I was doing holiday in the area and decided to take a look at the area of Sapun...
The Sapun heights are hills behind Sevastopol and was always a strategical point in the defense of Sevastopol, blocking the ways to it from the south. The situation in Crimea was almost quiet for more then one year (after the heavy fights for the same area ending with the siege of Sevastopol), but this "paradise" in the hell of the eastern front changed suddenly, after the 4. Ukrainian Front Army started a large scale offensive against Crimea in April 1944. The 17. German Army was in defending Crimea in that time, composed by weak infantry divisions and some Romanian divisions. The divisions was basically very weakly motorized and with a handful tanks. The 17 army was composed by around 20.000 men and was heading a soviet army of 29 (!!!) divisions with around 200 tanks. It is easy to understand that the only way for the Germans was the retreat to decent positions in order to create a kind of decise defense. And here started the fights for Sapun. For days the 73. Infantry division was able to stop the soviet advance fighting in close combat against soviets tanks helped by some PAK guns. On May 5th started a barrage fire from around 400 sovies guns on the positions. The artillery hammered the hills fr 2 days until the 2. soviet Garde Army started its storm...on the 8th of May and after strong close combats was the soviets finally able to gain the hills and have "free" view on Savastopol...that few days later fell. Enjoy the photos....
The Sapun heights are hills behind Sevastopol and was always a strategical point in the defense of Sevastopol, blocking the ways to it from the south. The situation in Crimea was almost quiet for more then one year (after the heavy fights for the same area ending with the siege of Sevastopol), but this "paradise" in the hell of the eastern front changed suddenly, after the 4. Ukrainian Front Army started a large scale offensive against Crimea in April 1944. The 17. German Army was in defending Crimea in that time, composed by weak infantry divisions and some Romanian divisions. The divisions was basically very weakly motorized and with a handful tanks. The 17 army was composed by around 20.000 men and was heading a soviet army of 29 (!!!) divisions with around 200 tanks. It is easy to understand that the only way for the Germans was the retreat to decent positions in order to create a kind of decise defense. And here started the fights for Sapun. For days the 73. Infantry division was able to stop the soviet advance fighting in close combat against soviets tanks helped by some PAK guns. On May 5th started a barrage fire from around 400 sovies guns on the positions. The artillery hammered the hills fr 2 days until the 2. soviet Garde Army started its storm...on the 8th of May and after strong close combats was the soviets finally able to gain the hills and have "free" view on Savastopol...that few days later fell. Enjoy the photos....
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