October 30 is considered the start date of the second defense of Sevastopol. As a result, the city was surrendered and actually wiped off the face of the earth, but the remaining residents defended it to the last.
"Weak fortress"
Raids on the city and the ships continued in Sevastopol every day from the first day of the war, June 22. But the German did not advance from the land.
Anticipating that this would happen, they began building fortifications in July. We managed to create two lines of defense: the outer 35 kilometers in length (at the beginning of the battles it was divided into 4 defensive sectors) and the rear 2 – 3 kilometers from the city 19 kilometers in length. They did not have time to build the third necessary frontier - from Balaklava to Kachi.
In mid-September 1941, the fighting began in the north of the Crimea. The Primorsk army, which was keeping the defense of Odessa, was transferred to help, but it did not manage to save the situation. The enemy for 10 days reached Sevastopol and counted on the rapid capture of the city.
The Germans were planning to seize the Caucasus with its oil fields and move towards the Persian Gulf. The Black Sea Fleet and Sevastopol became a serious obstacle to these plans.
General Erich von Manstein, the commander of the 11 of the German army advancing on the city, gave the order: "Sevastopol is a weak fortress. Take a march, a short blow," and in the order of Adolf Hitler from August 21 of the year sounded: "The most important goal before winter consider not the seizure of Moscow, and the seizure of the Crimea ... "
The decision of the Supreme High Command was the only possible one: “Under no circumstances should we surrender Sevastopol and defend it with all our strength.” Commander of the defense of the city was appointed Vice-Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky, more than 2,5 thousand. Citizens were sent to the front.
Back in 1912, under the direction of engineer Cui, pits for towers were dug in Sevastopol, but construction was halted due to the revolution. In 30, the project was remembered and successfully completed. According to eyewitnesses, the volume of concrete work exceeded similar work in the construction of the DnieproGES. The battery number 35 was located near Cape Chersonese, and the battery number 30 was located near the village of Lyubimovka.
General Erich von Manstein, the commander of the 11 of the German army advancing on the city, gave the order: "Sevastopol is a weak fortress. Take a march, a short blow," and in the order of Adolf Hitler from August 21 of the year sounded: "The most important goal before winter consider not the seizure of Moscow, and the seizure of the Crimea ... "
The main part of the 35 battery is two gigantic reinforced concrete massifs with gun turrets, which could be rotated 360 degrees, conducting circular shelling, numerous underground rooms and passages, as well as two emergency exits to the sea. The batteries were built to protect the city from the sea, but soon they had to become the center of defense from land, and the 35 battery was to become a symbol of the heroic defense of the city.
The German army had a complete advantage in heavy equipment, aviation and manpower, as well as in the general organization, communications and in the preparation of command personnel. To capture Sevastopol, they used the most modern weapon - self-propelled mortars "Karl", "Gamma" and the giant 800-millimeter stationary howitzer "Dora" the size of a three-story house, the largest weapon of the Second World War (defenders of Sevastopol called it "Dura").
According to some information, the command of the Sevastopol defense region at first did not believe in the existence of the Germans of this class under Sevastopol, although the commander of the 30 battery, Alexander, reported that they were firing at him with an unprecedented weapon. To convince the commanders, I had to specifically photograph a standing person next to an unexploded projectile 2,4 long.
Throughout World War II, German troops never used artillery on such a scale as in the attack on Sevastopol. The same is true for aviation. By the beginning of the battles in Sevastopol were the main forces fleet consisting of one battleship, five cruisers, 11 destroyers and 16 submarines, but most of them went to the bases of the Caucasus on the second day of defense.
The city and the bay were fiercely bombarded and fired upon, but the battalions of the marines and militia from among the inhabitants, and then the Primorye Army's division that joined them from the north of Crimea, repelled the attacks. Take the "weak fortress" on the move failed. In the future, the Germans will take three more offensive, using different options to capture the city, but in 1941, Sevastopol will still be able to repel them.
The battleship "Sevastopol" firing
In the last days of December, the position of the defenders became critical: Soviet troops began landing on the Kerch Peninsula, and in order to transfer troops there, the German command sought to take Sevastopol as quickly as possible. The Germans managed to advance in the city, but did not capture it.
"Everyone was a hero"
The former commander of the 7 brigade of marines, famous in battles, Lieutenant-General Yevgeny Zhidilov in the book "We defended Sevastopol" noted: "Our Sevastopol bridgehead is small. But it is densely populated here. Representatives of all nations living in our huge country have gathered here ... "
Production of ammunition in one of the Sevastopol galleries
A huge number of volunteers helped those who fought. 15 thousand people went to the militia. In the first days of the war the army lacked weapons: rifles, machine guns, grenades, pistols. The military council decided: to collect from the population hunting rifles, small caliber. In Crimea, local partisans helped them with all their might, who carried out subversive activities to the best of their abilities. Although a direct link between the partisans of the Crimea and Sevastopol could not be established.
