Where the Iron Crosses Grow

With the port of Feodosiya hanging in the balance, Kozlov – who was only vaguely aware of the 44th Army’s critical situation – made a nearly insane command decision. He decided to commit the 44th Army’s remaining reserves and most of the Black Sea Fleet’s available warships into a larger diversionary landing at Sudak. Escorted by the battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna, the cruiser Krasny Krym, and four destroyers, a flotilla deposited Major Georgy N. Selikhov’s 226th Rifle Regiment at Sudak. Naval gunfire scattered the small Romanian garrison in the town and the Soviet troops were able to gain a small lodgment, but to what end? Once ashore, the Soviet troops entrenched themselves and waited for the enemy to react. Unfortunately, Manstein was moving in for the kill at Feodosiya and was unwilling to be distracted. Aside from a few blocking detachments sent tokeep Selikhov’s troops under observation, they were ignored for the time being.

On the morning of January 17, the 132. Infanterie-Division attacked directly into the northern part of Feodosiya, ripping apart the remaining defenses. Gottlob Bidermann’s Panzerjäger unit from IR 437 was involved in the final push toward the suburb of Sarygol, on the Black Sea. Soviet resistance became desperate as the Germans pushed into the city outskirts, and Bidermann’s platoon was suddenly attacked from behind by a bypassed Soviet infantry unit:

The attackers poured out of the depression. There were at least one hundred Russians streaming with a loud “Urrah!” toward our seven-man Pak crew and one machine-gun position. Rifle shots slammed into the side of the vehicle and ricocheted off the gun shield of our Pak gun. Hans took charge of the machine-gun position. Laying his machine gun across the ammunition trailer, he fired a long burst from a standing position… An unteroffizier lying next to me near the wheel of the carriage was firing short, sustained bursts from his machine pistol when he suddenly rolled backward, screaming with pain. We had no time to assist the wounded, only to fire, fire, and fire to save our lives.¹⁴

Bidermann’s platoon eventually repulsed the sudden Soviet attack, but suffered several casualties. His battalion then moved into Sarygol, thereby isolating the remaining Soviet troops in Feodosiya. Thick black smoke from burning buildings languished over the city while Stukas relentlessly bombed the harbor area without mercy. Despite the Black Sea Fleet’s attempt to conduct an emergency evacuation, few troops from the 44th Army escaped by sea. Kozlov authorized the broken remnants of the 44th Army to retreat northeast toward the Ak-Monai or Parpach position. The next day, German troops entered the shattered city, after rounding up 5,300 prisoners.¹⁵ Although his 236th Rifle Division was annihilated, General-Major Moroz managed to escape – only to be convicted by a military tribunal three weeks later and executed. The right wing of the 44th Army escaped the debacle at Feodosiya, but its two remaining divisions were in poor shape and virtually leaderless.

Rather than halting, the German counteroffensive actually accelerated on January 19, as Fretter-Pico’s XXX Armeekorps wheeled along the coast, pursuing the remnants of the retreating 44th Army. Lvov’s 51st Army had no real ability to counterattack since most of its artillery had still not reached the front and even its rifle divisions were far from complete. While the 302nd Rifle Division managed to repulse IR 97’s attack on Vladislavovka, that position became increasingly untenable as the headlong retreat of the 44th Army caused the Soviet front to unravel. Having misjudged the German capabilities, Kozlov now exaggerated them to the Stavka and believed them capable of “throwing our forces into the sea.”¹⁶ By January 20, both Soviet armies were in retreat, and XXX and XXXXII Armeekorps were able to advance to the Parpach Narrows, which greatly simplified their ability to block any Soviet exit from the Kerch Peninsula. Thereafter, the new front line settled into a World War I landscape of trenches, dugouts, and barbed wire. Overall, the German counteroffensive crippled the 44th Army at a cost to Fetter-Pico’s XXX Armeekorps of 995 casualties, including 243 dead and missing.¹⁷