Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Recurrent Soviet landings along the Black Sea coast forced Manstein to create a large number of ad hoc coastal-defense units, such as Gruppe Heigl to defend Yevpatoriya and Gruppe Schroder to defend the area around Yalta. Indeed, much of the German 170. Infanterie-Division, Romanian 10th Infantry Division, and Romanian 4th Mountain Brigade were tied down on coastal-defense duties for much of the winter, which severely strained AOK 11’s meager resources. Troops deployed along the coast were often bombarded at night by the Black Sea Fleet and harassed during the day by VVS-ChF air raids. In return, Zuckertort established some of his long-range artillery to shell Severnaya Bay whenever convoys appeared in the harbor. The Black Sea Fleet continued to operate weekly supply convoys into Sevastopol all winter, relying heavily upon the light cruisers Komintern and Krasny Krym; the flotilla leaders Tashkent and Kharkov; the destroyers Boiky, Bditelny, and Bezuprechny; and the freighters Abkhazia, Belostok, Pestel, and Lvov. The Italian-built flotilla leader Tashkent, commanded by Captain 2nd Rank Vasiliy N. Eroshenko, was one of the star players on the Novorossiysk–Sevastopol route and almost invulnerable to German air attacks since it was capable of bursts of speed up to 39 knots and armed with six 37mm 70-K antiaircraft guns. Eroshenko made multiple trips in and out of Sevastopol with impunity throughout the winter. Overall, the convoys brought in 35,000 replacements between January and May 1942 and evacuated 9,000 wounded, as well as thousands of civilians.

The winter around Sevastopol was much milder than elsewhere on the Eastern Front, and temperatures rose above freezing after the first week of March 1942.²² By mid-March, Hansen’s troops often didn’t need to wear their bulky overcoats during the day, and spring arrived in the first week of April. During the late winter, once the ground was clear, each of Hansen’s divisions set up close-combat courses to teach the new replacements how to breach obstacles, clear trenches, and knock out bunkers, all of which had been learned in the December offensive. In the Soviet lines, Petrov’s troops also prepared for renewed fighting, but had to be more circumspect about training in the open. Soviet artillery harassed the German siege lines with sporadic firing, discouraging movement in daylight. German artillery did the same to Petrov’s men, firing 50 tons of ammunition even on a quiet day. Daily frontline “wastage” was similar to World War I, with Hansen’s LIV Armeekorps suffering five to ten dead and 15 to 25 wounded every day from enemy snipers, artillery fire, and air raids.²³ One sniper, Lyudmila M. Pavlichenko from the 25th Rifle Division, began to rack up an impressive number of “kills” with her SVT sniper rifle, although probably nowhere near the 257 Germans from AOK 11 that she claimed. Petrov’s Coastal Army included a number of women in combat roles, but it is difficult to confirm their actual accomplishments. Soviet “kill” claims were often highly inflated by unit-level commissars, eager to prove that their unit was fulfilling its duty to the Rodina (Motherland). Another female soldier, Senior Sergeant Nina A. Onilova, also from the 25th Rifle Division, fought as a machine gunner in a number of actions around Mekenzievy Mountain and was awarded the HSU after being mortally wounded in action on March 1. German soldiers were often surprised when they captured Soviet female soldiers, which happened on a number of occasions around Sevastopol.