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nazi germany etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
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1941: Unending Defeats For Russia

1941. It was a nightmare year for Russia. The Wehrmacht went smashing through the country till it reached  the gates of Moscow. Hitler and his generals were exultant. They thought the Soviet Union was about to fall. But it was not to be. The Battle of Moscow changed all that. But that is another...

Downfall: Decline Of Nazi Germany: Crimea, 1944

Russian soldiers remove swastika  factory  Voykova, Kerch. 1944.
Russian soldiers remove the swastika from a factory in Voykova, Kerch. 1944.

The faintest hint came from the Battle of Moscow in the harsh winter of 1941. That the invincible German juggernaut was not infallible. Stalingrad underlined it boldly. The days of Hitler were numbered. It was only a matter of time. Kursk was the last strong surge by the Germans to clutch at the rapidly receding victory in Russia.
After that the downfall had begun. A long series of hard fought battles that the German army fought with desperation but all adding to the increasing gloom of the approaching disaster.
We start here with Crimea.


Newspaper heading Nazis Crimea Retreat 1944
Image (Click to enlarge image)

Ostfront 1944: The German Defensive Battles on the Russian Front 1944 (Schiffer military history) ALEX BUCHNER

The Crimea - virtually a large island, joined to the mainland in the north by the six- to eight-kilometer-wide Isthmus of Perekop and a rail line whose raised embankment crosses the Sivash. The Sivash, the "foul lake," is a shallow, islandand lagoon-rich body of water. To the south and west extends the Black Sea, and in the east the four- to fifteen-kilometer-wide Strait of Kerch separates the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea and at the same time the Crimea with its Kerch Peninsula from the opposite Taman Peninsula. The Crimea is largely flat, with wide, open plains. Only in the south do the plains rise to form the Jaila Mountains, part of which run along the southern coast. There were few rail lines and a couple of overland roads. In the southwest corner of the Crimea is the city, fortress and harbor of Sevastopol, with a small tongue of land, the Khersonyes Peninsula, with a number of bays, steep rock faces and narrow beach. It was here that the tragedy of the Seventeenth Army was to be played out.
German soldier surrenders  1944 Crimea
 A German soldier surrenders in 1944 somewhere in the Crimea

GERMANS LOSE CRIMEA: HISTORY IN BRIEF

The Crimean Offensive (8 April - 12 May 1944) — known in German sources as the Battle of the Crimea — was a series of offensives by the Red Army in the effort to liberate Crimea from the German Wehrmacht occupation. The Red Army's 4th Ukrainian Front engaged the German 17th Army of Army Group South, which consisted of German and Romanian formations, in an operation to liberate the Crimean peninsula. The result of the battle was complete victory for the Red Army, and a botched evacuation effort across the Black Sea, leading to significant German and Romanian losses.

During late 1943 and early 1944, the Wehrmacht was pressed back along its entire frontline in the east. In October 1943, the 17th Army was forced to retreat from the Kuban Bridgehead across the Kerch Strait to Crimea. During the following months, the Red Army pushed back the Wehrmacht in southern Ukraine, eventually cutting off the land-based connection of 17th Army through the Perekop Isthmus in November 1943 

 Soviet landings across the Kerch Strait and in the north-eastern sector of the Crimea near Sivash at the end of 1943 set the stage for the liberation of the Crimea from the Germans. For nearly 5 months, the Soviets turned their attention away from the Crimea, instead focusing on pushing Army Group South out of Ukraine, which they were able to do with the highly successful Lower Dnieper and Dnieper-Carpathian Offensives.

 An assault across the Perekop Isthmus was launched on 8 April by elements of the 4th Ukrainian Front's 2nd Guards and 51st Armies. The 17th Army fought well but was unable to stop the advance. Kerch was liberated by the Separate Coastal Army on 11 April; Simferopol, about 37 mi (60 km) northeast of Sevastopol, followed two days later. The 17th Army was retreating toward Sevastopol by 16 April with remaining Axis forces in the Crimea concentrating around the city by the end of the third week of April. The OKW intended to hold Sevastopol as a fortress, as the Red Army had done during the first battle for the Crimea in 1941-1942. However, inadequate preparations made a prolonged defence impossible against the rapid Soviet advance. Fighting broke out in the city outskirts towards the end of April and the city fell on 9 May, less than a month after the start of the offensive.

The Axis sea evacuation to Constanța was attacked by Soviet land-based bombers. The last Axis pockets in the Crimea were destroyed on 12 May. The German and Romanian formations suffered very high irrecoverable losses of 97,000 men, many of whom drowned during the evacuation. The sinking of the Totila and Teja on 10 May alone caused up to 10,000 deaths.


