Marines detachment of Major Caesar Kunikov, shortly
before the night of February 4, 1943, when they took part in the landing
operation and seized a bridgehead south of Novorossiysk, known as “Malaya
Zemlya”.
In February of 1943, the Russians mounted their first
amphibious invasion of the war. Operation Morsky was to be a combined land and
naval offensive with the objective of capturing the port of Novorossiysk before
rolling up the coast to Anapa and from there cutting the German line of retreat
from the Taman Peninsula.
The operation began badly; and did not get better. Were it
not for the successful establishment of a beachhead at Alexina, the effort
would have been a complete waste. Could more have been achieved? Or did the
Russians do all that was possible with their very limited resources?
The German summer offensive of 1942 achieved a level of
success similar to the opening months of the war. The Soviet forces deployed
from Voronezh to the Black Sea were so severely mauled that no effective
resistance was mounted against the German exploitation until the closing months
of 1942, when German spearheads had reached the Caucasus Mountains, the Maikop
and Grozny oil-fields, the outskirts of Stalingrad and the verge of the Caspian
Sea.
Western military opinion, particularly that of Churchill,
again wrote off the Russians, just as they had the previous year when the
panzers were at the gates of Moscow. They were even more in error this time!
In late November of 1942, the Soviet counter-attacks went
in. The most significant success was the envelopment and eventual destruction
of von Paulus’ 6th Army at Stalingrad. Elsewhere, south of Stalingrad, the
Germans were relentlessly driven back, in considerable disorder. The axis of
the Russian advance precluded the chance to trap major parts of the German 17th
Army which staggered back to the relative safety of the Taman Peninsula and the
depots at Anapa and Krasnodar.
Unwilling to surrender the initiative, Soviet armies continued
to press the foe, heedless of their dwindling resources and ever- lengthening
supply lines.
German resistance stiffened. Most of Army Group A slipped
through the Rostov Gap before the Russians could close it. Along the Black Sea
Coast a combination of good defensive terrain, secure supplies and the general
exhaustion of the advancing Russians, stalled and finally stopped the Russian
drive on the outskirts of the port of Novorossiysk.
The Soviet plan to recapture the entire Taman Peninsula,
simultaneously destroying all of 17 Army, received the codename Gory-Morsky.
Operation Morsky, the naval component of the offensive, was
designed to capture Novorossiysk, primarily through the use of an amphibious
invasion behind the German front line. With the fall of the town, the
assaulting forces would advance along the coast, overwhelm the depot at Anapa
and then drive northwards to prevent a German escape across the Kerch Straits.
The plan was overbold. The elements of the 47th Army
available to launch the overland attack on Novorossiysk were already tired,
some units were exhausted, from earlier attempts to break the German positions.
Supplies of all types, but particularly artillery ammunition, were scarce.
The amphibious forces were no better off. With Odessa,
Sevastopol and Novorossiysk in German hands, the Russians had no proper naval
facilities for the remaining units of the Black Sea Fleet. Perforce, they used
the bombardment capability of their two operational cruisers and five
destroyers with understandable caution. Severely damaged warships just could
not be repaired.
A miscellaneous collection of gunboats, minesweepers, patrol
boats and self-propelled barges were assembled to transport the three marine
brigades and supporting units which would make up the two waves of the invasion
force. They could not be assembled on time.
The landward offensive got underway on February 3rd, one day
ahead of the proposed amphibious assault. By early afternoon, what little impetus
the attack had achieved was already lost. The 47th Army could not make any
impression on the fortified defenders from the German V Korps.
In the early hours of February 4th, paratroopers from the
90th Special Landing Force, supported by air strikes, dropped at Vasilevka and
Glebovka. The main landing site a little beach to the south of Yuzhnaya
Ozereyka, was protected by several shore batteries which, unaffected by the preliminary
naval bombardment, opened up a withering fire on the approaching transports.
Many were sunk or damaged. Some troops did get ashore and eventually drove the
Rumanian defenders from the town.
Fortunately, events developed more favourably at the
secondary invasion site· the town of Alexina.
In the next three days, Axis reinforcements including a
Kampfgruppe from the 13th Panzer Division, cleaned up all but the beachhead at
Alexina, now stiffened by the survivors of the abortive landing at Yuzhnaya
Ozereyka and the arrival of a fresh brigade brought in by night across
Tsemesskaya Bay.
Both sides did what they could to build up their forces; not
much in either case, given the demands of other, and more important, sectors. A
German counter-attack on the 12th reduced the Soviet perimeter but at a
terrible cost and it was not until April, some two months later, and with the
arrival of the 4th Mountain Division, that another attack was mounted. It also
failed.
