Battle of the Caucasus

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This article is about the World War II military campaign. For the World War I military campaign, see Caucasus Campaign. For the 19th century Russian invasion, see Caucasian War.

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The Battle of the Caucasus is a name given to a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus area on the Eastern Front of World War II.

Order of battle

c870,000 Soviet personnel were awarded this Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus" from 1 May 1944.

Red Army

Wehrmacht

Army Group A - General Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) Wilhelm List

German operations

Operation Edelweiss (German: Edelweiß), named after the mountain flower, was a German plan to gain control over the Caucasus and capture the oil fields of Baku during the Soviet-German War. The operation was authorised by Hitler on 23 July 1942. The main forces included Army Group A commanded by Wilhelm List, 1st Panzer Army (Ewald von Kleist), 4th Panzer Army (Colonel-General Hermann Hoth), 17th Army (Colonel-General Richard Ruoff), part of the Luftflotte 4 (Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen) and the 3rd Romanian Army (General Petre Dumitrescu). Army Group A was supported to the east by Army Group B commanded by Fedor von Bock and by the remaining 4th Air Fleet aircraft (1,000 aircraft in all). The land forces, accompanied by 15,000 oil industry workers, included 167,000 troopers, 4,540 guns and 1,130 tanks.

Preparations

Several oil firms such as "German Oil on Caucasus", "Ost-Öl" and "Karpaten-Öl" had been established in Germany. They were awarded an exclusive 99-year lease to exploit the Caucasian oil fields. For this purpose, a large number of pipes—which later proved useful to Soviet oil industry workers—were delivered. A special economic inspection "A", headed by Lieutenant-General Nidenfuhr was created. Bombing of the oil fields was forbidden. To defend them from destruction by Soviet units under the command of Nikolai Baibakov and Semyon Budyonny, an SS guard regiment and a Cossack regiment were formed. The head of the Abwehr developed Operation Schamil, which called for landing in the Grozny, Malgobek and Maikop regions. They would be supported by the local fifth column.

Events

After neutralizing the Soviet counter-attack in the Izyum-Barvenkovsk direction the German Army Group A rapidly attacked towards the Caucasus. When Rostov-on-Don, nicknamed "The Gates of Caucasus," fell on 23 July 1942 the tank units of Ewald von Kleist moved across the Caucasian Mountain Range. The "Edelweiss" division commander, Hubert Lanz, decided to advance through the gorges of rivers of the Kuban River basin and by crossing the Marukhskiy Pass (Maly Zelenchuk River), Teberda, Uchkulan reach the Klukhorskiy Pass, and simultaneously through the Khotyu-tau Pass block the upper reaches of the Baksan River and the Donguz-Orun and Becho passes. Concurrently with the outflanking maneuvers, the Caucasian Mountain Range was supposed to be crossed through such passes as Sancharo, Klukhorskiy and Marukhskiy to reach Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Sukhumi and Tbilisi. The units of the 4th German Mountain Division, manned with Tyroleans, were active in this thrust. They succeeded in advancing 30 km toward Sukhumi. To attack from the Kuban region, capture the passes that led to Elbrus, and cover the "Edelweiss" flank, a vanguard detachment of 150 men commanded by Captain (Hauptmann) Heinz Groth, was formed. From the Old Karachay through the Khurzuk aul and the Ullu-kam Gorge the detachment reached the Khotyu-tau Pass, which had not been defended by the Soviet troops. Khotyu-tau gained a new name — "The Pass of General Konrad".

The starting point of the operation on the Krasnodar-Pyatigorsk-Maikop line was reached on 10 August 1942. On 16 August the battalion commanded by von Hirschfeld made a feint and reached the Kadar Gorge. On 21 August troops from the 1st Mountain Division planted a National Socialist flag on the summit of Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in the Caucasus and Europe.

Soviet operations

1941

There were no military operations in the region in 1941. But the region was affected by warfare elsewhere in the Soviet Union.

