Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Petrov divided the SOR into four defensive sectors, starting clockwise with Sector IV holding the Bel’bek River valley, Sector III holding the Mekenzievy Mountain area, Sector II holding the Chernaya River valley and Fedyukhiny Heights, and Sector I holding the coastal strip around Balaklava. He anticipated that the Germans were most likely to make their main effort against Sectors III and IV, so he placed his best units and commanders there. General-Major Vasily F. Vorob’ev, commander of the 95th Rifle Division, was assigned Sector IV; in addition to his own division, Vilshansky’s 8 NIB, 13 ad hoc battalions and two artillery regiments were put under his command. General-Major Kolomiets, commander of the 25th Rifle Division, took over Sector III, which also included Zhidilov’s 7 NIB, the 3rd Naval Infantry Regiment, the 1st Perekop Naval Infantry Regiment, and ten other ad hoc battalions. Altogether, Vorob’ev had more than one third of the available forces in his sector and Kolomiets had one quarter in his, which left only weak covering forces in the other two sectors. Zhukov had done a remarkable job forming 30 ad hoc battalions from available resources, including six naval infantry battalions, an NKVD battalion, and a plethora of units composed of VVS ground crews and personnel from the naval schools in Sevastopol. Yet aside from Petrov’s 25th and 95th Rifle Divisions and the two naval infantry brigades, none of these were really cohesive units with strong leadership. The question was whether they could they hold out against Manstein’s overextended but better led and equipped AOK 11.

Petrov did have a few aces up his sleeve. Although some air units had retreated to the Caucasus, Ostryakov had re-energized the remaining VVS-ChF units at Sevastopol into an effective force that hindered Fliegerkorps IV from making full use of the captured Sarabus airfield, north of Simferopol. The Germans were only able to move two Staffeln (squadrons) of Bf-109Fs from III./JG 77 and one Staffeln of Ju-87 Stukas from III./StG 77 into Sarabus in early November, but had their hands full fending off repeated low-level air raids by VVS-ChF aircraft. Although the German fighter pilots often proved superior in experience and training, the VVS-ChF pilots were improving, and shot down three Ju-88 bombers in the first week of November – the Luftwaffe could not operate with impunity over Sevastopol. By November 7, 1941, the 62nd Fighter Brigade had 61 operational fighters in three regiments, of which the 9th Fighter Regiment (9 IAP) was the strongest, with ten Yak-1 and 11 MiG-3 fighters. There was also a small number of Il-2 Sturmovik ground-attack aircraft, as well as 16 MBR-2 amphibians.³ In contrast, Fliegerkorps IV was operating only six to 12 Bf-109s, ten to 15 Ju-88s, and eight to ten Ju-87 Stukas over the Crimea by November. The rest of its Gruppen were supporting Kleist’s advance to Rostov.

Another factor in Petrov’s favor was naval gunfire support. Although the Black Sea Fleet’s heaviest units had retreated to ports in the Caucasus, the fleet formed a Naval Gunfire Support Group comprising the elderly light cruisers Krasny Krym and Chervona Ukraina, accompanied by three destroyers. Since his own artillery regiments had lost most of their guns in the retreat, he was particularly dependent upon naval gunfire support. The fleet also provided another armored train, the Zhelezniakov, to replace the two lost at Ishun; the Zhelezniakov was armed with five 100mm naval guns, eight 82mm mortars, and 15 heavy machine guns. Recognizing the vulnerability of armored trains to Stuka attacks, the Zhelezniakov was based inside the Trinity tunnel on the northern side of Severnaya Bay.

Petrov realized that his main task was to parry Manstein’s initial offensive long enough for the Stavka to send him reinforcements from the North Caucasus Military District. Winter was approaching fast, and although not as harsh in the Crimea as in central Russia, the weather would hinder the attacker far more than the defender. Despite having a motley assortment of 27,000 ground troops to defend a 29-mile-long perimeter, Petrov was determined to exact a high price from Manstein’s assault forces.

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