Liberation of Mariupol
On August 13, 1943, the Donbass strategic offensive operation began, which lasted 41 days until September 22, 1943.
The operation was carried out by troops of the Southwestern Front under the command of Colonel General Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (1898-1967)
and the Southern Front under the command of Colonel General Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin (1894-1949) (the operation to liberate Donbass was the first that Tolbukhin carried out as a front commander, appointed in March 1943) together with formations of the Azov military flotilla and long-range aviation.
The main difficulty of the Donbass operation was that it was necessary, first of all, to break through the “Mius Defense Front”, created by the Nazis for a long time and very complex. In official German documents, this line of layered defense was called the “Eastern Border of Greater Germany.”
The advancing Soviet troops were opposed by the German 1st Panzer Army of Colonel General Eberhard von Mackensen (1889-1969) and the 6th Infantry Army of Colonel General Karl Hollidt (1891-1985) (22 divisions) of Army Group South of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein (1887-1973) with the support of the 5th and 8th Air Corps of the 4th Air Fleet of Colonel General Otto Desloch (1889-1977).
The width of the combat front is 450 kilometers. The depth of advance of our troops is 250-300 kilometers. The average daily rate of advance of rifle formations is 7-8, and that of tank and mechanized formations is 10-15 kilometers.
Outsiders took part in the Donbass operation Soviet troops: 77 divisions (enemy - 27), 1 million 53 thousand people (enemy - 540 thousand), 21 thousand guns and mortars used (enemy - 5400), 1257 tanks and self-propelled guns (enemy - 900), 1400 combat aircraft (enemy - 1100 ).
From August 29 to September 17, 1943, the forces of the Azov military flotilla, supporting the offensive of the troops Southern Front, landed several tactical and reconnaissance and sabotage landings total number 1400 people.
The actions of the flotilla units thwarted the enemy's attempts to evacuate heavy weapons by sea.
Only from August 18 to August 31, 1943 by the pilots of the 8th air army in 285 air battles, 280 enemy aircraft were shot down.
Manstein recalled: “We truly met a hydra, in which, in place of one severed head, two new ones grew... By the end of August, our group alone had lost 7 division commanders, 38 regiment commanders and 252 battalion commanders... Our resources had dried up...”
On August 27, 1943, Hitler arrived in Vinnitsa. At the meeting management team Army Group South, Manstein presented Hitler with an alternative: to replenish the forces with 13 divisions or give up the Donbass. Hitler promised to withdraw forces from the “North” and “Center” groups, but was unable to allocate a single division due to the build-up of the forces of our attacks on the enemy in these directions.
During the Donbass operation, parts of the cities of the Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk) and Dnepropetrovsk regions, and entire cities of the Stalin (Donetsk) region were liberated.
How did the liberation of our hometown take place?
At the beginning of September 1943, it was planned to liberate Mariupol with the participation of the following forces:
44th Army (formed in July 1941, disbanded in November 1943) of the Southern Front under the command of Lieutenant General Vasily Afanasyevich Khomenko (killed in battle near Nikopol):
Khomenko Vasily Afanasyevich.
221st Rifle Division (formed in June 1943 on the Southern Front on the basis of the 79th Rifle Brigade) Colonel Ivan (Jonas) Ivanovich (Ionasovich) Blazhevich (Blazhevicius) (died in Austria). Full name: 221st Rifle Mariupol-Khingan Red Banner Order of Suvorov Division;
Blazhevich Ivan Ivanovich.
130th Taganrog rifle division Colonel Konstantin Vasilievich Sychev (formed in May 1943 on the basis of the 156th rifle brigade and the 159th Infantry Brigade of the 28th Army in the Mius Front zone).
Full name: 130th Taganrog Order of Lenin, Red Banner, Suvorov II degree rifle division;
Sychev Konstantin Vasilievich.
4th Guards Kuban Cavalry Corps, Lieutenant General Nikolai Yakovlevich Kirichenko;
Azov military flotilla of the Black Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral Sergei Georgievich Gorshkov:
Gorshkov Sergey Georgievich.
384th separate battalion Marine Corps Captain Fedor Evgenievich Kotanov, participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Novorossiysk:
Kotanov Fedor Evgenievich.
1st airborne detachment of Lieutenant Konstantin Fedorovich Olshansky (1915-1944, Nikolaev),
Olshansky Konstantin Fedorovich.
2nd airborne detachment, captain-lieutenant Viktor Emmanuilovich Nemchenko,
Nemchenko Viktor Emmanuilovich.
1st separate airborne brigade, senior lieutenant A.S. Frolova,
A separate detachment of ships captain 3rd rank F.V. Tetyurkin,
23rd assault air regiment Major A.I. Chepova;
8th Air Force Hero Soviet Union(1939) Lieutenant General Timofey Timofeevich Khryukin;
Timofey Timofeevich Khryukin.
9th Guards Fighter aviation division Colonel Ibragim Magometovich Dzusov:
Dzusov Ibragim Magometovich.
16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment twice Hero of the Soviet Union (August 1943) Major Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin (1913-1985),
Pokryshkin Alexander Ivanovich.
100th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment Major B.S. Sayfutdinova,
104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Hero of the Soviet Union, Major Vladimir Grigorievich Semenishin;
206th Attack Air Division Colonel L.K. Chumachenko,
289th Attack Air Division Colonel I.P. Putsykina;
7th Attack Air Corps, Major General V.M.Filin.
In order to take such a large and heavily fortified locality like Mariupol, it was necessary to concentrate control of all branches of the military that participated in the liberation of the city in one hand, and coordinate military operations between the various forces of the army: land, sea and air.
Therefore, everything: on land, at sea, in the air - was promptly subordinated to the commander of the Southern Front, Colonel General Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin; everything is aimed at fulfilling one combat mission - the liberation of Mariupol.
