Crimean offensive

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Crimean offensive
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Soviet soldiers crossing Sivash Bay into Crimea in late 1943
Date 8 April – 12 May 1944 Location Crimean ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union De facto (until October 1943): Teilbezirk Taurien, Reichskommissariat Ukraine Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union	Germany  Romania
Commanders and leaders
Fyodor Tolbukhin Filipp Oktyabrskiy	Erwin Jaenecke Horia Macellariu
Units involved
4th Ukrainian Front 2nd Guards Army 51st Army Separate Coastal Army 4th Air Army Black Sea Fleet Partisans	Army Group South Ukraine 17th Army Mountain Corps
Strength
462,400 men[1][2] 560 tanks and assault guns 6,000 guns 1,200 aircraft	230,000–255,970 men[3][2] 165,000 65,000 1,815 guns
Casualties and losses
84,839 17,754 killed or missing 67,065 wounded or sick 171 tanks 521 guns 179 aircraft[1][2] Losses at sea: 1 submarine 1 motor torpedo boat 12+ aircraft	96,700[4] 31,700 killed or missing 33,400 wounded 25,800 killed or missing 5,800 wounded[citation needed] Losses at sea: 4 submarine hunters 5 cargo ships 1 tanker 3 tugs 3 lighters 3 motorboats 3 cargo ships

The Crimean offensive (8 April – 12 May 1944), known in German sources as the Battle of the Crimea, was a series of offensives by the Red Army directed at the German-held Crimea. The Red Army's 4th Ukrainian Front engaged the German 17th Army of Army Group South Ukraine, which consisted of Wehrmacht and Romanian formations.^[5] The battles ended with the evacuation of the Crimea by the Germans. German and Romanian forces suffered considerable losses during the evacuation.^[6][7]