Not Another WWII FPS: 10 Neglected Eastern Front Battles To Consider
8. Siege Of Sevastopol
One of the key objectives of Barbarossa was the securing of the voluminous industry and agriculture of Ukraine to fuel the German war effort. Indeed, Hitlers insistence that it be secured before all else led to the failure at Moscow. In late September, the Wehrmacht surged into the island of Crimea, and for the most part overran the region and its inhabited areas. All but one. Compared to its far more infamously brutal northern counterpart at Leningrad, the siege at Sevastopol was not a matter of deliberate policy but rather a prolonged military operation initially hampered by the weather: a major naval and air base for the Soviet forces, it was a launch pad to strike the Reichs treasured Romanian oil fields and was able to receive seaborne aid from the Caucasus across the Black Sea it was a thorn in the side of Hitlers horde that had to be taken by necessity. It is notable for the main assaults in late December 1941 and especially the main attack throughout June 1942 which saw vicious fighting and the ultimate fall of the city. Its most impressive for the involvement of some of the largest guns in the history, among them the Schwerer Gustav and the Karl-Gerät. The massive artillery was a sight to behold and wreaked calamitous destruction. The battle presents an interesting potential locale throughout June, as it can be divided into distinct land, air and sea clashes, all of them critical for the opposing forces. On land, the Soviets dug in around a series of intricate defensive lines and bunkers, which the Germans impaled themselves against with awful aplomb; in the air, the Luftwaffe ran hundreds and sometimes thousands of sorties per day in their mission to batter the city into surrender whilst the Soviets launched missions to protect arriving and departing ships. At sea, the Soviets fought the Italian navy, who amazingly had had their vessels disassembled and transported overland to reach the Black Sea coast and assist their Axis allies. Like Brest, though it would ultimately be a lost cause, it would provide for some intense and frantic action as the player fends off the increasingly superior German force encroaching upon the city by land, air and sea. And like Brest, it tells a keen lesson: you cannot always win, but inflicting an expensive victory has a satisfaction all its own.