Siege of Odessa
This article includes a list of general Odessa region, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union | |
Result |
Axis victory
|
---|
Germany
Aerial support:
Italy
Alexandru Ioanițiu †
Iosif Iacobici
Nicolae Ciupercă
Erich von Manstein
11th Army
Coastal Army
340,223 men (total)
240 artillery pieces
86,000 men (total)[3]
17,729 dead
63,345 wounded
11,471 missing
19 tanks
90 artillery pieces
20 aircraft[4]
unknown
The siege of Odessa, known to the Soviets as the defence of Odessa, lasted from 8 August until 16 October 1941, during the early phase of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II.
It is considered to be the "greatest independent success of the war by any minor Axis power".[6]
Prelude
On 9 July 1941, the Separate Coastal Army was created from the units of the Coastal Group of Forces. On 22 July 1941, the bombing of Odessa began (groups of bombers twice raided the city on that day).[7] As a result of the breakthrough of the Soviet defense on the Dniester River by the 11th German and the 4th Romanian Armies, the situation in the Odessa direction became more complicated.[8] In early August 1941 the troops of the 4th Romanian Army, commanded by General Nicolae Ciupercă (5 infantry divisions, two cavalry divisions and one motorized brigade), cut off the units of the Maritime Army (two rifle divisions and the 1st Cavalry Division) from the main forces of the Southern Front.[9][10][11] Subsequently, it was the 4th Romanian Army that was the main attacking force in the fight for Odessa. In addition to the Romanian troops, the 72nd Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht (in part), 2 German assault and 4 German engineer battalions, 3 German heavy artillery divisions, and periodically Luftwaffe units were also involved near Odessa. By early September the total number of German-Romanian troops near Odessa was about 277,000 soldiers and officers, up to 2,200 guns and mortars, 100–120 tanks, and 300 to 400 planes.[12]
Battle
The defense of Odessa lasted 73 days, from 5 August to 16 October 1941. On 10 August, in the sector of the 3rd Corps, the bulk of the 7th Infantry Division reached
The offensive resumed on 16 August, as Romanian troops attacked along the entire line, capturing Odessa's water reservoirs on 17 August. The Soviet forces put up a stubborn resistance, launching repeated counter-attacks, inflicting and taking heavy casualties. The Royal Romanian Air Force actively supported the ground troops, disrupting Soviet naval traffic to and from Odessa, and also destroying an armored train on 20 August.[citation needed]
By 24 August, despite constant attacks, the Romanians were bogged down in front of the Soviets' main line of defense. The 4th Army had already suffered 27,307 casualties, including 5,329 killed in action. Nevertheless, the Soviets were also weakened, and thanks to the capture of Kubanka, Romanian heavy artillery now threatened the port of Odessa. Over the next three days, there was a lull in the fighting.[citation needed]
On 28 August, the Romanians resumed their offensive, reinforced by a German assault battalion and ten heavy artillery battalions. The
On 3 September, General Ciupercă submitted a memoir to by-now
Meanwhile, the Romanian offensive was halted to wait for reinforcements. A German detachment led by Lieutenant-General René von Courbier and comprising one infantry regiment, one assault pioneer regiment and two artillery regiments arrived. Concurrently, the Soviets also received 15,000 men and ammunition. On 9 September, Ciupercă was replaced by Lieutenant-General Iosif Iacobici, who was expressly ordered to follow the General Staff's directives without question. The offensive resumed on 12 September, but was again stopped temporarily on September 14 as Romanian and German artillery units were running low on ammunition. Two Vânători battalions were encircled by Red Army troops near the Hadjibey bank, but were eventually relieved despite Soviet efforts to annihilate them.[citation needed]
On the night of 15 September, Soviet troops broke contact with the Romanian 1st Corps and retreated toward the southeast. On 16 September, the 1st Corps took the heights northwest of Gross-Liebenthal. Romanian troops also occupied the area south of the Sukhoy bank. Over 3,000 Soviet soldiers were captured, but these losses were replaced by the
The Soviet counteroffensive which was meant to break the siege came during the night of 21/22 September 1941, and it was the climax of the battle for Odessa. Red Army troops established a bridgehead at Chebanka, threatening the Romanian 4th Army's weaker right flank. Before the Soviets could attack, a formation of 94 Romanian aircraft (32 bombers and 62 fighters) supported by 23 Italian aircraft attacked the Red Army troops as they advanced North. During the ensuing aerial battle, which lasted ten hours, numerous bombing and strafing attacks were carried out against the Soviet bridgehead, as well as numerous dogfights with the Soviet Air Force. The bridgehead was pulverized, with all Soviet troops withdrawing from the area during the night of 4/5 October. Axis air forces destroyed over 20 Soviet aircraft (nine or ten of them during air battles) while losing one Romanian fighter during air combat plus four more either shot down by Soviet flak or destroyed on the ground. One Italian Savoia-Marchetti bomber was also lost.[15][16]
With the advance of Axis forces into the Soviet Union,
In support of the land offensive, the
On 20 August, Delfinul fought the only submarine vs submarine engagement of the siege. At 12:08 pm, the Soviet M-class submarine M-33 launched a torpedo at her, which missed. Delfinul swiftly counterattacked with her twin 13 mm machine gun, causing the Soviet submarine to submerge and retreat.[19][20]
During the October evacuation, Heinkel He 114 seaplanes of the Romanian Naval Aviation captured a Soviet armed merchantman.[21]
Aftermath
The operations at Odessa highlighted significant weaknesses in the Romanian Army, leading both military and political leaders in the country to call for a discontinuation of military operations against the Soviet Union.[22] Antonescu ignored such objections, regarding continued participation and eventual victory on the Eastern Front as necessary for the restoration of Romania's territorial integrity.[23] On the other hand, the capture of Odessa enabled Antonescu to surpass Mussolini in prestige, as the latter had no comparable spoils. Odessa was the most important wartime conquest – without substantial German support – by any of the minor European Axis powers.[24]
Casualties suffered during the siege of Odessa were:
- Romanian
- 17,729 dead, 63,345 wounded, and 11,471 missing
- Soviet
- 16,578 dead or missing, and 24,690 wounded (Glantz)
- 60,000 dead, wounded or missing (Axworthy)[5][clarification needed].[25]
The recapture of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in Operation München and the subsequent victory at Odessa led to a partial demobilization of the Romanian army, which was reduced in size from nearly 900,000 personnel on 1 October to 465,000 on 1 January 1942. Politically, the presence of Romanian troops in Odessa and the establishment of the Transnistria Governorate led to a deterioration of Romania's international situation, with the British declaring war on Romania on 6 December, and on 12 December Romania declared war on the United States in solidarity with Germany and Japan.[26]
The Axis forces will eventually be cleared from Odessa on 10 April 1944 during the Odessa Offensive.
