April 8, 1944 began Crimean strategic offensive operation, which ended on May 12 with the complete liberation of the peninsula from the Nazi invaders. "Blessed places! Now they are forever ours! - wrote then Konstantin Paustovsky.

Fireworks in the liberated Sevastopol. May 1944

The liberation of Crimea from the fascists has become one of the most heroic pages in its already rich history. After all, the Nazis expected to stay on the peninsula forever. And many invaders succeeded. True, not at all the way they dreamed, but in the damp Crimean land ...

"German Gibraltar"

To the Crimea Adolf Gitler and his entourage have been watched since pre-war times. Leader of the German Labor Front Robert Lay dreamed of turning the peninsula into "one huge German resort." The Fuhrer himself was eager to make the Crimea a "German Gibraltar" in order to control the Black Sea from there. Planning to populate the peninsula with Germans, Hitler and the Reich Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories Alfred Rosenberg After the war, they were going to clear the Crimea of ​​Jews and Russians and rename it Gotenland.

Rosenberg proposed to unite the Crimea with the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions and create the general district of Tavria. This ideologue of Nazism himself flew to the peninsula. Having visited the site of the fighting, he wrote in his diary: “Sevastopol: solid ruins. Only the witnesses of the ancient Greek past - the columns and the museum - remained standing, unharmed by our aviation and artillery." A native of Reval (now Tallinn), who lived in Russia until the age of 25, Rosenberg understood better than other Nazi bosses what a treasure Crimea is, how much it means to Russians.

The feelings of the Soviet people from the loss of Sevastopol and the Crimea were reflected in one of the articles in Literaturnaya Gazeta:

“Crimea was for us the image of the winner - for the first time in the history of mankind, the winner! - happiness. It always reminded us with new freshness of the joyful meaningfulness of every minute of our daily work, it was our annual meeting with the main, the best that was in us - with our goal, with our dream. So this is what the enemy wanted to take away from us forever - the very image of our happiness!

The worst thing is that the enemy wanted to deprive Soviet citizens not only of the hope of a happy life, but of the very right to life. Clearing for themselves "living space", the Nazis and their accomplices did not stand on ceremony with the indigenous population of the peninsula.

The future of any nation is its children. The attitude of the "true Aryans" to the Crimean boys and girls leaves no room for illusions. “During the liberation of Kerch, the following atrocious crime was revealed,” writes the historian Nina Petrova. – The local German commandant's office ordered the parents to send their children to school. Obeying the order of the German SS cavalry brigade, 245 children with textbooks and notebooks in their hands went to their classes. Nobody returned home. What happened to them became known after the liberation of the city, when 245 corpses of these children were found in a deep ditch 8 km from it. They were not shot, they were buried alive by the invaders. There are documents and photographs relating to this heinous crime.”

Also, on November 2, 1943, a one-year-old child and 35 other residents of the “Crimean Khatyn” - the village of Fridental (now Kurortnoye, Belogorsky District) were burned alive. On the territory of the former Krasny state farm (now the village of Mirnoye, Simferopol region), the invaders created a concentration camp, where thousands of prisoners of war, partisans and civilians were tortured. The list of crimes committed by the Germans, Romanians and their accomplices in the Crimea during the war years is endless...

Crimean bridgeheads

Crimea not only symbolized a happy Soviet life - it was of great military-political and strategic importance. Later in his memoirs Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky stated:

“Owning it, the Nazis could keep the entire Black Sea coast under constant threat and put pressure on the policies of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Crimea also served the Nazis as a springboard for the invasion of the territory of the Soviet Caucasus and the stabilization of the southern wing of the entire front.

After the defeat of the Wehrmacht on the Kursk Bulge, it became clear that the liberation of the entire territory of the Soviet Union was a matter of time. On November 1, 1943, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front under the command of General Fyodor Tolbukhin made an attempt to break into the Crimea from the north.

Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky coordinated the operation to liberate Crimea

19th Tank Corps Lieutenant General Ivan Vasiliev made his way through the enemy fortifications at Perekop. And although the desperately defending Germans managed to temporarily block the tankers, the 51st Army of Lieutenant General Yakov Kreizer soon joined them. Thus, an important bridgehead arose, which was destined to play a significant role in the course of the operation to liberate the peninsula.

On September 12, 1944, Fyodor Tolbukhin, commander of the Crimean offensive operation of the 4th Ukrainian Front, was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

“CRIMEA WAS FOR US THE IMAGE OF THE WINNER – FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY THE WINNER! - HAPPINESS. This is what the enemy wanted to take away from us forever - the very image of our happiness!

Our valiant fighters also created two more bridgeheads - northeast of Kerch and on the southern bank of the Sivash. The first to lead scouts and advanced units through the Rotten Sea was a collective farmer Vasily Kondratievich Zaulichny. For this feat he was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Another conductor through the Sivash was a 68-year-old Ivan Ivanovich Olenchuk. 23 years before that - in the first days of November 1920 - by the same route, he brought units of the Red Army to the rear of the White Guard troops Peter Wrangel. Ivan Ivanovich did not disappoint this time either.

It was very difficult to go through the Rotten Sea. Yakov Kreizer recalled that if "a fighter with light weapons crossed the Sivash in 2-3 hours, then a 76-mm gun was transferred by boat by a group of soldiers in 5-6 hours."

Soviet troops in the liberated Sevastopol. May 1944

The Red Army soldiers, who held the bridgeheads in the winter of 1943-1944, fought both with the enemy and with nature. Sergey Biryuzov, while Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff of the 4th Ukrainian Front, testified in his memoirs:

“Our bridgehead beyond the Sivash was very uncomfortable. Salt marshes all around, not a hill, not a bush - everything is in full view of the enemy and under his fire. However, the Sivash bridgehead was not much different from two other important bridgeheads on the outskirts of the Crimea - Perekop and Kerch.

Despite all the problems, preparations for the operation to liberate the Crimea were in full swing. Truly titanic efforts were required to create the crossings. Marshal Vasilevsky, who, as a representative of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, coordinated the actions of all the forces involved in the operation, later recalled:

“Storms, enemy air raids and artillery shelling destroyed bridges. By the beginning of the operation, two crossings were created - a bridge on frame supports 1865 m long and two earthen dams 600–700 m long and a pontoon bridge between them 1350 m long. The carrying capacity of these crossings was brought up to 30 tons by the efforts of the engineering troops of the front, which ensured the crossing of tanks T-34 and heavy artillery. In order to disguise, a false bridge was built a kilometer from these crossings.

The Germans did not sit idly by. So, in the Perekop area, on a narrow section of the isthmus - up to 14 km long, up to 35 km deep - the enemy created three powerful defensive lines. The main defense line, 4–6 km deep, had three defensive positions with full profile trenches, pillboxes and bunkers. The center of defense was Armyansk, on the streets of which barricades were erected. In total, in the Perekop area, the enemy concentrated up to 20 thousand soldiers and officers, 325 guns and mortars, up to 50 tanks and assault guns.

HITLER WANTED TO MAKE CRIMEA A "GERMAN GIBRALTAR", to control the Black Sea from there

The idea of ​​the Crimean offensive operation was to simultaneously strike the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front from Perekop and Sivash and the Separate Primorsky Army of General Andrey Eremenko from the bridgehead in the Kerch region in the general direction of Simferopol and Sevastopol - with the assistance of long-range aviation, the Black Sea Fleet, Azov military flotilla and partisans - to dismember and destroy the enemy grouping, preventing its evacuation from the peninsula.

The most important task of the Black Sea Fleet under the command of Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky was to disrupt the enemy's sea communications with the Crimea. In addition, in the coastal strip, the fleet was supposed to help the Red Army with its aviation and naval artillery fire.

The command of the 4th Ukrainian Front, which had an idea of ​​the strength of the enemy defense in the Perekop area, decided to deliver the main blow from the direction of Sivash, where the main tank formations were concentrated for this. It was assumed that, having broken through behind enemy lines, they would launch an offensive deep into the peninsula.

"The northern front cannot be held"

Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were eager to fight, burning with the desire to knock out the Germans and Romanians from the Crimea. However, the sea was stormy, and the rains made the roads completely impassable. Due to mud and bad weather conditions, the start of the operation was repeatedly postponed.

Finally, on the morning of April 8, 1944, after a powerful artillery preparation, the Soviet troops went on the offensive. They immediately met stubborn resistance from the enemy. Sergei Biryuzov recalled:

“In some places, the guardsmen had to go to the trick, put up scarecrows dressed in tunics and helmets from behind shelters, creating the appearance of an attack. The visual imitation was accompanied by a sound one - a powerful “Hurrah!” thundered. And the Nazis pecked at this bait. As you can see, after our two-hour artillery preparation, their nerves were inflated to such an extent that they were not able to distinguish stuffed animals from living people. The Nazis crawled out of their dugouts and "fox holes", hastily took their places in the trenches, and at that moment our artillery covered them again.

Sevastopol was liberated from the Nazi invaders exactly one year before the Great Victory - May 9, 1944

However, not only the Nazis faced unpleasant surprises at the beginning of the battle. In the depths of the enemy defense, Soviet tanks ran into minefields, where several combat vehicles were blown up on the move.

Meanwhile, the Red Army continued to build up pressure. April 10 in the diary of an officer of the operational department of the headquarters of the 17th German army, captain Hans Ruprecht Hansel there was an entry:

“The northern front cannot be held. The 50th Infantry Division, having suffered heavy losses, barely managed to retreat to the reserve line of defense. But a strong Russian tank force is now advancing through a gap in the Romanian defense sector, threatening our rear. We are working feverishly to prepare for the deployment of troops on the Gneisenau defensive line. I was ordered to fly to the 5th Corps on the Kerch Peninsula in order to deliver there an order to retreat to Sevastopol.

