the german 11th army's first task was to break through into the crimea. the cities of perekop and ishun guarded the narrow corridor of land which linked the crimea to the bulk of ukraine. erick-oskar hansen's liv corps, with its 45th and 73rd infantry divisions, broke through at perekop at the cost of 2,641 casualties in six days of fighting. the soviet forces launched a counteroffensive against the 11th army's flank at melitopol. manstein withdrew his other corps in order to deal with it. the resulting battle ended with the destruction of two attacking soviet armies. by the time that this threat had been dealt with, the "stavka" had rushed in reinforcements and established another defence line at ishun. ordered to concentrate on the crimea once more, manstein launched his liv corps, this time with the support of the german 22nd infantry division, into the assault. the soviet forces enjoyed local air superiority and armored reserves. they also outnumbered the attacking wehrmacht. in spite of this, the defending soviet 51st army was pushed back. the wehrmacht suffered 5,376 casualties in 12 days of combat, and the red army many more. by the end of october, the 51st army was crushed and in full retreat into the crimea. the situation in the air also changed. arriving "jagdgeschwader" (fighter wings) won air superiority for the axis.