In his memoirs, Soviet Transcaucasian Front commander Ivan Tiulenev recounts how thousands of civilians attempted to flee from Ukraine to the comparatively safe Caspian ports, such as Makhachkala and Baku.[citation needed] The Caucasus area became a new area of industry when 226 factories were evacuated there during the industrial evacuations undertaken by the Soviet Union in 1941. After the Grozny to Kiev line was captured during Axis advances, a new link between Moscow and Transcaucasia was established with the construction of the new railway line running from Baku to Orsk (via Astrakhan), bypassing the front line Grozny, while a shipping line was maintained over the Caspian Sea through the town of Krasnovodsk in Turkmenistan.

1942

In 1942, the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) launched Operation Edelweiss which was aimed at advancing to the oil fields of Azerbaijan. The German offensive slowed as it entered the mountains in the southern Caucasus and did not reach all of its 1942 objectives. After the Soviet breakthroughs in the region around Stalingrad, the German forces in the Caucasus were put on the defensive.

Soviet military operations included

Tikhoretsk-Stavropol Defensive Operation (25 July 1942 – 5 August 1942)
Armavir-Maikop Defensive Operation (6 August 1942 – 17 August 1942)
Novorossiysk Defensive Operation (19 August 1942 – 26 September 1942)
Mozdok-Malgobek Defensive Operation (1 September 1942 – 28 September 1942)
Tuapse Defensive Operation (25 September 1942 – 20 December 1942)
Nalckik-Ordzhonikidze Defensive Operation (25 October 1942 – 12 November 1942)

1943

In early 1943, the Germans began to withdraw and consolidate their positions in the region due to setbacks elsewhere. They established a defensive line in the Taman Peninsula from which they hoped to eventually launch new operations in the Caucasus. The fighting remained reasonably static until September 1943 when the Germans ordered fresh withdrawals which effectively ended the period of fighting in the Caucasus.

Soviet Operations in 1943 consisted of the following.

Salsk-Rostov Offensive Operation (1 January 1943 – 4 February 1943)
Mozdok-Stavropol Offensive Operation (1 January 1943 – 24 January 1943)
Novorossiysk-Maikop Offensive Operation (11 January 1943 – 4 February 1943)
Tikhoretsk-Eisk Offensive Operation (24 January 1943 – 4 February 1943)

The key military base of Novorossiysk was retaken in September, 1943.

  • January 3, 1943 - Red Army retake Mozdok
  • January 21, 1943 - Red Army retake Stavropol
  • January 23, 1943 - Red Army retake Armavir
  • January 29, 1943 - Red Army retake Maykop
  • 4 February 1943 - Soviet marines beat off a German attempt to land at Malaya Zemlya
  • February 5, 1943 - Soviet forces landing in Novorossiysk
  • February 12, 1943 - Red Army retake Krasnodar
  • September 9, 1943 - the Germans begin to retreat from the Blue Line defensive positions
  • September 16, 1943 - Red Army occupies Novorossiysk
  • October 9, 1943 - Red Army controls the whole of the Taman Peninsula

1944

During the Winter Spring Campaign of 1944 (1 January - 31 May), the Soviet army was able to launch an invasion of the Crimea from the Caucasus.

Operations included:

Kerch-Eltingen Amphibious Offensive Operation (31 October 1943 – 11 December 1944)
Perekop-Sevastopol Offensive Operation (8 April 1944 – 12 May 1944)
Kerch-Sevastopol Offensive Operation (11 April 1944 – 12 May 1944)

Anti-Soviet insurgency (1940–1944)

See also

References

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  • Alexander Werth, The Battle of Stalingrad, Chapter 7, "Caucasus, there and back", P.648-651
  • Ivan Tyulenev, "Cherez Tri Voyny" (Through Three Wars), Moscow, 1960, P.176.

Bibliography

  • (Russian) Иван Тюленев. Крах операции "Эдельвейс". Орджоникидзе, 1975.
  • (Russian) К.-М. Алиев. В зоне "Эдельвейса". М.-Ставрополь, 2005.

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