World War: A Breach in Crimea

In the south the Germans threw their greatest effort against a little swampy neck of land only four miles wide. They were determined to crack the Perekop Isthmus and overrun the Crimean Peninsula, no matter what the cost.

They did it, but the cost was high.

The Russians had choked the narrow isthmus with spots of defense as tightly as the Thousand Islands choke the St. Lawrence River. There was not much room for the channels of attack to flow through; crossfire covered every channel.

But the attackers carried on a systematic nine-day aerial and artillery bombardment so concentrated that no defense in the world could remain intact. It was designed to blast a corridor just a few hundred yards wide. When the corridor was opened, troops poured through, and the battle changed, the Germans said, from assault to pursuit. The Germans drove south and east.

Eastward their objective was Kerch, at the extremity of the peninsula—a likely spot from which to bomb, and perhaps from which to invade, the Caucasus.

Southward they drove on Simferopol, the Crimea’s capital, only 40 miles from the great port and naval base of Sevastopol. This week the German High Command announced the capture of the capital, and said that the Russians were retreating to both Kerch and Sevastopol, which they would presumably try to evacuate by sea.

The Crimea was cracked, but it had proved no Crete. Crete fell in twelve days. After more than a month, the Crimea was almost, but not quite, tuckered.