Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Yet Barbarossa was not the only German planning being made in regard to the Soviet Union. Once Hitler confirmed his intention to invade the Soviet Union, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich’s Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office, or RSHA) began working on Generalplan Ost (Master Plan East), which was intended to conduct ethnic cleansing on a massive scale in conquered Soviet territory. Not only Jews, but also Ukrainians, and, eventually, all Slavs, were targeted for elimination by the SS-Einsatzgruppen. Once the indigenous populations were reduced to a manageable level, where the survivors could be employed as slave labor, German colonists would move in to “Germanize” the conquered territory. Unlike the Wehrmacht, Heydrich did make plans for Ukraine and the Crimea; the Crimean climate was regarded as ideal for colonists, and Ukrainian wheat and Crimean cotton would be valuable resources. Prior to Barbarossa, pseudo-scientific archeological research conducted by the SS Ahnenerbe organization pointed to an ancient Gothic presence in the Crimea as a precursor to modern German colonization of the peninsula.⁵ Once Generalplan Ost was underway, Heydrich expected that about half the Crimea’s population would be ethnic German by the mid-1960s.

At the start of Barbarossa, SS-Gruppenführer Otto Ohlendorf’s Einsatzgruppe D was attached to Heeresgruppe Süd. Ohlendorf’s unit was to follow close behind Rundstedt’s advancing armies and eliminate large concentrations of civilians deemed hostile to the Reich. Although many army leaders later claimed ignorance of SS activities in the Soviet Union, the cooperation between the Wehrmacht and the SS-Einsatzgruppen was a vital prerequisite in order for Generalplan Ost to succeed.

It was Oktyabrsky’s persistent VVS-ChF air raids on Romania and the threat to Ploesti’s oil refinery that finally caused Hitler to take real interest in the Crimea. He was very nervous about any threats to his oil supplies from Ploesti, and recognized that the Crimea was a useful staging base for Soviet attacks on Romania, serving in the role of an “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” While Luftwaffe air raids on the VVS-ChF bases in the Crimea succeeded in destroying some aircraft on the ground, the only sure way to permanently stop the attacks on Romania was for German forces to occupy the Crimea sooner than expected.

On July 23, 1941 – ten days after the first VVS-ChF raid on Ploesti – a supplement to Führer Directive 33 was issued. It stated that once Heeresgruppe Süd occupied Kharkov, “the bulk of the infantry divisions will then occupy Ukraine, the Crimea, and the area of Central Russia up to the Don.” Less than three weeks later, a supplement to Führer Directive 34, issued on August 12, raised the priority of the Crimea further, stating that Heeresgruppe Süd was “to occupy the Crimean Peninsula, which is particularly dangerous as an enemy air base against the Romanian oilfields.”⁶ The VVS-ChF had gained Hitler’s attention. Once the Dnepr River was crossed, Rundstedt was obligated to send a strong force to occupy the Crimea. Hitler also began to openly talk of the great value that the Crimea would play in post-war German colonization plans in the East.

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While Oktyabrsky was using his bombers and submarines to try and harass the Romanian coast, the Soviet Southern Front was being defeated in detail by the Heeresgruppe Süd. On August 2, Panzergruppe 1 surrounded the bulk of the Soviet 6th and 12th Armies in the Uman Kessel and crushed the trapped Red Army units within a week. The battered Soviet 9th and 18th Armies, having escaped the Uman debacle, retreated toward the Dnepr River. On August 18, the 16. Panzer-Division captured the port of Nikolayev, which deprived the Black Sea Fleet of its main construction and repair facility. Meanwhile, the Romanian 4th Army had surrounded the port of Odessa, held by the Separate Coastal Army. Outnumbered 4-1 and isolated, the Coastal Army could hold Odessa only if the Black Sea Fleet ensured that supplies and reinforcements could be brought in by sea, as well as providing naval gunfire support as needed. Oktyabrsky had to commit a large portion of his surface forces and VVS-ChF aircraft into the fighting around Odessa. Although Oktyabrsky was able to hold back the battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna and his two modern heavy cruisers, he deployed three light cruisers and six to eight destroyers to support the Odessa garrison. For the most part, the Black Sea Fleet played an important part in keeping the siege of Odessa going for ten weeks, and it learned some valuable lessons about convoy operations, mine warfare, and amphibious landings in the process. However, the fighting at Odessa was a doomed effort from the start, and it served to drain resources from the Crimea, which would soon face its own test of fire.