The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941-1942: The Soviet Perspective

by Clayton Donnell

Overview

This vividly detailed WWII history chronicles one of the hardest-fought battles of the Crimea Campaign.

In December 1941, while America was reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the offensives of the German Army Groups North and Center were stalled in the brutal Russian winter, the German Eleventh Army encircled the vast fortress of Sevastopol in the Crimea. The Red Army faced massive air, artillery and land attacks against their heavily defended positions in one of the most remarkable campaigns in the history of modern warfare: The Siege of Sevastopol.

Drawing on his expert knowledge of the history of modern fortifications, Donnell describes the design and development of the Red Army’s formidable base at Sevastopol. He then chronicles the sequence of attacks mounted by the Wehrmacht against the city’s strongpoints. The forts and bunkers had to be taken one by one in a bitter six-month struggle with sever casualties on both sides. Using documentary records and a range of personal accounts, Clayton Donnell reconstructs the events and experience of the campaign in vivid detail.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473879263
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date:	01/31/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Clayton Donnell is retired from the US Air Force. He has a degree in history and has passionately studied military history and fortress engineering for thirty years. Clayton lived for many years in Europe and studied the architecture and archaeology of the most renowned fortress systems of Belgium, France and Germany. He created the first internet site in the world in English about the Maginot Line, and another on the fortress and Battle of Lige, Belgium.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Author's Notes vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Descent into Crimea - September to October 1941 10

Chapter 2 The Fortress of Sevastopol 23

Chapter 3 The First Assault - October to November 1941 43

Chapter 4 The Second Assault - 17 December 1941 to 1 January 1942 86

Chapter 5 January to June 1942 104

Chapter 6 The Third Assault (1) - The Bombardment of 2 to 6 June 1942 129

Chapter 7 The Third Assault (2) - 7 to 16 June 1942 140

Chapter 8 The Third Assault (3) - 17 to 23 June 1942 - Fall of the North 172

Chapter 9 The Third Assault (4) - 24 June to 16 July 1942 - The End of the Road 198

Chapter 10 Conclusions 230

Notes 236

Bibliography 243

Index 244