Reich Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories Alfred Rosenberg planned to populate Crimea with Germans and rename it Gotenland

Breaking into the enemy defenses, the soldiers and officers of the Red Army showed mass heroism. In the award list of the commander of the machine-gun company of the 262nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the Guard Senior Sergeant Alexander Korobchuk it was noted that on April 12, in a battle near the village of Ishun, Krasnoperekopsky district, he "with grenades in his hands, dragging the fighters behind him, was among the first to break into the enemy's trenches, where he destroyed 7 Nazis with grenades." After the outcome of the grenades, the machine gunner boldly moved forward and closed the embrasure of the bunker with his body.

"We all–children of the same Motherland!”

On April 13, Evpatoria, Feodosia and Simferopol were liberated. Preparing for the retreat, the Nazis mined the most important buildings of Simferopol, intending to blow them up together with the Soviet soldiers. The crime was not allowed to be committed by the Crimean underground. Sergei Biryuzov wrote in his memoirs:

“We entered the city when it was still shrouded in powder smoke, the battle was ending on the southern and eastern outskirts. Some houses and even quarters were destroyed, but on the whole Simferopol remained intact. Thanks to the rapid offensive of our troops, the enemy failed to carry out his black plans for the destruction of all residential buildings, cultural institutions, parks and squares there. The city was spring-like good in its green decoration and flowering.

Soviet pilots fought heroically in Crimea

The day before the liberation of Evpatoria, near the village of Ashaga-Jamin (now Geroiskoe) in the Saki region, nine scouts of the 3rd Guards Motor Engineering and 91st Separate Motorcycle Battalions fought an unequal battle for about two hours: the commander of the guard group, sergeant Nikolai Poddubny, his deputy guard junior sergeant Magomed-Zagid Abdulmanapov, privates Petr Veligin, Ivan Timoshenko, Mikhail Zadorozhny, Grigory Zakharchenko, Vasily Ershov, Petr Ivanov and Alexander Simonenko. They repulsed several enemy attacks. When the cartridges ran out, the wounded and bleeding scouts grappled with the enemy hand to hand.

The Germans tied up the captured Red Army soldiers with barbed wire and, seeking the necessary information, began to brutally torture them. They were beaten with rifle butts, stabbed with bayonets, their bones were crushed, their eyes were gouged out. But they didn't get anything from them. And then the German officer turned to the 19-year-old Avar Abdulmanapov:

“Well, they are Russians, and who are you? Why are you silent? What do you have to lose? You are a stranger to them. Everyone should think about their own life. Where are you from?" To the question of the enemy, Magomed-Zagid answered directly: “I know where. We are all children of the same Motherland!” and spat in the officer's face.

After being tortured, the Red Army heroes were shot near the village. On May 16, 1944, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, all nine scouts were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

One of them, a 24-year-old machine gunner Vasily Ershov miraculously survived. Local residents who discovered the hero saw 10 gunshot wounds and 7 bayonet wounds on his body. Yershov's jaw was turned into a mess. For the rest of his life, a native of the Sandovsky district of the Tver region remained a disabled person of the 1st group. After the war, Vasily Alexandrovich came to the battlefield, and the villagers greeted him as the closest person to them.

Hitler's dreams were not destined to come true: Soviet soldiers cleared the Crimea from invaders

Soviet pilots also fought heroically. On April 22, the 134th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment received an order to strike at the airfield, where there were more than fifty enemy aircraft. The Germans met the attackers with strong barrage of anti-aircraft batteries. One shell hit the plane of the air regiment commander, Major Viktor Katkov.

General Grigory Chuchev, then commander of the 6th Guards Bomber Aviation Division, recalled:

“The commander energetically moved the burning aircraft into a dive. On a dive, the flames of fire from the wing of the aircraft were torn off. While diving, the pilot took aim and dropped bombs on enemy aircraft stationed on the border of the airfield. When exiting the dive into level flight, the aircraft caught fire again. Only after completing the task, Major Katkov left the battle formation, turned the plane in the direction of his territory and went to land. The flame was already approaching the cockpit of the pilot and navigator.

A few minutes later, a fire broke out in the cabin. The pilot landed on rough terrain on the fuselage. The plane crawled some distance on uneven ground and stopped. The pilot's lantern was jammed and did not drop, as a result of which the pilot and navigator could not get out of the cockpit. The flames spread throughout the aircraft.

There was about to be an explosion. Without delaying a second, gunner-radio operator senior sergeant D.I. Lonely left his cabin, risking his life, ran up to the burning cabin and, using his heroic strength, smashed the plexiglass of the cabin lantern with his feet. At first, he helped the regiment commander to get out, then pulled the burnt navigator out of the burning plane and carried him to a safe place. A few seconds later, the plane exploded."

"Now they are forever ours!"

The worse the situation at the front for the enemy became, the more ferociously the Germans, Romanians and their accomplices behaved on Crimean soil. They tried to take everything they stole from the peninsula during the occupation. And the worst thing was that the enemies were killing civilians, including children and the elderly.

“Right at the entrance to the house of doctor Fedotov, who died during the occupation, the Germans shot his 64-year-old wife Elena Sergeevna and Marina Ivanovna Chizhova, who lived with her. Across the street, by a small house, is a pool of blood. Here, a 14-year-old boy, Rustem Kadyrov, died from a bullet from a Nazi scoundrel. We also saw bloody traces of the crimes of German monsters on Severnaya and Armenian streets, and here almost all the houses are empty - the Germans destroyed all their inhabitants. On April 12, 1944, the Germans shot and bayoneted 584 people in Stary Krym!”

Meanwhile, Hitler did not give up the hope of defending the Crimea until the last minute. The possessed Fuhrer ignored the demands of the Romanian dictator Iona Antonescu withdraw Romanian troops from the Crimea. And the doubt of the commander of the 17th German army, Colonel General Erwin Gustav Jeneke in the fact that Sevastopol will be able to keep, costing him a position. General who replaced Jeneke Carl Almendinger in an order dated May 3, 1944, he brought to the attention of his subordinates the following:

“I received an order to defend every inch of the Sevastopol bridgehead. You understand its meaning. No name in Russia is pronounced with more reverence than Sevastopol. Here are the monuments of past wars…

Due to the fact that Sevastopol has such historical significance, Stalin wants to regain this city and port. Therefore, we are given the opportunity to bleed the superior forces of the Reds on this front. I demand that everyone be on the defensive in the full sense of the word; so that no one retreats and holds every trench, every funnel and every trench.

And our fighters had to take these trenches and trenches. The multi-tiered fortifications of Sapun Mountain with 63 pillboxes and bunkers looked especially formidable. They were stormed by the troops of the 63rd Rifle Corps of Major General Peter Koshevoy and 11th Guards Rifle Corps Major General Seraphim Rozhdestvensky.

After the war, Peter Koshevoy wrote about those days:

“The battle took on a tense character in the entire offensive zone of the corps. There was no rapid advance of troops anywhere.<…>In clouds of dust and burning from explosions of shells and mines, our fighters and the enemy now and then converged hand to hand.<…>The trenches changed hands three times. Everything around was burning, but the enemy stubbornly did not leave the first position.

Poster of the Leningrad Association of Artists "Combat Pencil". 1944

On the outskirts of Sevastopol feat Alexandra Matrosova repeated lieutenant Mikhail Dzigunsky, sergeants Fedor Skoryatin and Stepan Pogodaev, Private Alexander Udodov(he was badly injured but survived). All four, as well as another 122 liberators of the Crimea, were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And the commander of the air squadron, who fled from captivity to the partisans Vladimir Lavrinenkov received a second Gold Star medal.

Exactly one year before the Great Victory, on May 9, 1944, Sevastopol was liberated. As a sign of victory, a vest and a peakless cap were hoisted on the stock of the arch of the Count's Quay. Three days later, the Crimean peninsula was completely cleared of invaders.

Summing up the results of the Crimean strategic offensive operation, the historian Mikhail Myagkov stated:

“The total losses of the German and Romanian troops far exceeded the losses of the Red Army. If we lost 13,000 killed and 54,000 wounded in this operation, the Germans and Romanians lost 60,000 men as prisoners alone. And the total losses exceeded 140 thousand soldiers and officers. It was an outstanding operation in a series of decisive blows by the Red Army in 1944. It was carried out by commanders and ordinary soldiers who went through the bitter school of 1941-1942. Now the Red Army was lowering the punishing sword of retribution on the head of the hated enemy, who was devastating the Crimean land.

The dream of the Soviet people came true: the land of Crimea became free again. "Blessed places! Now they are forever ours! - the writer rejoiced Konstantin Paustovsky expressing the sentiments of our entire people in an essay published in Izvestia.

Soon, artists from the front-line branch of the Maly Theater arrived in Sevastopol. On the local stage, they played in performances based on the plays of the great Russian playwright Alexander Ostrovsky Guilty Without Guilt and In a Busy Place. And a few days later, Sevastopol residents saw the film "Two Soldiers", which was filmed a year earlier by an outstanding Soviet director Leonid Lukov.

Life on the peninsula quickly returned to normal. Already in early February 1945, the Crimea became the venue for the conference of the heads of state of the anti-Hitler coalition. Joseph Stalin in Yalta received the President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill…

Oleg Nazarov, Doctor of Historical Sciences

The Crimean offensive operation, whose task was to liberate the Crimea from the Wehrmacht, began 75 years ago, on April 8, 1944. It ended 35 days later: on May 12, the 4th Ukrainian Front and the Separate Primorskaya Army completely defeated the German 17th Army. The German Fuhrer called the Crimea "the second Stalingrad" - the Germans just as ingloriously and hastily left this land.

It was very important for A. Hitler to maintain control over the Crimea for as long as possible. The peninsula is the center of sea and air communications on the Black Sea, and in addition, its capture by the Red Army created the conditions for an attack on Romania and Bulgaria. The Fuhrer was afraid that his satellites might turn their backs on Germany. Therefore, the fiercest battles were fought for the Crimea. Until 1944, the Red Army had already tried (unsuccessfully) to liberate the peninsula. The Kerch-Feodosia landing operation (December 26, 1941 - May 15, 1942) ended in a tragic retreat. 13 thousand Red Army soldiers did not have time to escape and took refuge in the mines of the Adzhimushkay quarries near Kerch.