In September the deadlock was broken. A Soviet offensive
aimed at Mefodyevka in conjunction with an amphibious assault on Novorossiysk
itself, crushed the brittle German defense and reunited the Malya Zemla (Little
Land) with the mainland. The Russian beachhead had survived for 225 days.
The Little Land: The Battle for Novorossiysk
February 4-9, 1943
Stalin had been unhappy with the progress of North Caucasus
Front on Krasnodor and impatient to see more success, he ordered General Ivan
Petrov, commander of the Black Sea Group of Forces, to break the stalemate by a
surprise invasion from the Black Sea. This would unhinge the German defense and
quicken the offensive.
Almost immediately, things went wrong – with a bombardment
from the Black Sea Fleet that merely alerted the defense – and the invasion
itself was running far behind schedule. So began the battle of Novorossiysk.
CSS: Novorossiysk is the first game in the Nemesis series covering company level battles on the Eastern Front. With added special rules to cover the unique type of warfare on the Eastern Front, players will battle over the fate of the Kuban with tanks, amphibious invasions, paratroopers, naval ships and artillery.
GOTENKOPF, the Taman bridgehead
“Blue Line” – a system of German defense
fortifications “Gotenkopf” on the Taman Peninsula during the Great
Patriotic War (WWII). According to the Soviet documents, the construction of B.
L. was started in January 1943 on the basis of the existing field entrenchment
built by the Soviet troops in summer 1942. The main defense strip was to 6 km
wide and behind it the well-fortified line extended for 40 km. The left wing of
B. L. started near Verbyanaya Bar, passed over the near- Azov mouths, along the
banks of the Kurka and Adagum rivers as far as the Kievsky village. Then it
turned southward and crossed Varenikovsky, Moldavansky, Crimean, Nizhnebakansky
and Verkhnebakansky villages. The southern wing of B. L. passed over mountains
from Neberdzhaevsky village to Novorossiysk. B. L. was defended by the units of
the 17th Army. The total number of the German group on Taman reached 400,000
people. Having moved from the Caucasus to Taman, the 17th Army and a part of
the 1st Tank Army shortened significantly the front line and, as a result, they
created denser battle lines on the peninsula. Maintaining their presence on the
Taman Peninsula, the German com- mand, on the one hand, covered Crimea and, on
the other, had a base area for resuming offensive actions on the Caucasus. The
German troops on Taman succeeded to draw in the considerable forces of the Red
Army that were unable to take part in the spring military actions in Ukraine.
On September 1943 the troops of the North-Caucasian front commanded by General
I. E. Petrov started a new offensive for liberation of Novorossiysk and Taman
Peninsula. In the course of these battles the Soviet troops took hold of B. L.
and on October 9 forced completely the German troops from the Taman Peninsula.
Liberation of Taman and Novorossiysk improved significantly the possibilities
for the Black Sea fleet basing and facilitated the struggle for return of the
Crimea.
Georgiy Nikitich Kholostyakov (1902-1983) – Vice Admiral in the USSR Fleet. In 1915 he worked as unskilled laborer. He took part in Civil War in Russia. In 1925 he finished the Naval Hydrographic College. From 1926 to 1938 he served on different submarines in the Far East. In 1938 he was arrested, accused of treason and condemned to 15 years in a correctional labor camp. He was sent to a labor camp on the Olga Bay shore of the Pacific. Later his case was reconsidered and he was returned his rank. In autumn 1940 he was appointed commander of the Third Brigade of submarines of the Black Sea Fleet. Later he was promoted to Captain First Rank. Kholostyakov was appointed the Chief of submarine division of the fleet and in July 1941 he headed the Naval Base in Novorossiysk. He supported the Kerch- Feodosiya military operation in late 1941. He took part in land-based defense of Novorossiysk. After retreat of the Soviet troops he moved to Gelendzhik from where the artillery of the Novorossiysk Naval Base gunned Novorossiysk, thus, preventing the Germans from using the port. In 1942 he was promoted to Rear Admiral. In 1943 he was in charge of the landing operation in Novorossiysk. In September under Kholostyakov command two more landing operations were conducted. The German troops left the Taman Peninsula. At night on November 1 he organized landing at Eltigen near Kerch. Regardless of the overwhelming superiority of the Germans the landing troops made strong footing on Ognennaya zemlya and defended this land for more than a month and then broke through the German positions and united with the main Soviet forces. In 1944 he acted as Commander of the Azov Flotilla replacing S. G. Gorshkov in this position. He organized two more landings-on the Tarkhankut Cape at night on January 10 and in the Kerch Bay on January 23. In December 1944 he was appointed to the Danube Flotilla and commanded its last operations. In 1950 he graduated from the General Staff Academy with a gold medal. In 1950-1951 he in the rank of Vice Admiral commanded the Caspian Military Flotilla and then received an appointment to the Pacific Ocean. In 1953-1969 Kholostyakov was Deputy Chief of the Military Training Department of the Navy General Staff. He took other positions of importance. In 1965 he was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1969 he resigned. The memorial museum of Kholostyakov is opened in Baranovichi, Belorussia. He was also awarded many orders and medals.
Sergey Georgievich Gorshkov (1910-1988) – admiral of the USSR Navy. In 1926 he became a nondegree student of the physical-mathematical faculty of the Lenin- grad University. In 1927 he entered the M. V. Frunze Naval School. After finishing in 1931 of this school he served as a navigator on a destroyer of the Black Sea Fleet. In 1932 he was transferred to the Pacific Fleet. In June 1939 he was appointed the Brigade Commander of the torpedo boat squadron of the Black Sea Navy. From 1940-the commander of the cruiser brigade of the Black Sea Navy. In 1941 he finished the courses for command staff advancement at the Naval Academy. He was promoted to First Rank Captain. Commanding the detachment of assault landing ships he showed bravery during the landing operation at Grigorievka near Odessa. In 1941 he was promoted to the Rear-Admiral. He took command during the Kerch- Feodosia operation and during evacuation of the troops of the Crimean front in 1942 he commanded the defense of the Kerch Strait. After loss of bases on the Sea of Azov he organized pullout of a part of military ships and transport ships with their cargo. Using the forces of the Azov Navy, Kerch and Novorossiysk naval bases he took part in defense of the Taman Peninsula until the ships left the Sea of Azov and the troops retreated for defense of Novorossiysk. He commanded the Novorossiysk defense and was the last to leave it. In 1943-1944 he commanded the Azov Navy for the second time. In spring 1943 he commanded some landing operations. Among the major naval operations there were landings in Mariupol, Osipenko and Temryuk; support from the sea of the forces of the North-Caucasian front during liberation of the Taman Peninsula and, at last, a major operation in November 1943 on landing of the Detached Maritime Army on the Kerch Peninsula and its support on the conquered base area. In 1943 during the Kerch-Eltigen operation he commanded the preparation and landing of the marine forces and then crossing to Crimea of the troops of the 56th Army. From April 20 to December 12, 1944 he commanded the Danube Fleet that supported the Soviet troops in their attack of German Army in Eastern Europe. He commanded the actions of the fleet during forced crossing of the Dniester mouth, liberation of Bulgaria and Romania. In September 1944 he was promoted to the Vice-Admiral. In 1944 he successfully commanded the fleet during the Belgrade and Budapest operations. From 1945 he commanded the squadron of the Black Sea Navy. From November 1948 he was the Chief of the naval staff, in 1951-1955-the commanded of the Black Sea Navy. In 1955 he was appointed the First Deputy Commanded-in-Chief and in 1956- Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and USSR Deputy Naval Minister. In 1967 he was awarded the rank of the Naval Admiral of the USSR. G. advocated development of submarine fleet and guided-missile ships. He was the author of such books as “Naval Might of the State” and “In the Southern Maritime Flange. Autumn- Spring 1941” describing the army and naval operations near the coasts of the Black and Azov seas. For the achievements in the Navy development he was conferred the USSR State Award (1980) and Lenin Award (1985); he was twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1965, 1982). He was awarded many orders and medals of the Soviet Union.
Kerch-Eltigen Operation – a landing operation of the
troops of the North- Caucasian Front (commanded by General I. E. Petrov) on
seizure of the Kerch Peninsula that lasted from 31 October to 11 December 1943,
during the Great Patriotic War. After success of the Novorossiysk-Taman
operation the Soviet command put the task to seize the Kerch Peninsula and to
create there a base for Crimea liberation from German Army. For this purpose
two landing units went ashore. One of them landed to the northeast of Kerch,
but could not take hold of the city because of the tough resistance of the
Germans, but it managed to consolidate its positions on the seized area and to
organize defense. The second landing unit got established to the south of
Kerch, near Eltigen. After fierce battles in the early December the Germans
liquidated this landing area. On 6 December the remaining landing troops
attempted a breakthrough trying to reach the base to the north of Kerch. After
marching for 25 km in the rear of the German positions they came to the
southern outskirts of Kerch and seized the Mitridat Mountain dominating this
area and organized an all-round defense. But they failed to organize
interaction with the northern unit. After receiving an order about evacuation
on 10 December the Eltigen unit forced its way to the coast and was transferred
by sea to the Taman Peninsula. The Kerch landing area held out till the Soviet
troops launched an offensive in Crimea in spring 1944. It played a very
important role in seizure of the Kerch Peninsula. The Soviet Army lost in this
operation more than 27,000 killed.
