Soviet Amphibious Landing at Southern Ozereyka, 4 Febr. 1943

[Dénes]

There is a highly interesting description of the failed Soviet amphibious landing operation at Southern Ozereyka, on 4 February 1943. In this particular battle Rumanian troops were involved, too, namely the 10th Infantry Division.
http://www.battlefield.ru/library/battles/...s/battle14.html

I would be interested in the Rumanian (and German) side of the story.

[mateias]

Unfortunately, it's not possible to open the page.

There is another thread on same military operation, so I prefer to add only this
(I am interested in anticommunist activities after WW2).

Quite interesting to see that a "small-size" amphibious landing was considered good enough for a popular game.


QUOTE
Black Sea Black Death is a small unit action covering the attempted Soviet naval landing behind the Axis lines just south of Novorossisk. Each unit is a platoon or company and each hex represents 600 meters, as I recall.

The game does include Romanian units (I'll post the exact ones after I look at the game again), which were on coast-watching duties. As such, they bore the brunt of the initial Soviet landings, which were supported by gunfire from 3 Soviet cruisers and 4 destroyers, as well as Soviet shore batteries on the other side of the bay. The Soviet assault was also supported by a few tank companies, which were equiped with U.S.-built M-3 Stewarts, although few of these got to shore. According to the designer's notes in the game, the Romanian pioneer unit put up a particularly strong resistance.



Cpt. Nicolae Dabija (future leader of an anti-communist group fighting in the Apuseni Mts.), commander of 5th Company (38th Infantry Regiment) took the brunt when Russian troops landed in the night of 3/4 Feb. 1943 in Novorossiisk area, sector Ozereica. He resisted there 3 days and 4 nights, against superior enemy forces, being practically encircled. Finally, he destroys the enemy forces who lost there 800 dead, wounded or prisoners, 31 AMERICAN tanks destroyed, 1 fuel barge destroyed, 40 BRITISH landing crafts captured. For his exploits in Southern Caucasus, he was awarded "Michael the Brave" order, Class III. Later, for exploits in Crimeea, Marshall Antonescu took from his own chest the order "Crown of Romania", 1st. class, and personally hooked it on the chest of the recently promoted Major Dabija.


Source: Adrian Brisca, Puica Buhoci - "Resistenta armata din Muntii Apuseni. Gruparea maiorului Nicolae Dabija. 1948-1949" (2007) - page 23

This post has been edited by mateias on February 05, 2008 12:33 pm

[BobM]

From AMVAS site