145b - Germany to Strike Strongest Fortress in the World - WW2 - June 6, 1942

June 6, 1942

Are you expecting the Battle of Midway? You got that yesterday- go watch if you missed

it. Today you get the Battle of Sevastopol and the Battle of Gazala!!

I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.

Last week upwards of a quarter of a million Soviet prisoners were taken by the Germans

near Kharkov, Reinhard Heydrich, one of the main architects of the Holocaust, was wounded

in an assassination attempt, Britain sent over a 1,000 bombers on a raid of Cologne,

Erwin Rommel launched a surprise offensive against the Allies in North Africa, and dozens

of Japanese ships and tens of thousands of men made their way across the Pacific to get

into position for their attacks this week against Midway island, the Aleutian Islands,

and the US pacific Fleet. Now, I already talked about that Pacific action in an extra regular

episode, and I will talk more about it tomorrow in another one. There’s plenty of other

stuff I need to cover today.

For example, on June 2nd, the Germans renew the bombardment of Sevastopol, now with Luftwaffe support.

“The German success at Kerch had cleared the road for a renewed attempt to capture

Sevastopol… It was clear from the start that the fighting here would have a totally

different character from that on the Parpach Front… here, there was an enemy prepared

for all eventualities, entrenched in a complicated labyrinth of fortifications.”

And the Soviets had been working all year long to ever better their defenses since the

last attempt failed in January. Petrov’s Coastal Army is seven rifle divisions, and

4 rifle and marine brigades, making up over 100,000 men, along with like 600 big guns

and a couple thousand mortars. He only has a few dozens tanks and planes, so he’s really

inferior in the skies, but the Luftwaffe so far hasn’t prevented his being supplied

by sea, and the few German or Italian ships in the Black Sea certainly aren’t a threat

to cut him off. Because of that lack of Axis naval power, this naval fortress must be attacked

by land and air.

By land it has three defense zones, however. One that runs along the Belbek Heights, bristling

with field fortifications, that runs in an arc down to the coast. An inner belt that

runs from the Belbek estuary along the river and then south over the Sapun Heights, also

well-fortified, and there’s a third, inner ring immediately around the city.

Many consider this fortress to be the strongest in the world, and Erich von Manstein has his

work cut out for him in trying to take it. So in a front just over 30 km wide, he has

7 and a half German and one and a half Romanian divisions for Operation Sturgeon Catch, and

600 pieces of mostly heavy or super heavy artillery, including the 600mm and 800mm Thor

and Dora guns. More on them next week.

Artillery and Luftwaffe bombardment picked up seriously over the last ten days of May,

but the actual Battle for Sevastopol begins now on June 2nd with concentrated air and

artillery strikes that last the remainder of the week.

“Their main purpose, apart from their demoralizing effect, was the elimination of the enemy’s