During the operation to liberate Mariupol, the Azov military flotilla, being operationally subordinate to the Southern Front, acted on orders from the Southern Front. She was assigned a special role in the liberation of Mariupol: she was tasked with preparing and conducting several landing operations on the shore.
This is not the first time that sailors have fought on the shore. The history of the fleet knew many such examples before the war. But during the Great Patriotic War, when fierce battles were fought along a huge front, and the fleet solved not only a purely naval task - the destruction naval forces the enemy and the fight on his sea lanes, but also ensured the protection of the flanks of our army, fought for our shores and bases, this tradition unfolded wider and deeper. The fleet solved these problems systematically and powerful blows naval aviation, submarine and surface forces. Combat operations were carried out by naval units both separately, independently, and in various combinations of interaction with each other, as well as with the field and air forces of the army. Mixed forces were used in the landings: naval paratroopers, ships and flotilla aviation, paratrooper detachments of the 44th Army, aviation of the Black Sea Fleet, but the most prominent role in them always belonged to sailors. Sailors were usually the “first cast” clinging to the shore.
This happened during the liberation of Mariupol.
On August 28, the 130th Rifle Division of the 44th Army of the Southern Front broke through the heavily fortified German defenses on the Mius River and went on the offensive.
As part of the 1st stage of the landing operations of the Azov military flotilla with the task of facilitating the advance of the advancing troops of the Southern Front to Taganrog, on the night of August 29-30, 1943, troops landed in three places near the village of Bezymennoe under the command of Fyodor Kotanov.
The landing took place silently, this was facilitated by the secrecy of the landing party's approach to the shore.
Grigory Sibilev and Vasily Chesnokov - underground fighters of the village of Bezymennoye, becoming naval paratroopers of the Azov military flotilla, participated 6 times in landing operations as part of the 384th separate battalion of the Marine Corps of Fedor Kotanov, including landing operation on the liberation of the Budennovsky district in the village of Bezymennoe on August 29, 1943.
Grigory Sibilev (left)
At the signal from the rocket, the paratroopers quickly rushed into the village, overcoming the steep slopes of the coast. The appearance of sailors in the village was unexpected for the Germans. Even the appearance of German tanks only increased their panic. In the resulting confusion, the invaders came under machine gun fire from the sailors. The paratroopers set fire to warehouses containing food and ammunition. The occupiers fled from the village. The battle in Bezymenny was the first battle of the 384th separate marine battalion, specially created to conduct landing operations of the Azov military flotilla in April 1943. This landing operation helped the troops of the Southern Front advance towards Mariupol.
On the night of August 31, 1943, MBR-2 aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet bombed the port of Mariupol: in the area of berths and port facilities, and on September 2, 1943, on enemy watercraft.
To carry out the landing operation near Mariupol, a detachment of 300 people from the soldiers of the 44th Army of the Southern Front was prepared and sent to the Azov flotilla.
On September 1 at 19-30, the headquarters of the Azov flotilla received a coded message from the chief of staff of the 44th Army:
“To the Commander of the Black Sea Fleet Air Force.
I ask you to prepare watercraft for landing a landing group of 300 people... I ask you to reinforce the detachment with marine units to capture Mariupol.”
But by September 2, plans were changed due to the fact that the advance of the Southern Front to Mariupol was slower than planned, and the enemy offered stubborn resistance. On the territory of Budennovsky (Novoazovsky) district fighting lasted 10 days - from September 1 to September 10, 1943. Ten bloody days left 53 mass graves. 93 officers, 600 sergeants, and 450 soldiers died the death of the brave in battle.
The question of conducting a thorough reconnaissance of Mariupol was raised, and a detachment of the 44th Army was recalled from the flotilla.
“The front commander ordered no landings until further notice.”
But the landing was not canceled at all, but was only postponed until further notice. The detachment continued training for landing troops: boarding boats, going to sea, landing on the shore, overcoming obstacles on the shore.
In order to strengthen the unified command of the operations of ground and naval forces, from 24-00 on September 2, 1943, the Azov military flotilla came under the operational subordination of the command of the Southern Front on the basis of the directive of the USSR NCO No. 13763.
On September 4 the situation changed. The enemy began to retreat from the Gruzkiy Elanchik line. Units of the 44th Army, overcoming enemy resistance, reached the line west of Pavlopol-Pikuzy-Shyrokino by the end of the day, thereby creating the preconditions for our troops to break through to Mariupol. The 4th Guards Kuban Cavalry Corps fought to encircle Mariupol from the north-west.
At the end of the day on September 4 Azov flotilla received a combat order from the Southern Front - to land troops at dawn on September 6 with the task of intercepting the Mariupol-Osipenko road in the Mangush area.
In pursuance of the received order, it was decided to land troops west of the village of Yalta.
The landing force was prepared by the Azov Military Flotilla: 310 sailors of the 384th Separate Marine Battalion (OBMP), two patrol ships (SKA) of the 1st Armored Boat Division (BKA) (without armored boat No. 113) with two armored boats of the 3rd Armored Boat Division , 13th division of minesweeper boats (KATSCH).
The following were conducted: training sessions with personnel, briefing of officers, communications exercises, combat documentation was developed and released to the performers, and thorough reconnaissance was carried out.
The landing did not begin due to bad weather.
On September 7, the enemy was driven out of the Lebedino village. On west bank The enemy put up stubborn resistance along the Kalmius River.
On the same day, the flotilla headquarters received an order from the 44th Army to land troops in the Yalta area.
On September 8 and 9, the enemy continued to stubbornly defend the line of the Kalmius River, which was probably due to the ongoing evacuation of the invaders and their accomplices from Mariupol, and retreated to the west in the area near the village of Pavlopol.
