Black Sea Fleet provided serious support to the defenders of the city, which fired at enemy ground groups.
According to the Nazis themselves, the destroyers Kharkiv and Soobrazitelny inflicted great damage on them.
However, it was extremely difficult to restrain the onslaught of the enemy.
Despite the support of artillery and aviation of the Black Sea Fleet, on August 23, the 103rd separate cadet rifle brigade and marines were forced to leave the villages of Neberdzhaevskaya and Nizhnyaya Bakanskaya.
As historians note, it was a very painful defeat, because, having captured the villages, the Nazis were able to shell the city and port with artillery.
On August 27, Grechko ordered the division of Novorossiysk into seven defense sectors.
The naval base, which constituted the sixth sector, was divided into five combat areas.
It was assumed that each such fortified area would have minefields, as well as generally good engineering support.
However, the plan was adopted too late and could not be fully implemented.
Andrei Grechko (fourth from right) with officers of the Red Army
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
However, the Wehrmacht failed to take Novorossiysk on the move.
Then the enemy decided to attack the settlements located near the city.
At the end of August, several villages and Anapa passed under the control of the Germans.
At the same time, the enemy continued to try to break through directly to Novorossiysk.
Defending the city, the 255th Marine Brigade became famous, repelling the attacks of the 9th German division from Neberdzhaevskaya and Lipok.
In early September, the unit was surrounded, but the black berets did not leave their positions.
From August 26 to September 7, they destroyed over 3 thousand enemy soldiers and officers.
The 255th brigade strictly followed the famous order No. 227 "Not a step back" and left the defense lines only after the appropriate order.
Incredibly fierce resistance to the invaders was provided by the 103rd separate cadet rifle brigade, which fought on the passes approaching Novorossiysk.
At the cost of colossal losses, she managed to slow down the advance of enemy divisions.
On September 2, 1942, the brigade fell into the German encirclement, but continued to fight.
A few days later, with the support of the 126th tank battalion, the unit managed to break through the blockade and retreat to Novorossiysk, where it replenished the depleted city garrison.
On September 10, the enemy captured the western part of Novorossiysk.
The remnants of the 103rd brigade, along with other Soviet units, took up defense at the Proletariy and Oktyabr cement plants.
By that time, the cadet unit had virtually ceased to exist: out of 5 thousand people, only a few dozen survived.
Subsequently, the 103rd brigade was recreated in Azerbaijan.
This unit of the second formation became part of the 46th Army, which covered the Soviet-Turkish border and defended the passes of the Main Caucasian Range.
On the wave of success
On September 11, 1942, the NOR forces, exhausted by continuous battles, were able to stop the Nazis in the southeastern part of Novorossiysk.
The date of the end of the defense of the city is considered to be September 25, when the enemy stopped trying to advance further.
Thanks to the resilience of the Novorossiysk garrison, the Nazis failed to break into Abkhazia and Transcaucasia.
Failures befell them in other directions of the south of the USSR, where, under the hail of counterattacks of the Red Army, the Nazis had to go on the defensive.
Soviet soldiers on the ruins of Novorossiysk
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Taking advantage of the forced pause in the offensive operations of the enemy, the Soviet command sent new units and material resources to the Caucasus.
During the winter battles of 1943, Soviet soldiers liberated the previously abandoned Mozdok, Pyatigorsk, Stavropol and Krasnodar.
Of great importance for the successful advance of the Red Army in southern Russia was the defeat of the invaders in the Stalingrad direction.
There, at the end of November 1942, a 300,000-strong group under the command of Friedrich Paulus fell into the boiler.
Wehrmacht tank formations involved in the battles in the North Caucasus were thrown to her aid.
However, the enemy formations failed to break through the ring.
The 6th Army of Paulus began to starve and practically lost its combat effectiveness.
On February 2, 1943, the German field marshal announced his surrender.
Around the same time, the Red Army launched Operation Sea to land southwest of Novorossiysk two detachments: the main detachment and the distraction detachment under the command of Major Caesar Kunikov.
Thus, the Soviet command intended to create one of the bridgeheads for the de-occupation of the western districts of the city.
However, due to the storm, it was not possible to land the main landing force.
As a result, the entire power of the enemy strike was taken over by Kunikov’s unit, which entrenched itself near the village of Stanichki and Cape Myskhako.
The Red Army called this piece of territory Malaya Zemlya and swore to turn it into a "big grave for the Nazis."
As of February 4, the number of “small landowners” was 262 soldiers, but by February 10 there were 17 thousand of them. The brave paratroopers were able to dislodge the Nazis from the most dangerous positions adjacent to their fortified area, but they failed to create a springboard for a throw to Novorossiysk, in including because of the situation on other fronts.
In the second half of February 1943, the Red Army missed a painful enemy counterattack in the Donbas region.
As a result, the Soviet command was forced to postpone the attack on Novorossiysk for several months.
Under these conditions, the “small landowners” went on the defensive.
The paratroopers heroically held out for 225 days and went on the attack only in September 1943.
The liberation of the city and the territories adjacent to it was carried out as part of the Novorossiysk-Taman operation, which was carried out by the troops of the North Caucasian Front from September 9 to October 9, 1943.
The directions of the strikes of the Red Army in the Novorossiysk region in September-October 1943
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
More than 400 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers, 2.9 thousand guns and mortars, over 100 tanks and assault guns opposed the Soviet troops.
In addition, the Germans created a powerful defensive line, called the Blue Line.
It provided the enemy with excellent visibility and the possibility of shelling the advancing Soviet groups.
“The defense (of the enemy. -
RT
) consisted of the main strip up to 5-6 km deep and a number of positions in depth.
It was based on nodes of resistance and strongholds located in settlements and at dominant heights.
Two continuous trenches dug along the entire front line of defense, connected by communications, abounded with long-term firing points, dugouts and dugouts, ”the Blue Line is described in the materials of the Research Institute of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces.
The Soviet troops outnumbered the Germans almost 1.5 times in infantry and artillery, and more than 3 times in aviation.
The main idea of the Novorossiysk-Taman operation was to cut the enemy grouping with its subsequent defeat in parts.
In particular, the Red Army intended to prevent evacuation to the then-occupied Crimea.
By mid-September 1943, due to the massive attacks of Soviet troops from the sea, land and air, the Germans suffered significant losses, used up tactical reserves and noticeably weakened resistance.
The grouping of troops from the Myskhak bridgehead, which captured the southern part of Novorossiysk, was also active.
On September 15, the invaders began to leave part of the defensive lines.
The next day, Novorossiysk was completely liberated.
In the next three weeks, the troops of the North Caucasian Front cleared the Taman Peninsula from the Wehrmacht.
As Alexander Arsentiev, an employee of the Victory Museum, stated in a RT commentary, the complete return of Novorossiysk finally eliminated the threat of a second German offensive in the Caucasus, where the enemy intended to capture the Grozny and Baku oil regions.
“After the Red Army captured Novorossiysk, significant forces were released that could be used in other directions.
Also, the Soviet troops received a convenient naval base for the subsequent liberation of the Crimea, ”Arsentiev emphasized.