Odessa-Nikolaev operation

In mid-November 1918, the Allied Allied fleet from the naval forces of England, France, Italy, Greece entered the Black Sea . During November-December 1918, the landing units of the interventionists captured Novorossiysk , Sevastopol , Odessa , Feodosia , Yevpatoriya , Yalta , Kerch . At the end of January 1919, the Entente forces, with the consent of the Directory of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, expanded the occupation zone and, in particular, took control of Kherson and Nikolaev . Concession to the interventionists from the Directory put the chief of the Kherson division of the UPR ataman N. A. Grigoriev , who considered himself the sole owner of the Nikolaev - Kherson region, in a difficult position and led to his transfer to the side of the Red Army ^[1] . The personnel of the Kherson division was reorganized according to the Red Army to the 1st brigade of the 1st Zadniprovsky Ukrainian Soviet division of the Ukrainian Front . The brigade was tasked with holding the front north of the line Voznesensk - Alyoshki - Nikopol - Apostolovo - Krivoy Rog , restraining the advance of the Entente forces and preventing their association with the Russian White Guards advancing from Northern Tavria ^[1] .

By mid-February, the Entente command had in the south of the former Russian Empire two French and 1.5 Greek divisions, as well as English, Romanian, Serbian and Polish units (up to 60 thousand people), which occupied the Crimea, and occupied Bessarabia in Ukraine territory bounded from the north by the Bender – Tiraspol – Birzula – Kolosovka – Nikolaev – Kherson line .

By February 1919, in the Odessa region, a total of up to 45 thousand troops of the Entente countries and white troops were concentrated (including up to 25 thousand French troops, which were armed with 22 tanks, 12 thousand Greeks, 2 thousand Polish volunteers - legionnaires). Parts of the 40th Romanian corps with a force of up to 1 thousand bayonets occupied the front from the Dniester to the Separate. Entente troops in the Odessa region were armed with 80 guns. The separate Odessa rifle brigade of General N. Timanovsky numbered another 3,300 bayonets and 1,600 sabers. The brigade was formed of officers and soldiers who crossed from the hetman army to the side of the White movement ^[1] .

On March 1, 1919, Soviet troops of the Ukrainian Front launched an offensive on Kherson, which was taken on March 10 as a result of stubborn battles.

On March 2, Grigoriev’s troops appeared in the vicinity of Kherson and on March 9, after stubborn street battles, took control of the city, inflicting heavy damage on the defending Greek troops. On March 14, French troops hastened to clear Nikolaev; the Greek troops remaining to defend Nikolaev were almost completely destroyed by Grigoriev.

On March 17, the commander of the Ukrainian Front, Antonov-Ovseenko , decided on a general offensive: the main forces of the Kiev group were sent to Zhmerynka - Proskurov , where the Directory forces continued to hold, and the Kharkov group of forces attacked Odessa mainly. On March 27, the Kiev group inflicted a decisive defeat on the Directory forces. The successes of the Soviet troops, as well as the massive "Bolshevization" of the French troops and navy forced the Greek-French troops to leave Odessa . On April 6, Odessa was occupied by red troops.

As a result of the occupation of the Odessa and Nikolaev region, the troops of the Ukrainian front got access to the Black Sea and entered into direct contact with the Romanian troops on the Dniester River .

• Ukrainian campaign of the Greek army

• N. E. Kakurin, I. I. Vatsetis “Civil war. 1918-1921 ”- SPb: LLC Polygon Publishing House, 2002. ISBN 5-89173-150-9