Based on the current operational situation, the commander of the Air Force S.G. Gorshkov made a decision: simultaneously with the landing of a tactical assault force in the Yalta-Mangush (Olshansky) area with the task of cutting the Mariupol-Mangush road, two more landing detachments were landed:
One of them (Kotanov) - in the Melekino area, he was supposed to cut the road going to Mariupol to the Belosarayskaya spit; then, moving northeast, capture the port of Mariupol. The landing in Melekino will be carried out by the forces of the Yeisk group of ships and the 384th separate battalion of marines;
The second - in the area of the village of Peschany: to land in Peschany by a composition from the 44th Army with the forces of a separate detachment of flotilla ships from the Budennovka-Bezymennoe area, support the actions of the landing detachment on the shore with fire from armored boats and aircraft.
Landing on boats
On September 7, 1943, at 19-00, 157 soldiers of the 1st landing detachment of the 384th separate battalion of the Marine Corps under the command of Lieutenant Konstantin Fedorovich Olshansky, the basis of which was a company of machine gunners, reinforced by a reconnaissance platoon, an anti-tank rifle platoon, 2 radios and a squad of sappers, on patrol boats (SKA MO) No. 0112 and No. 0412 left Yeisk for the sea. The weather was stormy.
We approached the shore west of Yalta, to the landing point - the village of Yuryevka. The main goal of the landing is to seize the Mangush-Mariupol road and access to the port of Mariupol. The goal of capturing Yalta was not set, since the village had a garrison of 3,000 Romanian soldiers.
The landing commander of the 1st airborne detachment was Captain 2nd Rank N.K. Kirillov.
On September 8, at 3:15 a.m., both SKAs simultaneously touched the ground with their noses and began landing, being 50-70 meters from the shore.
The boats approached the shore silently, but at 3:16 a.m. the invaders' patrol discovered the SKA and opened machine-gun fire. A tank fired from the shore. The boats did not open fire, despite the fact that they received shrapnel and bullet holes. There were no casualties. The landing party acted according to plan, bravely and selflessly. By 3:30 a.m. the landing was completed without losses. According to the plan, Kirillov was supposed to return to the base in Yeisk.
The second landing detachment, which was supposed to land in Melekino, on September 7 at 20-00 in the number of 160 Marines under the command of Captain Fedor Evgenievich Kotanov, on minesweeper boats (KATSCH) No. 182 and No. 183 and armored boats (BKA) No. 112 and No. 114, the 1st division of armored boats (DBKA) left Yeisk. But the landing force was not landed due to the large rolling waves and enemy opposition from the shore. At 7:19 a.m. Kirillov's SKA met Kotanov's boats at sea, took on board the landing force that could not land in Melekino, and returned to base at 10:30 a.m. in Yeisk.
After the landing, at 4:00 a.m., the landing force of the 1st detachment, concentrating in an area 2 km east of the Urzuf village, began moving in the direction of Urzuf-Yalta.
Leaving the landing area, the detachment overcame barbed wire and a minefield. To save time, the minefield was not cleared; passage through it was ensured by “beacons” from sappers.
Automatic paratroopers, reinforced with anti-tank guns and grenades, suppressed 4 firing points and destroyed a tank buried in the ground.
The movement could not be calm.
Firstly, the enemy already knew about the landing.
Secondly, the outskirts of Mariupol were flooded by the enemy.
According to the plan, a group of 25 paratroopers under the command of junior lieutenant Pyotr Romanovich Kriulin separated from the 1st detachment with the task of reaching the Melekino-Samarina Balka-Mariupol-port area.
Kriulin Petr Romanovich
Kriulin's group moved independently, bypassing the village of Yalta from the north-west. But she was soon discovered and pursued by horse patrol. At 6:30 a.m. on September 8, in the area of height 58, the group again linked up with the main landing party. They ambushed an enemy patrol and destroyed it. Then Kriulin’s group again independently continued moving towards Melekino. She no longer connected with the main detachment: in the Melekino area she was forced to engage in battle with a small enemy detachment. The battle dragged on, the enemy pulled up forces. Having pulled together larger forces, the enemy began to surround the paratroopers. All the fighters fought heroically, and most of the paratroopers managed to get out of the battle. But a battle broke out again near the fishing village. Only 4 paratroopers emerged from the second battle, and by 12:09 p.m. they managed to break through to the port of Mariupol and join the 384th battalion. 21 paratroopers, together with their commander Kriulin, died heroically in the battle near Melekino. A monument was erected to them in the village of Melekino.
During the day on September 8, the main detachment moved in the direction of Mangush-Mariupol, fighting with small groups of the enemy, destroying their communications, disrupting communications. At 17:30, reconnaissance of the landing party discovered vehicles with German infantry and mounted reconnaissance troops. At an altitude of 68.2 at 18-00 the paratroopers took up defensive positions.
At 18:30 we entered into battle with a battalion of fascists who used mortars and 45 mm artillery pieces. The battle lasted until 20-00. The sailors fought to the death. Petty Officer 2nd Article Yuri Ilyich Bogdan especially distinguished himself in battle.
Having received a bullet wound in the morning, he continued to participate in battles. At the height he was wounded a second time - in the neck. By evening, mine fragments damaged his back and legs, but Yuri continued to destroy the Nazis with a machine gun. The invaders sent reinforcements from Yalta three times and wanted to surround the landing force. 4 attacks were repulsed by paratroopers with heavy enemy losses. Our losses: 6 paratroopers were killed, 15 were wounded, 9 of them seriously. Ammunition was running low. There was a real threat of complete encirclement. Konstantin Olshansky made the decision to retreat in the darkness. But it was necessary to retreat with a fight. The landing commander divided the detachment into 5 groups and allocated a cover group, which included Viktor Titarenko, Konstantin Lipilin, Fedor Golansky, Mikhail Domichev (all of the cover group died, except Lipilin). Each group was assigned a route. At about 20-00, the groups separately began to break through - exit the battle. Olshansky's tactics were successful. Despite the losses that the landing party suffered all the way to Mariupol, the groups managed to escape from the enemy. Over the course of two days, September 9 and 10, disrupting communications and enemy convoys, group after group began to enter Mariupol. 110 out of 157 soldiers emerged. 47 naval paratroopers died the death of the brave in the battles for the liberation of Mariupol. Yuri Bogdan is buried in the city park of Mariupol. He was 28 years old. One of the streets in the Primorsky district bears his glorious name.
