Crimean offensive

• 1. Strategic Prelude And Context

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  The German occupation of the Crimean Peninsula began in 1942. By late 1943, the Wehrmacht found itself 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 Crimea. The Red Army pushed back the Wehrmacht in southern Ukraine during the following months. This advance eventually cut off the land-based connection of the 17th Army through the Perekop Isthmus in November 1943. Despite being cut off by land, the Wehrmacht held on to the Crimea. They maintained supply lines via the Black Sea for several months. Holding this territory was considered vital for geopolitical reasons. Its loss would negatively affect the attitude of Turkey toward the war. It also put Romanian oilfields under risk of Soviet air attacks. Aside from Soviet landings across the Kerch Strait and near Sivash at the end of 1943, the Soviet Army largely ignored the Crimea for five months. Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist commanded Army Group A until the 30th of March 1944. He was removed from command and succeeded by Ferdinand Schörner.

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• 2. The Perekop Isthmus Assault

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  An assault across the Perekop Isthmus launched on the 8th of April 1944. Elements of the 4th Ukrainian Front's 2nd Guards and 51st Armies led the attack. The 17th Army defended the position but could not stop the advance. Kerch was reached by the Separate Coastal Army on the 11th of April. Simferopol followed two days later, located about 100 kilometers northeast of Sevastopol. By the 16th of April, the 17th Army retreated toward Sevastopol. Remaining Axis forces in the Crimea concentrated around the city by the end of the third week of April. Fighting broke out in the city outskirts towards the end of April. The OKH intended to hold Sevastopol as a fortress. This strategy mirrored the Red Army's defense during the first Crimean campaign in 1941, 42. However, the fortifications of the city had never been restored. Sevastopol was not the strong defensive position that it had been in 1941. The city fell on the 9th of May, less than a month after the start of the offensive. The Axis sea evacuation to Constanța faced attacks from Soviet land-based bombers.

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• 3. Sevastopol Fortress Battle

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  Fighting intensified in the outskirts of Sevastopol towards the end of April 1944. The German command expected to hold the city as a fortress. They relied on defenses established during the earlier 1941, 42 campaign. Those fortifications had never been fully restored before the 1944 offensive began. The lack of repairs meant the city lacked its former strength. Axis forces concentrated their remaining troops within and around the city limits. The battle concluded with the fall of the city on the 9th of May. This event occurred less than one month after the initial assault on the 8th of April. The rapid collapse surprised some observers who expected a prolonged siege. The loss of the city forced the immediate commencement of large-scale naval evacuations. Soviet land-based bombers attacked the Axis ships attempting to leave the harbor. The failure to hold Sevastopol marked the end of organized resistance on the peninsula.

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• 4. Operation Sixty Thousand Evacuation

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  The evacuation of Crimea ran from the 15th of April to the 14th of May 1944 under the code name Operation 60,000. This operation involved numerous German and Romanian warships escorting convoys between Constanța and Sevastopol. It was the most complex and extensive operation of the Romanian Navy during the Second World War. All four Romanian destroyers were used in combat roles. These vessels represented the largest Axis warships in the Black Sea. Over 30,000 troops were transported during the last phase from 10, the 14th of May. Of these, 18,000 were moved by Romanian ships alone. In total, Romanian and German convoys evacuated over 113,000 Axis troops from the Crimea. Most of them, over 63,000 personnel, left during the first phase between 15, the 25th of April. No Romanian Navy warships were lost during the entire operation. The destroyer Regele Ferdinand came close to being sunk when struck by a large aerial bomb. That bomb fell into her fuel tanks but failed to detonate. The bomb was extracted several days after the end of the operation.

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• 5. Naval Combat And Casualties

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  Two naval actions involving the Romanian Navy took place near Sevastopol between the 25th of April and the 10th of May. On the 18th of April, the Soviet Leninets-class submarine L-6 was attacked twice with depth charges. The Romanian gunboat Ghiculescu damaged the submarine before it was finished off by the German submarine hunter UJ-104. Numerous bubbles emerged from the depths after each attack. During the night of the 27th of April, a convoy escorted by the Romanian gunboat Ghiculescu engaged Soviet motor torpedo boats. The group included the German submarine hunter UJ-115, one R-boat, two KFK naval trawlers, and 19 MFPs. Three Soviet G-5-class motor torpedo boats had already damaged the German submarine hunter UJ-104. TKA-332 was hit and sunk during this engagement. Over 12 Soviet aircraft were shot down during the evacuation period. Two of these were destroyed by the minelaying destroyer escort. The last Axis warship to leave the peninsula was Amiral Murgescu on the 14th of May. It carried 1,000 Axis troops including General Walter Hartmann. The sinking of the Totila and Teja on the 10th of May caused up to 10,000 deaths.

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• 6. Axis Command And Accountability

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  Erwin Jaenecke commanded the 17th Army during the defense of Crimea. He met with Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden to discuss the situation. Jaenecke insisted that Sevastopol should be evacuated immediately. He requested his cut-off army of 235,000 men be withdrawn from the peninsula. After the loss of the Crimea, he was held responsible for the failure. He was arrested in Romania and subsequently court-martialed. Only the intervention of Heinz Guderian saved his life from execution. He was dismissed from the army on the 31st of January 1945. The German and Romanian formations suffered significant losses during the fighting. Many soldiers drowned during the chaotic evacuation process. The total German losses at sea amounted to five cargo ships, one tanker, three tugs, three lighters, three motorboats, and four submarine hunters. The Romanians lost three cargo ships during the operation. The partially successful evacuation earned Rear Admiral Horia Macellariu the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

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• 7. Soviet Losses And Propaganda

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  Between April 14 and the 13th of May 1944, a total of 120,853 men were evacuated by sea from the Crimea. This figure included 22,548 tons of cargo transported alongside personnel. The breakdown included 36,557 Romanians, 58,486 Germans, 723 Slovaks, and 15,391 Soviet volunteers. Prisoners of war numbered 2,581 while civilians accounted for 7,115 people. Soviet casualties in the offensive totaled 84,819 men killed or wounded. They also lost 171 tanks, 521 artillery pieces, and 179 aircraft. Axis losses reached 96,700 total with 57,500 killed or missing. In Soviet propaganda, this offensive was listed as one of Stalin's ten blows. The operation demonstrated the Red Army's ability to conduct complex amphibious assaults. It marked a significant turning point in the Black Sea theater of operations.