By Vestnik Kavkaza
A patriotic action ‘By the Roads of the Victory’ starts in Crimea on April 8-16 as part of the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War and the 71st anniversary of the liberation of cities and regions of Crimea from fascist occupants. A motor rally and demonstration of military vehicles of the war time will take place. Members of military-historic clubs will carry a copy of the Victory Banner and replicas of military banners of the units and divisions of the Red Army which liberated Crimea in April-May 1944; some of them participated in the Victory Parade on June 24th 1945.
The Scientific Director of the Russian Military-Historical Society, Professor (University) of the MFA of Russia Mikhail Myagkov, thinks that studying Crimea’s history of the war years is geopolitically important today, as Western countries don’t want to recognize the peninsula as a part of Russia. The heroism and dedication of the Soviet soldiers and guerillas who liberated the peninsula from German occupation could be a serious argument in Moscow’s rhetoric on defending the legal merger of Crimea.
Colonel Boris Bozhedomov, senior researcher at the Research Institute (military history) of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, says that “the origins of the liberation of Crimea were laid in the autumn of 1943 with the Kerch-Eltigen amphibious offensive operation. In the course of this operation, on the night of November 1st 1943 soldiers and commanders of the 318th Infantry Division, reinforced by two battalions of Marines and other units, landed in the vicinity of the small fishing village of Eltigen. They first stepped onto Crimean land as liberators of it. Despite the fact that the Kerch-Eltigen operation was not fully successful, however, on the north-east of Kerch a bridgehead was captured that was held up to the spring of 1944. And from this beachhead one of the main forces of the Separate Maritime Army group kicked the Germans out of Crimea.”
Colonel Dmitri Vorobyev, Deputy Head of the Research Institute (military history) of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, thinks that the liberation of Crimea would not have been possible without the participation of the Black Sea Fleet: “For as soon as the 17th German army was locked in Crimea, immediately the question of sea lanes was raised. The tasks that were set on the Crimean Offensive for the Black Sea Fleet were at a determined rate, which was primarily the task of preventing maritime transport and breaking the planned evacuation of the German troops. Of course, the task set for the Navy was extremely complex.”
“Unfortunately, it never managed to interrupt the maritime communications of the ports of Crimea with the ports on the territory of Romania, but nevertheless, the fleet was able to inflict considerable damage on warships and transport vessels, they significantly reduced transportation for strengthening the 17th Army in Crimea, and later almost disrupted the evacuation of the German fascist troops from Sevastopol. From the number of troops, which the Germans were able to evacuate from Sevastopol, almost only one division was formed. All the other German divisions which were in Crimea ceased to exist. The personnel were either captured or killed on the beaches and during the evacuation.
The Crimean Offensive was an example of the interaction of diverse naval forces to disrupt sea communications [of the enemy]. The Black Sea Fleet made a significant contribution to the success of this operation,” Vorobyev said.
