The battle of Sevastopol was organized by German forces during the initial invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa. Thinking the Soviet Union would collapse after the fall of Moscow, attacking the capital was given top priority. After Germany suffered a devastating air raid on their Romanian allies oil fields that originated from the port city of Sevastopol during the battle of Moscow, it was deemed necessary to capture the Crimean peninsula and actions there were also given high priority.

The battle was initiated on October, 30th, 1941 and ended July, 4th, 1942. Below will be an in depth review of the battle.

---

Axis Order of Battle:

German Land Forces under General Erich von Manstein was the 11th Field Army.

German Air Forces under Generaloberst Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen was the 8th Air Corps

Romanian Forces under Lieutenant General Gheorghe Avramescu included the 1st and 4th Mountain Divisions along with their 18th Infantry Division.

These forces would total in June during the major offensive:
203,800 men
65 assault guns
1,300 guns and howitzers
720 mortars
803 aircraft

---

Soviet Order of Battle:

The defense of Sevastopol was provided mainly by the Black Sea Fleet and the Separate Coastal Army under General Ivan Petrov

These forces would total in June during the major offensive:
118,000 men
600 guns and howitzers
2,000 mortars
1 battleship
2 heavy cruisers
1 Light Cruiser
2 Flotilla Leaders
6 Destroyers
9 Minesweepers
1 Guardship
24 Submarines

---

As German forces closed through the Crimea towards the city of Sevastopol, they had stopped to rest. As they rested, the ground began to violently erupt with explosions. Dozens of vehicles were destroyed as the massive guns of battery #30, one of the coastal defense gun platforms defending Sevastopol opened fire. The Germans dubbed the gun fortress "Fort Maxim Gorky #1".

Batteries #30 and #35 were the backbone of Sevastopol's defense. Each battery had two turrets, both with two twelve-inch guns. Both had been constructed to be fitted on battleships and could throw their shells twenty-six miles. Electric engines were used to rotate and load the cannons while an underground railroad was used to transport the half-ton shells. Only the towers, protected by 400mm of steel, were visible above ground while the rest of the massive fortress was built underground.

Soviet Marines fought a valiant rear-guard action with the support of the heavy coastal guns, holding up the German advance, buying crucial time for reinforcements to be brought up to Sevastopol from the sea.

The city's defenses were divided into four zones. The first extended from the harbor at Balaclava along the south of the city pocket. The second covered the highway to Yalta. The third covered the central and eastern approaches and the fourth covered the northern shore and road to Bakhchisaray. Being a surrounded port city, the Soviets were still able to ferry away civilians and wounded soldiers via the sea-lanes, but they had to deal with near constant harassment by German dive bombers and torpedo bombers from well trained anti-shipping squadrons.

General von Manstein had decided to make his attack on the city along the northern shore. The more obvious approach at first sight would have been to attack the city along the Yalta highway, open country on either side of the road was ideal country for German tanks. That is why the Soviets were fortifying the area as fast as they could. Von Manstein realized that by taking the north shore, his artillery could dominate the Sevastopol harbor, allowing them to cut all supply to the city, dooming the defenders.

The Soviets realized that Sevastopol would not be able to hold out under current fighting conditions on its own, so they planned to land troops at Kerch at the eastern tip of the Crimean peninsula as well as Feodosia. The landing would be done by the elite 79th naval infantry brigade. They would seize the ports and create a foothold for further infantry to be brought up.

On 17, December, 1941, two days before the landings, the Germans launched a fierce assault on Sevastopol and made rapid advances. The Stavka (Soviet High Command) received an urgent message from the garrison.

"Should further attacks be of the same pace, the Sevastopol garrison can hold out for no more than three days."

~Message to the Stavka from Sevastopol

Desperate measures were required and found. The 79th brigade boarded warships immediately and set sail for the city. At Sevastopol, the Black Sea Fleet used their ships by working in twenty hour shifts to bombard the Germans from the harbor. Only at Fort Stalin, the name given to a defensive hilltop position held by the Soviet 365th Anti-Aircraft Battery were the Germans halted. While not a real fort, only having concrete emplacements for the four 76mm anti-air guns positioned on the hill, it was regardless a key defensive position.