Adzhimushkay quarries (lifeglobe.net)

For months, they held the line against the Germans, who poisoned them with gases, blew up their tunnels, deprived them of water (Soviet soldiers found places in adits where water dripped from the vaults). The documents published recently by the Ministry of Defense (previously classified or inaccessible) reflect the course of hostilities in Sevastopol, Simferopol, Sudak, Yalta and Kerch. There is also a diary of Adzhimushkay political instructor of the 83rd motorized rifle brigade Alexander Sarikov who fell into hell. On May 25, 1942, he wrote: “The Bolsheviks do not recognize difficulties. They choke, they kill, not a drop of water, but life must go on as usual and no one has the right to whimper”; “The Fritz began again to suffocate with gases […]. There is nothing to breathe, the gas mask also fails, chlorine begins to seep. Today, as never before, it strangles strenuously - at each exit it throws checkers and grenades. Again tearing screams, calling for help. Victims, victims. Death is so close, but it is still reluctant to die, just in this ready grave. After all, this is the death of a ferret, which is strangled with smoke, as a pest of garden crops, and we are people ... ”The Germans took the quarries only on October 30, 1942. They took only 48 people out of 13 thousand prisoners, and Sarikov, and all the rest died.

Quarry water bill (june-22.mil.ru)

Copy of Sarikov's diary (june-22.mil.ru)

When the Red Army approached the Crimea, on December 27, 1943, Hitler told his generals: “We are obliged to defend the Crimea, this second Stalingrad, as long as this is generally permissible ... I consider the loss of Crimea to be the biggest misfortune.” But by April 1944, the troops of General F. I. Tolbukhin (4th Ukrainian) and A. I. Eremenko (Separate Primorskaya) had already occupied bridgeheads in the north and east of Crimea. According to the plan of the Red Army, during the operation it was necessary to inflict powerful blows in the direction of Sevastopol, crush and destroy the 17th Wehrmacht Army (Colonel-General E. Eneke), and prevent it from evacuating. The Germans prepared 3-4 lines of defense and long-term powerful fortifications of Sevastopol (the Red Army did not have such in 1941-42, but it defended the city for 250 days). Eneke had 5 German and 7 Romanian divisions here (more than 195 thousand people in total, 3600 guns and mortars, 215 tanks and assault guns, 148 aircraft). But the Soviet grouping near the Crimea was larger: 470 thousand people, 5982 guns and mortars, 559 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1250 aircraft.

Crimean offensive operation. (scoopnest.com)

A well-prepared operation developed successfully from the very beginning. Five days before its start, heavy artillery smashed the German fortifications. And on April 8, the Germans were forced to flee. On April 11, the Red Army soldiers liberated Kerch, on the 12th - Feodosia, on April 13 - Evpatoria and Simferopol, on April 14-15 - Sudak, Bakhchisaray, Alushta and Yalta. During the retreat, the Germans did not really have time to fulfill the order to destroy everything that they could not take away. By the way, something was not subject to either export or destruction. One of the orders for the army read: “Alcoholic drinks should not be destroyed, but left to the Russians. Practice shows that when they capture such trophies, their offensive slows down ”(in fairness, this technique worked, but not very effectively; for example, drunkenness in Simferopol ended two days after the liberation of the city, and somewhere there were no brawls at all) .

Crimea, 1944 (russian.rt.com)

Assault on the Sapun Mountain near Sevastopol. (regnum.ru)

Already on April 19 and 23, the Red Army tried to break through the defenses near Sevastopol, but failed. I still had to prepare and on May 7 to begin a general assault. First, in fierce battles, they captured Sapun Mountain, and on May 9, the Red Army soldiers already broke into the city. The remnants of the Germans fled to Cape Chersonese, where, as General K. Tippelskirch wrote, they defended themselves "with the desperation of the doomed." They were doomed. Hopes for evacuation on ships did not materialize, and 21,000 Nazis surrendered. They were pressed against a steep bank where they could no longer board the barges. Few Germans managed to escape. A journalist from the Izvestia newspaper wrote in a May 14 issue about what he saw at Cape Khersones: “A German self-propelled barge is standing in Streletskaya Bay. Captain Malkov's scouts jumped on her deck and killed the crew before the barge had time to sail from the shore. It is loaded with motors and parts taken from our combines and tractors. The corpses of German soldiers and officers are lying around right there. Three days later, the Crimea was completely cleared of the invaders (on the same day, the Red Army soldiers began to swim in the sea en masse, many for the first time in their lives).

Crimea, 1944 (zarubejom.ru)

Captured Germans (russiainphoto.ru)

As a result of the operation, the Wehrmacht lost 100 thousand people (of which more than 61 thousand prisoners), the Soviet troops - 17,754 killed (of which about 6 thousand - in the battles for Sevastopol) and 67 thousand wounded. 238 Soviet soldiers became Heroes of the Soviet Union. The award lists published by the Ministry of Defense of some of the fighters who liberated Crimea are impressive! For example, Captain A. G. Toropkin received the title of Hero of the USSR for being the first to break into enemy trenches on May 7, 1944 and kill 14 Wehrmacht soldiers in hand-to-hand combat.

Sevastopol, 1944 (pressmia.ru)

Return (morpolit.milportal.ru)

The most important condition for a convincing victory of the Red Army is not even a numerical advantage in people and equipment (the Germans had it in 1941, but Sevastopol held out for months), but the spirit of Soviet soldiers, their sacrificial heroism. Only this explains that they managed to liberate the Crimea much faster than the Germans occupied it. The English journalist Alexander Werth wrote, having visited the Crimea after the liberation, that the Germans were rapidly crushed because "the fighting spirit of the Germans, at least in such a remote place from Germany as the Crimea, could no longer be at the proper height." Soviet soldiers fought for their homeland. Their steadfastness was admired by their commanders. Many years later, Major General G. F. Malyukov (commander of the 216th Red Banner Sivash Division) recalled the delivery of supplies through the salt lake Sivash: “... barge haulers dragged us food, fodder, shells and guns. Only a Russian soldier can endure this painful labor, a German would die […]. Salt water eats everything. Despite this, he pulls day and night. A Russian soldier can endure a lot ... Military historians also note that the Red Army in 1944 learned how to fight perfectly: the directions of attacks were correctly chosen for the operation, the types of troops interacted perfectly, and the material support and weapons already made it possible to feel confident.

Soviet sailors again in Sevastopol, 1944 (rusvesna.su)

The Germans left behind ruins. About three hundred industrial enterprises were destroyed, almost all the cattle were taken away, the cities lost most of their residential buildings. 127 settlements were completely destroyed. They began to restore all this immediately after the liberation - wineries, ship repairmen, fishermen and a fish factory, an iron ore factory soon started working ... But the people who died during the occupation of Crimea left forever. Before the war, 1 million 126 thousand people lived in Crimea. Of these, 135,000 were killed by the Nazis, and another 85,500 were taken to Germany as slaves. The Wehrmacht continued to kill civilians during the retreat. The commissions for the investigation of the crimes of the Germans (and in the Crimea, the Romanians) later found out the horrifying facts of murders committed for the sake of entertainment, robberies, rapes, extrajudicial executions and bullying.

Disembarkation (ourhistory.ru)

P. P. Sokolov-Skalya. Liberation of Sevastopol. May 1944 (encyclopedia.mil.ru)

Here is just a small quote from lengthy descriptions of the atrocities of the Wehrmacht: “There were often cases of martyrdom of citizens from torture and bullying. Klimenko Nadezhda Silovna, born in 1915 […] tells the following about German torture and executions: “On April 16, Vanda Khristina Andreevna, a citizen of Kozyuruba, and I went together in the town of Stary Krym to the old slaughterhouse to look for the corpses of our executed husbands. On the way, they noticed a fresh trace from the car. This trail led us to a fresh hole not dug, but obtained, apparently, from an explosion […]. We […] noticed large stone slabs, very heavy. One stone was lifted with difficulty by five male shepherds. The corpse of my husband had no traces of bullets, it was completely blue, there were no eyes, teeth, ears, there was only one nose. Apparently, the bloodsucking fascists put the husband and his comrades alive in a pit (putting out their eyes, tearing off their ears and knocking out their teeth), and strangled them with stone slabs. After that, we buried them…”

And for all these crimes in the Crimea and other places of the Soviet Union, the hated Nazis were driven farther to the west, in order to end them forever in a year.

On April 8, 1944, the Crimean operation began. We can say about this operation that it has become an example of solving unsolvable problems. Even at the first glance at the map, it was clear that the geography of the peninsula did not promise surprises in the defense. Narrow isthmuses lead from the north to the Crimea from the continent, an alternative to breaking through which is a landing. Moreover, the Perekop Isthmus is blocked by the ancient Turkish Wall, whose importance as an engineering structure was preserved in the 20th century.

With some irony, the Soviet operation to liberate Crimea can be called a master class on how to do it. Much was decided in the autumn of 1943, when the struggle for the Crimea was just beginning. The first competent move on the part of the Soviet command was the capture of bridgeheads on the Sivash. To some extent, this, of course, was an echo of the Civil War legend, but it was not an improvisation. Guides were selected from among the military personnel of the 4th Ukrainian Front and local residents, indicating the most advantageous areas for overcoming the Sivash. The resistance of the Germans to the crossing of the Sivash was almost absent, which made it possible to cross and gain a foothold.

An equally significant success in the fall of 1943 was the overcoming of the Turkish Wall. The tankers of the corps of General I. D. Vasiliev managed to break through the rampart through the passage in it and gain a foothold on the approaches to. Despite the temporary encirclement, units of the 19th Panzer Corps managed not only to break through the corridor to their own, but also to hold their positions behind the rampart. Holding a section of the Turkish Wall allowed Soviet artillery observers to view the enemy's defenses.

