Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Kunze began establishing a blocking position at Sal’kove, at the northern entrance to the Chongar Peninsula, with a battery of four 8.8cm flak guns and two companies from his Panzerjäger-Abteilung 336, while his division pioneers prepared the railroad bridge for demolition. He sent the other company from Panzerjäger-Abteilung 336 to link up with an 8.8cm flak battery at Ishun. Indeed, Generalleutnant Wolfgang Pickert’s 9. Flak-Division, which had 134 8.8cm and 334 light flak guns, would play a crucial role in the defense of the Crimea. Yet Kunze had very little infantry in his decimated division and was initially able to provide only 100 troops from Grenadier-Regiment 686 for the Chongar blocking position. The replacement formations under Köchling’s Befehlshaber Krim had devolved into essentially school and convalescent depots during the past year, with personnel always in transit and minimal equipment on hand – not combat-ready formations. Gerock’s 153. Feldausbildungs-Division had three Feld-Ersatz Bataillone (FEB) near Perekop, which were ordered to dig in along the old Tatar Wall, assisted by a battalion of construction troops. Artillery support was limited to two batteries of 10.5cm howitzers. The Slovak Tartarko Combat Group, with 800 troops, was also assigned to the Perekop position. Köchling sent Generalmajor Weber from a school unit in Yevpatoriya to take command of the defenses at Perekop, while combing out more ad hoc infantrymen from units as far as Feodosiya. Kunze ordered his II./Grenadier-Regiment 687 to reinforce Gruppe Weber. By October 28, two rudimentary blocking positions were established at Perekop and Sal’kove, but neither was capable of sustained defense against a superior enemy force. After all the effort wasted on trying to colonize the Crimea, the Germans had actually made no provision to defend it. As an afterthought, a Kampfgruppe from Luftwaffen-Jäger-Regiment 10 was assigned to guard Genische’k and the Arabat Spit.⁶

Meanwhile, General-Lieutenant Ivan D. Vasil’ev’s 19th Tank Corps was rapidly approaching the Perekop Isthmus, with Kirichenko’s 4th Guards Cavalry Corps (4GCC) close behind. Tolbukhin assigned General-Lieutenant Iakov G. Kreizer’s 51st Army the mission of breaking through any defenses at Perekop, while General-Lieutenant Aleksei A. Grechkin’s 28th Army would penetrate the defenses on the Chongar Peninsula. Tolbukhin hoped to take the Crimea on the run – and he stood a good chance given the level of German unpreparedness – and he knew that Petrov would soon mount an amphibious crossing of the Kerch Strait. While both Kreizer’s and Grechkin’s armies had suffered heavy losses in the Melitopol offensive, they were still infinitely stronger in tanks, infantry, and artillery than the ad hoc formations thrown together to defend the Crimea. The VVS was also much stronger than in 1942, and the 8th Air Army could provide effective fighter cover and ground support over the Crimea. If the two Soviet armies could break through at Perekop and Chongar, followed by Petrov landing at Kerch, the entire German defense in the Crimea could collapse in a matter of days. However, the Soviet advance into the Crimea was a secondary operation, while the Stavka focused most of its attention and resources on crossing the Dnepr River and liberating Kiev.

October 30, 1943, was a cool, overcast day in the Crimea. Several of Gerock’s battalions were still arriving at Perekop, giving Gruppe Weber a total of six battalions, but all very understrength. Köchling was able to get the Kriegsmarine to agree to send some coastal artillery to Perekop, and they were enroute. Another odd unit, the III./Gebirgsjäger-Regiment Bergmann (an Abwehr unit comprising Azerbaijani and Georgian volunteers), also arrived at Perekop. At the Chongar Narrows, Kunze managed to force-march Fusilier-Bataillon 336 to reinforce the Sal’kove blocking position, and he had the rest of Grenadier-Regiment 686 on the way. Soviet reconnaissance aircraft were already flying over the Crimea, and they detected the German effort to fortify the entrances. Grechkin’s 28th Army was the first to reach the entrance to the Crimea, in the late afternoon. Elements of the 347th Rifle Division forced the Luftwaffe field troops out of Genische’k and began pushing down the Arabat Spit, while the 118th Rifle Division appeared a mile north of the Sal’kove blocking position. Kunze took the risky course of action of splitting his forces; he ordered his pioneers to ferry I./Grenadier-Regiment 686 and some Pak guns across the lagoon to defend the Arabat Spit, while II./ Grenadier-Regiment 686 remained to hold the Chongar Narrows. The move was accomplished during the night, to minimize risk of air attack.