Kerch–Eltigen operation
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Kerch–Eltigen operation | |||||||
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Part of the Eastern Front of World War II | |||||||
Soviet landings in Crimea, 1943 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Soviet Union |
Germany Romania | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Erwin Jaenecke Corneliu Teodorini | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Ground: 18th Army 56th Army Naval: Black Sea Fleet Azov Flotilla |
V Army Corps XLIX Mountain Corps Mountain Corps | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
150,000[1] 45 assault guns[2] |
75,000+ 582 guns | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
6,985 killed or missing[1] 20,412 sick or wounded[1] 38 tanks captured 25 anti-tank guns captured Total: 27,397[1] | unknown |
The Kerch–Eltigen operation was a
Background
Following the defeat and withdrawal of German and
Soviet successes north of the Crimea had cut off the German
Soviet offensive
For the landings, the Soviet
Despite poor weather and rough seas that postponed the landings, the Soviets succeeded in landing Colonel V. F. Gladkov's 318th Rifle Division of the 18th Army and the 386th Naval Infantry Battalion at Eltigen on the 1 November. The landing was characterised by ad hoc use of naval craft of all kinds and the loss of formation organisation in the face of bad weather and darkness. Fighting their way ashore, the Soviet units pushed back the Romanian forces and established a small beachhead.
Two days later, at Yenikale, over 4,400 men of the Soviet 56th Army (landed were units of
Axis victory at Eltigen
Although the Red Army managed to land the
The Axis forces besieged the beachhead for five weeks before attacking on the 6 December. During the attack, Romanian cavalry of the 6th Division made diversionary attacks from the south while Romanian mountain troops supported by assault guns attacked from the west. By the 7 December, the beachhead had collapsed and the Romanians took 1,570 prisoners and counted 1,200 Soviet dead at a cost of 886 men to themselves. The Romanians also captured 25 anti-tank guns and 38 tanks.[8]
Battle of Mount Mithridates
In the course of the Eltigen Beachhead's collapse, some 820 Soviet troops
Aftermath
In the face of strong German reinforcements, the Soviets contented themselves with reinforcing the Yenikale Beachhead. By the 4 December, the Soviets had landed 75,000 men, 582 guns, 187 mortars, 128 tanks, 764 trucks, and over 10,000 short tons (9,100 t) of munitions and material at Yenikale.[10] The Soviets pushed some 9 km (5.6 mi) inland and to the outskirts of Kerch. Although the Germans succeeded in initially defending the Crimea against the Soviet landings, the successful landing near Kerch had placed the Soviets in a strong position from which they could push and conquer the entire Crimean peninsula, an operation they successfully concluded in May 1944.
Legacy
A
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d Glantz & House 2015, p. 397.
- ^ a b Frieser et al. 2007, pp. 468–469.
- ^ Forczyk 2013, p. 258.
- ^ On the 20 November 1943, Headquarters of the North Caucasus Front was renamed the Separate Coastal Army and took over control of the units in the Kerch beachhead. Gretschko, p. 285.
- ^ Axworthy, Scafeș & Crăciunoiu 1995, p. 130.
- ^ Kuznetsov 2011, p. 145.
- ^ Grechko 1979, p. 282.
- ^ Axworthy, Scafeș & Crăciunoiu 1995, p. 131.
- ^ 1,500 men, per the Soviet official history (map 103).
- ^ Grechko 1979, p. 284.
- ISBN 3-540-00238-3. See also Jet Propulsion Laboratory object database
Sources
- Soviet Amphibious Operations in the Black Sea, 1941-1943, Charles B. Atwater, Jr., thesis for the CSC, 1995.
- Axworthy, Mark; Scafeș, Cornel; Crăciunoiu, Cristian (1995). Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945. London: Arms & Armour. ISBN 1-85409-267-7.
- Forczyk, Robert (2013). Where the Iron Crosses Grow: The Crimea 1941–44. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 9781782009757.
- )
- Glantz, David M.; House, Jonathan M. (2015). When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. Project MUSE.
- Grechko, Andrei (1979). Geschichte des Zweiten Welt Krieges [German translation of Soviet official history of World War II] (in German). Vol. 7. Berlin: Militärverlag der DDR.
- Kuznetsov, Andrey (2011). Большой десант. Керченско-Эльтигенская операция [A Large Landing: The Kerch–Eltigen Operation] (in Russian). Moscow: Veche. ISBN 978-5-9533-5397-7.