At the same time, in the autumn of 1943, a bridgehead under the eastern tip of the Crimea was captured by amphibious assault. The landing operation was planned taking into account the assumption that the enemy intended to leave the Crimea. However, literally on the go, Hitler changes plans and orders the Crimea to be firmly held. There were several reasons, including a political one: the retention of Crimea influenced the position of Turkey, which smuggled chromium ore to the Third Reich. One way or another, the troops of the Separate Primorsky Army and the V Army Corps of the Germans found themselves in a position of unstable equilibrium. Soviet troops could not break out of the bridgehead, but the Germans also failed in their attempts to drop troops into the sea.

The result of the autumn battles of 1943 was the dispersal of the Crimean defense forces between three spatially separated directions. The 17th army of General Yeneke was forced to use part of the forces against Perekop, part of the forces against the bridgehead on the Sivash and part under. The Germans were also afraid of landings from the sea, which also forced them to allocate a reserve for Feodosia, the fourth direction.

Immediate attack on the Crimean peninsula in the winter of 1943-1944. still did not follow. The first task was the elimination of the Nikopol bridgehead, which threatened the Soviet troops on the outskirts of the Crimea. After that, the 4th Ukrainian Front turned to Perekop. The main blow was supposed to be delivered by the 51st Army from the Sivash region, and the auxiliary one - from the Perekop region. For the transfer of troops and equipment to the bridgehead on the Sivash, two crossings were built. This was a real engineering feat, which made it possible to transfer an entire tank corps. The headquarters demanded that the operation begin no later than March 1. However, the Sea of ​​Azov, which was raging with storms, snowfalls and snowstorms led to the destruction of the crossings across the Sivash. The operation was postponed, and on March 16 the roles changed: now the Headquarters ordered "to begin after the troops of the left wing of the 3rd Ukrainian Front had captured the area of ​​​​the city of Nikolaev and advanced them to Odessa." After the capture of Nikolaev, the operation was again postponed due to bad weather, this time to April 8th.

Against the backdrop of a series of disasters on the right-bank Ukraine, the Germans felt themselves relatively safe in the Crimea. Black Sea Admiral Brinkman wrote:

"... in early April, when the enemy launched an offensive, there were sufficient supplies in the Crimea, especially ammunition and food."

Soviet sailors in the liberated city of Kerch Source: https://tass.ru

Two infantry divisions were also transferred to the peninsula, but they had to be dispersed between the north of Crimea and. On the Soviet side, the receipt of reinforcements by the enemy was compensated by conscription in the liberated territory in Tavria.

In total, the 4th Ukrainian Front and the Separate Primorsky Army had about 470 thousand people, 560 tanks and self-propelled guns. The total number of the German 17th Army defending the Crimea at the beginning of April 1944 was 235 thousand people (including 65 thousand Romanians).

Soviet preparations, although they caused some concern, were generally underestimated by the German command. The appearance of the 19th Panzer Corps on the Sivash bridgehead went unnoticed. On the eve of the start of the Soviet offensive, on April 3, 1944, General Jeneke wrote to the lower headquarters:

“The number of enemy tanks on the Sivash bridgehead, you think, is 80-100, but in my opinion, there are fewer of them. I think that you have confused the “Stalin organs” of the mortar units with light tanks.”

As it soon became clear, they were not confused.

The attack on Perekop will be no less a surprise for the Germans. After the liquidation of the Nikopol bridgehead, the 2nd Guards Army of G.F. Zakharov was deployed to the Crimea. A competent and energetic military leader, G. F. Zakharov immediately set about scrupulous preparations for the offensive. First of all, it was possible to bring the Soviet and German positions closer together with the help of the so-called "whiskers" - trenches dug in the direction of the enemy. To disorientate the enemy, effigies were used, which, during artillery preparation, with the transfer of fire in depth, rose above the Soviet trenches and imitated an attack. This provoked the fire of machine guns and defense guns and opened the fire system of the Germans under. But even that was only part of the plan. G. F. Zakharov carefully prepared the troops for the offensive. In the rear, special training grounds were built, reproducing the areas of the German defense. One of the villages in the rear of the 2nd Guards Army was even "made up" under. Studying in such fields made it possible to work out the upcoming assault to automatism.

All this together made the blow of April 8, 1944 crushing and irresistible. However, the Wehrmacht, of course, was still too early to bury. On the planned direction of the main attack of the 51st army of Ya. G. Kreizer, the Soviet units met stubborn resistance. It quickly became clear that success here, near Tarkhan, would not be expected soon. However, A. M. Vasilevsky and Ya. G. Kreizer did not lose their heads and quickly regrouped their forces and means to a neighboring sector, where there was a breakthrough in the enemy’s defense. By the morning of April 10, the settlement of Tomashevka was captured at the exit from the lake defiles and the introduction of the 19th Panzer Corps into the breakthrough was prepared. Under his blows, the enemy's defense finally crumbled.

The breakthrough of German positions in the northern Crimea occurred in no small part due to a strong artillery strike. From April 8 to April 10, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front used up 677 wagons of ammunition. This period accounted for the smallest part of the losses of the front personnel (3923 people were killed and 12166 were wounded).

Residents of the liberated Bakhchisaray greet the partisans

In early February 1944, Soviet troops completed the liquidation of the last enemy bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper. Next in line was the liquidation of the Crimean group of the enemy.

By this time, the internal situation of Romania, its relations with Germany, had sharply deteriorated. During the Uman-Botoshansk operation, Soviet troops crossed the state border at the end of March 1944 and by mid-April deepened into the territory of Romania for 100 km, freeing 10 thousand square meters. km, where 400 thousand people lived. On April 2, the Soviet government declared that it was not pursuing the goal of acquiring part of the Romanian territory or changing the existing system. It offered Romania the terms of a truce to withdraw from the war. At the same time, the progressive forces within the country submitted a declaration to the government, in which they demanded a withdrawal from the war and the conclusion of peace with the states of the anti-Hitler coalition. But the Antonescu government, fearing responsibility for the crimes, decided to continue the war on the side of Germany.

The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to strike the main blow with the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front from the north of Perekop and Sivash and the auxiliary one - with the troops of the Separate Primorsky Army from the Kerch region in the general direction of Simferopol, Sevastopol.

The Black Sea Fleet was ordered to block the Crimean peninsula from the sea.

By this time, the 17th German Army had 5 German and 7 Romanian divisions, separate rifle regiments "Crimea" and "Bergman", 13 separate security battalions, 12 sapper battalions. It had a large artillery reinforcement: the 191st and 279th assault gun brigades, the 9th anti-aircraft artillery division, the 60th artillery regiment, three regiments (704, 766, 938) of coastal defense, ten high-capacity artillery battalions. The German 4th Air Fleet and the Romanian Air Force had from 150 to 300 aircraft at the Crimean airfields.

The main forces of the 17th German Army are the 49th Mountain Rifle Corps (50th, 111th, 336th Infantry Divisions, 279th Brigade of Assault Guns), the 3rd Romanian Cavalry Corps (9th Cavalry, 10th and 19th I infantry divisions) defended in the northern part of the Crimea. On the Kerch Peninsula was the 5th Army Corps (73rd, 98th Infantry Divisions, 191st Brigade of Assault Guns), the 6th Cavalry and 3rd Mountain Rifle Division of the Romanians. The coast from Feodosia to Sevastopol was covered by the 1st Romanian mountain rifle corps (1st, 2nd infantry divisions). The west coast was controlled by two regiments of the 9th Romanian Mountain Division. The 1st Romanian Corps was entrusted with the fight against the partisans.

Using the experience of defense on the Taman Peninsula, the enemy equipped the strongest defensive lines: in the north - three lines of defense, on the Kerch Peninsula - four. From Saki through Sarabuz and Karasubazar to Feodosia, a rear defensive line was being prepared.

German soldiers and officers understood the hopelessness of their situation, but were not yet morally broken. Corporal of the 73rd Infantry Division Helfrid Merzinger, who defected near Kerch in early April, said that the German soldier was not yet ready to stop fighting. "Russian leaflets are read by German soldiers, but I will say frankly - the hurricane fire of Russian artillery works much more convincingly than these leaflets."

Table 6. The ratio of the forces of the parties to the beginning of the operation *

* History of the Second World War, 1939-1945. T. 8. S. 104-105.

There was a hard fight ahead. Therefore, it was decided to create a significant superiority in forces. The 2nd Guards Army of General G.F. began to operate on the Perekop Isthmus. Zakharov (13th Guards, 54th and 55th Corps - a total of 9 rifle divisions) and on the Sivash - the 51st Army of General Ya.G. Cruisers (1st Guards, 10th and 63rd Corps - 10 rifle divisions in total) and reinforcement units.

The 51st Army, which delivered the main blow, was reinforced by two artillery divisions, two tank divisions, two mortar divisions, two anti-aircraft artillery and ten artillery regiments, and four engineering brigades. The army of 91 thousand people was armed with 68,463 rifles and machine guns, 3,752 machine guns, 1,428 guns, 1,059 mortars, 1,072 anti-aircraft guns and 49 tanks.

To ensure a quick breakthrough of the enemy's defenses, a four to five-fold superiority in manpower and firepower was created in selected areas of the offensive.

The time of the start of the Crimean operation was postponed several times due to the need to complete the liquidation of the Nikopol enemy grouping, the incomplete readiness of the crossings over the Sivash, due to the condition of the roads. Finally, they decided to start the operation after the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front had reached the Odessa area. This meant an increase in the negative psychological impact on the enemy, feelings of isolation and doom.

In the Kerch direction, the offensive was to begin two or three days later than the offensive of the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front.

The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front delivered the main blow from Sivash, from where the enemy did not expect him, since the supply routes here were much more difficult than at Perekop. The main role in breaking through the defense was to be played by the 1st Guards Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General I.I. Missan. At the same time, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army broke through the defenses at Perekop. At a meeting before the operation, General of the Army F.I. Tolbukhin said: “General Eneka will need some time to correctly orient himself in the events taking place. Probably, he will understand the situation only by the end of the first day of the offensive, when the most important tasks of the breakthrough will already be solved in favor of the Soviet troops, and the favorable moment for counteraction will be lost.

The outstanding commander F.I. Before the operation, Tolbukhin talked with each regiment commander, seeking a detailed knowledge of the task, the degree of provision of the troops with everything necessary.

