On September 9 Hitler went to Zaporozh’ye on the Dniepr bend to take stock of the situation with Field-Marshal von Man-stein. After eight days of wearying argument, first one way then the other, permission was given for the army group to be withdrawn behind the deep valley of the Dniepr which, with its right bank overlooking the left, lends itself easily to defence. This meant evacuating the bridgehead in the Kuban’ where Field-Marshal von Kleist’s Army Group "A” and the 17th Army were being hard pressed by an enemy superior in numbers and materiel. On September 10 in particular, a combined amphibious operation by Vice-Admiral L. A. Vladimirsky, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, and Lieutenant-General K. N. Leselidze, commander of the 18th Army, put the Russian troops ashore in the port of Novorossiysk. Amongst the heroes of the day was the army’s Chief Political Administrator, Leonide E. Brezhnev, later General Secretary of the Communist Party of the U. S.S. R.
The evacuation of the Taman’ peninsula
V German machine gunner at his post, commanding the hanks of the Dniepr.
> > A Russian soldiers come ashore at Novorossiysk during the operation that cleared the eastern Black Sea coast.
> > > Light flak emplacement at Kerch’, held by German and Rumanian forces.
> > V Russian soldiers and marines in the ruins of Novorossiysk.
Was begun in the night of September 15-16 and completed on October 9. The operation was commanded by Vice-Admiral Scheur-len, to the entire satisfaction of his chief, Donitz, who goes on in his memoirs to give the figures: 202,477 fighting troops, 54,664 horses, 1,200 guns, and 15,000 vehicles ferried across the Kerch’ Strait by the German Navy. In a statement which challenges the figures given by General of Mountain Troops R. Konrad, formerly commander of XLIX Mountain Corps, the Great Patriotic War claims that the retreat of the 17th Army cost the Germans thousands of men as a result of attacks both by the Red Army land forces and the Soviet Air Force, which sank 70 barges in the Straits. Of these two oppos-
Ing versions, that of Donitz and Konrad is more likely to be true since the Russian version fails to mention any of the equipment captured between September 16 and October 9. Now back in the Ukraine, Field-Marshal von Kleist and H. Q. Army Group "A” received into their command the 6th Army, by which Manstein’s burden had been lightened.
To get his troops across the Dniepr, Manstein had six crossing points between Zaporozh’ye downstream and Kiev upstream. The withdrawal was completed in ten days under cover of rearguards whose job it was to create scorched earth areas 15 miles deep on the left bank of the great river. Army Group "South”, behind this obstacle, had been brought up to a strength of 54 divisions (17 Panzer and Panzergrenadier) but most of them were worn out. On its right was the 6th Army holding the front Zaporozh’ye-Sea of Azov through Melitopol’. On its left was the 2nd Army (General Weiss),back again under the orders of Kluge. Its right flank came down to the confluence of the Dniepr and the Pripyat’.
In his memoirs Manstein defends the systematic destruction of the land behind him, saying: "We had recourse to the 'scorched earth’ policy used by the Russians during their retreat in the previous year. Anything which could be of use to the enemy in an area 12 to 18 miles deep in front of the Dniepr was systematically destroyed or carried away. It was, of course, never a question of plunder. The whole operation was strictly controlled to prevent abuse. Furthermore we only took away goods and chattels belonging to the State, never those privately owned.
"As the Russians, in any land they reoccupied, immediately conscripted any men under 60 capable of carrying arms and forced the remainder of the population to do military work, the German High Command ordered the local inhabitants to be transported over to the other bank of the Dniepr. This in fact was restricted to men who would at once have become soldiers. Yet a great part of the population joined in our retreat voluntarily to escape the Soviet authorities, whom they feared.”
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