Crimean Offensive (1944)

The Crimean offensive (8 April – 12 May 1944), known in German sources as the Battle of the Crimea, was a series of offensives by the Red Army directed at the German-held Crimea. The Red Army's 4th Ukrainian Front engaged the German 17th Army of Army Group A, which consisted of Wehrmacht and Romanian formations. The battles ended with the evacuation of the Crimea by the Germans. German and Romanian forces suffered considerable losses during the evacuation.

Prelude

The Germans took control of the Crimean Peninsula after the Crimean Campaign in 1942.

Kerch-Eltigen operation

During late 1943 and early 1944, the Wehrmacht was pressed back along its entire front line in the east. In October 1943, the 17th Army withdrew from the Kuban bridgehead across the Kerch Strait into the Crimea. During the following months, the Red Army pushed back the Wehrmacht in southern Ukraine, eventually cutting off the land-based connection of 17th Army through the Perekop Isthmus in November 1943.

The Wehrmacht was able to successfully hold on to the Crimea even after it had been cut off by land due to their ability to supply it via the Black Sea. Holding the Crimea was considered important as its loss would negatively affect the attitude of Turkey and put Romanian oilfields under risk of Soviet air attacks. Aside from Soviet landings across the Kerch Strait and in the north-eastern sector near Sivash at the end of 1943, the Soviet Army largely ignored the Crimea for the next five months.

Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was removed from the command of Army Group A on March 30, 1944. He was succeeded by Ferdinand Schörner.

Progress of the battle

An assault across the Perekop Isthmus was launched on 8 April by elements of the 4th Ukrainian Front's 2nd Guards and 51st Armies. The 17th Army defended but was unable to stop the advance. Kerch was reached by the Separate Coastal Army on 11 April; Simferopol, about northeast of Sevastopol, followed two days later. The 17th Army was retreating toward Sevastopol by 16 April, with remaining Axis forces in the Crimea concentrating around the city by the end of the third week of April.

The OKH intended to hold Sevastopol as a fortress, as the Red Army had done during the first Crimean campaign in 1941–42. However, the fortifications of the city had never been restored and Sevastopol was not the strong defensive position that it had been in 1941. Fighting broke out in the city outskirts towards the end of April and the city fell on 9 May, less than a month after the start of the offensive. The Axis sea evacuation to Constanța was attacked by Soviet land-based bombers.

Evacuation of the Crimea

The evacuation of the Crimea in April–May 1944 was the most complex and extensive operation of the Romanian Navy during the Second World War. From 15 April to 14 May, numerous German and Romanian warships escorted many convoys between Constanța and Sevastopol. The scale and importance of the operation can be attested by the usage in combat of all four Romanian destroyers, the largest Axis warships in the Black Sea. The last phase of the evacuation (10–14 May) saw the fiercest combat, as Axis ships transported, under constant attacks from Soviet aircraft and shore artillery, over 30,000 troops. Of these, 18,000 were transported by Romanian ships. On 11 May, the German tanker ''Friederike'' was torpedoed and heavily damaged by Soviet submarine L-4, preventing her participation.
In total, Romanian and German convoys evacuated over 113,000 Axis troops from the Crimea, most of them (over 63,000) during the first phase of the evacuation (15–25 April). No Romanian Navy warships were lost during the evacuation, however the destroyer ''Regele Ferdinand'' came close to being sunk. She was struck by a large aerial bomb, which fell in her fuel tanks, but failed to detonate. The bomb was extracted several days after the end of the operation. Two naval actions involving the Romanian Navy took place during the second phase of the evacuation (25 April–10 May), near Sevastopol. On 18 April, the Soviet ''Leninets''-class submarine ''L-6'' was twice attacked with depth charges and damaged by the Romanian gunboat '' Ghiculescu'', numerous bubbles emerged from the depths after each attack, before being finished off by the German submarine hunter ''UJ-104''. During the night of 27 April, a convoy escorted by the Romanian gunboat ''Ghiculescu'', the German submarine hunter ''UJ-115'', one R-boat, two KFK naval trawlers and 19 MFPs (including the Romanian ''PTA-404'' and ''PTA-406'') engaged the Soviet G-5-class motor torpedo boats ''TKA-332'', ''TKA-343'' and ''TKA-344'', after the three attacked and damaged the German submarine hunter ''UJ-104''. ''Ghiculescu'' opened fire with tracer rounds, enabling the entire escort group to locate the two Soviet MTBs and open fire. ''TKA-332'' was hit and sunk. Over 12 Soviet aircraft were also shot down during the evacuation, including two by the minelaying destroyer escort ''Amiral Murgescu''. The last Axis pockets in the Crimea were destroyed on 12 May. The last Axis warship to leave the peninsula was ''Amiral Murgescu'', carrying on board 1,000 Axis troops, including the German General Walter Hartmann.

Consequences

In a meeting with Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden, 17th Army commander Erwin Jaenecke had insisted that Sevastopol should be evacuated and his cut off Army of 235,000 men withdrawn. After the loss of the Crimea, he was held responsible, arrested in Romania and court-martialed. Only the intervention of Heinz Guderian saved his life. He was dismissed from the army on 31 January 1945.

The German and Romanian formations suffered the loss of 57,000 men, many of whom drowned during the evacuation. The sinking of the ''Totila'' and ''Teja'' on 10 May alone caused up to 10,000 deaths. In total, the German losses at sea amounted to five cargo ships, one tanker, three tugs, three lighters, three motorboats and four submarine hunters, while the Romanians lost three cargo ships. The partially successful evacuation of Axis troops from the Crimea earned the commander of the Romanian Navy, Rear Admiral Horia Macellariu, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.Spencer C. Tucker, ''World War II at Sea: An Encyclopedia'', p. 633 The table below is based on information from Glantz/House ''When Titans Clashed''.:

Axis losses

German:

Killed and missing: 31,700

Wounded: 33,400

Total: 65,100

Romanian:

Killed and missing: 25,800

Wounded: 5,800

Total: 31,600

Total:

Killed and missing: 57,500

Wounded: 39,200

Total: 96,700

Soviet losses

Killed and missing: 17,754

Wounded: 67,065

Total: 84,819

Tanks: 171

Artillery: 521

Aircraft: 179

Land formations and units involved

Soviet

* 4th Ukrainian Front
** 2nd Guards Army
** 51st Army
** 4th Air Army
* Black Sea Fleet
* Separate Coastal Army
* Partisans

Axis

German

* Army Group A
** 17th Army

Romanian

* Romanian Mountain Corps
** 1st Mountain Division
** 2nd Mountain Division

Citations

Bibliography

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* Ziemke, E.F. ''Stalingrad to Berlin''
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{{coord missing, Ukraine

World War II aerial operations and battles of the Eastern Front
Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War
Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II
Crimea in World War II
Naval battles of World War II involving the Soviet Union
Naval battles of World War II involving Germany
Naval battles of World War II involving Romania
1944 in Russia
April 1944 events
May 1944 events