Where the Iron Crosses Grow

The air battle over Sevastopol was also finished. On June 25 the Stavka ordered the survivors of the 6th Guards Fighter to evacuate to the Caucasus, while a dozen Yak-1 fighters from the 9th and 45th Fighter Regiments conducted a last-ditch stand over Sevastopol’s air space for another week, until their airfields were in danger of being overrun. Richthofen left to participate in the opening phase of the main Fall Blau summer offensive and took III./JG 77 with him. By late June, only II./JG 77 remained in the Crimea, but it was enough.

In one last desperate gesture, Oktyabrsky sent two minesweepers on June 28 to deliver the last 330 troops from the 142nd NIB, and they managed to survive constant air attacks on the way out. Another 300 wounded and civilians were evacuated. Yet this was the end. During June, the Black Sea Fleet had delivered over 17,600 reinforcements into Sevastopol, but had lost two destroyers, a minesweeper, and five merchant ships sunk and most of the other warships had suffered damage from near-misses. As June ended, the last 31 operational VVS-ChF aircraft in Sevastopol flew to the Caucasus, while all damaged aircraft were destroyed. Without even a token amount of air cover, the Black Sea Fleet was no longer willing to send surface ships to certain death off the Crimea, and resorted to using only submarines for supply runs to Sevastopol in its final days.

____________

The Kamyschly Ravine ran for 2 miles diagonally from the southern side of the Bel’bek River. It was less than 400 yards wide at its narrow northern neck, but widened out to over 600 yards as it moved south toward the village of Kamyschly. Both sides of the ravine were bounded by steep hills, studded with small trees and brush. The hill on the western side – known as Hill 124 to the Russians or the “Stellenberg” to the Germans – was a key piece of terrain that controlled the northern half of the ravine and provided excellent observation over the Bel’bek River valley to its front. The Stellenberg sat atop a large, rolling ridge, which provided ample concealment, and to its left the so-called “Haccius Ridge” ran almost all the way to Coastal Battery No. 30. The bottom of the Kamyschly Ravine was often wet and marshy, with drainage from the nearby river or hills. The ravine formed a perfect moat and an excellent natural defensive position.

During the December offensive, the 132. Infanterie-Division had captured the western side of the Kamyschly Ravine, but had been forced to withdraw from this terrain after Manstein called off the offensive. In January, Colonel Aleksei S. Potapov’s 79th Naval Infantry Brigade entrenched themselves on the western side of the Kamyschly Ravine, stretching along a 2-mile front from Hill 124 in the north to a fortified position known as the “Trapeze” in the south. During the spring, Major Vladimir V. Shaslo’s 747th Rifle Regiment from the 172nd Rifle Division took over defensive positions west of the “Stellenberg” along “Haccius Ridge.” The key position on this ridge was a hilltop known as the “Ölberg,” which overlooked the rail line that ran up the escarpment to the Mekenzievy Mountain station. Potapov’s brigade had taken heavy losses in the December 1941 fighting but still had three battalions with a total of over 3,500 veteran troops by the start of Störfang; he placed his 1st Battalion and the 5th Company around Hill 124, his 3rd Battalion around the Trapeze, and kept two companies from the 2nd Battalion in reserve.²⁷ In contrast, Colonel Ivan A. Laskin’s 172nd Rifle Division had been badly gutted in the retreat from Ishun in November 1941 and barely 1,000 of its troops reached Sevastopol; due to these losses, both the 383rd and 747th Rifle Regiments had been disbanded. Eventually, sufficient replacements reached Sevastopol by sea to enable Laskin to reform the 747th Rifle Regiment in March and the 383rd Rifle Regiment in May. Filled with fresh conscripts, most with no previous battle experience, these units took over positions on the escarpment overlooking the Bel’bek River. Laskin assigned his only veteran outfit, the 514th Rifle Regiment, to defend forward combat outposts around the town of Bel’bek. The boundary between Sevastopol’s Sector III (commanded by General-Major Trofim K. Kolomiets of the 25th Rifle Division) and Sector IV (commanded by Colonel Aleksandr G. Kapitokhin of the 95th Rifle Division) lay between the Stellenberg and the Ölberg, which is precisely where Hansen’s LIV Armeekorps intended to make its main effort.