Konstantin Fedorovich Olshansky, leading the landing force near Mariupol, showed clarity in combat control, decisiveness in actions, and competence in solving assigned combat missions. The landing near Yalta was generally successful, since the tasks were completed and the main forces were preserved. The actions of the landing party led by Olshansky caused panic and nervousness among the enemy. They forced the enemy to pull significant forces from Mariupol to fight the landing force, which made it easier combat missions The 130th and 221st rifle divisions entered the city with battles.
On September 9, troops of the Southern Front occupied Volnovakha. The 44th Army with its right flank, supported by aviation, successfully developing an offensive in the direction of Pavlopol-Talakovka, created a threat of enveloping Mariupol from the northeast. But the advance towards Mariupol continued with heavy fighting.
The command of the 44th Army again asked the Azov military flotilla to land additional troops in the Mariupol area: on the night of September 9-10, to land an airborne detachment simultaneously at two points - in the Melekino area and in the Peschany area, to assist in the capture of the port.
On September 9, 1943, the 2nd landing detachment of 220 soldiers of the 384th separate marine battalion under the command of Lieutenant Commander Viktor Emmanuilovich Nemchenko was sent to the Melekino-Samarina ravine area.
The landing was carried out by flotilla boats under the command of Captain 2nd Rank N.K. Kirillov and captain 3rd rank F.V. Tyutyurkin. Fire support for the landings was provided by ships under the command of senior lieutenants A.S. Frolov and V. Nillipov.
The paratroopers were faced with the task of moving along the coast, breaking into the port, stopping the evacuation of the invaders from the port, and entering the city.
The sailors who landed in Samarina Balka were surrounded by superior enemy forces. A barrage of artillery fire fell on them.
Despite this, Viktor Nemchenko made the decision to break through the enemy’s defenses and continue advancing along the coast towards the port. For cover, he left a platoon of Lieutenant Poleshko. Poleshko's platoon died, but at the cost of his life he gave Nemchenko's detachment the opportunity to complete a combat mission. The sailors of the deceased platoon were buried in the village of Chervony Pakhar, and a monument was erected to them.
The guide of Nemchenko’s paratroopers was a local resident, 15-year-old Vladimir Samerin. Acting boldly, Volodya captured and disarmed one of the invaders, and together with the paratroopers fought his way out of encirclement. Viktor Nemchenko nominated the young defender for the medal “For Military Merit” (currently the medal is kept in the museum of the 384th ABMP in Vocational School No. 74). Volodya’s feat is written in detail in the book by Yu.I. Prikhvatilov “The Fiery Miles of the Sailor Battalion.”
On September 10, Nemchenko’s naval paratroopers, repelling the fierce attacks of the Nazis, entered the port. 14-year-old Anatoly Balabukha (1929-1943), helping the paratroopers, threw a grenade at the leading Nazi armored personnel carrier. The occupier finished off the boy wounded in the stomach with a blow from the butt. A monument was erected at the site of the patriot's death. School No. 31 bears his name.
The experience of the Mariupol landing operation was used by the 384th separate marine battalion during the liberation of the city of Nikolaev.
In March 1944, senior lieutenant K.F. Olshansky led the Nikolaev landing force, which landed behind enemy lines. The events there unfolded more tragically than near Mariupol. In Nikolaev, he was destined to die in fierce battles. Posthumously, Konstantin Fedorovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the International Planetary Center in 1974, under No. 2310, in memory of the brave paratrooper K.F. Olshansky, the star “Olshaniya” was registered in the constellation Sagittarius. 71 sailors of the 384th battalion were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, including its commander Fedor Kotanov.
Through the combined actions of ships, landing forces and aviation, the Azov military flotilla of the Black Sea Fleet contributed to the successful advancement of the troops of the Southern Front.
On September 4, 1943, the command of the 44th Army assigned the 221st and 130th Rifle Divisions the combat mission of capturing Mariupol: the 221st from the north, the 130th from the east. The 130th division for the capture of Taganrog (liberated on August 30, 1943) already bore the name Taganrog, and the 221st was to win the title “Mariupol”.
The enemy put up incredibly stubborn resistance on the approaches to Mariupol, since the occupiers did not have time to completely evacuate Mariupol. The enemy had something to base his resistance on: the entire occupation of Mariupol residents and residents of surrounding towns and villages was driven to the construction of the so-called “Kalmius defensive line,” which ran along the right bank of the Kalmius. When constructing this line, we used the natural features of the right bank of the river: its heights, rockiness, steepness, and natural depressions. Reinforced by numerous bunkers, artillery pieces, and machine-gun fire nests, it seemed impregnable.
Retreating, the invaders mined roads, fields, and buildings. Only on the approaches to the village of Chermalyk, sappers of the 221st Infantry Division neutralized more than 30 mines.
On the morning of September 9, 1943, the 221st Infantry Division, with heavy fighting, went west of Pavlopol (671st Regiment) and west of the Vesely farm (695th Regiment) and was preparing to break through the Kalmius defensive line for an offensive in the direction of the Petrovsky state farm, the Zirka state farm. , the villages of Guglino and Bronevoy, Sartana station, the northern outskirts of Mariupol.
