Eastern Front · Romania and Germany vs Soviet Union
Siege of Odessa
8 August 1941 – 16 October 1941
The Romanian 4th Army, with German and Italian air support, besieged the Black Sea port of Odessa for ten weeks. Its outnumbered Soviet garrison held the perimeter until Stavka ordered a withdrawal to reinforce Crimea, and the Black Sea Fleet evacuated the defenders and much of the city's population under fire.
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Day by day
— The siege opens
The Romanian Fourth Army, seventeen divisions and brigades, has cut the last road out and reaches the outer defence line about forty kilometres from the city. Odessa is declared under siege on 8 August. Inside are two rifle divisions, a cavalry division and the Black Sea Fleet's marines, some 35,000 men, with the fleet's guns offshore and the whole city digging.
— The outer line broken
The Romanian 1st Armoured Division breaks through the outer line and the defence falls back on the main line, fifteen to twenty kilometres out. The perimeter is divided into a southern, western and eastern sector. Odessa's factories start turning out armoured tractors, mortars and grenades because nothing can reach the city except by sea.
— Grigorievka
Romanian guns east of the city have been shelling the harbour, which is the only way anything comes in or goes out. Before dawn on the 22nd the 3rd Naval Infantry Regiment lands at Grigorievka behind that sector while two divisions attack out of the perimeter; the sector is pushed back some eight kilometres and the batteries are taken. The Luftwaffe fights over the port all day.
— The evacuation
Stavka decided on 30 September that Odessa was worth less than the Crimea and ordered the garrison away. The perimeter is held at full strength until the last night, with fires lit and guns firing to the end; then the whole force, about 86,000 troops and civilians with its guns and vehicles, embarks between dusk and 05:00 on the 16th. It is one of the cleanest evacuations of the war.
— The city taken
Romanian troops walk into an empty city on the morning of the 16th. Seventy-three days of siege have cost the Romanian Fourth Army about 90,000 casualties and held eighteen divisions away from the Crimea and the Donets. On 22 October the occupiers begin the massacre of Odessa's Jews, in which tens of thousands are killed within a week.
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