User:Mrg3105/Battle of the Caucasus

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v • d • e Eastern Front Barbarossa – Baltic Sea – Black Sea – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Blue – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Battle of Narva – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Baltic – Bagration – Lvov-Sandomierz – Lublin-Brest – Balkans (Iassy-Kishinev) – Budapest – Vistula-Oder – East Prussia – East Pomerania – Silesia – Vienna – Berlin – Prague

v • d • e Operation Blue to 3rd Kharkov Blue – Voronezh – Edelweiss – Stalingrad – Uranus – Winter Storm – Saturn – Tatsinskaya Raid – 3rd Kharkov

v • d • e Crimea and Caucasus 1st Crimea – Kerch Peninsula – Adzhimushkay – Sevastopol – Caucasus – Kerch-Eltigen Operation (1943) – 2nd Crimea

The Battle of Caucasus during the Soviet-German War is a name given to the Axis Operation Edelweiss strategic offensive into the Kuban and Caucasus in pursuit of the goal of securing the Caspian oilfields, and the Red Army's operations in the region to prevent Wehrmacht in archiving this goal.

The Axis operation was conducted by the Army Group A commanded by General Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) Wilhelm List with the 1st Tank Army commanded by General Paul von Kleist and 17th Army commanded by Colonel-General (Generaloberst) Richard Ruoff as his principal formation. These were supported by the Luftflotte 4 of the Luftwaffe.

List was opposed initially by the Southern Front (to 28 July 1942), later the North Caucasian Front commanded by Marshal Semyon Budenny) (to 1 September 1942), and the Transcaucasian Front commanded by General of the Army Ivan Tyulenev until 21 January 1943 when the North Caucasus Front was reformed in the eastern Caucasus. Also participating were the forces of the Black Sea Fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Filipp Oktyabrsky, and the Azov Sea Flotilla commanded by Counter-Admiral Sergey Gorshkov.

Contents 1 1941 industrial evacuation in Soviet Union - Caucasus 2 1940-1944 Chechnya insurgency 3 Operation Edelweiss 4 North Caucasian Strategic Defensive Operation 5 North Caucasian Strategic Offensive Operation 6 Winter Spring Campaign of 1944 7 References

[edit] 1941 industrial evacuation in Soviet Union - Caucasus

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

However due to lack of time, it proved impracticable to evacuate industry from Caucasus. Oil wells in Maykop, because they could not be evacuated, were blown up by the Red Army during withdrawal from the city to prevent this resource from falling into German hands.

[edit] 1940-1944 Chechnya insurgency

• 1940-1944 Chechnya insurgency

[edit] Operation Edelweiss

Main article: Operation Edelweiss

In 1942, the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) launched Operation Edelweiss, which was aimed at penetrating to the oil fields of Azerbaijan.

• August 3, 1942 - Wehrmacht occupies Stavropol
• August 10, 1942 - Wehrmacht occupies Maykop
• August 12, 1942 - Wehrmacht occupies Krasnodar
• August 25, 1942 - Wehrmacht occupies Mozdok
• September 11, 1942 - Wehrmacht occupies Novorossiysk
• September 1942 - German offensive effectively stopped near Mozdok

[edit] North Caucasian Strategic Defensive Operation

The German offensive was stopped by the Red Army in Chechenya in Septembe during the North Caucasian Strategic Defensive Operation (25 July 1942 - 31 December 1942), partly due to severe drain of German personnel to support the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad.

The Soviet strategic operation 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)

[edit] North Caucasian Strategic Offensive Operation

The Soviet North Caucasian Strategic Offensive Operation (1 January 1943 - 4 February 1943) was launched with the objective of removing threat of German bombing of the oil fields. The operation consisted of operations with more limited operational objectives

Salsk-Rostov Offensive Operation (1 January 1943 - 4 February 1943)

• January 23, 1943 - Red Army liberates Armavir

Mozdok-Stavropol Offensive Operation (1 January 1943 - 24 January 1943)

• January 3, 1943 - Red Army liberates Mozdok
• January 21, 1943 - Red Army liberates Stavropol

• Novorossiysk-Maikop Offensive Operation (11 January 1943 - 4 February 1943)
• January 29, 1943 - Red Army liberates Maykop

Tikhoretsk-Eisk Offensive Operation (24 January 1943 - 4 February 1943)

• 4 February 1943 - Soviet marines beat off a German attempt to land at Malaya Zemlya

Krasnodar offensive operation

• February 12, 1943 - Red Army liberates Krasnodar

The Taman Peninsula was cleared from the Germans on October 9, 1943 during the 1st Taman Offensive Operation (4 April 1943 - 10 May 1943) but due to a German counterattack the Red Army was forced on the defensive again during 26 May 1943 - 22 August 1944. This was however followed up with a new Novorossiysk-Taman Strategic Offensive Operation (10 September 1943 - 9 October 1943) which, following the simultaneous breaching of the German defensive Blue Line position on September 9, 1943 and Novorossiysk Amphibious Operation (10 September 1943 - 16 September 1943) resulted in the liberation of Novorossiysk and a successful 2nd Taman Offensive Operation (10 September 1943 - 9 October 1943) and liberation of the Taman Peninsula.

[edit] Winter Spring Campaign of 1944

Only during the Winter Spring Campaign of 1944 (1 January - 31 May) was the Red Army able to complete liberation of Crimea following the execution of the Crimean Strategic Offensive Operation (8 April 1944 - 12 May 1944) that included:

Kerch-Eltingen Amphibious Offensive Operation (31 October 1943 - 11 December 1943)

Perekop-Sevastopol Offensive Operation (8 April 1944 - 12 May 1944)

Kerch-Sevastopol Offensive Operation (11 April 1944 - 12 May 1944)

[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.

[[Category:Battles and operations of the Eastern Front of World War II]] [[Category:Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II]] [[de:Nordkaukasische Operation]] [[it:Battaglia del Caucaso]] [[ro:Bătălia pentru Caucaz]] [[ru:Битва за Кавказ (1942—1943)]] [[zh:高加索戰役]]