Novorossiisk Defensive Operation of 1942

combat actions of forces of the Northern Caucasus Front and the Black Sea Fleet between August 19 and September 26 to defend the city and naval base of Novorossiisk against fascist German and Rumanian troops during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45.

By mid-August 1942 in the Northern Caucasus there was a danger that fascist German forces would break through the Taman’ Peninsula toward Novorossiisk and Tuapse. The Novorossiisk Defensive Region (commanded by Major General G. P. Kotov and by Major General A. A. Grechko after September 8) was formed on August 17 to defend Novorossiisk and the Taman’ Peninsula. It consisted of the Forty-seventh Army; the Azov Naval Flotilla; the Temriuk, Kerch’, and Novorossiisk naval bases; and a combined aviation group, which included units of the 237th Aviation Division and units of the air forces of the Black Sea Fleet. With an attack force consisting of the German Seventeenth Army concentrated along the Novorossiisk axis and with superiority in forces and weapons, the enemy went on the offensive on August 19, delivering the main strike along the Abinskaia-Krymskaia axis and secondary strikes against Temriuk and the Taman’ Peninsula, where small garrisons of Soviet forces stood on the defensive. The Soviet forces stopped the enemy offensive in bitter fighting on August 25 and thwarted the enemy plan to take Novorossiisk on the run.

Shifting reinforcements from the Tuapse axis, the enemy renewed the offensive on August 29 and with great losses reached the Black Sea in the Anapa region, cutting off the marine units defending the Taman’ Peninsula from the main forces. On September 7 the enemy broke through toward Novorossiisk, and fighting began in the city. On September 11, in bitter fighting, the Soviet forces stopped the enemy in the southeastern part of the city. Fighting continued until September 26. The enemy was unable to break through to the coastal highway to Tuapse and went over to the defensive. The plan for a fascist German offensive against the Caucasus along the Black Sea had failed.