Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Aside from lax communications security, another major problem facing the Soviet defenders was that most of Morgunov’s coastal artillery had worn out their barrels by firing too many rounds during the November–December fighting. Even the 305mm gun turrets in Coastal Batteries No. 30 and No. 35 were no longer fit for combat; Lieutenant Georgy A. Aleksandr’s Battery No. 30 had fired 1,238 rounds since the beginning of the siege and was non-operational. Now only a mile from the closest German positions and visible to enemy forward observers, Morgunov’s engineers came up with a bold plan to replace the 50-ton gun barrels in late January 1942. It took 16 nights’ worth of heavy, dangerous labor, but the barrels were replaced and the battery operational again by February 12. Following this, Soviet naval engineers replaced the barrels of Coastal Battery No. 35, then of six 152mm guns, three 130mm guns, and four 100mm guns. Soviet engineers also stripped the guns from the crippled cruiser Chervona Ukraina and the destroyer Sovershennyi, both lying in Sevastopl’s inner harbor area, in order to provide for five new naval artillery batteries to defend the landward side of the city. Captain-Lieutenant Aleksei P. Matyukhin led 65 sailors from the destroyer Sovershennyi to the Malakhov Hill, famous from the 1855 siege, where they established Battery 701 with two 130mm guns. By the end of March, Morgunov’s coastal batteries were restored to full effectiveness.²⁰

It helped that Sevastopol was not really under tight siege during the winter of 1941/42, and that naval convoys could deliver supplies and spare parts from naval depots in Novorossiysk with only modest opposition from the Luftwaffe. Petrov received nearly 6,000 replacements in January, and 2,194 of his wounded were evacuated. The Romanian Navy was far too weak to interfere with Russian convoys, and although the German Kriegsmarine was planning to dispatch light naval forces to the region, they had not yet made an appearance. Fighters from the VVS-ChF were able to maintain air superiority over Sevastopol because the only German fighter unit in the Crimea – III./JG 77 at Sarabus – was forced to concentrate most of its limited sorties over the Parpach front. However, Manstein prevailed upon the Luftwaffe to increase its efforts to interdict Soviet naval supply lines to the Crimea. At the end of January 1942, the Luftwaffe sent Oberleutnant Hansgeorg Bätcher’s 1./KG 100 to the Crimea specifically to interdict Soviet shipping in the Black Sea. Bätcher’s Staffeln had only eight operational He-111 bombers, but he was one of the greatest bomber pilots of World War II and his unit’s aircrew among the elite of the Kampfflieger. Bätcher’s aircrew had no experience in anti-shipping operations, but they learned low-level bombing tactics that began to inflict a toll on Soviet ships going to Sevastopol and Kerch.²¹ The VVS-ChF in Sevastopol responded by launching repeated raids on Bätcher’s squadron at Saki airfield, but failed to put the German anti-shipping unit out of business.

Although Bätcher’s attacks were initially more of a nuisance than lethal, Petrov did not receive all the replacement troops and equipment he requested, though enough arrived to rebuild many of the battered units in his Coastal Army and restore its fighting effectiveness. By February 8, he had 69,853 troops in his Coastal Army, plus 12,128 naval infantry. Three convoys during February 12–15 brought in another 7,746 troops and 1,900 tons of supplies. However, the Stavka would not allow Petrov to spend the entire winter quietly rebuilding his army, but required him to launch attacks against the German siege lines concurrent with Kozlov’s offensive to break out of the Kerch Peninsula. On February 26, 1942, Petrov mounted a large attack with the 345th Rifle Division, the 2nd Perekop Naval Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Naval Infantry Regiment, and the 125th Separate Tank Battalion against the German 24. Infanterie-Division near Mekenzievy Mountain. The German troops were not expecting such a serious attack and the Soviet troops were able to advance 1,300 yards into the German lines before being stopped by a counterattack. Desultory combat continued in this area until March 6, which cost the 24. Infanterie-Division 1,277 casualties, including 288 dead or missing. Petrov’s assault forces suffered much heavier losses, including 1,818 dead and 780 captured. After this, the German siege lines were forced to maintain greater alertness against the possibility of more Soviet sorties.