| Northern Taurida Operation | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theSouthern Front of theRussian Civil War | |||||||
 A British-madeMark IV tank captured from the White Army by the Red Army in the Kakhovka bridgehead, 14 October 1920. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 South Russia |  Russian SFSR Ukrainian SSR Makhnovshchina | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Pyotr WrangelYakov SlashchovAlexander Kutepov | Mikhail FrunzeAugust KorkIeronim Uborevich Nestor MakhnoSemen Karetnyk | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
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| ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy | Heavy | ||||||
TheNorthern Taurida operation (6 June – 3 November 1920) was a military campaign in theRussian Civil War between theRed Army and theWhite Army underPyotr Wrangel for the possession ofNorthern Taurida. The campaign can be divided into three stages: the White offensive (6 June – 3 July), trench warfare around the Kakhovka Bridgehead (20 August – 27 October) and the counterattack of the Red Army (28 October – 3 November).
In the course of the successive phases of theNorth Caucasus Operation in February-March 1920, theRed Army pushed theArmed Forces of South Russia out of theNorthern Caucasus andKuban. At the end of March, 35,000 White soldiersevacuated fromNovorossiysk on British ships toCrimea.[1] On 4 April 1920,Pyotr Wrangel became the new commander of the Armed Forces of South Russia and, on 11 May 1920, he reorganized it into theRussian Army.[2]
Realizing the huge advantage of the Reds in theCivil War, Wrangel decided to take offensive actions, using the Red Army's involvement inPolish-Soviet War[3] and the fact that the Red Army'sSouthern Front had been weakened in connection with it. The fight against Poland was directed by1st Cavalry Army,[4] leaving only the6th and13th Red Armies, along with the2nd Cavalry Army, on the Southern Front.[5] Meanwhile, by June 1920, Wrangel had mobilized about 40,000 soldiers under his command.[6]
Wrangel's plan was to leave Crimea and conquerNorthern Taurida, which would make it easier to feed his army and strengthen its defensive positions.[7] On 6 June 1920, the 2nd Army Corps under the command ofYakov Slashchov landed atKyrylivka on the shore of theSea of Azov, at the rear of the13th Red Army. At the same time, the 1st Army Corps commanded byAlexander Kutepov tied down the main forces of the enemy by crossing theIsthmus of Perekop, while the corps ofPiotr Pisarev [ru], composed mainly ofKuban Cossacks, attacked the reds from the direction ofChonhar. The White forces managed to surprise the Reds and forced the 13th Red Army to retreat.[7] Over the next few days, Pisarev's troops capturedMelitopol,[7] while the 1st Army Corps reachedOleksandrivsk and threatenedKaterynoslav.[8] The Whites captured 8,000 prisoners, 30 artillery cannons and twoarmoured trains.[9] The commander of the Russian Army, however, decided not to continue his march north, knowing that the 13th Army had not yet been defeated and that his own troops were still too weak to continue. Instead, Wrangel hoped to further expand his troops in the captured territory, twice as large as that controlled when they had first evacuated to Crimea.[7]
At the end of June, the command of the 13th Army directed a cavalry corps under the command ofDmitry Zhloba against the 1st Army Corps, tasking it with cutting off the White forces participating in the operation from Crimea. But Zhloba's poor leadership allowed the Whites to achieve a decisive victory; in the area ofTokmak and the German settlements of Lindenau and Heidelberg, Zhloba's forces were completely destroyed.[9] In July 1920, Wrangel decided to only send two small units toPryazovia. The first group of 1,000 people landed east ofMariupol and briefly took the Nikolaevskaya riverside hostel before being defeated by the Reds. The second group of 800 people managed to recruit a further 700 volunteers, and for several weeks conducted guerrilla warfare against the Bolsheviks, ultimately failing.[10]
On 7 August 1920, units of the 13th Army commanded byRoberts Eidemanis crossed theDnieper near the village ofKakhovka, to create a bridgehead on theleft bank of the river, stop the expected further White offensive actions, and then force them to fall back to Crimea.[9]
After the victory of the Polish troops inBattle of Warsaw and the retreat of the Red Army fromPoland, the situation on the Southern Front completely changed to the detriment of the Whites. The break-up of white forces in North Taurida and Crimea[8] became one of the main goals of the Bolshevik government, along with the conclusion of a peace treaty with Poland.[11] On 19 August 1920, the Bolshevik Politburo identified the front of the fight against Wrangel as their main threat.[12] Meanwhile, in the first half of September, Slashchov's 2nd Army Corps managed to move along the northern coast of the Sea of Azov and, on 15 September, it captured Mariupol.[8]
On 27 September,Mikhail Frunze was appointed commander of the Southern Front and he orderedSemyon Budyonny's1st Cavalry Army to join the Front. The arrival of Budyonny on the left bank of the Dnieper was expected in mid-October 1920.[5] The Bolsheviks also managed to form anagreement withNestor Makhno'sRevolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine.[8] In this situation, Wrangel ordered an attempt to liquidate the Kakhovka bridgehead before the 1st Cavalry Army joined the fighting. He decided not to withdraw to Crimea, lest his soldiers panic at the desperation of the situation.[5] On 6 October, a group of troops under the command ofDaniil Dracenko [ru] crossed the Dnieper nearKhortytsia and briefly tookNikopol,[8] but the first effect of surprise was quickly executed. Errors made by Dracenko eventually led to his defeat and forced his retreat to the left bank of the Dnieper on 13 October.[5] The next day, the White's defeat ended the attack on the Kakhovka bridgehead.[13]
The advantage of the Red Southern Front over Wrangel's forces at the end of October 1920 was more than threefold. The Reds counted over 133,000 soldiers (99,000 infantry and 33,000 cavalry), while the Whites numbered 35,000 (over 23,000 infantry and nearly 12,000 cavalry).[14] They also had a decisive advantage in the number of machine guns.[14] On 28 October 1920, units of the6th Red Army under the command ofAugust Kork and the1st Cavalry Army under the command ofSemyon Budyonny attacked the Whites from the Kakhovka bridgehead and broke the White defenses.[15] On 29 October, the51st Rifle Division commanded byVasily Blyukher reached theIsthmus of Perekop, making it impossible for the Whites to retreat to Crimea through there. On 30 October, units of the 1st Cavalry Army captured the rostrum ofSalkove [uk], which meant that it was also impossible for Wrangel's soldiers to cross theChonhar Strait.[16] In the first days of November, the cavalry corps ofIvan Barbovich [ru] conducted a successful counterattack against the 1st Cavalry Army, throwing them out of Salkove andRozhdestvenskoye, thanks to which the Whites managed to depart for Crimea. On 3 November, the Reds seized Salkove and Chonhar again, but were repelled from Crimea itself.[16] In other sections of the front, however, the Reds did not achieve similarly quick successes. The march of the 2nd Cavalry Army under the command ofFilipp Mironov was stopped by the Don Cossack cavalry.[16] Similarly, the 13th Army, coming from the east, encountered more serious resistance from the 1st Kutepov Corps[14] in the Melitopol region.[16] As a result, the Red Army failed to completely break up the White movement or surround it in Northern Taurida.[17]
Due to the fact that severe frosts started in Northern Taurida at the end of October, the Reds could not postpone further actions.[18] On 7 November, theattack on the fortifications of Crimea began.[19]
