Sevastopol, sieges of (1854-55, 1941-2). Sevastopol in the Crimea (formerly in Russia and now in the Ukraine) is a perfect natural harbour, and was selected by Suvorov as an ideal base for the Russian fleet. In the Crimean war, the Russian fleet, which was wooden and sail-powered, dared not venture out to fight the steam-powered iron ships of France and Britain, and sheltered under the guns of the naval base. The capture of Sevastopol and neutralization of the Black Sea fleet was therefore the objective of the Crimean war expedition. The fortress was prepared to defend against a seaborne attack, but not against one from the land. On 25 September 1854, 67, 000 British, French, Turkish, and Sardinian troops began besieging the garrison of 7, 000, rising to 43, 000 during the course of the siege. The Russians constructed elaborate defences and the siege lasted so long that the British public became impatient and there was a proposal to put the siege out to contract. On 8 September 1855, after the fall of the Malakoff redoubt, Sevastopol was evacuated by its garrison (see Tolstoy).
By 16 November 1941 the Germans had captured all the Crimea apart from Sevastopol. Eleventh Army and elements of Third Romanian Army ringed the fortress. Sevastopol was surrounded by forts with armoured emplacements buried deep in concrete and rock. With troops who had escaped the Germans and had fallen back on Sevastopol, the garrison numbered 106, 000. The Germans began to bombard the fortress on 17 December. They brought up the fearsome 31½ inch Gustav Gerät, known as ‘Big Dora’, the largest calibre gun ever built until Saddam Hussein's 1 metre supergun in 1990, to help flatten it. The Red Army and navy attempted to relieve the city with a huge amphibious assault, the Kerch-Feodosiya operation, on 25 December. They captured Feodosiya but were then dislodged.
The assault went in on 7 June and the Soviets fought on for 27 days. The Germans used toxic smoke to kill them in their underground installations, one of the few times in WW II when chemical weapons were used. At the very end, some top Soviet officers and officials were taken out by submarine. Sevastopol fell, after 250 days, on 4 July. The Soviets recaptured it on 9 May 1944, after a campaign to recapture the whole of the Crimea lasting a month.
— Christopher Bellamy