Military historian Yevgeny Melnichuk recalls that even schoolchildren of 8 – 9 classes were included in partisan detachments. "Everyone was patriotic and went to the squad with a certain amount of romance, but they were the first to die of starvation, many were shot to death - in general, these guys were the first to die."
Casual heroism has become the norm for the inhabitants of the city. The workers of the Marine Plant, under shelling, repaired ships, produced military equipment, equipped two armored trains, built and equipped a floating battery N3 (“Don't touch me”), among the Germans known as the Square of Death. She covered the city from German air raids from the sea. Underground mills worked in the mountain galleries, where they made weapons and ammunition, sewed linen, shoes and uniforms. Ambulatories, a canteen, a club, a school, nurseries and a garden, and subsequently a hospital, a bakery, worked underground.
"Trucks, armored vehicles were repaired in workshops, Tanks, the running gear of the guns. The commanders of combat units, car crews sometimes with tears in their eyes begged to speed up the repair. And the working guys tried really not for fear, but for conscience, "writes George Zadorozhnikov.
Assembly of mortars in the workshop of the Sebastopol Special Plant
"In Sevastopol, I lived in the city center, but it was enough to leave home to feel at the front. I was struck by the continuity of life that persisted everywhere, despite the horror of continuous bombing and continuous fighting. I remember seeing the pilot at the airfield shaving before a sortie with composure of a person who is confident of returning, - artist Leonid Soyfertis recalled. - I remember the postman who was delivering letters as he made his way through the newly destroyed building to an air-raid shelter; she knew in which air-raid shelter her address was t. I passed on all the confidence in the victory, and would like to talk about what I see, optimistic, fun. "
I was struck by the continuity of life, everywhere, despite the horror of continuous bombing and continuous fighting. I remember seeing an airman at the airfield, shaving before a sortie with the composure of a man who was confident of returning. I remember the postman, who was delivering letters, making his way through the just-destroyed building to the bomb shelter; she knew in which bomb shelter her addressee was
Leonid Soyfertis
Young people helped adults: they spread the summons to the army, were on duty in the city, bypassed the houses destroyed by the bombing, helped the wounded to get to the hospital.
“And (now it’s ridiculous to remember it) we“ caught saboteurs and spies ”who allegedly made their way into the city. Usually, men in hats and glasses became our“ victims ”, and we were dragged to the police, - the native inhabitant of Sevastopol recalls , a teacher of Russian language and literature. “But most often we helped dig gaps in the courtyards, so that there was a place to hide during the bombings."
During the siege of the city, information about the state of affairs at the front was obtained from the newspapers. “We were happy with the victories, we were proud of the feats of the Red Army and Red Navy men. We knew about the feat of five sailors who stopped the convoy of tanks with their bodies ... You cannot enumerate everyone - everyone was a hero,” recalls George Zadorozhnikov.
"We were abandoned to the mercy of fate"
The last days of the defense ... 7 June Manstein launched a new attack on the city with the code name "Fishing sturgeon." The plan of the operation was to blockade the city from the sea (submarines, mines, torpedo boats and aircraft), destroy the engineering defense, gradually seize Sevastopol and destroy the Black Sea fleet during the evacuation of the garrison. All these tasks were carried out, except for the last: the Black Sea Fleet did not come to evacuate the inhabitants and defenders of Sevastopol.
The city was doomed: the German attack on the Caucasus and the Volga developed so successfully that the Stavka had neither the strength nor the resources to defend the city. By that time, there were two enemy fighters for each Sevastopol fighter, two enemy weapons for each weapon, four fascist weapons against one tank, and ten against a plane. And with each new day this advantage grew.
Realizing that Sevastopol would not surrender, it was simply wiped off the face of the earth — everything that was possible was burning, and people were fighting literally with improvised means. At the same time, the monument to the Flooded Ships, the symbol of the city, has survived in an incomprehensible way.
Aviation was completely destroyed, and a battalion of marines was created from the Air Force. By the end of June, ammunition began to run out at the defenders of Sevastopol, and Vice-Admiral Oktyabrsky received permission to bid on his request to leave Sevastopol and evacuate, not only the top and senior commanders of the army and the fleet and the party activists of the city.
During the night of July 1, the commanders were taken out by the arriving aircraft, and 80 thou. Thousands were left to fend for themselves. The last days of the defense will be able to survive only 4 thousand of them. After some time, General Petrov, left by Oktyabrsky, was also evacuated to lead the defense.
