Battle of the Crimea (1944)

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Crimean Strategic Offensive Operation Part of Soviet-German War, World War II Red Army Offensives during 1943–1944 Date 8 April 1944 - 12 May 1944 Location Crimea Peninsula, Russia Result Soviet Victory Belligerents  Soviet Union  Germany Romania Commanders Soviet STAVKA German OKW Strength ca. 300,000 Unknown Casualties and losses 85,000 all causes 97,000 all causes

v • d • e Eastern Front Barbarossa – Baltic Sea – Black Sea – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Blue – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Battle of Narva – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Baltic – Bagration – Lvov-Sandomierz – Lublin-Brest – Balkans (Iassy-Kishinev) – Budapest – Vistula-Oder – East Prussia – East Pomerania – Silesia – Vienna – Berlin – Prague

v • d • e Crimea and Caucasus 1st Crimea – Kerch Peninsula – Adzhimushkay – Sevastopol – Caucasus – Kerch-Eltigen Operation (1943) – 2nd Crimea

The Crimean Strategic Offensive Operation (8 April 1944 - 12 May 1944) known in German sources as the Battle of the Crimea 1944 was a series of offensive operations by the Red Army in the effort to liberate Crimea from the German Wehrmacht occupation. The Red Army's 4th Ukrainian Front engaged German 17. Armee of Army Group South, which consisted of German and Romanian formations, in an operation to liberate the Crimean peninsula. The result of the battle was complete victory for the Red Army, and a botched evacuation effort across the Black Sea, leading to significant German and Romanian losses.

[edit] Setting the stage

During late 1943 and early 1944, the Wehrmacht was pressed back along its entire frontline in the east. In October 1943 the 17. Armee was forced to retreat from the Kuban Bridgehead across the Kerch Strait to Crimea. During the following months, the Red Army pushed back the Wehrmacht in southern Ukraine, eventually cutting off the land-based connection of 17. Armee through the Perekop Isthmus in November 1943.

[edit] Progress of the battle

Soviet landings across the Kerch Strait and in the north-eastern sector of the Crimea near Sivash at the end of 1943, together with an attack at the Perekop Isthmus forced 17. Armee back towards Sevastopol from 10 April 1944. The OKW intended to hold Sevastopol as a fortress, as the Red Army had done during the first battle for the Crimea in 1941/42. The rapid movement of the Red Army together with inadequate preparation of the defences of Sevastopol made this impossible, and on 9 May 1944, not even one month after the start of the battle, Sevastopol fell.

[edit] Consequences

The German and Romanian formations suffered very high irrecoverable losses of ca. 65,000 men, many of them taken prisoner when the evacuation failed. Soviet losses were slightly lower. The table below is based on information from Glantz/House When Titans Clashed:

German losses: Irrecoverable: 31,700 Wounded: 33,400 Total: 65,100

Romanian losses: Irrecoverable: 25,800 Wounded: 5,800 Total: 31,600

Total axis: Irrecoverable: 57,500 Wounded: 39,200 Total: 96,700

Soviet losses (according to Krivosheev): Irrecoverable: 17,754 Wounded: 67,065 Total: 84,808

Tanks: 171 Artillery: 521 Aircraft: 179

[edit] Formations and units involved

[edit] Soviet

• 4th Ukrainian Front
  • 2nd Guards Army
  • 51st Army
  • 4th Air Army
• Black Sea Fleet
• Separate Coastal Army
• Soviet partisans

[edit] Axis

• Army Group South
  • 17th Army
    • Romanian Mountain Corps
      • 1st Mountain Division
      • 2nd Mountain Division

[edit] Sources

• Pickert, W. Vom Kuban-Brueckenkopf bis Sewastopol - Flakartillerie im Verband der 17. Armee'
• Glantz, D'./House, J. 'When Titans Clashed'
• Ziemke, E.F. 'Stalingrad to Berlin'
• Fortress Crimea - A Romanian View
• Last Stand in Crimea - A Romanian View
• "Operation 60,000" Evacuation from Crimea - a Romanian View
• Soldiers of the Great War
• Link to external map of Eastern Front

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