German losses:
Killed and missing: 31,700
Wounded: 33,400
Total: 65,100
Romanian losses:
Killed and missing: 25,800
Wounded: 5,800
Total: 31,600
Total Axis:
Killed and missing: 57,500
Wounded: 39,200
Total: 96,700

 German POW  Crimea. 1944.
 A column of German POW in the Crimea. 1944.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Seventeenth Army, Generaloberst Jaennecke, realized this and ordered plans drawn up and preparations made for a fast, staged evacuation of the Crimea along the Isthmus of Perekop toward the lower Dniepr River. It was his belief that holding on to the Crimea was of no military value whatsoever; on the other hand, his army could significantly strengthen the southern wing of the German eastern front.

Red Army moves Crimea map
Situation as published in the Charlotte News on April 12, 1944
Image source

The Seventeenth Army was already cut off from the mainland and on its own, it was engaged in battle with enemy forces near Perekop and Kerch, and the army's commanders were convinced that an evacuation by sea was inevitable in the near future. In spite of this Hitler stuck to his decision: no matter what, the Crimea was to be defended with all means available. To back up his decision Hitler had two more German divisions1 sent to the Crimea as reinforcements, though two divisions was completely inadequate.

The Russians knew that the Crimea, and if it stayed, the Seventeenth Army, were theirs. They dropped leaflets urging the defenders to desert, mocking the German position: "The Crimea is our largest and most secure prisoner-of-war camp. The Germans feed themselves, guard themselves and when they go on leave they even return voluntarily. We are in no hurry to take the Crimea."

Street fighting  Kerch. 1943
Street fighting in Kerch. 1943

Then, however, the entire situation on the Eastern Front began to deteriorate. From mid-March the Germans were forced to abandon their defenses on the Lower Dniepr, and Soviet offensives along the entire southern front forced Army Group A back beyond the Dnestr. On April 10, Odessa, the Seventeenth Army's most important supply base and port, fell to the Russians. This meant that the army was now totally isolated, 300 kilometers from the new German front, and that from now on it would have to be supplied from the Rumanian port of Constanza, which meant a much loner sea journey. There was till time, however, to evacuate the army by sea with all of its men, horses and materiel. But Hitler stubbornly refused and forbade any evacuation.

Russian officers pose  wreck  German Messerschmitt fighter. 1944.
 Russian officers pose on top of the wreck of a downed German Messerschmitt fighter. 1944.

With the German northern front smashed, the enemy had a free entrance to the Crimea. As there were no further forces or reserves available, and since the rear of XXXXIX Mountain Corps was also threatened, on April 10 the Seventeenth Army gave the order for a withdrawal toward Sevastopol. The German and Rumanian forces faced a difficult retreat over 160 kilometers of open terrain lacking significant natural obstacles. The result was a race with the pursuing Soviet tanks and motorized infantry.
--------------------
The exhausted men breathed a sigh of relief, they had made it. They had reached Sevastopol, and here was the harbor from which they would sail across the Black Sea to freedom. Unbeknown to them, however, a new order from Hitler, issued on April 12 while the retreat was still under way, had arrived, striking the army command a crushing blow: although the Crimea had been lost, the fortress of Sevastopol was to be held indefinitely. That those in the Führer Headquarters imagined the battered units could do so was inconceivable.

VIDEO: HAPPIER TIMES FOR THE GERMANS: OCCUPY CRIMEA 1942



waffen ss linesman
A soldier from the 8th Cavalry Division of 'Florian Geyer' Waffen SS Division lays a telephone cable

Untersturmfuhrer SS  of the SS brigade of "Langemarck". Untersturmfuhrer ( a rank in the Waffen SS) was the equivalent of second lieutenant in other armies. 


The 27th SS Volunteer Division Langemarck was a German Waffen-SS volunteer division comprising volunteers of Flemish background. It saw action on the Eastern Front during World War II. The formation started as the 6th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Langemarck and in September 1944 the Sturmbrigade was raised in status to a division, but its strength never reached more than a brigade.





Nordland shakes hand wounded finnish soldier
A soldiers from the Waffen SS Nord Division shakes hands witha wounded Finnish soldier.

THE 6TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION NORD

The 6th SS Mountain Division "Nord" was a German unit of the Waffen SS during World War II, formed in February 1941 as SS Kampfgruppe Nord (SS Battle Group North).The Division was the only Waffen SS unit to fight in the Arctic Circle when it was stationed in Finland and northern Russia between June and November 1941. It fought in Karelia until the Finnish armistice in September 1944 when it marched on foot 1,600 km through Finland and Norway. It arrived in Denmark in December and then transferred to western Germany. It fought in the Nordwind offensive in January 1945, where it suffered heavy losses and surrendered to the American forces in Austria at the end of the war.


motorcyclists
Motorcyclists from Waffen SS. The goggles hang around his neck

VIDEO: WAFFEN SS IN ACTION


calls for ambulance
 3rd SS Armored Division of the Totenkopf. A soldier signals to the motorcycle rider that an ambulance is needed for the injured.


