Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Troops of the 346th Rifle Division crossing the Sivash on November 1, 1943. Soldiers had to link arms during the crossing, lest they become mired in the soft bottom. It took over two hours to walk across this 1½-mile wide ford, but the Soviet crossing was initially unopposed and took the Germans completely by surprise. Note that all the infantrymen are armed with PPSH submachine guns, and the flat Crimean coast in the distance. (Author’s collection)

The Soviet 10th Rifle Corps had great difficulty in moving heavy weapons across the Sivash, and boats were nearly useless. Here, a 45mm anti-tank gun and two horses are being transported on two small boats, which must be pushed across the mud, rather than floated. It is interesting that German engineers thought that the Sivash could not be crossed by a large unit, and the ability of the Red Army to adapt and persevere in this kind of situation often dumfounded the more conventional German approach to warfare. (Author’s collection)

Tanks from the 19th Tank Corps race through Simferopol on April 13, 1944, after the breakout from the Sivash bridgehead. Vasilevsky’s decision to transfer this tank corps across the Sivash bridge rendered the German stand at Perekop futile and caused the entire Axis position in the Crimea to disintegrate virtually overnight. The 19th Tank Corps started the operation with 221 tanks and assault guns, including 63 British-built Valentine tanks. (Author’s collection)

The freighter Totila under attack by Il-2 Sturmoviks on the morning of May 10, 1944, off Sevastopol. When it sank, it took an estimated 3,000 German and 1,000 Romanian troops with it. Soviet aircraft did not seriously interfere with the Axis evacuation from the Crimea until the final stages of the operation, but the concentration of Axis merchant shipping off the Chersonese was an easy target. (Author’s collection)

A group of smiling female partisans in the Crimea, May 1944. Soviet partisans participated in the liberation of some of the coastal cities, such as Yalta and Alushta, which were close to their operating areas, but they completely failed to interfere with the retreat of V Armeekorps through the Yaila Mountains. Had the partisans delayed this German retreat by even a few days, the Red Army would almost certainly have overrun Sevastopol before the Axis had a chance to evacuate the rest of AOK 17. (Author’s collection)