""The Little Land"" Topic

"Despite desperate German efforts to liquidate the beachhead, Soviet forces continued to gain momentum. A total of four infantry brigades from the 16th Infantry Corps of the 18th Army and five partisan detachments were now operating south of Novorossiysk. By February 15, Soviet forces on the beachhead numbered over 17,000 men, 95 artillery and mortar pieces, and 850 machine guns. The strip of land captured by Kunikov's men became known as "the little land."

Heavy fighting continued. The area occupied by the Soviet forces was fully visible to the Germans deployed on the heights above the bay, so resupply and reinforcement could be carried out only at night. German air strikes and artillery fire were almost constant. Soviet reinforcements heading for the shore were attacked by German aircraft and long-range artillery while still on the water. Their naval vessels had to run the gauntlet of not only artillery and aircraft fire, but also mines dropped from German aircraft…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Rapid Fire Third Supplement has a nice little game on the unsuccessful landings at Yuzhnaye Ozerieka on 4 February. Chance to game both a Russian amphibious operation and also get your Romanians into the fray. Of interest while this landing ultimately failed it was the diversionary landing at Stanichka, a suburb of Novorossisk, which resulted in the foothold of the article.

Brezhnev, one of our general secretaries of the communist party, was a political officer during "Malaya Zemlya" (small land) operation. Due to this fact, in Brezhnev times the importance of this operation inflated almost to the size of Kursk or Stalingrad ;)
Brezhnev wrote a book of his memoirs of operation (of course the author was someone else) and another result of Malaya Zemplya madness was the fact, that Zhukov could not publish his own memoirs until he mentioned Brezhev. Marshal was furious and in the end he included the phrase that during one of his strategic planning he…."wanted to consult political officer Brezhnev, who, unfortunately, was unaccesible being on Malaya Zemlya". Censors and Brezhnev failed to see all the venom and sarcasm,and Zhukov's book got its first print ;)

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand