Crimean Offensive (1944)

Crimean Offensive
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Soviet soldiers crossing the Sivash Bay into Crimea
Date 8 April – 12 May 1944 Location Crimea, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union	Germany  Romania  Bulgaria
Commanders and leaders
Fyodor Tolbukhin Filipp Oktyabrskiy	Erwin Jaenecke Horia Macellariu
Strength
462,400 560 tanks and assault guns 6,000 guns 1,200 aircraft	255,970 1,815 guns
Casualties and losses
84,819 17,754 killed or missing 67,065 wounded or sick 171 tanks 521 guns 179 aircraft Losses at sea: 1 submarine 1 motor torpedo boat 12+ aircraft	96,700 31,700 killed or missing 33,400 wounded 25,800 killed or missing 5,800 wounded Losses at sea: 4 submarine hunters 5 cargo ships 1 tanker 3 tugs 3 lighters 3 motorboats 3 cargo ships

The Crimean Offensive (8 April – 12 May 1944), known in German sources as the Battle of the Crimea, was a series of offensives by the Red Army directed at the German-held Crimea. The Red Army's 4th Ukrainian Front engaged the German 17th Army of Army Group A, which consisted of Wehrmacht and Romanian formations. The battles ended with the evacuation of the Crimea by the Germans. German and Romanian forces suffered considerable losses during the evacuation.

During late 1943 and early 1944, the Wehrmacht was pressed back along its entire front line in the east. In October 1943, the 17th Army withdrew from the Kuban bridgehead across the Kerch Strait into the Crimea. During the following months, the Red Army pushed back the Wehrmacht in southern Ukraine, eventually cutting off the land-based connection of 17th Army through the Perekop Isthmus in November 1943.

The Wehrmacht was able to successfully hold on to the Crimea even after it had been cut off by land due to their ability to supply it via the Black Sea. Holding the Crimea was considered important as its loss would negatively affect the attitude of Turkey and put Romanian oilfields under risk of Soviet air attacks. Aside from Soviet landings across the Kerch Strait and in the north-eastern sector near Sivash at the end of 1943, the Soviet Army largely ignored the Crimea for the next five months.

Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was removed from the command of Army Group A in March 30, 1944. He was succeeded by Ferdinand Schörner.

An assault across the Perekop Isthmus was launched on 8 April by elements of the 4th Ukrainian Front's 2nd Guards and 51st Armies. The 17th Army defended but was unable to stop the advance. Kerch was reached by the Separate Coastal Army on 11 April; Simferopol, about 37 mi (60 km) northeast of Sevastopol, followed two days later. The 17th Army was retreating toward Sevastopol by 16 April, with remaining Axis forces in the Crimea concentrating around the city by the end of the third week of April.

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Wikipedia