Where the Iron Crosses Grow

Just as this German tactical success was occurring, the Soviets launched a battalion-size counterattack against IR 47’s position at the Eisenbahnburg at 1805hrs. This Soviet counterattack was better planned and received strong supporting fires from division-level artillery and Morgunov’s coastal batteries. After heavy fighting, the counterattack was repulsed, but Major Alvermann was killed. As night descended, the fighting tapered off as both sides began to reorganize for the next day’s fight. The assault across the Kamyschly Ravine cost Hansen’s LIV Armeekorps over 2,000 casualties, including 423 dead or missing. Wolff’s 22. Infanterie-Division had achieved the most and bled the most, having suffered 801 casualties – equal to about a third of its assault troops. Thanks to strong artillery and air support, the 22. Infanterie-Division succeeded in breaking through the outer Soviet defenses and capturing four important fortified positions: the Stellenberg, the Bunkerberg, the Eisenbahnburg, and the Ölberg. The 22. Infanterie-Division Kriegstagebuch (war journal) noted that, “the day’s fighting was characterized by extraordinary violence. The enemy showed extraordinary cunning in the division’s attack on the high ground. Enemy snipers and small groups of stragglers, that had kept themselves hidden behind our lines, shot individual troops.”⁴⁷

Soviet losses in Sector III were also very heavy on the first day of the German ground offensive, with Potapov’s brigade suffering about 30 percent casualties, and Laskin’s 172nd Rifle Division had at least two battalions decimated. The 22. Infanterie-Division captured 153 Soviet prisoners on the first day, while overall Soviet casualties in this sector were roughly 2,000–3,000. On X-Day, Zuckertort’s artillery had fired 3,939 tons of artillery ammunition – 60 percent more than that fired during the entire five-day preparation.⁴⁸ In addition, Richthofen’s Fliegerkorps VIII made a maximum effort and dropped 1,300 tons of bombs on Soviet positions. Altogether, over 5,000 tons of high explosives were employed on the first day of the German ground assault, and mostly against Sevastopol’s Sector III. By day’s end, Hansen had begun to split the seam between Sectors III and IV. The successful assault across the Kamyschly Ravine was an impressive German tactical success that gave LIV Armeekorps the initiative and set the stage for the advance upon Severnaya Bay.

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By nightfall on June 7, Petrov realized that the Germans had captured at least half of the critical high ground on the boundary of Sectors III and IV and that the enemy was now within 4½ miles of Severnaya Bay. Having had six months to prepare for this German offensive, Petrov should have had a contingency plan and the resources to mount a major counterattack against the German assault divisions, which had suffered heavy casualties and were low on ammunition. Yet ironically, Petrov had neither the plan nor the resources to deliver a timely riposte when it might have made the most difference. On paper, there were a total of 101,238 Soviet military personnel within the Sevastopol Defensive Region (SOR) at the beginning of Störfang.⁴⁹ Petrov’s Coastal Army had seven rifle divisions with a total of 68,360 personnel, including just over 50,000 combat troops. Of Petrov’s seven rifle divisions, six were already assigned to defend sectors of the outer defensive perimeter, but he managed to position Colonel Nikolai Guz’s 345th Rifle Division in reserve at Mekenzievy Mountain station behind Sectors III and IV. The Black Sea Fleet contributed another 15,000 combat troops in its six naval infantry units, with the newly arrived 9th Naval Infantry Brigade assigned as the reserve for Sectors I and II in the south. This meant that Petrov started the battle with about 65,000 combat troops holding a 23-mile front, with roughly 15 percent of these deployed in sector reserve. However, Petrov had almost no reserve units under his direct control. Within Sevastopol, there were another 18,000 rear-area support and naval-base personnel, some of whom would eventually be drafted as infantry replacements, but not until the very end of the fighting. Yet it is clear that Petrov was attempting to hold too large a perimeter with insufficient forces and that he could not sustain a protracted battle with heavy casualties unless the Black Sea Fleet regularly delivered replacement units.