The division command was faced with the task of how to make it easier for the troops of the division regiments to break through such a strong fortification, to suppress fire weapons enemy, quickly cross the river? The division commander, Colonel Ivan Ivanovich Blazhevich, makes a decision - to organize an advanced mobile detachment of tanks and vehicles, on which to place the infantry. The detachment was formed literally in a few hours by Chief of Staff F.N. Antroshenkov from the training company of Captain P.G. Minenko and units allocated from the division's regiments. Captain G.M. Mogila, an experienced and determined officer, was appointed commander of this detachment, and the deputy head of the division’s operational department, Captain V.A. Denisenko - commander of a group of tanks and detachment vehicles. On the same day, having broken enemy resistance with a swift strike from the newly created advanced mobile detachment, the 221st Division rushed to Mariupol. The detachment of Captain Mogila did not allow the enemy to gain a foothold on new lines, pursuing the enemy, destroying his manpower and equipment, capturing prisoners and trophies. The correct calculation of the division's actions and the organizational and technical measures taken to resolve Blazhevich's problem yielded successful results - by 13:00 on September 9, the division broke into the northern part of the city, first with an advanced mobile detachment, then with units of senior lieutenants V.I. Sidelnikova, V.Z. Peretrukhina, A.A. Bondar, captain A.E. Kazimirchuk, as well as the 296th separate reconnaissance company of Lieutenant G.K. Melnikov, junior lieutenant A.I. Antropov, senior sergeant A.T. Petrova.
A stunning picture appeared before the soldiers who burst into the city in battle. The streets were deserted. There were piles of stones and ash on the sidewalks. In the huge houses, where there once were windows, there were black holes. But there were only a few of them. Most often, only walls, stone skeletons of buildings, ruins were found - all that was left of the houses.
st. Artyoma.1943. Photo of the “War” theme of this site
Moving through the streets of the villages and among the destroyed buildings of the Ilyich plant, the scouts of the 221st division captured 7 fascists, destroyed 45 with machine gun fire and grenades. On one of the streets, German artillerymen offered resistance.
But, thanks to the courage of Sergeant Major Vasily Shibaev, who alone entered the battle with the artillery crew, and the wounded continued the battle, as well as Sergeant Koval’s machine gunners who came to his aid, the enemy’s crew was exterminated and the gun was captured. In the gardens near the Kalchik River, the Germans tried to create pockets of resistance. Units and mortar crews under the command of Lieutenant Tsybin, Junior Sergeant P.M. Dyrkachev, Sergeants N.E. Kirilchenko and K.S. Korotkov destroyed enemy concentrations with well-aimed fire, suppressed their firing points, paving the way for their infantry. Mortarman of the training company L.F. Soloviev, wounded, continued to fire at the Nazis until a bullet killed him. For the courage shown in this battle, L.F. Soloviev was awarded the order Patriotic War degree posthumously.
Stubborn fighting took place on the western bank of the Kalchik River near the village Old Crimea, where the enemy managed to gain a foothold. But his fate was sealed. With the blow of three regiments: the 695th (northeast of Old Crimea), 671st (east of Old Crimea), 625th (south of Old Crimea and on the northern outskirts of the village of Novoselovka), the enemy was driven out of the fortifications and destroyed.
On this day continued Battle for Moscow. The motorized corps of the 3rd and 4th tank groups, having reached the rear of the Vyazemsk group of Soviet troops, cut off the escape routes for the formations of the 19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd armies. The remaining armies of the Western and Reserve Fronts, flanked by formations of the 4th and 3rd tank groups and pressed from the front by the 4th and 9th field armies, had to retreat with heavy fighting to the Volga, to the area southwest of Kalinin, and to the Mozhaisk defense line.
In the first half of October, extensive maneuver operations unfolded in the Moscow strategic direction. They were the result of a new big offensive launched by the Germans on October 2 at Soviet-German front. The October German offensive pursued decisive political and strategic goals: the defeat of the Red Army, the capture of the main industrial areas, a quick end to the campaign and the war.
The main goal of the action was the defeat of the opposing forces of the Red Army and the capture of Moscow.
The shortest and most convenient routes to Moscow lie in the strip of terrain between the Moscow Sea and the Oka River near Serpukhov. However, on German command, apparently, was influenced by the experience of previous battles with the Red Army. It took into account the presence of fortified lines and areas on the approaches to Moscow from the west, as well as the possibility of flank counterattacks by the Red Army from the north and south against German troops during the battles for Moscow. By directing their attacks on Kalinin and Tula, the Germans wanted to separate Moscow from the north and south and isolate it.
Large groups of German mobile formations, with the assistance of aviation, supported by infantry divisions, deployed offensive actions on both flanks, north and south of Moscow. This led in the north to the Kalinin operation, and in the south to Tula operation. The attack on Tula brought the Germans into an important military-industrial area.
The battles that unfolded in October in the Kalinin and Tula directions were strategically connected with the Moscow operation of the Germans, but operationally they proceeded independently.
The Tula direction, originally part of the Bryansk Front, under further development The situation at the end of October - beginning of November turned out to be more connected with the Moscow direction. Therefore, from November 10 it was included in Western Front with holding southern border this front along the line: Spassk-Ryazansky, Mikhailov, Uzlovaya station, Krapivna, Belev, Dyatkovo (all to the Western Front).
Continued Donbass operation. Major General V. Ya. Kolpakchi was appointed commander of the 18th Army of the Southern Front. German troops occupied Mariupol.
Mariupol, October 8, 1941
There was no one to truly defend Mariupol. Due to the fact that the troops of the enemy 1st tank army General Kleist, having broken through the defenses in the Dnepropetrovsk region, sought to connect with the 11th field army, which was rushing from the Kakhovsky bridgehead, and encircle the 9th and 18th soviet armies, Miner's Division gave the order active actions provide a way out of the encirclement of combat units. Therefore, the division commander gave the command to cover the Mangush-Mariupol direction only to the infantry battalion and the 765th division artillery regiment. A naval regiment, as previously planned, I simply did not have time to arrive at my destination...
Late in the evening at the city party committee, located on the corner of Republic Ave. and st. Artyom, in the building where a house with a spire now stands, the correspondent of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper Sergei Borzenko, who knew the situation on the Southern Front, looked in. He was very surprised that the City Committee members were not even preparing for evacuation and, naturally, asked the question:
- Why aren’t you getting ready to leave? The Germans, perhaps, will be in the city tomorrow...