German troops had names for all of the defensive structures at Sevastopol. They included the names GPU, Cheka, Siberia and Molotov, some of the structures dating back to the Crimean war of 1853-1856.

Grigory Yefimovich Zamikhovsky was a Red Army soldier defending Fort Stalin.

"A detachment of sailors was formed to defend the battery and I volunteered. We fought the Germans right next to the battery, hand to hand inside the barbed wire... it was cruel. Most of our detachment was killed."

Such sacrifice bought crucial time, but the situation remained critical. The Germans could break through to the north shore at any time and halt all traffic to the harbor.

The Kerch landing was launched with all haste to try and break the Germans grip on the city. Advanced detachments that landed at Kerch on December 26 could only secure a handful of bridgeheads of insignificant size. Four days later, a daring night raid was launched at Feodosia. Using a submarine to lay navigation buoys along the route, it supported the landing force at Feodosia with its searchlight to highlight German positions and also blind the defenders. After capturing the lighthouse and turning it on, the main landing force moved in. One final obstacle remained, the Germans had built a barrier around the harbor entrance made of rafts.

The boat intended to destroy the barrier never showed up, the captain of the ship suffered a failure of nerve and turned his ship around. For this, he would be shot. Luckily, it was found the barrier had been left open. The first Soviet ships landed on the harbor shores and the infantry stormed Feodosia.

The German commander at Feodosia believed his forces were about to be surrounded and cut off. He ordered his men to retreat and the Germans abandoned the Kerch peninsula. For this, the German commander, Lieutenant General von Sponeck, a holder of the Knights Cross would be court martialed and shot. The landings achieved the shock effect they had hoped for. Von Manstein had to halt his attack on Sevastopol and even had to retreat, describing the moment in his memoires.

"It was perfectly clear it was necessary to move troops from Sevastopol to the affected areas. Any delay would be fatal."

Von Mantein's 11th Army recaptured Feodosia on the 18th of January, forcing the Soviets to withdrawal to a defensive line at the Ak-Monay isthmus. The loss of Feodosia was a blow to the Stavka which prompted them to send its own representative to the Crimean peninsula. Normally, they would send a General, but for this, they sent a pure party man. The Stavka representative would cause chaos in the critical days to come, undermining the commanding officer, General Kozlov, at Ak-Monay.

---

Over the black sea, German bombers would constantly hunt Soviet shipping. By the end of 1941, the Luftwaffe had sunk 23 ships and damaged 26 more. Most dangerous of all was the elite anti-shipping squadron that had been transferred from the battle of the Atlantic, K.G 30. Without any air support, Soviet ships were at the complete mercy of these elite hunters.

Within two months, 2/3 of all transport tonnage available to supply the Crimean front was destroyed by German aircraft. For 1942, Hitler's primary objective was the Oilfields of the Caucuses, but first, Sevastopol and the Crimean peninsula had to be crushed or the southern flank and rear of Army Group South would be exposed.

Orders of the General Staff stated,

"The main task of Army Group South is to take the Kerch peninsula and Sevastopol to free up forces for further advances."

To achieve these goals, von Manstein would be reinforced by the newly formed 22nd Panzer division as well as the 8th air corps, containing the best of Luftwaffe ground attack pilots. The offensive was codenamed 'Operation Bustard Hunt'.

---

In the Kerch peninsula, Soviet troops were digging second and third lines of defense in case they were again met by overwhelming force.
The political commissar sent by the Stavka was quick to put a stop to these actions by pressuring General Kozlov. Instead, the men were told to ready themselves for the big advance coming on the 20th of May.

A Croatian luftwaffe pilot defected and warned General Kozlov of an imminent German attack. General Kozlov expected the main attack to come along the main highway, an area he already had many defenses ready and thought a push up the black sea shore was unlikely, leaving it vastly under defended.


