On March 10th, the infantry of the German 52nd and 54th Korps began to take up positions around the arc of defense north of Krasnodar, harassed all the while by Soviet artillery that had been placed safely south of the city. It would not impede them. This was just another Russian city, one of a hundred that had already been smashed and reduced to rubble, and there were the men who had fought at Volgograd, now experts in the deadly art of street fighting.
Far to the west, cruising in the wine dark sea, Admiral Raeder was leading his heavy Flotilla towards the Kerch Straits, while soldiers of two German infantry division boarded transports at both Maripol and Kerch. Soon the big German battleships began to fire their heavy 15-inch shells at the port town of Taman, just opposite Kerch on those straits. Even as they did so, the last surface units of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet were getting up steam and planning to make their final sortie of the war. The battle was about to begin its final cathartic stage.
On the 11th of March the 336th Infantry Division made a surprise landing on the north shore of the Taman Peninsula, about 10 kilometers west of the mouth of the Kuban River. It was accompanied by a small battalion scale airborne drop staged by KG Kolnbrau south of the bridge over the river. At the same time, while Friedrich De Gross pounded the most likely landing site at Taman, the 198th Infantry Division boarded ships and Siebel Ferries at Kerch, but moved north into the Sea of Azov instead of attempting a direct landing over the Kerch Strait.
The Russians had two very good NKVD divisions in that area, the 19th and 21st, and they converged on the landing site, launching an immediate counterattack against the 336th. It caught the Germans still trying to reform after the landing, driving the outlying battalions back towards the shore. The other division was chasing those German paratroopers, scattering them into the countryside, their submachineguns cutting the stillness in the fields and farms where the landing had occurred.
Relief came when planes off the two German carriers began swarming overhead, the Stukas beginning to bomb the lines of 19th NKVD to give the German troops some much needed close air support. With the 198th Division landing further east, the two German divisions were able to organize a coordinated counterattack by mid-day. Then word came to Raeder of the approach of a flotilla of Russian surface ships out of Novorossiysk. His operation had finally flushed out his real quarry, the Black Sea Fleet.
The Soviet flotilla was composed of heavy cruisers Molotov and Voroshilov, both fast Kirov Class cruisers at 36 knots, and with three triple 7.1 inch turrets. They were accompanied by two older light cruisers, the Krasny Krym (Red Crimea) and Krasny Kavkaz (Red Caucasus), slower at 29 knots and with fifteen 5.1-inch guns. Destroyer leader Kharkov, a speedy 40 knot ship with five 5.1-inch guns and eight 533mm torpedoes was in the van leading destroyers Bodry (Brisk), Boiky (Bold), and Soobrazitel’ny (Shrewd) This fleet had no chance against Raeder’s force, but it had bravely sortied to try an interdict the Kerch Strait, unaware that the Germans had chosen not to attempt a landing there.
The flotilla was spotted by German Zeppelins just after it worked up steam, and though two glide bomb attacks were made, the ships were simply too fast and maneuverable and both were clean misses. But Raeder had been forewarned, and now Hans Rudel and his cohorts off the carriers went out hunting again. The German ace, who achieved his fame in the real war with his incredible precision bombing of Russian tanks, found even these speedy ships easy prey. Rudel dove on the Molotov, the Jericho trumpets, his ‘sirens of death,’ wailing in his wake. He again scored an immediate hit to open hostilities. His 250kg Bomb penetrated the aft deck of the cruiser, destroying part of the steam plant and damaging the propulsion shaft. Molotov broke off to port, making a wide circle and wallowing at only 12 knots, which made her an easy target for the rest of the German squadron. She would take one more hit, and be raked by shrapnel from a near miss.
Out to challenge the enemy fleet, the three fast French destroyers, now renamed Hildr, Sigrun, and Mist, were every bit as fleet footed as the Soviet DDs. They were the forward screen for Raeder, accompanied by three more German built destroyers, all SPK Beowulf class ships, Odin, Agir and Thor. But by the time they approached the enemy flotilla, they saw three long columns of black smoke marking hits scored by Stukas off the Prinz Heinrich. Krasny Krym and Krasny Kavkaz were also hit and burning when the two groups of destroyers met in a swirling naval duel that lasted twenty minutes. Both sides surged in, guns firing, and fans of torpedoes scored the sea in all directions.
DD Hildr ran afoul of four of those lances, evading all but the last as it sped off on a high speed turn. That hit would be enough to gut that ship, and the Russian sailors cheered to have their first kill in the battle. All the while, the 5.1-inch guns cracked away, with hits on both sides adding fire and smoke to the chaos of that battle. Of the Soviet cruisers, only Voroshilov managed to break away from that action, intent on reaching the Kerch Strait. But fifteen minutes later, the dark silhouettes of the three German capital ships loomed ominously on the horizon, and five minutes later those steely shadows erupted with the bright flame of heavy naval gunfire.
The sea began to erupt all around the brave cruiser, her Captain finally realizing that his mission was doomed to fail. Thinking to try and save his ship and crew, he ordered a quick turn to run for the coast, but the Bismarck would lay down a perfect pattern from the two forward turrets, and one of those 15-inch shells would strike the Russian cruiser dead amidships.
A terrific explosion resulted, as the shell had penetrated to magazine #3. The Captain had hoped to run down the coast, but now, his ship burning, and shipping water from several breaches below the waterline, he aimed his bow right for the shore. Ten minutes later the ship scudded onto the rocky coast, wallowed to one side, and men began leaping from the gunwales. It would later be found by German Stukas and hit two more times, but Bismarck and Kapitan Lindemann would claim that kill.
Closer in towards the big German ships, the six Italian vessels had been held in reserve. When one spotted a torpedo wake, the fast light cruisers, Regolo, Mario and Silla began a frenetic hunt for enemy submarines. Destroyers Maestrale, Alpino and Ascari were rushing about, dropping anti-submarine mines, but the ships ended up mostly churning up seawater. Nothing more was seen of enemy subs, for of the 41 that were still in the Soviet order of battle, only twenty were serviceable, and fueled for possible action. Twelve others had been caught in the harbor at Novorossiysk days ago, and hit by German bombs. So most of the serviceable boats had been moved south to Tuapse.
They had been prowling off the Georgian coast, some scoring hits on supply ships moving ammunition and food stores from Orenburg controlled ports of Batumi and Sukhumi on up to Soche near the front lines just beyond Tuapse. Of these twenty boats, three were prowling south of the Kerch Strait, and it was one of these that took a pot shot at the Kaiser Wilhelm, which easily avoided that torpedo. Four others were screening Novorossiysk, six were at Tuapse, and four more were off the Georgian coast.