Nobody believed the correspondent - they even considered him almost a coward. After all, the city committee had information received several days ago that the city would be defended by the newly formed 395th Miner Division and the Marine Regiment. And the city party committee was going to leave when the battles for Mariupol flared up. And with peace of mind, they scheduled a meeting of the economic assets for the morning of October 8th.
The meeting began promptly at eight o'clock. Azovstal residents reported that two trains with equipment were due to depart any minute. A port representative said that three cargo ships carrying equipment and grain left their home port overnight. And the remaining steamships “Volgodon”, “Grozny” and “Trud” will leave as soon as they take the cargo on board...
It was also announced which objects should be blown up before the arrival of the invaders. This task was assigned to the leader of the demolition sappers.
The meeting was in full swing when a policewoman shouted through the open window:
- Disperse quickly!!! The Germans are already on the streets of the city!!!
It turned out that the correspondent was right: there was no one to truly defend Mariupol. Due to the fact that the troops of the enemy 1st Tank Army of General Kleist, having broken through the defenses in the Dnepropetrovsk region, sought to connect with the 11th Field Army, which was rushing from the Kakhovka bridgehead, and encircle the 9th and 18th Soviet armies, the Miner's Division was given the order active actions to ensure a way out of the encirclement of combat units. Therefore, the division commander gave the command to cover the Mangush-Mariupol direction only to the infantry battalion and the division of the 765th artillery regiment. And the naval regiment, as previously planned, simply did not have time to arrive at its destination...
That's why 44th motorized rifle regiment division "Adolf Hitler", commanded by the Fuhrer's favorite Sepp Dietrich, with the support of two tank battalions quickly broke the resistance of the defenders and soon a reconnaissance battalion consisting of motorcyclists and tanks broke into Mariupol.
Of the meeting participants who left through familiar courtyards, streets and alleys, only three people died, wearing military uniform: Mariupol military commissar Golubenko and two employees of the military department of the city committee: Molonov and Makhortov.
Citizens' reaction
The demolition sappers didn’t even manage to blow up the intended objects; they didn’t even have time to place explosives under them. Therefore, the blast furnace workers of both Azovstal and the Ilyich plant stopped the progress of their units so that so-called “goats” were formed in them. And the steelmakers left the metal to solidify in open-hearth furnaces. On their own initiative, Ilyichevsk residents F.A. Popov, V.V. Vasilenko, I.K. Domenovich and F.A. Lozin, as soon as they heard that the Germans were already in the city, they blew up the oil storage facility, which contained 450 thousand tons of oil, and at the same time the pumping station. There P.P. Galani and A.S. Stashevsky released 10,000 tons of fuel oil from a tank on which the plant's combined heat and power plant operated.
And the head doctor of the port hospital, in which 40 wounded soldiers of the Red Army were being treated, as soon as he learned that the Germans were already in the city, ordered to immediately burn their uniforms and documents, and at the same time rewrite the medical records, while indicating that all patients were civilians. And knowing that the Germans are terrified of communicating with typhoid patients, it is especially important to emphasize that all those with shorn hair are sick with typhus. Thus, M.A. Nadzharov saved the lives of all the soldiers in his hospital.
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The Soviet military was the first to decide to use the building on Georgievskaya Street as a hospital. This was in the summer of 1941. After the capture of Mariupol and the beginning of the occupation of Mariupol in 1941-43, the Germans placed their medicine there.
Before the occupation of Mariupol in 1941-43, the building served for education. It was built back in 1899, costing 185 thousand rubles, although they hoped to cost one hundred thousand. They didn’t like to spend a lot of money on education, not then, not now. Initially it contained Aleksandrovskaya men's gymnasium. At that time, only a gymnasium education gave the right to enter the university. The gymnasium was for young Mariupol residents the only direct path to fundamental education. Many of its graduates later entered the scientific and cultural elite of not only the city, but also the country.
Then they replaced each other in it various courses, an agricultural technical school, and the war evicted the pedagogical technical school from the building.
Leaving after the occupation of Mariupol in 1941-43, the Nazis burned down the hospital that had served them, the roof collapsed inside the building. And only in 1952 it was restored exactly according to the original design. In the 60s, two more new buildings were added. Now the old building of the industrial technical school at 69 Georgievskaya Street serves as an existing educational institution in the city : Mariupol College of State Higher Educational Institution "PSU".
The first building of PSTU is a ghetto.
When the Nazis captured our city, they had their hands full during the occupation of Mariupol in 1941-1943. It was necessary to restart factories, obtain metal, suppress the hostility of the population, and organize the export of food from nearby villages for the needs of the army. But all these really pressing problems the occupation of Mariupol could wait - it was necessary to immediately implement the Fuhrer's delusional idea of \u200b\u200bthe destruction of supposedly “inferior” nationalities.
The Jewish population of Mariupol was ordered to report on October 20 at 8 a.m. to the building of the former headquarters of the 238th regiment, in the ghetto. Now this is the first building of the Azov State Technical University.
People frightened by the occupation of Mariupol came the evening before. They were driven into the basement of the ghetto building, where they spent the night. The next day Jewish population Mariupol was shot in an anti-tank ditch outside the city. According to various sources, from 9 to 20 thousand people died.
In memory of them and other victims of the occupation of Mariupol in 1941-43, a Memorial plaque. By the way, this building, the first building of the PSTU, built in 1907, was supposed to serve education from the very beginning. It was feminine diocesan school, that is educational institution for daughters of priests. Rural girls could also study there - a boarding school with 400 places was adjacent to the school.
Fascist radio broadcasting in Mariupol. Radio center on Pushkin Street, 93.
Here, during the occupation of Mariupol in 1941-1943, 42 technical personnel from local residents who received high salaries. They provided the city and factories with gears German, orders from the command and music of German composers, that is, fascist radio broadcasting. For local population During the occupation of Mariupol in 1941-43, Ukrainian and Russian programs were broadcast for a short time, but soon only news and announcements from the city commandant’s office were left in fascist radio broadcasting.
