Gen. Manoliu, commander of the 4th Mountain Division, annoyed by the fact his division was to be denied the honour of entering Sevastopol alongside German troops (despite suffering some 2,600 casualties) protested vehemently and received the order to return from Balaklava to take part in the final assault. Although the order was received at 11:15 at night on June 30th, he managed to have his troops in position by the following morning. The general further shocked German commanders when he ignored the order to attack at noon (a full four hours after the German attack) and ordered his troops forward at dawn. By 10:30 in the morning on September 1st, the Romanian flag was flying atop the monument commemorating the Crimean War in the city centre. Sporadic fighting would continue until three days later but the battle was over. After 25 days of fighting, Romanian and German troops had combined their efforts to capture possibly the strongest terrestrial and naval fortress in the world.

romanian troops near sevastopol

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sevastopol destroyed

Sevastopol was almost completely destroyed. It is estimated that 1.5 tons of metal from shells and bombs was dropped on every square metre of the main defence areas. Despite underground resistance (able to move undetected using kilometres of tunnels built by sappers during the Crimean war some 90 years before) the German occupation lasted until the port was liberated by Soviet troops in 1944. After the liberation monuments were constructed at the two main points of defence: Malakov Hill and Sapoun-gora and thousands of medals were awarded to defenders of the city.

Soviet losses have been estimated at 50-60,000 dead or wounded. Approximately 100,000 prisoners were taken along with the capture of 467 guns, 26 tanks, 824 machine guns, 758 mortars, 86 AT guns, and 69 AA guns. The 11th Army lost 35,559 men, of which 8,454 were Rumanian (1,597 dead, 6,571 wounded and 277 missing). German losses seem slight when compared to the violence of the fighting and the ferocious enemy resistance (27,105 dead, wounded or missing)

Written by: Paul MacGillivray, Eichenbaum.org

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