The peculiarity of the formation of the troops of the 51st Army was that the second echelons of the rifle corps could be brought into battle in two adjacent directions, depending on the success indicated.

On the eve of the offensive, almost all formations carried out reconnaissance in force, which confirmed the enemy's grouping.

April 8, 1944 at 10 a.m. 30 minutes. after a powerful artillery preparation that lasted 2.5 hours, the troops of the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies went on the offensive. The greatest success on the first day was achieved by the 267th Rifle Division of Colonel A.I. Tolstov from the 63rd Corps of General P.K. Koshevoy. To develop the success emerging here, the front commander ordered the 417th rifle division of General F.M. Bobrakov and the 32nd tank brigade. At the same time, the 2nd battalion of the 848th rifle regiment of the 267th division, on the personal instructions of F.I. Tolbukhin crossed the Aigul Lake and attacked the enemy in the flank. At night, another battalion under the command of Major M. Kulenko broke through to this bridgehead.

The enemy, highly experienced and experienced in offensive and defense, did not expect a quick transfer of the main attack from the zone of the 1st Guards Corps to the zone of the 63rd Rifle Corps, did not expect detours and coverage in the cramped area of ​​inter-lake defiles. But Soviet troops used the shallow lakes to seep through enemy defenses. Having repulsed the counterattacks, the troops of the corps on April 9 advanced from 4 to 7 km. The front commander reinforced the 63rd corps with the 77th division from the army reserve and the breakthrough artillery division from the front reserve, and also aimed aviation of the 8th air army of General T.T. Khryukin. During April 10, the troops of the corps drove the enemy out of the inter-lake defile and created the conditions for the entry of the 19th tank corps into the breakthrough.

Early in the morning of April 11, the tank corps of Lieutenant General I.D. Vasiliev, from the line south of Tomashevka, entered the gap in three columns and, three hours later, on the move, he entered into battle with the garrison defending the city of Dzhankoy. The enemy was defeated and by 18 o'clock withdrew to the south. This outlined a deep coverage of the Perekop-Ishunsky enemy grouping.

By this time, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army, advancing on the Perekop Isthmus, also achieved significant success. On the first day of the offensive, the 3rd Guards Rifle Division of General K.A. Tsalikov and the 126th Infantry Division of General A.I. Kazartsev mastered Armenian. By the end of the second day, the 2nd Guards Army broke through the first defensive line and the enemy hastily retreated to the Ishun positions.

The success of the Soviet troops on the Perekop Isthmus was facilitated by the landing across the Perekop Bay - a battalion of the 1271st Infantry Regiment of the 387th Division under the command of Captain F.D. Dibrov. The battalion numbered 512 people and had good weapons: 166 machine guns, 45 machine guns, two 45-mm guns, six 82-mm mortars, grenades. On April 10, at 5 o'clock in the morning, the battalion secretly landed from sapper boats and began to advance. Soon the enemy sent 13 tanks and a reinforced company of submachine gunners against the landing. In a hot battle, the enemy lost 3 tanks and up to 40 people killed (battalion losses: 4 killed, 11 wounded, one gun and three mortars). The enemy began to retreat. Pursuing him, the battalion captured a battery of mortars and prisoners. For this brave battle, all the soldiers and officers of the battalion were awarded orders and medals, and Captain F.D. Dibrov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

For 34 hours of stubborn fighting, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army broke through the Perekop positions. This was reflected not only in the moral and political state of our troops and superiority in strength, but also in the increased combat skills of the officers and rank and file, the growth of technical equipment and material support for the army. Almost complete suppression of enemy artillery and fire weapons was achieved. This explains the relatively fast breaking of enemy defenses.

At the junction of the two armies, the 347th Melitopol Red Banner Rifle Division of Major General A.Kh. Yukhimchuk, who in 1941 defended the Crimea here with his regiment. In order to reduce the time of movement from their trench to enemy positions, they dug messages in the direction of the enemy - “mustache”. They went on the attack behind the explosions of their shells and without the traditional "cheers", which the enemy took as a signal to open fire. Groups of shooters in the first trench did not linger and continued to move deep into the enemy defenses.

Lieutenant-General I. Strelbitsky, commander of artillery of the 2nd Guards Army, notes the decisive role of artillery of special and high power in breaking through strong fortifications. Small-caliber artillery and light mortars did not use up even half of the reserves. Rifle cartridges were now consumed ten times less. Here is how dramatically the ratio of fire in combined arms combat has changed in comparison with 1941. Close fire combat and hand-to-hand combat became a rarity. The breakthrough of the enemy defense was carried out with comparatively small losses.

By the end of April 10, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army were detained by the enemy at the Ishun positions. The decisive advance of the 51st Army, as well as bypassing enemy positions from the flanks, contributed to the success of the breakthrough of the 2nd Guards Army. 87th Guards Rifle Division under the command of Colonel K.Ya. Tymchik part of the forces forded Karkinitsky Bay, and the 126th Infantry Division of General A.I. Kazartseva part of the forces forded Staroe Lake and at 6 o'clock on April 12 hit the rear of the enemy. Taking advantage of the confusion in the camp of the enemy, the remaining units of the army attacked the enemy from the front and overturned him. In view of the possible encirclement, the enemy was no longer able to defend the third position (along the Chatyrlyk River) and hastily began to retreat. Soviet troops broke through the defenses at Perekop faster and more skillfully than the enemy did in the fall of 1941.

The persecution of the enemy began, in which the F.I. Tolbukhin, a front-line mobile group: the 19th tank corps, the 279th rifle division, mounted on vehicles, and the 21st anti-tank artillery brigade. The rate of advance of the troops of the 51st Army was on average 22 km per day (on some days up to 35 km). But the enemy, having a lot of transport, retreated quickly.

The mobile front group, commanded by the deputy commander of the 51st Army, Major General V.N. Razuvaev, on April 12, approached Simferopol, but it was not possible to break the resistance of a strong garrison on the move. Having regrouped forces at night, and also replenished with approaching units, the mobile group launched an attack on the city on the morning of April 13. Five hours later, by 11 o'clock in the afternoon, the capital of Crimea, Simferopol, was completely liberated. At the same time, up to 1 thousand people were captured. At the same time, a lateral mobile detachment from the 63rd Rifle Corps under the command of Lieutenant Colonel M.I. Sukhorukov moved to the regional center Zuya to block the way for the troops retreating from the Kerch Peninsula and force them to turn onto a narrow and uncomfortable seaside road. A heated battle took place in Zuya - artillery fired on buckshot, the fights went hand-to-hand. More than 300 fascists were destroyed and almost 800 people were captured. The enemy, leaving cars, guns and several tanks, began to retreat through the mountains to the sea.

Commander of the Separate Primorsky Army, General of the Army A.I. Eremenko, preparing an offensive, decided to break through the enemy defenses in the center, while bypassing the heavily fortified Bulganak knot from the north and south. It was also decided to bypass the city of Kerch and the heavily fortified coast of the Sea of ​​Azov. The troops had groups of obstacles, securing the area, and artillery escort. Mobile groups were created in the army, corps and divisions in case of pursuit of the retreating enemy. The main concern of the command was to prevent a covert withdrawal of the enemy.

The successful actions of the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front endangered the encirclement of the entire Kerch grouping of the enemy. The command of the 17th German Army decided to withdraw its forces from the Kerch Peninsula. Intelligence on April 10 discovered the enemy was preparing to withdraw. In this regard, General A.I. Eremenko ordered at 21 o'clock. 30 minutes. to begin artillery and aviation preparation and at 2200 forward detachments attack the front line. The attack was successful, at 2 o'clock the main forces of the army went on the offensive and by 4 o'clock on April 11 captured the first position of the enemy defense. The seemingly impregnable defense of the enemy was broken through. Mobile groups of corps were introduced into the gap in order not to allow the enemy to gain a foothold in intermediate positions.

The left-flank 16th rifle corps of General K.I. Provalova began to flow around the city of Kerch and surrounded up to 2000 soldiers and officers on its northern outskirts. The 255th Naval Infantry Brigade of Colonel I.A. Vlasova made an even deeper detour and went to the southern slopes of Mount Mithridates. According to the corps commander, this maneuver completed the job. By 6 am on April 11, Kerch was liberated.

On April 11, throughout the Crimea, forward detachments of all armies and corps, planted on vehicles, tanks, guns, pursued the hastily retreating enemy. As soon as the opportunity arose, they overtook the retreating enemy troops, captured prisoners, weapons, and equipment.

The enemy's attempt to delay the offensive of the Separate Primorsky Army on the Ak-Manai positions was not successful. Parts of the 11th Guards Rifle Corps, commanded by Major General S.E. Rozhdestvensky, ahead of the retreating enemy, quickly took possession of this line, capturing more than 100 guns. Using this success, the 3rd Mountain Rifle Corps, which until April 17 was commanded by General N.A. Shvarev (while General A.A. Luchinsky was recovering), advanced without delay to Vladislavovna station.

The corps were given new tasks to liberate the central and southern parts of the Crimea: the 11th Guards Corps continued to pursue the enemy in the direction of Karasubazar - Simferopol; 3rd mountain rifle - through the mountains to Sevastopol; 16th rifle - along the southern coast of Crimea. General K.I. Provalov recalls that the representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters K.E. Voroshilov set the task for the 16th Corps: "... at all costs to preserve the Crimean health resorts."

The corps commanders skillfully carried out the offensive on disunited directions. The 16th Rifle Corps managed to get in the way of the enemy's retreat near Feodosia, Sudak, and Yalta. For bypassing Yalta through Mount Ai-Petri, the commander of the 227th Infantry Division, Colonel G.N. Preobrazhensky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Retreating, the German command left the Romanian units as cover units. The Romanian captured officers testified: “At first, we retreated together with the Germans, but when the Soviet troops overtook our columns and, as they say, grabbed our collars, the Germans quickly got into the vehicles. Some of the Romanian soldiers and officers also tried to get into the cars, but the Germans opened fire on them. But it still didn't save them. A day later, we also met them at the collection point for prisoners of war.