During the occupation of Mariupol in 1941-43, some Mariupol residents cut the wires so as not to listen to fascist radio broadcasts, others, on the contrary, voluntarily connected to the line and did not pay for the use of the radio point. All this added headaches to the Germans and other organizers of fascist radio broadcasting.
Maria Koroleva
Based on materials from books and articles about the occupation of Mariupol in 1941-43 by L. Yarutsky, A. Chudnovsky, A. Protsenko. The material was originally published on Nado.ua on the website http://news.nado.ua
The operation to liberate Donbass had a huge military, political and economic importance. The Germans did everything to turn the territory of Donbass into a well-fortified area. On August 11, 1943, Adolf Hitler issued an order for the construction additional milestone defense, known as Eastern rampart" The defense of the Donbass region was entrusted to the 1st Tank and 6th Field Armies, which were part of Army Group South and consisted of 22 divisions. On August 18, 1943, the troops of the Southern Front under the command of Colonel General F.I. Tolbukhin, after powerful artillery preparation, began offensive operation in the area of the Mius River, and on August 20, the enemy’s defenses on this section of the front were broken through to the full depth. In the coastal direction, interacting with the Azov military flotilla (commander Rear Admiral S.G. Gorshkov), the troops of the 44th Army (commander Major General V.A. Khomenko), its 221st Infantry Division (commander Colonel I. I. Blazhevich) by September 1, 1943, reached the Gruzskaya Elanchik River in the Konkovo-Khomutovo section, where it encountered particularly stubborn resistance. The 130th Taganrog Rifle Division (commanded by Colonel K.V. Sychev) stormed Budennovka (now the city of Novoazovsk) and took positions on the Gruzskaya Elanchik River in the Khomutovo-Azov Sea region. Began heavy fighting outside the city of Mariupol.
On September 1, 1943, the commander of the 44th Army, Major General V. A. Khomenko, gave the order to the 221st and 130th Rifle Divisions to begin the offensive, scheduled for 8:00 on September 2. By the end of September 4, units of the 221st Rifle Division liberated the village of Pavlopol and reached the Kalmius River southeast of the village of Chermalyk, and units of the 130th took a height of 91.4 and secured a foothold at the line of the village of Gordienko - Novaya Tavria - Orekhov - the Sea of Azov. By August 4, formations and units of the 4th Guards Kuban Cavalry Corps (divisions: 9th, commander I.V. Tutarinov, 10th, commander B.S. Millerov, 30th, commander V.S. Golovskoy) occupied positions on the line Waldgeim village - Sakhanka state farm. The liberation battles for the city began on September 5, 1943. The 221st Division was supposed to cross the Kalmius River on the Chermalyk-Pavlopol section, take battles to the heights 97.7 and 99.6 and the village of Stary Krym and bypass the city from the north. 130th - in the direction of Sartana, Guglino and Novoselovka. At the appointed time (11:00 on September 5), the divisions were unable to launch an attack on the city, as they had to fight off 8 large counterattacks of the enemy, who sent infantry, Tiger tanks, Ferdinand assault guns, and cavalry against the Soviet units. Only after repelling the German counterattacks (221st at 16:00, and 130th at 19:00), Soviet units began to cross Kalmius (221st at 18:00).
On September 6, 1943, during the retreat, the occupiers destroyed all industrial equipment, burned houses and villages. On the night of September 9-10, 1943, the 1st and 2nd detachments of the 384th Azov Marine Corps landed in the port Military Flotilla Black Sea Fleet. The fate of the sailors of the reconnaissance platoon of P.R. Kriulin, sent on September 8 to the Melekino-Samarina Balka area to facilitate the landing of the second landing (the ships of the Azov military flotilla returned to the base in Yeisk due to the storm), was tragic, and the Germans were used to eliminate the group of Kriulin soldiers Large forces with mortars and artillery were deployed (only the 4th paratroopers managed to return to their battalion). In cooperation with units of the 130th and 221st Rifle Divisions, as well as with ships of the Azov Military Flotilla, pilots of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division (commander I.M. Dzusov, twice Hero of the Soviet Union fought in the skies above Mariupol) Lieutenant Colonel A.I. Pokryshkin) and the 23rd Assault Aviation Regiment (A.I. Chopov). On September 9, direct battles for the capture of Mariupol began: at 14:00 the 221st Rifle Division went on the offensive (the task was to break through the enemy’s Kalmius defensive line in the direction of the Petrovsky state farm - the Zirka state farm - Sartana station), and at 15:00 it went the 130th Division (from the north and east) also went on the offensive. By 8:00 on September 10, street fighting began (at 7:30 they began crossing Kalmius in the area of the Azovstal plant). By 12:00, the paratroopers, who landed on the night of September 10 in the area of the Biryucha Spit (east of Melekino), managed to break into the port, destroying up to 50 enemy soldiers, and by 18:00 the paratroopers met with the advanced units of the 130th Infantry Division. By 18:00 on September 10, the troops of the 130th Taganrog and 221st divisions of the 44th Army of the Southern Front (from October 20, 1943 - “4th Ukrainian Front"), with support from the air from units of the 4th Air Army and subunits of the Azov Military Flotilla, they drove the Germans out of the city. And at 20:00 Moscow saluted the liberators of Mariupol with 12 artillery salvoes from 124 guns. According to the order Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin, the names of “Mariupol” were assigned to: the 221st Rifle Division and the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, and the 130th Taganrog Division was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
The war led to huge destruction, the Ilyich plant (by 70%), Azovstal, the port (80%), and the transport network were destroyed; during the retreat, the Germans destroyed about 85% of housing by arson (1,593 houses, 68 schools, 17 kindergartens, 101 libraries, the Palace pioneers, theater), the elevator was burned, 2 reservoirs with treatment facilities and pumps. The total damage to the city amounted to 880 million rubles (including 319 to the Ilyich plant, 204 to the Azovstal plant, 155 to housing and communal services, 79 to cultural and social institutions). Thousands of Mariupol residents showed courage and bravery on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. More than 30 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Retreating from the city, the Germans destroyed Mariupol. The factories were piles of mangled metal, the railway and port facilities were blown up, and many residential buildings were burned. In total, over 50 thousand residents were shot and tortured in the city during the occupation. After the Germans left, only 85 thousand people remained in the city.
