The heroic defense of Odessa (part 1)

"Get up huge country,
Get up on death battle..."

This song became the anthem of the Soviet people: soldiers on the battlefield, the guerrillas behind enemy lines, workers and farmers, vykladyvanija in full on the labor front for a total Victory over the enemy. Many feats were committed by the Soviet patriots in the occupied towns and villages, many of them died in the unequal struggle.

It seemed that the farther away from us that terrible war, the less strongly it will touch us, torment our souls, deepen the wounds and the bitterness of loss.

But no, the memory of the millions of lives being lost by it, both on the battlefields and in the towns and villages occupied by the ruthless enemy, in numerous concentration camps - these factories of death, lives in our hearts.

Our task is to do everything we can to remember this is not only our descendants, but also followers of their kind.

In this article I will tell how to defend themselves against the hated invaders Odessa how to survive under alien subjugation for nearly three years did not break her patriots, who also brought closer the Day of Victory, as they could, often at the cost of his own death. After the war, Odessa was awarded the title of Hero-City. Agree, this title just like that, no way, no one will.

Nachalo voiny

War for Odessa began as millions of Soviet people with the message of the Soviet information Bureau, which on the radio read out speaker Yuri Levitan. It talked about the treacherous attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union, that already there are battles along the Western border of our country, already there are victims among the military and civilians...

On the same day, 22 June 1941 year, the city opened several recruiting station, where they arrived not only those who were called (1903-1918 gg), but also those who had been in the reserve or has not reached military age. Nobody wanted to stay away.

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Three days after the outbreak of war in the city and surrounding areas introduced martial law and curfew, which restricted the movement of citizens from midnight until half past four in the morning. To be in the city at this time could only be those who had a special pass.

Within a month, the city lived almost the same life, until 22 July in the city began to detonate bombs, the first of which was dropped by the Germans in the morning.

The evening began a massive bombardment of coastal and Central part of Odessa marked the beginning of the regular bombings of the city.

Panic gripped the city when dropped incendiary bombs started a fire at the New market, the streets Schepkin and Deribasovskaya street.
The next call is already flying high-explosive bombs, turning in the ruins of buildings and houses of the city residents who died under the rubble of houses. One only this evening was destroyed such buildings as the Palace of sailors, Pushkin house, the fur on Deribasovskaya street, the building of the city telephone stations in the Greek area...

The next day began an organized evacuation of the troupe of the Opera house, the artists who together with their families traveled on foot first, to Nikolaev, and then by rail to Kharkov and Almaty. Train station a few baggage of actors and props were taken in three carts and two trucks.

On the same day early morning from the city to the front of the sea went the first batch of recruits. The ship "Novorossiysk" in which they went to sea, was attacked from the air. German pilots dropped the bomb vehicle, knocked the tops of the masts... Instead of Kherson, where the ship was heading originally, captain, Botto had to moor in Ochakov, where it was found that in the hold of the vessel were bombs, that this flight was named "fire."

Few people know that Odessa is the second after Moscow started collecting cash and valuables to the defense Fund of the country.

Oborona Odessy

Since the last third of July, the war was rapidly approaching the city. Despite the heroic resistance of the Soviet soldiers, the Nazis, they were mostly Romanian troops managed to expand the bridgehead over the Dniester river near dubăsari, through which they broke in the East. Besides, in a southerly direction, moving to Berdichev, Uman, Pervomaisk and Voznesensk, broke 1st Panzer group von Kleist.

To retain and further line of defence on the Dniester was impractical.
Military unit, the 25th Chapayev and the 95th Moldavian infantry divisions, which were kept on these lines the onslaught of the enemy, it was decided to withdraw to Odessa, to organize the defense of the city.

August 5, 1941 when the Supreme Rates, the order came: "Odessa does not surrender and to defend to the last, a case involving the black sea fleet".

At this point, the city was already surrounded by long defensive vosmidesyatitonnye arc, the ends of which rested on the sea. It here contracts all survivors in the battles, units breaking with the battle through the environment. On the defensive line, in addition to the engineering and construction battalions, worked tens of thousands of citizens.

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Don't forget about the great merits in the defense of the city the commander of the cavalry division of General I. E. Petrov, who risked their lives sought in the coastal steppes of our units escaped from the clutches of the enemy. The situation is complicated by the fact that between them there was no communication, that's why he had to embark in such a dangerous investigation.

About events of the distant war events, about people, who organized the defense of the city, wrote in his book "Commander," the writer Vladimir Karpov

The auth or of the article @vpodessa