Northern Taurida Operation
Northern Taurida Operation | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War | |||||||
British-made Mark IV tank used by White Army, captured by the Red Army 14 October 1920 in the Kakhovka bridgehead | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
South Russia |
Russian SFSR Ukrainian SSR Makhnovshchina | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Pyotr Wrangel Yakov Slashchov Alexander Kutepov |
Mikhail Frunze August Kork Ieronim Uborevich Nestor Makhno Semen Karetnyk | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
35,000
|
133,100
2,000 cavalry | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Heavy | Heavy |
The Northern Taurida operation (6 June – 3 November 1920) was a military campaign of the Russian Civil War between the Red Army and the Wrangel Russian Army for the possession of Northern Taurida. The campaign can be divided into 3 stages: the White offensive (6 June – 3 July), trench warfare around the Kakhovka Bridgehead (20 August – 27 October) and the counterattack of the Red Army (28 October – 3 November).
Prelude
In the course of the successive phases of the North Caucasus Operation in February-March 1920, the Red Army pushed the Armed Forces of South Russia out of the Northern Caucasus and Kuban. At the end of March, 35,000 White soldiers evacuated from Novorossiysk on British ships to Crimea.[1] On 4 April 1920, Pyotr Wrangel became the new commander of the Armed Forces of South Russia and, on 11 May 1920, he reorganized it into the Russian Army.[2]
Realizing the huge advantage of the Reds in the
White offensive
Wrangel's plan was to leave Crimea and conquer Northern Taurida, which would make it easier to feed his army and strengthen its defensive positions.[7] On 6 June 1920, the 2nd Army Corps under the command of Yakov Slashchov landed at Kyrylivka on the shore of the Sea of Azov, at the rear of the 13th Red Army. At the same time, the 1st Army Corps commanded by Alexander Kutepov tied down the main forces of the enemy by crossing the Isthmus of Perekop, while the corps of Piotr Pisarev , composed mainly of Kuban Cossacks, attacked the reds from the direction of Chonhar. The White forces managed to surprise the Reds and forced the 13th Red Army to retreat.[7] Over the next few days, Pisarev's troops captured Melitopol,[7] while the 1st Army Corps reached Oleksandrivsk and threatened Katerynoslav.[8] The Whites captured 8,000 prisoners, 30 artillery cannons and two armoured trains.[9] The commander of the Russian Army, however, decided not to continue his march north, knowing that the 13th Army had not yet been defeated and that his own troops were still too weak to continue. Instead, Wrangel hoped to further expand his troops in the captured territory, twice as large as that controlled when they had first evacuated to Crimea.[7]
At the end of June, the command of the 13th Army directed a cavalry corps under the command of
Kakhovka Bridgehead
On 7 August 1920, units of the 13th Army commanded by Roberts Eidemanis crossed the Dnieper near the village of Kakhovka, to create a bridgehead on the left bank of the river, stop the expected further White offensive actions, and then force them to fall back to Crimea.[9]
After the victory of the Polish troops in Battle of Warsaw and the retreat of the Red Army from Poland, the situation on the Southern Front completely changed to the detriment of the Whites. The break-up of white forces in North Taurida and Crimea[8] became one of the main goals of the Bolshevik government, along with the conclusion of a peace treaty with Poland.[11] On 19 August 1920, the Bolshevik Politburo identified the front of the fight against Wrangel as their main threat.[12] Meanwhile, in the first half of September, Slashchov's 2nd Army Corps managed to move along the northern coast of the Sea of Azov and, on 15 September, it captured Mariupol.[8]
On 27 September, Mikhail Frunze was appointed commander of the Southern Front and he ordered Semyon Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army to join the Front. The arrival of Budyonny on the left bank of the Dnieper was expected in mid-October 1920.[5] The Bolsheviks also managed to form an agreement with Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine.[8] In this situation, Wrangel ordered an attempt to liquidate the Kakhovka bridgehead before the 1st Cavalry Army joined the fighting. He decided not to withdraw to Crimea, lest his soldiers panic at the desperation of the situation.[5] On 6 October, a group of troops under the command of Daniil Dracenko crossed the Dnieper near Khortytsia and briefly took Nikopol,[8] but the first effect of surprise was quickly executed. Errors made by Dracenko eventually led to his defeat and forced his retreat to the left bank of the Dnieper on 13 October.[5] The next day, the White's defeat ended the attack on the Kakhovka bridgehead.[13]
Red counteroffensive
The advantage of the Red Southern Front over Wrangel's forces at the end of October 1920 was more than threefold. The Reds counted over 133,000 soldiers (99,000 infantry and 33,000 cavalry), while the Whites numbered 35,000 (over 23,000 infantry and nearly 12,000 cavalry).
Due to the fact that severe frosts started in Northern Taurida at the end of October, the Reds could not postpone further actions.[18] On 7 November, the attack on the fortifications of Crimea began.[19]
References
- ^ Kenez 2004, pp. 251–252.
- ^ Kenez 2004, p. 277; Smele 2015, pp. 166–168.
- ^ Smele 2015, pp. 166–168.
- ^ Kenez 2004, pp. 265–266.
- ^ a b c d Kenez 2004, p. 304.
- ^ Kenez 2004, p. 265.
- ^ a b c d Kenez 2004, p. 267.
- ^ a b c d e Smele 2015, p. 169.
- ^ a b c Mawdsley 2010, p. 334.
- ^ Kenez 2004, pp. 298–299.
- ^ Kenez 2004, pp. 302–303.
- ^ Mawdsley 2010, p. 330.
- ^ Belash, Yevgeny (14 October 2015). "Оборона Каховского плацдарма". warspot.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 10 February 2020.
- ^ a b c Kenez 2004, p. 306.
- ^ Shefov 2006, pp. 508–509.
- ^ a b c d Shefov 2006, p. 509.
- ^ Kenez 2004, p. 306; Shefov 2006, pp. 509–510.
- ^ Shefov 2006, pp. 509–510; Smele 2015, p. 170.
- ^ Smele 2015, p. 170.
Bibliography
- Darch, Colin (2020). Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine, 1917-1921. OCLC 1225942343.
- ISBN 0974493457.
- Malet, Michael (1982). Nestor Makhno in the Russian Civil War. OCLC 8514426.
- OCLC 750846354.
- Shefov, Nikolai (2006). "Северная Таврия". Битвы России (in Russian). OCLC 858733219. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
- OCLC 60602979.
- Smele, J. D. (2015). The "Russian" Civil Wars 1916-1926. Ten Years That Shook the World. ISBN 9781849047210.