Kerch naval base is a port on the northern side of Arsincevo, a small town on the southern outskirts of Kerch. Its position beside the town’s tank farm and refinery infrastructure gives the location a significance beyond its harbor: in a Black Sea campaign shaped by contested access and diminishing supplies, nearby facilities could matter as much as control of the waterfront.

Setting and Strategic Position

Arsincevo is described as a village at the edge of Kerch’s sprawl. The naval port lies directly to its north, almost adjacent to the tank farm; a major airfield is also visible from the area. The close arrangement of port, fuel storage, refinery, and airfield makes the base part of a tightly concentrated military and industrial landscape rather than an isolated harbor.

The surrounding fuel infrastructure had an immediate logistical relevance. At Arsincevo, aviation gasoline was judged to meet the demanding standards of a carrier, and nearly three million gallons—about nine thousand tons—were to be pumped aboard. The account presents this as a major transfer requiring flight-deck operations to stop, underscoring the scale and hazards of replenishing aircraft supplies in the area. It does not identify the naval base itself as the source of that fuel.

The Marines Reach the Base

During the advance on Kerch, scouts reported rebel forces holding a low ridge near the Arsincevo refinery and storage facility, while American fleet units approached from the south. In the predawn assault, defenders in most areas fled the incoming fire. Marines then entered the outskirts of Kerch naval base on foot shortly after 0830.

They found the base deserted, but its harbor was not empty: it contained about half a dozen guided-missile corvettes and patrol boats, as well as a couple of armed tugs. The contrast between the abandoned shore and the concentration of vessels left at the port gives the arrival its defining character. The location had been reached, but its presence in the narrative is marked by an absence of defenders rather than by a narrated harbor battle.

Logistics in a Constrained Sea

The base and nearby fuel installations sit within a wider supply crisis. A modern carrier required replenishment of expendables every two to three weeks; although nuclear-powered, it still depended on aviation fuel, which could last no more than ten days under ordinary conditions and only two to four days amid sustained operations. Its at-sea resupply depended on tankers following the battle group.

That dependence became more acute as the Bosporus Strait threatened to close, potentially leaving the carrier and its escorts trapped in the Black Sea after their limited supplies ran down. At a later briefing, estimates were distributed in response to the question of whether the force could be reached and resupplied. Against that larger predicament, Arsincevo’s port and adjacent fuel complex represent a local logistical opportunity, while the account’s emphasis on the scale of the transfer also makes clear how demanding and temporary such relief could be.