“The fighters fought until the last while the battery was standing,” recalls Victor Medvedev, a Sevastopol. “On the last day, going to the staff dugout ... I saw the chief of staff stuffing crackers and canned meat into the gas mask. I hurried to the last plane ..."
Tens of thousands of fighters and commanders remained pinned to the sea on the coast of the Chersonesos Cape, without ammunition, medicine, food and water. On the night of July 2, an armored battery # XXNX was blown up, with no shells left on it.
Raisa Kholodnyak, who in 1942 held the post of secretary of the Balaklava District Komsomol Committee, recalled: "They said that they tried to contact the big land in the radio room and say that there are people here. But we were not heard by the land - they said (in the radio room). So". By the evening of 3 on July 1942, organized defense had ceased, and the country was announced that Sevastopol had been surrendered. But in fact, no one gave up. The city kept the defense still 12 days.
A military doctor, Vladimir Shevalov, recalls: “I met the former commissar of the 47 medical battalion. We agreed that if one of us was injured, the other should shoot him so that the wounded could not be captured. The small well near the lighthouse was completely drained, because of a drop of water they shot each other. We used urine to filter the wounded or use the blood of dead and alive horses to help wounded soldiers. "
“Yes, of course, we should have thought about the evacuation of troops,” admitted after the war the former people's commissar of the USSR Navy, fleet admiral Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov in a book of memoirs. Why did not they think?
"They tried to break through to the partisans, but there were no weapons. They went under the rocks near the airfield. There were many wounded, moans, shouts, a huge mass of people. We waited for the ships, but then we realized that we were left to the mercy of fate" - from the personal diary of the aircraft mechanic V. Fokusova.
The evacuation of the highest military leadership and the chaos that followed is the most controversial moment in the defense of the city. Military historian Yuri Mukhin believes that it was possible to keep Sevastopol.
"It was necessary to use the Black Sea Fleet and all its ammunition in the war, and not to store ships in order to dismantle for war after the war. It was necessary not to come to Sevastopol with one ship, but to fire all German fleets with anti-aircraft guns But even without the fleet, Sevastopol could be held in. It is necessary to appreciate that they (cowardly evacuated leadership - TASS comment) made their cowardice. Imagine that the German battalion would kill Oktyabrsky and Petrov, all the commanders of divisions and regiments in one day. about .? Ezglavleny and disorganized, but how long until the moment when the position would not come and started to command the surviving officers What made the October Petrov, -. Meaner and scarier as to recover the organization and to stop panic was no longer possible. "
Stalin once remarked: "We do not have the Hindenburg in reserve." If General Petrov remained in Sevastopol and was captured or killed, the head of the Second Byelorussian or Fourth Ukrainian Fronts in 1944 would have to have been far from Hindenburg, but, for example, General Kozlov, who is accused of the collapse of the Crimean Front
Anna Agisheva
"Leaving the commander of the doomed garrison is a difficult moral and ethical problem," notes Anna Agisheva, head of the department stories WWII State Museum of Heroic Defense of Sevastopol. “There are many examples in the history of war when the commanders of armies and fronts remained with their troops and shared the fate of their subordinates. But it should be noted that any commander of the army and the front is not the master of his own fate, he is a highly professional civil servant, on whose training the country has spent large sums.
From this point of view, General Petrov should have taken a submarine and left Sevastopol. Stalin once remarked: "We do not have the Hindenburg in reserve." If General Petrov remained in Sevastopol and was captured or killed, the head of the Second Byelorussian or Fourth Ukrainian Fronts in 1944 would have been far from Hindenburg, but, for example, General Kozlov, who is accused of the collapse of the Crimean Front. "
Aftermath
The subsequent two years of the fascist occupation became a black period in the history of Sevastopol. In the first days, the Nazis shot more than 3,5 thousand civilians, in just the 22 month of occupation in Sevastopol, were shot, burned, drowned in the sea 27 306 people. 45 thousand people were hijacked to fascist Germany.
German soldiers in Sevastopol
Interestingly, if the defense of Sevastopol lasted 250 days, the release in May 1945 of the year took only a week. After the war, Sevastopol was completely rebuilt. The surviving defenders were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Sevastopol." By the way, for soldiers of the 11 Army, Hitler also instituted a special sign - the iron "Crimean shield", which was sewn on the sleeves of overcoats and service jackets.
Olga Zhukova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, recalls: "Professor Mansur Mukhamedzhanov was serving in Sevastopol for military service in the 1950-s. Once, young sailors dug in around the mountains, found a lead strip, twisted like an ancient letter, in the mountains and read:" standing here until the end! "And - a short list of names ..."