On April 13, Evpatoria and Feodosia were liberated. In Karasubazar, the troops of the 51st and Primorye armies united, forming a common front. On April 14, Bakhchisaray, Sudak and Alushta were liberated.

The enemy, having left barriers, prepared mechanized means and withdrew significant forces. The troops pursuing him failed to bypass and destroy his large groupings in the foothills. In the area of ​​Bakhchisarai, the troops of the 2nd Guards and 51st armies joined, there was some mixing of the troops. As a result, the rate of pursuit of the enemy decreased. This allowed him to "bounce" to Sevastopol and take back the defense there. On April 15, Soviet troops reached the outer defensive perimeter of Sevastopol. Here the enemy occupied a powerful defensive area, counting on its long-term retention.

Hitler declared Sevastopol a "fortified city". But no one wanted to defend this fortress to the last soldier. The Germans retreated to Sevastopol in order to be the first to evacuate. The Romanians did not want to die for the sake of saving the German regiments and preferred to surrender. Some decisions of the Hitlerite command are curious.

On April 9, the commander of the German-Romanian forces, c. In the Crimea, General Eneke asks for authority to prepare for withdrawal to the Sevastopol fortified area in order to "avoid the destruction of the entire army," that is, he asks for freedom of action. Despite the support of this request by the commander of Army Group A, Scherner, Hitler did not give such consent.

On April 10, Eneke reported that with his permission, the 5th Army Corps would withdraw to the Ak-Manai positions, the Romanian 19th Division from the Chongar Peninsula, and the 49th Corps would hold positions until the evening of April 12.

On April 11, Eneke reported on the breakthrough of the northern front and that he had ordered the army to retreat at a rapid pace towards Sevastopol. This caused sharp discontent of the chief of the general staff and Hitler himself. The commander of the 49th Corps, General Konrad, was dismissed and then put on trial (General Hartman became the commander of the corps on May 6). No one knew whether the retreat to Sevastopol was the beginning of the evacuation.

April 12 - Hitler's order "to hold Sevastopol for a long time and not to evacuate combat units from there." On this day, Scherner visited the Crimea and agreed with the fear that "the Russians with their tanks will be in Sevastopol before us."

On April 13, the main task of the 5th Army Corps is to arrive in Sevastopol as soon as possible, for which it will turn south onto the coastal highway. On April 14, the advanced units of the army corps “reached” Sevastopol and took up defensive positions.

Attempts by the Soviet troops to capture Sevastopol on the move and thereby disrupt the evacuation that had begun failed. April 17, the 63rd Corps of General P.K. Koshevoy went to the line of the Black River. On April 18, the troops of the Primorsky Army and the 77th Simferopol Division of the 51st Army captured Balaklava and Kadykovka, and the 267th Division and units of the 19th Tank Corps approached the last powerful defensive line - Sapun Mountain. By this time, there was a shortage of ammunition in all formations, and aviation was without fuel. Former Chief of Staff of the Front Marshal of the Soviet Union S.S. Biryuzov wrote that the difficulty with fuel was the result of the fact that, in preparation for the operation, "The Headquarters significantly reduced our applications, considering them too high." It was necessary to prepare an assault on the fortified Sevastopol.

The Soviet command decided to supply ammunition (1.5 rounds), pull up the 19th tank corps and heavy artillery to the Balaklava area, go on the offensive on April 23 in order to cut off Sevastopol from the bays located to the southwest, in at the same time, the 2nd Guards Army to break through the Inkerman Valley to the Northern Bay and take it under the fire of direct flood guns. Air strikes should be concentrated on the berths of the port and transports at sea.

By this time organizational changes had taken place. A separate Primorsky Army was included in the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front. It became known simply as the Primorsky Army, and Lieutenant General K.S. took command of it. Miller. Departed from the Crimea, the management of the 4th Air Army K.A. Vershinin, the 55th Guards and 20th Mountain Rifle Divisions, as well as the 20th Rifle Corps, which was in reserve on the Taman Peninsula.

Preparing for the assault on Sevastopol, on April 18, the front commander issued an order calling for a last effort:

“Comrade soldiers and officers of the 4th Ukrainian Front! Under your blow, within 3 days, the "impregnable" German defense collapsed to the entire depth of the Perekop, Ishun, Sivash and Ak-Manai positions.

On the sixth day you occupied the capital of the Crimea - Simferopol and one of the main ports - Feodosia and Evpatoria ...

Today, units of the armies have reached the last line of the enemy's Sevastopol defense on the Chernaya River and the Sapun Mountain ridge, which is 5-7 km from Sevastopol.

A last organized decisive assault is needed in order to drown the enemy in the sea and capture his equipment, and I urge you to do this ... ".

The offensive on April 23 showed that, despite the excellent work of artillery and aviation, it was not possible to destroy the defensive structures, although the infantry advanced 2-3 km in some directions and occupied the enemy’s front trenches. According to intelligence data, the enemy still had 72,700 soldiers and officers, 1,345 artillery pieces, 430 mortars, 2,355 machine guns and 50 tanks in the bridgehead.

After lengthy discussions of the situation in the Sevastopol region in all command instances, they came to the conclusion: in order to put an end to the remnants of the enemy in the Crimea as soon as possible, a general assault on the Sevastopol fortified region by all troops of the front with the active use of aviation, fleet and partisans is necessary.

So, the general assault on the Sevastopol fortified area! Despite the repeated reminders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin on the need to complete the liquidation of the Crimean enemy grouping in the coming days, the preparation of the assault was not yet completed, it required time to replenish and regroup forces, transport ammunition and fuel, destroy the most dangerous enemy defense facilities, form assault groups and train them. It was decided to launch the offensive on 5 May.

On April 16, the command of the German 17th Army reported that the retreat had been completed, preventing the pursuing enemy from entering Sevastopol. Eneke considered this a feat, despite the fact that only a third of the guns and a quarter of the anti-tank weapons remained. The morale of the Romanians fell, and they could not be used for defense. From the 235 thousand people who were on allowance on April 9, the number of their troops by April 18 was reduced to 124 thousand.

human. This indicates losses, although part was evacuated (without Hitler's permission).

On April 12, General Scherner reported to Bucharest that he had ordered "to ensure the safe evacuation of the Romanians from the Crimea." On April 14-18, Sherner reported to the General Staff that in order to hold the Sevastopol region, it was necessary to deliver six divisions and supply 600 tons of food daily. Since this is impossible, therefore, he proposed to evacuate Sevastopol. Hitler was in favor of holding Sevastopol for a long time by reinforcing the area with heavy weapons.

On April 22, the command of the 17th Army, together with the naval commandant of the Crimea, developed an evacuation plan ("Leopard") by sea and air, designed for 14 days.

On April 21, Turkey stopped deliveries of chromium ore to Germany and "joined" the anti-fascist coalition.

On April 25, Hitler decided to hold Sevastopol for some more time. To cheer up the soldiers and officers, double monetary salaries were established in the Crimea, land allotments were promised to those who distinguished themselves in battles.

On April 30, General E. Eneke was removed from command of the 17th Army. General K. Almendinger took command.

But now the situation in the Crimea was determined by the Soviet, and not by the German command. Throughout the last ten days of April and the beginning of May, guns and ammunition wagons stretched along the roads to Sevastopol. Fuel and bombs were brought to the airfields. In the divisions, assault groups were formed, the core of which were communists and Komsomol members, obstacle groups and even groups to overcome anti-tank ditches. In all regiments and battalions, training took place on terrain similar to enemy positions and their fortifications.

On April 29, artillery and aviation began to systematically destroy enemy fortifications. The aviation of the front, the fleet and the long-range aviation attached to the Headquarters made 8200 sorties until May 5.

In the battles for Sevastopol, the squadron of Captain P.M. Komozina destroyed 63 enemy aircraft. Komozin personally and in a group shot down 19 enemy aircraft and was awarded the second Gold Star medal. The 3rd Fighter Air Corps under the command of General E.Ya. Savitsky. He himself flew several times for reconnaissance on a captured Me-109 fighter. For the skillful command of the air corps and personally shot down 22 enemy aircraft, he was again awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The brave air fighter V.D. Lavrinenkov was also awarded a second Gold Star medal. Many heroic deeds were accomplished in the Crimean sky that spring.

According to the plan of the front commander, the main blow was delivered on the left flank by the forces of the Primorsky Army and the 63rd Corps of the 51st Army in the Sapun-Gora-Karan sector in order to reach the sea (berths) west of Sevastopol. But in order to deceive the enemy, to pin down his forces, on May 5, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army, with the powerful support of the 8th Air Army, attacked the enemy from the north. The enemy transferred part of his reserve to this direction. On May 6, the 51st Army went on the offensive with part of its forces, and at 10 a.m. 30 minutes. On May 7, the Primorsky Army dealt the main blow.

F.I. Tolbukhin recalled that the enemy was expecting an offensive along the Balaklava highway. This was the only possible way, and here he placed almost all his artillery. “We had no hope of going anywhere else; then we were forced to launch a demonstrative offensive on the Mekenziev Mountains sector from west to east. For three days the 2nd Guards Army and the cavalry defiantly advanced, for three days our aviation made 3,000 sorties over these mountains.

I remember how we expected when the enemy would finally begin to withdraw his units from the Balaklava direction. And early in the morning on the third day, it was found that part of the artillery reached the Mekenziev mountains, and at 7 o'clock on the fourth day we delivered the main blow south of Sapun Mountain.

There is a large amount of historical and fiction literature about the storming of Sevastopol, and a beautiful diorama has been built on Sapun Mountain.

On the outer contour of the defense with a total length of up to 29 km, the Nazis were able to concentrate large forces and means, create their high density: up to 2 thousand people and 65 guns and mortars per 1 km of the front. On the steep stone slopes of this mountain, the enemy built four tiers of trenches, 36 pillboxes and 27 pillboxes. The assault on Sapun Mountain and the liberation of Sevastopol is one of the brilliant pages in the annals of the Great Patriotic War.

