(7/10) Battlefield II The Battle of the Crimea Ep8 World War II

Videos Running Time 01:41:00 in 10 Parts

Battlefield II: The Battle of the Crimea"


This episode of "Battlefield" chronicles the German Armys campaign in the Crimea.
The campaign was conducted by the German 11th Army (XI), despite the incorrect map references to the 6th Army (VI).

The Crimea was a thorn in the belly of Army Group Souths advance on Rostov. Hitler also believed the Crimea could act as an alternative invasion route into the Caucasus. The task of conquering the Crimea would fall on Gen. Erich von Manstein. Mansteins 11th Army would consist of 4 Corps. Thirty, 49th Mountain, 54th, and the 3rd Romanian Corps were all assigned to the 11th Army. The Soviet Union would assemble a force of 235,000 men in various units.

The Battle of the Crimea officially began on September 24th, 1941. Gen. Mansteins first objective was to break resistance and breakthrough the Isthmus of Perekop. This invasion route was an obvious choice, and a necessary entrance into the Crimea. Manstein had no choice but to fight a battle of attrition in this area. Manstein achieved a breakthrough on October 28th, 1941.

The defenses of Sevastopol were extensive and well planned out. Three belts of defenses defended the approaches to the city. Manstein chose to center his offensive in the south. The Soviet defensive belt network was weaker in the south. However, the terrain was terrible. The offensive failed.

As Manstein was closing on Sevastopol, the Soviets launched attacks across the Kerch Peninsula. These attacks succeeded in pushing the Germans back. A series of excellent counter offensives succeeded; in clearing the Soviet presence out of the eastern Crimea, and inflicting 175,000 casualties on the Soviets.

After murderous attacks, bombardments and tough Soviet resistance Sevastopol fell on June 29, 1942. Gen. Manstein was promoted to Field Marshall.

In 1944 the Soviets crossed into the Kerch Peninsula once again. As the 17th Army retreated, the Soviets encircled all forces in the Crimea. When all hope seemed lost a botched seaborne extraction began. The German defense of the Crimea in 1944 was another complete Hitler influenced disaster.

Enjoy this episode of Battlefields

Category:

Education

Tags:

• World
• War
• II
• Russia
• Soviet
• Crimea
• Barbarossa
• German
• Wehrmacht
• Panzer
• Field
• Marshall
• Manstein
• 1944
• Sevastopol
• Germans
• Soviets
• Battlefield
• Hitler
• Army
• Group
• South

[sdc12]

Thanks, this is great program

[rmstorms]

This is a great documentary, very thorough and detailed.

[tjhoenecke]

@pursuinginsanity The Eastern Front is a rather large subject to tackle, and even just talking about the battles in Crimea is a complex matter, too. Such material is rarely going to be covered in abolutely sequential order, as there were many different operations happening simultaneously, their start and end dates overlap, they each affect one another in different ways, etc.

[tjhoenecke]

@strumdiv The big guns were covered in great detail in the previous segment, and video of the guns was shown then. The map is shown now, because we've already seen the guns, and now we are looking at how they affected the actual battle, hence the map. Also the person who uploaded this did not produce it, so complaining to him about how it "should have been done" is rather pointless.

[pursuinginsanity]

Operation Blue had *nothing* to do with Sevastopol. Hell, the siege was practically over (just 6 days) by the time Blue began.

[strumdiv]

the details were very good, but the video it self did not line up with some of the details. example talking about the artillery when details of the big guns were talked about no video was on them. i really was looking forward to seeing the big gun DORA in this part, was very disapointed that it was not. over all it was not bad, but please keep in mind if details are to be given please try and get the video part better. thanks for this and do look forward to watching more of these.

[choop3004]

Check 07:30, German losses are mentioned exactly. And they 'played' it because the city and peninsula was well worth it.

[fuggsakes]

Awesome uploads thanks keep er up

[vikruss]

Its a good program but still they do not say almost anything about German losses. But that was the main point for soviet to fight them to mold their army so they would not use them anywhere else. Soviet new they would loose the city eventually. So Mainstein-Hitler did play in to this one probably without much of joy.

[chicago85bearz]

Concur.