The Defence of Sevastopol, 1941–1942: The Soviet Perspective

by Clayton Donnell

This vividly detailed WWII history chronicles one of the hardest-fought battles of the Crimea Campaign. In December 1941, while America was reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the offensives of the German Army Groups North and Center were stalled in the brutal Russian winter, the German Eleventh Army encircled the vast fortress of Sevastopol in the Crimea. The Red Army faced massive air, artillery and land attacks against their heavily defended positions in one of the most remarkable campaigns in the history of modern The Siege of Sevastopol. Drawing on his expert knowledge of the history of modern fortifications, Donnell describes the design and development of the Red Army’s formidable base at Sevastopol. He then chronicles the sequence of attacks mounted by the Wehrmacht against the city’s strongpoints. The forts and bunkers had to be taken one by one in a bitter six-month struggle with sever casualties on both sides. Using documentary records and a range of personal accounts, Clayton Donnell reconstructs the events and experience of the campaign in vivid detail.

394 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 31, 2020

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very detailed book, but the writing leaves something to be desired. It’s very dry. I also could’ve used some more detailed maps. There’s a chapter that describes the topography of the land around Sevastopol, which was incredibly frustrating to read without a general map of the area. Still, if fortifications are your thing, this book is incredibly useful.