The curtain of silence fell on the Waffen SS after the war but now more and more young people somehow know of its existence, of its achievements. The fame is growing and the young demand to know more. In one hundred years almost everything will be forgotten but the greatness and the heroism of the Waffen SS will be remembered. It is the reward of an epic. 

LEON DEGRELLE, FORMER BELGIAN WAFFEN SS OFFICER 
Source: ihr.org

7th Mountain Division prinz eugen
 Soldiers of the 7th Mountain Division of the Waffen SS "Prinz Eugen" wave to a  Luftwaffe plane flying above

normandy 1944
Normandy 1944. Soldiers of the 12th Armored Division of the Waffen SS "Hitler Youth" closely watch the sky, swarming with enemy aircraft.

THE HITLERJUGEND WAFFEN SS DIVISION

The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend ("Hitler Youth") was a German Waffen SS armoured division during World War II. The Hitlerjugend was unique because the majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth, while the senior NCOs and officers were generally veterans of the Eastern Front. The division, with 20,540 personnel, first saw action on 7 June 1944 as part of the German defense of the Caen area during the Normandy campaign. The battle for Normandy took its toll on the division and it came out of the Falaise pocket with a divisional strength of 12,000 men. Following the invasion battles, the division was sent to Germany for refitting. On 16 December 1944, the division was committed against the US Army in the Battle of the Bulge. After the failure of the Ardennes offensive the division was sent east to fight the Red Army near Budapest. The 12th SS eventually withdrew into Austria; on 8 May 1945, the surviving 10,000 men surrendered to the US Army at Enns.



 The SS soldiers are in a trench while their radio-man is trying to communicate

A SS officer gives instructions to his men


A picture that would have had Stalin fuming. A Russian peasant woman offers to darn the sock of a Waffen SS  soldier

SS soldiers calculate and aim their mortar

The men cross the river on a boat

Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Kharkov
A SS soldier plays the piano after the fight. The men belong to the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler". Kharkov, 1943

 Machine-gun crew from the 3rd Armored Division of the SS "Totenkopf"

Soldiers of 3rd Armored Division of the SS "Totenkopf" in the trenches.


 SS men fire away with a MG 42 machine gun

Firing a 8cm GrW 34 mortar


The 8 cm Granatwerfer 34 (8 cm GrW 34) was the standard German medium mortar throughout World War II. It gained a reputation for extreme accuracy and rapid rate of fire, although much of the credit should go to the training of the crews.


 A Waffen SS soldier in Russia during winter in a M42 pullover.


Waffen-SS winter combat clothing was developed independently for the army and resulted in a pullover fur-lined anorak.Improvements to this garment were made during the war, leading to several variants. The most common type was the M42 pullover type with its large hood to accommodate the steel helmet. Included with this anorak was a white removable shell. Although the fur-lined anorak was used until the end of the war, the Waffen-SS found the army reversible insulated winter suit to be superior in many aspects and copied its design. However they produced the printed camouflaged side in Waffen-SS patterns. In the winter of 1942-43, to supplement the shortage of fur-lined anoraks, Waffen-SS troops were also supplied with the new army field gray/white reversible insulated winter suit

From White Hell - The German Army Faces the Russian Winter by Gordon Rottman, Stephen Andrew

Soldiers from the 3rd SS Division 'Totenkopf' at the start of the war


 The men take a break. One of them holds a Soviet TT pistol
 A SS orderly gives a wounded soldier a drink of water

 This SS soldier darts to a forward position with a MG 42 machine gun

Firing at the enemy with a MG 42 machine gun

 SS men about to fire a MG 34 machine gun

 Two Waffen SS soldiers

 Carrying the wounded comrades. Men of the 7th Volunteer Mountian 'Prinz Eugen' Division

 SS soldiers stuck in the mud. They are riding a BMW R75 motorcycle


 Riding the Horch 901

 The famous soldier from the SS Hitlerjugend Division Otto Funk. He was 15 when he destroyed a Churchill tank with a MG 42 machine gun. He was awarded the Iron Cross class 2 for that.He was wounded on June 26, 1944 but continued fighting till May 8, 1945

Waffen SS soldiers in action in the Soviet Union

SEE ALSO....
WAFFEN SS IN ACTION: Rare, Unseen Pictures: Part 2

WAFFEN SS: Training Made Them The Best: Personal Narrative Of A Recruit

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