70 years since the Victory Day! We remember, we mourn, we are grateful...
But in reality, what do we know about that war? Do we really remember our history? How many of us know how many Mariupol residents became Heroes of the Soviet Union? Or about how they surrendered the city to the enemies almost without a fight? How were the unarmed Mariupol residents led out to face tanks in 1943?
The history of World War II known to most is half fact and half mythology. Mariupol residents who taught her only according to school textbooks, it is still believed that in 1941 the city was vigorously defended, and the metallurgical plants did not give the enemy a single smelting of steel.
Unfortunately, these are just myths invented by Soviet propaganda.
Together with historian and journalist Vadim Dzhuvaga, we offer you several materials about how Mariupol actually lived, defended and worked during the Second World War. Famous and unknown facts about the war in the series of materials “Mariupol during the Second World War.”
By the beginning of the war with the Third Reich, Mariupol was large industrial center USSR, actively working for the war, with a population of 241 thousand people. Let me remind you that the production of the famous T-34 medium tank (armored hull) was located at the plant named after. Ilyich. Plant engineers, together with teachers from the Mariupol Metallurgical Institute, headed by Georgy Kapyrin, created a new steel grade M-2 (Mariupol second) for the T-34. And all the “thirty-fours” (and 1,100 of them were produced by the beginning of the war) appeared in Mariupol. Only in August 1941, due to the threat of the capture of Mariupol (the Germans broke through to Zaporozhye), production of the T-34 was established at the Stalingrad Tractor Plant.
In addition to tanks, the Mariupol factories produced armor plates and rails, and as the front approached, the factories also repaired Combat vehicles, was going to weapon and ammunition. In August, the plant named after. Ilyich sent 12 armored trains assembled by factory workers to the front.
In boarding houses, sanatoriums and holiday homes in the coastal area there are field hospitals. In September 1941, a student battalion soldier was treated after being wounded in a hospital on the territory of the Metallurg sanatorium Kharkov University Oles Gonchar, who described military Mariupol in the novel “Lyudina i Zbroya”.
Already on July 1, 1941, martial law was introduced in Mariupol by order of the city’s military commissar Nikolai Golubenko. The working day increased from 8 to 10-12 hours, vacations were canceled, and in accordance with the decree Supreme Council USSR dated June 7, 1940, there were no days off in the USSR at all. Therefore, the thesis repeated in many works that on the day of the Third Reich’s attack on the USSR, June 22, 1941, was a day off (as it fell on a Sunday), is nothing more than a myth of Soviet propaganda.
On August 15, 1941, the first train with equipment from the Azovstal plant left Mariupol. The last 2 trains with evacuated equipment left literally two hours before the Germans burst into the city.
On August 8, 1941, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the deportation of persons of German nationality appeared. The Azov region, where Germans had lived since the 1830s, became one of the centers of deportation. Soviet Germans, or rather, citizens of the USSR of German nationality who lived west of Mariupol (mainly in the modern Rozovsky district of the Zaporozhye region), were brought to Mariupol and from here by railway were deported to Kazakhstan.
Stationed in Mariupol in 1939, the famous 38th Rifle Division in the Red Army (awarded for the battles on Lake Khasan in 1938 with the Order of the Red Banner) under the command of General Bazarov was urgently replenished with Mariupol recruits and in September 1941 was sent to the front to Moscow direction. But she didn’t make it - on the way, the train was completely destroyed by the Germans, and the fighters who managed to survive were included in other units.
On August 30, a curfew was established in Mariupol from 21:00 to 5:00. Walking around the city at night was prohibited. From September 1, the city population was involved in construction defensive structures. Everyone was involved in these works: men from 17 to 45 years old and women from 18 to 40 years old (except for pregnant women 35 days before birth and 28 days after). Exceptions were considered in a separate case, and criminal liability was established for evasion under martial law.
It was the security officers who began the practice of executions in the anti-tank ditch near the village of Agrobaza. On October 4, near the ditch, seriously wounded Red Army soldiers undergoing treatment were shot.
Only the NKVD was preparing for the direct capture of Mariupol. Exactly security officers began the practice of executions in the anti-tank ditch near the village of Agrobaza. On October 4, near the ditch, seriously wounded Red Army soldiers undergoing treatment were shot. The next day it was the students' turn vocational school. The reasoning of the security officers: so that they don’t fall to the enemy! According to some reports, before the Germans arrived, Baptists were also shot near Agrobaza.
The 4th department, organized at the city department of the NKGB, was engaged in organizing the underground, which included party workers and proven workers. But during the printing of the lists, the secretary of the city department of the NKGB placed a third carbon copy and the additional copy thus obtained was taken by her husband after the occupation of the city by the Germans to the military commandant’s office. Military counterintelligence and the Gestapo promptly responded and arrested the entire underground. The underground workers were shot during October-November in the workshops of a repair plant located at the intersection of Republic Avenue (now Lenin) and the Third International (Torgovaya).
On the afternoon of October 7, 1941, a violent fire broke out over Mariupol. air battle, in which the commander of the 87th separate squadron, Captain Georgy Agafonov, in an I-16, shot down two Messerschmidt-110bfs and two Junkers-88s. Agafonov was awarded the Order of Lenin for this battle. By the way, the 87th squadron, consisting of 9 I-16 fighters, was the only unit covering Mariupol from the air.