Commemoration
Odessa was one of the first four Soviet cities to be awarded the title of "Hero City" in 1945, the others being Leningrad, Stalingrad, and Sevastopol.[27] Museum of the Heroic Defense of Odessa (411th Coastal Battery Memorial) was opened on the day of the 30th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, 9 May 1975.[28] Close by is also the Museum of Partisan Glory in the Odessa Catacombs. The underground museum commemorates the partisan movement in the Odessa region.[29]
See also
Notes
- ^ Axworthy (1995), p. 50.
- ^ Glantz (1995), p. 293
- ^ Одесская оборона 1941 — статья из Большой советской энциклопедии. Категория:Статьи с ссылкой на БСЭ, без указания издания
- ^ a b "The Battle of Odessa – 1941". WorldWar2.ro.
- ^ a b c Axworthy, Mark. Third Axis Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945. p. 58.
- ^ Chan, Amy (8 February 2017). "Romanian Nightmare at Stalingrad". HistoryNet. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
- ^ Vice-Admiral N.M. Kulakov. The Trusted Person of the Fleet. M., Voenizdat, 1985. pp.62-65.
- ^ Я. M. Sternstein. Workers of the Odessa port in the defense of the city in 1941 // Journal "Problems of History", № 6, June 1956. p.99-109.
- ^ Defense of Odessa 1941 // Soviet Historical Encyclopedia / ed. by E.M. Zhukov. volume 3. M., State Scientific Publishing House "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1963. pp.472-473.
- ^ Odessa Defense // The Great Encyclopedia (in 62 vols.). / editor-in-chief S. A. A. Kondratov. volume 33. Moscow, TERRA, 2006. p.387-388.
- ^ Odessa Defense 1941 // Soviet Military Encyclopedia (in 8 vols.) / ed. by N.V. Ogarkov. Vol. 6. Moscow: Voenizdat, 1978. pp.25-26.
- ^ Koltunov G.; Selyanichev A. Literature on the heroic defense of Odessa. // Voenno-historicheskiy zhurnal. - 1967. - № 5. - С.79-85.
- ISBN 978-1-107-01459-6.
- ^ Scafeș, Ioan I. "Odessa, o victorie scump plătită". Historia (in Romanian). Retrieved 17 April 2022.
- ^ Frank Joseph, The Axis Air Forces: Flying in Support of the German Luftwaffe, ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 165
- ^ Dénes Bérnad, Rumanian Aces of World War 2, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, p. 21
- ^ Jipa Rotaru, Ioan Damaschin, Glorie și dramă: Marina Regală Română, 1940-1945, Ion Cristoiu Publishing, 2000, pp. 74–75 (in Romanian)
- ^ Jipa Rotaru, Octavian Burcin, Vladimir Zodian, Mareșalul Ion Antonescu: Am făcut "războiul sfânt" împotriva bolșevismului: Campania anului 1941, p. 180 (in Romanian)
- ^ Antony Preston, Warship 2001-2002, Conway Maritime Press, 2001. p. 73
- ^ Asociația Națională a Veteranilor de Război, Veteranii pe drumul omoarei și jertfei (1941–1945): de la Nistru la Marea de Azov, Volume 3, Vasile Cârlova Publishing, 1997, p. 517
- ^ Frank Joseph, The Axis Air Forces: Flying in Support of the German Luftwaffe, ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 166
- ^ Axworthy, page 59
- ^ Axworthy, page 49
- ^ Axworthy, page 58
- ^ Spencer C. Tucker, World War II: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection (5 volumes), ABC-CLIO, 2016, p. 1422
- ^ Axworthy, page 73
- ISBN 9781598849486.
- ^ "Museum of Heroic Defense of Odessa(411th Battery)". odessatourism.org. Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
- ^ "Museum of Partisan Glory (catacombs)". odessatourism.org. Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
References
- Axworthy, Mark; Scafeș, Cornel I.; Crăciunoiu, Cristian (1995). Third Axis Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945. London: OCLC 32552622.
- OCLC 32859811.
External links
- The Battle of Odessa – 1941, WorldWar2.ro
- Museum of Partisan Glory Archived 5 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Odessa Tourism official web site
- Museum of the Heroic Defence of Odessa (411th Coastal Battery Memorial) Archived 5 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Odessa Tourism official web site