Battle of the Caucasus
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| Eastern Front |
|---|
| Barbarossa – Baltic Sea – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Belorussia – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans – Hungary – Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague |
| Operation Blue to 3rd Kharkov |
|---|
| Blue – Voronezh – Edelweiss – Stalingrad – Uranus – Winter Storm – Saturn – Tatsinskaya Raid – 3rd Kharkov |
| Crimea and Caucasus |
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| 1st Crimea – Kerch Peninsula – Adzhimushkay – Sevastopol – Caucasus – Kuban Bridgehead – 2nd Crimea |
The Battle of Caucasus is a generic name for a series of operations in the Caucasus area during the Soviet-German War. In 1942, the Wehrmacht launched Operation Edelweiss, which was aimed at penetrating to the oil fields of Azerbaijan. The German offensive was stopped by the Red Army in Chechenya in September, partly due to severe drain of German personnel to the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad. The Soviet counter-offensive was launched in January 1943. The key military base of Novorossiysk was liberated by September, and the Taman Peninsula was cleared from the Germans in early October.
In his memoirs, the commander Ivan Tiulenev recounts how thousands of civilians attempted to flee to comparatively safe Caspian ports, such as Makhachkala and Baku. The connections between Moscow and Transcaucasia were effected through the town of Krasnovodsk in Turkmenistan.
As the time was lacking, it proved impracticable to evacuate industrial enterprises and oilfield facilities. On this account, oil wells in Maykop were blown up by the Red Army on leaving the city to prevent these fuel supplies from falling to the Germans.
Contents |
[edit] Forces and commanders
[edit] Red Army
- North Caucasian Front (Marshal Semyon Budenny) - until September 1942
- Transcaucasian Front (General of the Army Ivan Tyulenev)
- Black Sea Fleet (Vice-Admiral Filipp Oktyabrsky)
- Azov Sea Flotilla (Counter-Admiral Sergey Gorshkov)
[edit] Wehrmacht
Army Group A(Generalfeldmarshall Wilhelm List)
1st Panzer Army(General Paul von Kleist)
[edit] German offensives (1942)
- August 3, 1942 - Wehrmacht takes Stavropol
- August 10, 1942 - Wehrmacht takes Maykop
- August 12, 1942 - Wehrmacht takes Krasnodar
- August 25, 1942 - Wehrmacht takes Mozdok
- September 11, 1942 - Wehrmacht takes Novorossiysk
- September 1942 - German offensive effectively stopped near Mozdok
[edit] Soviet offensives (1943)
- January 3, 1943 - Red Army liberates Mozdok
- January 21, 1943 - Red Army liberates Stavropol
- January 23, 1943 - Red Army liberates Armavir
- January 29, 1943 - Red Army liberates Maykop
- February 5, 1943 - Soviet forces landing in Novorossiysk
- February 12, 1943 - Red Army liberates Krasnodar
- September 9, 1943 - the Blue Line of German Defense broken
- September 16, 1943 - Red Army liberates Novorossiysk
- October 9, 1943 - Red Army liberates Taman Peninsula
[edit] References
- 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.