May 7 at 10 a.m. 30 minutes. the attack of Sapun Mountain began. It lasted nine hours. The 63rd Corps of P.K. operated in the main direction. Koshevoy (77th, 267th, 417th Rifle Divisions) and the 11th Guards Corps S.E. Rozhdestvensky (32nd Guards, 318th, 414th Rifle Divisions, 83rd and 255th Naval Infantry Brigades). Only at 19 o'clock. 30 minutes. on the crest of the mountain, the 77th Infantry Division of Colonel A.P. Rodionov from the 63rd Corps and the 32nd Guards Rifle Division of Colonel N.K. Zakurenkov from the 11th Guards Corps of the Primorsky Army. With the mastery of this key position, the troops were able to develop a strike directly on Sevastopol. During the night, the 10th Rifle Corps of the 51st Army, commanded by K.P. Neverov.

On May 8, on the second day of the assault, the 2nd Guards Army achieved significant success. Troops of the 13th Guards and 55th Rifle Corps drove the enemy out of the Mekenziev Mountains and reached Severnaya Bay by evening. The remnants of the 50th German infantry and the 2nd Romanian mountain divisions were cut off from the main forces and pressed to the sea. On the same day, the troops of the 51st and Primorsky armies broke through the enemy's main line of defense and reached the inner bypass of the city's defenses.

On the night of May 9, the offensive continued so that the enemy would not have time to regroup and put his units in order. He was led from each division by one rifle regiment. By morning, the troops of the 2nd Guards Army reached the North Bay along its entire length. Its direct-fire artillery fired through the Severnaya, Yuzhnaya and Streletskaya bays. At the same time, units of the 55th Rifle Corps, commanded by Major General P.E. Lovyagin, went to the Ship side and to the South Bay.

By decision of the front commander, on May 9, at 8 o'clock, the general attack was resumed. Troops of the 51st Army broke into the city from the southeast in the afternoon. Troops of the 11th Guards Corps entered the city from the south. 24th Guards Rifle Division Colonel G.Ya. Kolesnikova crossed the Northern Bay. By the end of May 9, the heroic Sevastopol was completely liberated. Moscow saluted this victory with twenty-four salvos from 324 guns.

The commander of the 54th Rifle Corps of the 2nd Guards Army, General T.K. Kolomiets, who commanded the 25th Chapaev division during the defense of Sevastopol, became the first commandant of the liberated Sevastopol.

This operation of the Soviet Armed Forces, brilliant in many respects, required great moral and physical exertion. After the assault on Sevastopol, the soldiers lay where the soybeans had cut them down: near a stone, in a roadside ditch, in the dust on the road. The dream was like a swoon, and only the weapons in their hands spoke of their readiness to rush at the enemy again.

The Primorsky Army, together with the 19th Tank Corps advanced to this direction, was advancing at that time in the direction of Cape Khersones, from where the enemy continued to evacuate. The 10th Rifle Corps of the 51st Army was also turned there.

General Boehme, who now commanded all the enemy troops on the Chersonesos Peninsula, put anti-aircraft, anti-tank and field artillery on direct fire and thus hoped to hold the bridgehead until the evacuation was completed. The remaining slippers were also buried in the ground. They set minefields, barbed wire, flamethrowers and everything else that could be adapted for defense.

During May 10 and 11, the troops of the Primorsky Army, the 19th Tank Corps and the 10th Rifle Corps were preparing for a decisive assault on the last defensive rampart that covered Cape Khersones. Artillerymen pushed their guns forward to destroy enemy fortifications with direct fire; engineering troops were preparing the attack area; scouts were actively searching. The captured prisoners showed that on the night of May 12, numerous ships would approach Chersonesos to shine the remaining troops. The general withdrawal for boarding troops on ships is scheduled for 4 o'clock in the morning.

Front commander F.I. Tolbukhin ordered to attack the enemy at 3 o'clock, prevent evacuation, exterminate or capture the remnants of enemy troops. Exactly at 3 o'clock on May 12, a thousand guns and mortars of the Primorsky Army and the 10th Rifle Corps of the 51st Army opened fire on enemy defenses and a concentration of troops. Even under the cover of darkness, the assault squads launched an attack and broke through narrow corridors in the enemy defenses. Behind them, the advanced regiments began to assault. By 7 o'clock in the morning the coast of the bays Streletskaya, Kruglaya, Omega, Kamyshovaya was cleared of the enemy; our troops reached the isthmus of Cape Khersones (between the Cossack Bay and the sea). On this piece of Crimean land, the enemy accumulated guns, slippers, people. But there was no longer a force that could stop the Soviet soldiers. By 10 o'clock on May 12, units of the Primorsky Army and the 19th Panzer Corps broke through to Cape Khersones. At the same time, the Black Sea Fleet and aviation did not let enemy ships ashore, sinking some of them in front of the eyes of the fascist army rushing along the coast. Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, over 21 thousand soldiers and officers (including more than 100 seniors) surrendered. General Boehme himself was also captured at the airfield.

What happened at that time at sea? The commander of the 17th German Army, Almendinger, asked that sea and air vehicles be sent to Sevastopol to evacuate "Romanians unfit for battle" and deliver reinforcements and ammunition. After April 8, the Germans were able to transfer two marching battalions (1300 people), 15 anti-tank and 14 other guns to Sevastopol. On the evening of May 8, in response to Scherner's report that the evacuation of Sevastopol would take eight days in its normal course, Hitler agreed to the evacuation. A day later, General Almendinger, at the request to leave the senior commander of the 49th Corps Hartman on Chersonesos, was ordered to "justify the confidence of the Fuhrer." On May 8, the last 13 fighters flew from Chersonese to Romania. All transport and military ships were sent from Romania to Sevastopol - about a hundred units. The intentions of the Nazi command on the night of May 11 to withdraw everyone "in one go" did not materialize. The remnants of the Nazi troops during the last day fought without heavy weapons and almost without ammunition, having suffered heavy losses.

From April 8 to May 13, the Black Sea Fleet carried out an operation to disrupt enemy sea communications. To do this, they used submarines, bomber and mine-torpedo aircraft, and in close communications - attack aircraft and torpedo boats. In view of the impossibility of creating a fighter cover due to the remoteness of our airfields from communications, the actions of large surface ships were not envisaged. However, during the operation, when the enemy, having lost airfields, did not have aviation, it was advisable to use destroyers and cruisers to blockade Sevastopol. From the book by A. Hilgruber "Evacuation of the Crimea in 1944" it can be seen that by May 5, in the Sevastopol region, the enemy had only fighters that covered the evacuation. On May 9, Soviet artillery began shelling the last enemy airfield at Cape Khersones, and enemy aircraft stopped operating in the Crimean sky.

Two brigades of torpedo boats were used to destroy ships leaving Sevastopol. Further into the sea, a brigade (7-9 units) of submarines operated. The aviation of the fleet struck all along the communications from the ports of the Crimea to the Romanian ports of Sulina and Constanta, it was the main strike force. About 400 aircraft took part in the fighting (including 12 torpedo bombers, 45 bombers, 66 attack aircraft and 289 fighters). Ports from Ak-Meschet to Feodosia were constant targets of their attacks. At the first stage, while the enemy retained airfields and a strong aviation group, the Fleet Air Force systematically attacked enemy ships at sea. At the second stage, when the enemy retreated to Sevastopol, they, together with torpedo boats and artillery, tried to establish a close blockade of the Sevastopol Bay, and then Cape Khersones.

Torpedo boats went to sea at night. Due to the remoteness of their bases, they spent most of their time on transitions and only a few hours remained in the area of ​​​​action. Submarines searched for the enemy using intelligence data and the results of air strikes and torpedo boats. However, there were not enough submarines and boats to block the flow of various ships. Therefore, it was rarely possible to completely destroy the convoy.

On April 11, 34 attack aircraft under the cover of 48 fighters launched several successive strikes on the accumulation of enemy floating assets in the port of Feodosia, making 218 sorties. A minesweeper, two landing barges, three boats and other watercraft were sunk, an attempt to evacuate by sea was thwarted. On April 13, 80 attack aircraft of the 11th assault aviation division under the command of Colonel D.I. Manzhosov, escorted by 42 fighters, made a massive raid on the accumulation of vehicles with German troops preparing to leave the port of Sudak. As a result of the strike, three self-propelled landing barges with German troops were sunk and five barges were damaged. Panic and confusion reigned on the piers, the orders of the officers regarding the further loading of troops were not carried out. The loading stopped, the soldiers refused to follow the ships and fled towards Alushta. A high percentage of hits on ships at sea was achieved by attack aircraft, using, unexpectedly for the enemy, the top-mast method of bombing, i.e. strafing bombing. By the end of April, a certain number of attack and fighter aircraft of the fleet were relocated to the Saki airfield (Evpatoria region), which improved the conditions for the struggle for air supremacy in the Sevastopol region and made it possible for attack aircraft to strike at single ships at sea. During the operation on communications (since May 8), the Air Force of the Fleet made 4506 sorties, sank 68 different ships. In air battles and from anti-aircraft artillery fire, they lost 47 aircraft. The enemy during this time lost about 80 aircraft.

Torpedo boats were active, using torpedoes and rockets. Their capabilities after relocating to Yalta and Evpatoria have increased. In small groups, boats went out at night to a given area of ​​the sea, searched for enemy ships or lay down to drift, waiting for the passage of enemy convoys. So, a group of four torpedo boats under the command of the captain of the 3rd rank A.P. Tuula discovered a large convoy of 30 ships and warships guarding them; as a result of a bold attack, four self-propelled barges with troops and one security boat were sunk. On three occasions (May 5, 7, and 11), the torpedo boats managed to break through the strong guards of the convoys and attack the transport ships. At the same time, rocket projectiles proved to be effective. After the first volleys, the enemy usually quickly left the battlefield.

Submarines successfully operated, which made 20 campaigns during the operation, fired 55 torpedoes and 28 shells at the enemy, sank 12 transport ships and damaged several ships.

