Where the Iron Crosses Grow

As the sun came up, the Luftwaffe arrived in force to blast the Soviet positions at Inkerman and the artillery atop the Sapun Heights. Sander’s assault units, reinforced by IR 105 and then IR 391, were tearing a wide breach in the now-leaderless 386th Rifle Division. Many troops from the 386th Rifle Division simply abandoned their positions and ran as the Germans closed in. The former NCO-turned-battalion-commander, Oberleutnant der Reserve Georg Bittlingmaier, led his I./IR 391 onto the Sapun Heights and succeeded in capturing a large bunker, but he was mortally wounded during the climax of the battle. Manstein unveiled another trick at 0605hrs: he had brought up IR 42 and IR 72 from the 46. Infanterie-Division at Kerch – another calculated risk – to mount an attack across the middle section of the Chernaya River between Inkerman and the Sapun Heights. This sector was held by the 8th Naval Infantry Brigade. Despite some intense defensive fire, the two German regiments were able to cross the river and begin enveloping the 8th NIB. Once Soviet resistance along the river was revealed to be weaker than expected, Schmidt sent the III./IR 123 across the river, and this battalion was able to seize an old Crimean War-era fort south of Inkerman by 0700hrs. By 0715hrs, Soviet resistance on the Sapun Heights was broken, and Sander’s units fanned out to roll up the entire Soviet southern defensive line. Petrov’s defenses began to crumble everywhere, all at once, as troops realized that German troops had broken through the final line of defense and were advancing upon the city. All thought now turned from fight to flight.

Despite the presence of nearly 5,000 Soviet troops around Inkerman, Schmidt’s 50. Infanterie-Division seized the Chernaya River bridges and the heights overlooking them by noon on June 29. Thousands of Soviet troops remained isolated in pockets of resistance, but Hansen ordered Schmidt to ignore them for the moment, and, instead, send Kampfgruppe Walter to link up with the beachhead on Severnaya Bay. Potapov’s naval infantrymen failed to seriously interfere with the German beachhead, which had grown to four regimental Kampfgruppen, reinforced with Panzerjägers and flak by the time that Kampfgruppe Walter reached them around 1700hrs.⁸² At this point, Manstein directed Hansen and Fretter-Pico to spend the rest of the day mopping up isolated Soviet units, before moving toward the city itself. Fretter-Pico did send Jäger-Regiment 49 in pursuit, and they reached the old English cemetery by nightfall. The day had been a debacle for Petrov and a triumph for Manstein. Over 4,700 prisoners had been taken and, aside from the uncommitted 142nd Naval Infantry Brigade which might have played a significant role if used to counterattack the landing in Severnaya Bay, and Petrov had no formed units left near the city. Novikov’s 109th Rifle Division was still relatively intact, but concentrated around Balaklava. German losses for June 29 had totaled 1,227, including 135 dead, between both corps.

During the night of June 29/30, many Soviet troops who had been cut off by the German breakthroughs tried to reach the city, resulting in a night of sporadic skirmishing. The entire staff of the 25th Rifle Division was still in the cellar of the champagne factory at Inkerman, collocated near the 47th Medical Battalion’s hospital, which had 2,000 wounded soldiers inside. Kolomiets and his staff succeeded in exfiltrating in the darkness through the German lines to reach Sevastopol, abandoning their troops and the wounded. However, Lieutenant-Colonel Sergei R. Gusarov, commander of the 3rd Naval Infantry Regiment, made an incredible decision before leaving the champagne factory – he ordered his sappers to detonate stores of ammunition hidden in the catacombs so that they would not fall into German hands. Gusarov made this decision without any thought for the wounded in the hospital, and when the ammunition detonated, an entire section of the cliff face collapsed, burying the Soviet hospital under the rubble. By happenstance, a German reconnaissance team from Aufklärungs-Abteilung 132 that was approaching the champagne factory was also killed by the explosion.⁸³ On the neighboring Gaytani Heights, German observers were shocked to see the massive explosions, and prisoners soon revealed Gusarov’s complicity in this gruesome incident. The destruction of the Inkerman depot eliminated much of the Maritime Army’s last ammunition reserves. Gusarov also ordered a group of 50 soldiers to drag howitzers that had been abandoned near Inkerman; when they refused, he had them executed.