German assault boats approached through an early morning mist, they had attacked along the coast. At first, Soviet engineers using flamethrowers were able to hold up the initial advance, but only until their fuel ran out. As this assault happened, a massive artillery barrage was unleashed on the Soviet positions and minefields. They cleared multiple lanes for infantry and assault guns to advance through the defenses as the 8th air corps obliterated Soviet positions from above.

Kozlov who had spared his men the hardships of digging trenches under pressure of the commissar found his men with little cover in the open Russian steppe. Panic and desperation quickly took hold.

On the second morning of the battle, von Manstein sent the 22nd Panzer division into battle, he was in effect trying to recreate a small scale version of the plan of envelopment, the same tactic he used to great success in France. After breaking through to the rear, German tanks turned north to entrap the Soviet 47th Army.

On the 9th of May, Soviet armor launched a counter attack led by the heavy KV-1 tanks. Late at night, General Kozlov as well as the commissar called Stalin with a proposition of withdrawal to a prepared defensive line. Stalin's response was not optimistic, though he allowed the plan to proceed. Soviet forces withdrew along the shores of the Azov sea using their tanks as support.

German units would be the first to reach the Soviets defensive lines, they were stalking the Soviet convoys trying to retreat by hiding in their dust clouds. After being spotted, German forces would launch a massive assault and smashed through the front line again. Soviet forces were ordered to retreat all the way back to Kerch itself. In the open, Soviet troops were massacred by the 8th air corps with no where to run or hide, losses were staggering.

At the outskirts of Kerch, Soviet T-26 light tanks made a desperate counter-attack with the support of the guns of the Black Sea Fleet, but unlike Sevastopol, Kerch had no massive defensive batteries. The Germans entered the city and forced the Soviet troops to abandon everything and flee for their only hope of survival, evacuation via the eastern tip of the peninsula across the 6 mile wide Gulf of Taman.

In the face of an absolute onslaught from German air attacks, 120,000 Red Army troops escaped, but as the Crimean front collapsed, Soviet casualties reached 160,000.

German forces could now focus all their efforts on laying siege to Sevastopol.

---

6th May, 1942, Sevastopol was under its fifth day of sustained bombardment. A shell had smashed through the roof of a gun tower at battery #30. The breach was repaired, but one of the two guns in the housing remained out of action. The shells being dropped on battery #30 came from two gigantic self propelled siege mortars, Thor and Odin. Their 600mm, two ton shells could smash through 3.5 meters of concrete or 450mm of steel plate and took ten minutes to reload.

But the Germans had brought even bigger guns, the railway canon "Dora" had a caliber of 800mm and remains the largest gun ever used in combat. It required a massive crew to operate, 500 men of an artillery battalion and nearly 2500 laborers. Assembly and preparation for firing took nearly six weeks. Dora fired 48 shells during the siege, only one confirmed hit was recorded. It destroyed an ammunition store 27 metres underground. The gun was in action for 13 days before being disassembled and sent to Leningrad.

As the siege went on, ammunition became an increasing concern for both sides. For the defenders of Sevastopol, there was nowhere left to run, they had little illusion of what was in store for them, they would hold out at all costs as per their orders.

7th, June, 1942, Thor and Odin fired 54 shells at battery #30, but failed to destroy their targets. The Luftwaffe flew 1400 sorties and the firepower seemed overwhelming, but the German infantry was only able to advance a few hundred metres at great costs. The onslaught was unsustainable, the German bombers were running low on supplies and had strict orders to make everyone count, the artillery was running dangerously low on shells.

On the night of June 9th, general Petrov committed his reserves and along with support from battery #30 and #35, they stemmed the German advance. Four days later, disaster would strike. The transport ship Georgia was unloading ammunition and supplies when she was hit by two bombs, massive detonations of her cargo instantly sending her to the bottom of the harbor. The loss of men and 500 tons of ammunition was a crippling blow.