Each convoy from Romania to the Crimea was attacked by different types of forces, each in its own area. As a result of decisive actions by Soviet aviation, torpedo boats and submarines, 102 different enemy ships were sunk and more than 60 were damaged. Of every ten enemy ships and ships that took part in the evacuation, nine ships were sunk or heavily damaged.

It is appropriate to give some information about how the German command assessed the evacuation of troops from the Crimea. General K. Tippelskirch writes: “The remnants of three German divisions and a large number of scattered groups of German and Romanian soldiers fled to the Kherson Cape, the approaches to which they defended with the desperation of the doomed ... Caught in a narrow patch of land, suppressed by continuous air raids and exhausted by attacks much superior enemy forces, the German troops, having lost all hope of escaping from this hell, could not stand it. The document of the Romanian main naval headquarters says that during the evacuation from the Crimea, 43% of the tonnage of German, Romanian and Hungarian ships in the Black Sea was sunk. Approximately the same number of ships were damaged. The German Admiral F. Ruge bitterly admitted: “Russian aviation turned out to be the most unpleasant thing for small ships, especially during the evacuation of the Crimea ...”.

The chief of staff of the German-Romanian fleet on the Black Sea, Konradi, describes the last days of the evacuation of Sevastopol as follows: On the night of May 11, panic began on the piers. Places on ships were taken from the battlefield. The ships were forced to leave without completing their loading, otherwise they could sink.

On the night of May 10, the last enemy convoy approached Sevastopol, consisting of diesel-electric ships "Totila", "Teya" and several landing barges. Having received 5-6 thousand people each, the ships left for Constanta at dawn. However, "Totila" was sunk by aircraft not far from Cape Chersonese, while "Thea" with a strong guard at full speed went to the southwest. Every 20 minutes, the ships guarding her had to open fire on the attacking Soviet aircraft. In the end, they used up all the ammunition. Around noon, a torpedo dropped from an aircraft hit the transport and it sank, taking about 5 thousand people to the bottom of the sea. On the morning of May 12, the large ship "Romania" burned out and sank.

Exactly 70 years ago, on March 16, 1944, the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief ordered the start of the Crimea liberation operation. The Crimean operation itself was carried out from April 8 to May 12, 1944 by the forces of the 4th Ukrainian Front and the Separate Primorsky Army in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov military flotilla.

On May 5-7, 1944, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (commander - General of the Army F.I. Tolbukhin) stormed the German defensive fortifications in heavy battles; On May 9, they completely liberated Sevastopol, and on May 12, the remnants of the enemy troops on Cape Chersonesus laid down.

I dedicate this photo collection to this significant event, friends.

1. Shelled facade of the Sevastopol Palace of Pioneers after the liberation of the city. May 1944

2. German minesweeper in the bay of Sevastopol. 1944

3. German attack aircraft Fw.190, destroyed by Soviet aircraft at the Kherson airfield. 1944

4. Meeting of Soviet partisans and boatmen in the liberated Yalta. 1944

5. The commander of the 7th Romanian mountain corps, General Hugo Schwab (second from left) and the commander of the XXXXIX mountain corps of the Wehrmacht, General Rudolf Konrad (first from the left) at the 37-mm cannon RaK 35/36 in the Crimea. 02/27/1944

6. Meeting of Soviet partisans in the liberated Yalta. 1944

7. The Soviet light cruiser "Red Crimea" enters the Sevastopol Bay. 11/05/1944

8. The commander of the 7th Romanian mountain corps, General Hugo Schwab (second from left) and the commander of the XXXXIX mountain corps of the Wehrmacht, General Rudolf Konrad (center right) pass by a mortar crew during a review in the Crimea. 02/27/1944

9. The Black Sea squadron returns to the liberated Sevastopol. In the foreground is the guards light cruiser Krasny Krym, behind it is the silhouette of the battleship Sevastopol. 11/05/1944

10. Soviet soldiers with a flag on the roof of the destroyed building Panorama "Defense of Sevastopol" in the liberated Sevastopol. 1944

11. Tanks Pz.Kpfw. 2nd Romanian tank regiment in the Crimea. 03.11.1943

12. Romanian General Hugo Schwab and German General Rudolf Konrad in the Crimea. 02/27/1944

13. Romanian gunners fire from an anti-tank gun during a battle in the Crimea. 03/27/1944

14. The commander of the XXXXIX mountain corps of the Wehrmacht, General Rudolf Konrad with Romanian officers at an observation post in the Crimea. 02/27/1944

15. Pilots of the 3rd Squadron of the 6th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Black Sea Fleet Air Force are studying a map of the combat area at the airfield near Yak-9D aircraft. In the background is the aircraft of the Guards Lieutenant V.I. Voronov (tail number "31"). Saki airfield, Crimea. April-May 1944

16. Chief of Staff of the 4th Ukrainian Front Lieutenant General Sergei Semenovich Biryuzov, member of the State Defense Committee Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov, Chief of the General Staff Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky at the command post of the 4th Ukrainian Front. April 1944

17. Representative of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko, with the command of the North Caucasian Front and the 18th Army, is considering a plan for an operation to cross the Kerch Strait. From left to right: Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko, Colonel General K.N. Leselidze, General of the Army I.E. Petrov. 1943

18. The Black Sea squadron returns to the liberated Sevastopol. In the foreground is the guards light cruiser Krasny Krym, behind it is the silhouette of the battleship Sevastopol. 11/05/1944

19. Soviet boat SKA-031 with a destroyed stern, thrown out at low tide in Krotkovo, waiting for repairs. A boat from the 1st Novorossiysk Red Banner division of sea hunters of the Black Sea Fleet. 1944

20. Armored boat of the Azov military flotilla in the Kerch Strait. Kerch-Eltingen landing operation. December 1943

21. Soviet troops transport military equipment and horses through the Sivash. In the foreground is a 45 mm anti-tank gun. December 1943

22. Soviet soldiers ferry on a pontoon a 122-mm howitzer of the 1938 model M-30 across the Sivash Bay (Rotten Sea). November 1943

23. T-34 tanks on the street of the liberated Sevastopol. May 1944

24. Marines at the arch of Primorsky Boulevard in the liberated Sevastopol. May 1944

25. The Black Sea squadron returns to the liberated Sevastopol. In the foreground is the guards light cruiser Krasny Krym, behind it is the silhouette of the battleship Sevastopol. 11/05/1944

26. Partisans who participated in the liberation of the Crimea. The village of Simeiz on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula. 1944

27. Minesweeper, Lieutenant Ya.S. Shinkarchuk crossed the Sivash thirty-six times and transported 44 guns with shells to the bridgehead. 1943 year.

28. Architectural monument Grafskaya pier in the liberated Sevastopol. 1944

29. Fireworks at the grave of fellow pilots who died near Sevastopol on April 24, 1944 05/14/1944

30. Armored boats of the Black Sea Fleet carry out the landing of Soviet troops on the Crimean coast of the Kerch Strait to the bridgehead near Yenikale during the Kerch-Eltigen landing operation. November 1943

31. The crew of the Pe-2 dive bomber "For the Great Stalin" of the 40th Bomber Aviation Regiment of the Black Sea Fleet after completing a combat mission. Crimea, May 1944. From left to right: crew commander Nikolai Ivanovich Goryachkin, navigator - Yuri Vasilyevich Tsyplenkov, gunner-radio operator - Sergey (nickname Button).

32. Self-propelled guns SU-152 of the 1824th heavy self-propelled artillery regiment in Simferopol. 04/13/1944

33. Soviet soldiers cross the Sivash in December 1943.

34. Marine sets the Soviet naval flag in the liberated Sevastopol. May 1944

35. Tank T-34 in the street of the liberated Sevastopol. May 1944

36. Transportation of Soviet equipment during the Kerch-Eltigen landing operation. November 1943

37. Destroyed German equipment on the shores of the Cossack Bay in Sevastopol. May 1944

38. German soldiers killed during the liberation of the Crimea. 1944

39. Transport with German soldiers evacuated from the Crimea, moored in the port of Constanta, Romania. 1944

40. Partisans in Yalta. 1944

41. Armored boats. The Crimean coast of the Kerch Strait, most likely a bridgehead near Yenikale. Kerch-Eltigen landing operation. Late 1943

42. Yak-9D fighters over Sevastopol. May 1944

43. Yak-9D fighters over Sevastopol. May 1944

44. Yak-9D fighters, 3rd squadron of the 6th GvIAP of the Black Sea Fleet Air Force. May 1944

45. Liberated Sevastopol. May 1944

46. ​​Yak-9D fighters over Sevastopol.

47. Soviet soldiers pose on a German fighter Messerschmitt Bf.109 abandoned in the Crimea. 1944

48. A Soviet soldier tears off the Nazi swastika from the gates of the metallurgical plant. Voikov in the liberated Kerch. April 1944

49. In the location of the Soviet troops - a unit on the march, washing, dugouts. Crimea. 1944

57. Liberated Sevastopol from a bird's eye view. 1944

58. In the liberated Sevastopol: an announcement at the entrance to Primorsky Boulevard, left over from the German administration. 1944

59. Sevastopol after the liberation from the Nazis. 1944

60. In the liberated Sevastopol. May 1944

61. Fighters of the 2nd Guards Taman Division in the liberated Kerch. Soviet troops began crossing the Kerch Strait following the Germans fleeing the Taman Peninsula on October 31, 1943. On April 11, 1944, Kerch was finally liberated as a result of a landing operation. April 1944

62. Fighters of the 2nd Guards Taman Division in the battles for the expansion of the bridgehead on the Kerch Peninsula, November 1943. With the defeat of the German troops on the Taman Peninsula, the path to the Kerch Strait opened up, which was used by the guardsmen during the landing to seize the bridgehead in the Crimea still occupied by the Germans . November 1943

63. Landing of the marines in the area of ​​Kerch. On October 31, 1943, Soviet troops began crossing the Kerch Strait. As a result of the landing operation on April 11, 1944, Kerch was finally liberated. The severity and fierceness of the fighting during the defense and liberation of Kerch is evidenced by the fact that for these battles 146 people were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and 21 military units and formations were awarded the honorary title "Kerch". November 1943