Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942): The Battle for Crimea

The Siege of Sevastopol in 1941–1942 was the long defence of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet’s main base in Crimea against German and Romanian forces. Beginning on 30 October 1941, the city held out through two major assaults before Erich von Manstein’s 11th Army captured it in a final offensive in June and July 1942. Soviet tradition remembers it as the 250-day defence of Sevastopol.

Background: the road to Crimea

Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 in Operation Barbarossa. Crimea mattered to both sides: Soviet aircraft based there could bomb the Romanian oilfields that fuelled the German war effort, and the peninsula was a stepping stone towards the Caucasus.

In late October 1941 Manstein’s 11th Army broke through the narrow Perekop isthmus into Crimea. Soviet forces retreated, and parts of the Separate Coastal (Primorsky) Army, recently evacuated from Odessa, reached Sevastopol just in time. The city had already been besieged once, by British, French and Ottoman troops in the Crimean War, and was ringed by modern forts and coastal batteries.

The first two assaults

German advance units reached the outer defences on 30 October 1941, but an attempt to take the city quickly failed in November. The defence was commanded by Vice-Admiral Filipp Oktyabrsky of the Black Sea Fleet, with Major General Ivan Petrov leading the Coastal Army. Reinforcements and supplies arrived by sea. Through the winter, warships and transports of the Black Sea Fleet ran the gauntlet of German aircraft to bring in men, ammunition and food and take out the wounded. Civilians worked in underground workshops cut into the rocky hillsides, producing mortars, grenades and other munitions.

Manstein launched a second assault on 17 December. It made progress against the northern defences, and for a time the Germans came close to the Severnaya Bay, the inlet that divides the city. But from 26 December the Red Army landed troops at Kerch and, on 29 December, at Feodosia in eastern Crimea, forcing the Germans to send units away and abandon the attack. In May 1942, in Operation Trappenjagd, Manstein destroyed the Soviet forces on the Kerch peninsula, capturing around 170,000 prisoners and freeing his army for a final effort.

Operation Störfang

The final assault, Operation Störfang (“Sturgeon Catch”), was prepared with one of the heaviest artillery concentrations of the war. It included giant siege mortars and the 80 cm railway gun known as Dora. The Luftwaffe’s VIII Air Corps under Wolfram von Richthofen flew thousands of sorties against the city. Dora fired a few dozen enormous shells in June 1942, but most historians judge that its effect was small compared with ordinary heavy artillery and dive-bombing. Ships trying to reach the city were sunk, and by June supplies could only arrive in small amounts by submarine and fast warship.

After days of bombardment, the infantry attack began on 7 June 1942. German and Romanian troops fought fort by fort through the northern and southern defences, suffering heavy losses. The Germans crossed Severnaya Bay on 29 June and broke into the city. Manstein was promoted to field marshal on 1 July.

In the last days Oktyabrsky and Petrov were evacuated with senior officers by aircraft and submarine. Tens of thousands of soldiers left behind fought on near Cape Khersones until about 4 July, and German sources claimed around 95,000 prisoners. Soviet irrecoverable losses for the whole defence are given by Krivosheev as about 157,000, while Axis casualties numbered in the tens of thousands.

Key people

• Erich von Manstein – commander of the German 11th Army, whose capture of the city made his reputation as one of Germany’s leading generals.
• Filipp Oktyabrsky – commander of the Black Sea Fleet and of the Sevastopol Defensive Region.
• Ivan Petrov – commander of the Separate Coastal Army, which bore the brunt of the land fighting.
• Wolfram von Richthofen – commander of the Luftwaffe’s VIII Air Corps during the final assault.

Romanian mountain and infantry troops also fought alongside the Germans throughout the campaign in Crimea.

Aftermath

The fall of Sevastopol freed the 11th Army for operations further north, including at Leningrad, but it had consumed months of effort. For the Soviet Union, the loss was painful but the long defence had bought time. Under occupation, the city’s Jewish population was murdered and many civilians were deported for forced labour. Soviet forces recaptured Sevastopol on 9 May 1944 after storming the Sapun Ridge. In 1945 it was named one of the first “Hero Cities” of the Soviet Union.

Timeline

• 1941, late October: The German 11th Army breaks into Crimea through the Perekop isthmus.
• 1941, 30 October: German units reach the outer defences of Sevastopol.
• 1941, 17 December: Manstein’s second assault begins.
• 1941, 26–29 December: Soviet landings at Kerch and Feodosia.
• 1942, 8–19 May: Operation Trappenjagd clears the Kerch peninsula.
• 1942, 7 June: The final infantry assault, Operation Störfang, begins.
• 1942, 1 July: German troops take the city; Manstein becomes a field marshal.
• 1942, 4 July: Organised Soviet resistance ends.
• 1944, 9 May: Soviet forces recapture Sevastopol.

Why it matters

The defence of Sevastopol tied down a German army for eight months and became one of the most celebrated episodes of Soviet wartime memory. Its fall, together with the summer advances that led to the Battle of Stalingrad, marked the high point of German power in southern Russia.