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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.
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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 landings 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 Army.[2] Despite putting up desperate resistance to halt the Soviet advances, the 17th Army was forced back towards Sevastopol by 16 April.[2] On 11 April, the Separate Coastal Army liberated the city of Kerch, and two days later, the city of Simferopol, located about 37 mi (60 km) to the northeast of Sevastopol, fell. Despite putting ferocious resistance, by the end of the third week of April, the remaining Axis forces on the Crimea were pushed back to Sevastopol and its surroundings.
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. Fighting within the city's outskirts began towards the end of April, with the 17th Army and attached Romanian units putting up a spirited, but futile defense. However, the rapid movement of the Red Army along with inadequate preparation of the defences of Sevastopol a prolonged defense of the city impossible, and on 9 May 1944, just over one month after the start of the offensive, Sevastopol fell.[2] The Axis forces were evacuated from Sevastopol to Constanța, and were attacked by land-based Russian bombers along the way.[2]The Soviets finalized the Crimea's liberation on 12 May with the destruction of the remaining pockets of German/Romanian resistance on that day.
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. Soviet losses were slightly lower. The table below is based on information from Glantz/House When Titans Clashed.:
German losses:
Killed and missing: 31,700[3]
Wounded: 33,400
Total: 65,100
Romanian losses:
Killed and missing: 25,800[3]
Wounded: 5,800
Total: 31,600
Total Axis:
Killed and missing: 57,500
Wounded: 39,200
Total: 96,700
Soviet losses (according to Krivosheev):
Killed and missing: 17,754
Wounded: 67,065
Total: 84,819
Tanks: 171
Artillery: 521
Aircraft: 179