Since von Koenig's suicidal cavalry charge on October 19th 1921, the Southern front had been rather quiet. The Soviet war machine hadn't stayed idle, though. While half a million men on each side were stuck in the trenches of the Dniepr Line, smaller Soviet armies had cleared the Eastern Ukraine of Anarchists and Greens. Sievers and Zhloba had mercilessly hunted down reactionary forces and won several smaller battles.
On January 4th 1922, Svechnikov defeated the last surviving Anarchists at Alexandrovsk.
In the meantime, Kojnilov had invaded the Krim after conquering Southern White fortifications protecting the Strait of Kertch. On January 15th, he laid siege to Sevastopol, the last city that remained in Southern White hands.
In Berlin, the German generals were increasingly frustrated, every attempt to break the Soviet lines had failed. It was the German admiralty that proposed a new plan to overcome the stalemate. Since the start of the war, the German fleet had been ruling the seas uncontested. The small Soviet navy was hiding in the harbour of Petrograd behind a tight minefield. As a consequence, there hadn't been any naval battles. German dreadnoughts had passed the time with intense shore bombardments in the Gulf of Finland. But the damage had been minor and Soviet coastal batteries had responded in kind.*
But now the hour of the navy had come. Admiral von Hipper boasted that the fleet was able to land 50.000 men anywhere in the White, the Baltic or the Black Sea. Under the cover of heavy shore bombardment, German infantry could then establish a beachhead behind the major frontlines that would open a new front.
Choosing a target wasn't easy. In order to supply the army, the Germans needed to take a harbour as quickly as possible.** However, the harbours in the North had been heavily fortified by the Soviets.*** Kronstadt and Petrograd were protected by a belt of seamines and the same was true for the harbours in the Don delta (Rostov and Azov). This left a small number of locations in the South: Feodosia and Kertch on the Krim, Berdjiansk and Mariupol (held by Green forces) at the Sea of Azov and Novorossiysk on the shores of the Black Sea.
Strangely, the Germans chose Novorossiyk as their objective although it was the only landing point that had a considerable garrison.**** On January 23rd 1922, the core of the German Kriegsmarine arrived outside the Black Sea harbour. It immediately opened a murderous shore bombardment while von Machensen's army entered landing crafts. However, the Soviets had had months to prepare their positions; even the mighty German dreadnoughts weren't able to do much damage.*****
When von Machensen's men reached the beaches in the first morning light of January 24th, they thus faced an almost unharmed foe. They received heavy punishment before they could even fire back.****** Von Böckmann's XV. Reservekorps spearheaded the landing but it didn't conquer more than a few yards of beach before it got pinned down by Russian machine guns. At 8 o'clock, von Böckmann's situation was becoming desperate: one third of his men had been killed and the rest was stuck on the beach with little protection from the Soviet artillery that was mercilessly pounding them.
Von Mackensen was slow to react, it was already 12 o'clock when he ordered the elite Marine Brigade to expand the narrow foothold in a desperate charge. The attack quickly turned into a fiasco. Hardly out of cover, the marines were gunned down by the well entrenched Russians. Within minutes, two thirds of the Marine Brigade were dead. The assault had to be aborted without any gains.
Two hours later, von Mackensen sacrificed another elite formation in a futile attempt to get his men off the beach. Without their trucks, the 3. Motorisierte-Brigade was relegated to ordinary infantry. Out of their element, the men had to be forced out of cover. They fared hardly better than the marines before them. Half the brigade died without gaining much ground.
In the afternoon, the Germans had finally landed the first tank unit. The 37. Panzer-Batallion was immediately thrown into combat. The German tanks were a nasty surprise for the 14.000 Soviets defending Novorossiyk. Comrade Smirnov personnally led a counter-charge to stop the enemy. The attack succeeded but Smirnov was killed by a German rifle bullet.
When the sun finally fell upon the bloody scene, the German position remained precarious. Of von Mackensen's 45.000 men only 31.000 remained. The survivors were stuck on a dangerously small stripe of beach with little cover.******* Although Smirnov's death was a hard blow, his staunch defense had saved the day. He was immediately replaced by Comrade Sablin, a men who had gained some combat experience in the battles along the Dniepr front.
Now it was time to strike back; the Soviets had enough troops in the South to throw the Germans back into the sea. Kalnin's corps received orders to leave Ekaterinodar immediately to reinforce Novorossiyk. He left 6.000 men behind to guard the strategic city against Green rebels and took 14.000 with him. But more importantly, Voroshilov who had been held in reserve at Grozny with almost 50.000 in case the Caucasian nations should decide to enter the war, loaded 39.000 men on trains and rushed west. Soon the stranded Germans would have to face a superior foe.
Germany had created its very own Gallipoli and the Soviets weren't prepared to let their prey board ships and sail away in peace ...
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* Not a strategy I would recommend, Highlandcharge's navy suffered more hits than my fortress garrisions. But more importantly, he unlocked a lot of units for me. In particular, the Kronstadt garrison whose elite sailors came in very handy. Very soon he abandonned these attempts and kept his navy away from Soviet shores.
** In AGE games, only harbours can receive supplies via the sea. But landing next to a harbour and taking it the next turn without the amphibious landing penalty might have been the better strategy.
*** There are options to fortify Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. I had put the fort garrisons outside the forts so that they would oppose a landing and further strengthened them with additonal units so that each city was defended by a stack worth ~500 pw.
**** I believe Highlandcharge knew that there was a Red corps (1 infantry division, 3 armoured trains) defending Novorossiyk it hadn't moved since the start of the war and German ships had been prowling around the Black Sea for some time - but perhaps he overlooked it. Most certainly he underestimated its strength.
***** Shore bombardment is ridiculously ineffective in RUS. From what I could see Hipper had 2 carriers, 24 battleships (6 units with 4 elements each), 8 battlecruisers, 30 light cruisers and 40 destroyers. This stack must have had between 3.000 and 5.000 pw; yet it took more hits than it dealt: 57 hits suffered against 20 hits inflicted upon Smirnov's men.
****** Soviet units opened fire at range 7, Germans at range 4.
******* The battle lasted a full 6 rounds, Smirnov was apparently killed in the very last. To my great joy, Red military control over Novorossiyk remained at 100 %. This meant that the next turn the Germans would either have to attack again or try to retreat to their ships.