"The shortage of men and ammunition puts us on the verge of catastrophe."

~ Message to the Stavka from Sevastopol garrison


13th, June, 1942, von Manstein reported the capture of Fort Stalin which held up the previous winters attack. It took the destruction of three of the four guns to finally render it out of action. von Manstein persuaded Hitler to send him more reinforcements and to let him keep the 8th air corps. The main attack on Stalingrad could not start until Sevastopol fell, but step by step, the Germans drew ever closer.

17th, June, 1942, The Germans attempted to storm battery #30. The minefields had been destroyed and the infantry reached the turrets. The crews withdrew underground and held out for four days before the battery commander Major Grigory Aleksander ordered the destruction of the turrets and generators used to power them. The next day, the Germans broke in and captured the survivors. Major Aleksander was able to escape through a storm drain and found civilian clothing. While attempting to escape, he was pointed out by a local collaborator and arrested. He would be tortured and executed.

---

Battery #30 after being destroyed

---

20th, June, 1942, German forces had reached the north shore overlooking the Sevastopol harbor effectively closing all supply lines to and from the city. Many small bays to the west of the city could still be used to land submarines and other small ships, but their occupancy was incredibly limited. Douglas DC-3 aircraft were used to airlift wounded out, though a single aircraft could only take 25 people out of the thousands. The aircraft would also bring supplies in, but it was under even 10% of what the city required.

Despite the northern defenses being nearly obliterated, German forces in the south were being held up by fierce and stubborn resistance. Von Manstein would recount in his memoires.

"The obvious way out of that situation was to redirect the main blow from the north to the southern side, but re-deploying an infantry division from the north to the south would have given the enemy many days to rest and re-organize."

Von Manstein would also have to deal with the 8th air corps finally being pulled to support German forces in the north of the country. It seemed as though Sevastopol might make it. Soviet sailors were building a jetty that could be used for larger ships to unload supplies.

29th. June, 1942, at 2 a.m, German forces launched 130 assault boats from the northern shore of Sevastopol under heavy smoke and artillery cover. Landing on the southern shore the Soviets now found they had Germans behind Sevastopol's two remaining defensive lines, crossing the bay was considered by the Soviets as too high risk. Von Manstein had caught the Soviets completely off guard. At the same time, he also launched a major offensive along the Yalta highway; these twin blows led to the total collapse of Soviet defensive positions. Small units fought on, but were isolated and lacking supplies for prolonged fighting.

---

A picture taken of the Sevastopol Harbor

---

Stalin ordered all high ranking staff officers to be evacuated by air. Other senior officers would have to make their escape via submarine and as they boarded in full view of the enlisted men, a riot looked as though it was about to break out. A marine officer walking behind General Petrov was wounded when someone opened fire from the crowd. That night, the submarine left. Some high ranking officers made the choice to stay with their men, I.F Komaliuk, Chief of the Coast Guard would stay and fight and Colonel B.Y Mikhailov gave up his seat on the last plane out of the city, both would be killed in Sevastopol. N.K.V.D (Soviet Secret Police under Stalin) Lieutenant Colonel Gerasim Rubtsov also remained and shot himself rather than be taken prisoner. General Petrov tried to shoot himself aboard the submarine out of deep guilt, but was prevented by those around him.

Those left behind felt doomed and betrayed. As many as 80,000 men, many wounded now faced capture or death. Human desperation drives great ingenuity, many of the sailors collected themselves and took to building rafts or scavenging for boats of any kind, one raft was even built from a truck and twelve inner-tubes. Though many rafts were lost to German fire, this one made it to sea. The survivors were picked up by a group of Soviet patrol boats, but due to the German fire, they couldn't even get close to try and save more people.

The remaining Soviets either fled and fought on from caves until July 9 or surrendered. The battle of Sevastopol was over.

---

German forces suffered casualties amounting to

35,866 men
78 guns
31 aircraft

Romanian forces suffered casualties amounting to

8,454 men

Soviet forces suffered casualties amounting to

200,481 men

---