80 years ago, the battle for the Caucasus began, which became one of the longest and largest battles of the Great Patriotic War.
The fighting between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht lasted 442 days, until October 9, 1943, and ended with the displacement of the Nazis from most of the southern regions of the USSR.
According to the head of research programs of the Historical Memory Foundation, Vladimir Simindey, the battle for the Caucasus is one of the battles that turned the tide of the entire Second World War.
“Success in the Caucasus largely predetermined the further victories of the Red Army.
In this dramatic episode of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet command overcame the mistakes made earlier, and ordinary soldiers showed resilience and mass heroism,” Simindey stressed.
Oil factor
Nazi Germany began to concentrate large forces in the south of the Soviet Union a few months before the battle for the Caucasus.
On April 5, 1942, Adolf Hitler issued an order according to which the Wehrmacht was to suppress any resistance west of the Don for the subsequent capture of the Caucasus and the passes through the Main Caucasian Range.
By occupying this region, the Nazis intended to solve several problems at once.
The most important was access to the oil fields, where more than 90% of the black gold of the USSR was mined before the German invasion.
According to experts, the capture of the Caucasus allowed the Wehrmacht to solve the problem of fuel shortages and at the same time worsen the situation with the provision of fuel to the Red Army.
In June 1942, at a meeting in Poltava, Hitler told his military leaders that if the battle for the Caucasus was lost, the Germans would have to stop the war.
In an interview with RT, a military historian, associate professor of GAUGN Dmitry Surzhik explained that the Wehrmacht lacked Romanian and Hungarian oil for an active mobile war in the Soviet expanses.
According to him, only the capture of sources of black gold in the Caucasus allowed the Nazis to avoid problems with the supply of fuel to the troops.
“The main advantage of the Wehrmacht over its opponents was maneuverability, that is, the active use of mechanized combat arms.
Naturally, this required a very high fuel consumption.
Hitler realized that if the Wehrmacht did not capture the Soviet oil-bearing regions, then his army would no longer be able to successfully conduct major offensive operations, ”the expert said.
In addition to capturing the oil fields, the Germans intended to achieve complete dominance in the Black Sea, reach the borders of Turkey and draw it into the war with the USSR.
In addition, with the occupation of the Caucasus, the Nazis opened up scope for expansion into the Middle East.
Vladimir Simindey believes that the Nazis intended to threaten the Soviet-British presence in Iran and cut off the southern Lend-Lease route that passed through this country.
Recall that at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet troops occupied the northern part of Iran, and the British - the southern regions of the country.
Forced retreat
To implement their ambitious tasks in the battle in the Caucasus, the German command developed an operation code-named "Edelweiss".
The plan provided for the encirclement and destruction of Soviet troops south and southeast of Rostov-on-Don.
Then the enemy was going to take possession of the North Caucasus, Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Grozny and Baku.
Such a large natural obstacle as the Main Caucasian Range, the Nazis were going to bypass from the east and west.
At the same time, the enemy planned to overcome this mountain range along the passes of the central part with access to Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Sukhumi.
Map of the directions of the Nazi invasion of the Caucasus
© mil.ru
The implementation of this plan was entrusted to Army Group A under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelm List.
It consisted of four armies of the Wehrmacht, including two tank armies, the 3rd Romanian army and parts of the 4th air fleet.
The total number of troops concentrated by Germany exceeded 170 thousand people.
Enemy formations had more than 1.1 thousand tanks, about 4.5 thousand guns and mortars, up to 1 thousand aircraft.
“These groups had a high combat capability and were impressed by the recent victories.
Many of their formations participated in the defeat of the Soviet troops near Kharkov and southwest of Voronezh.
In the June battles, moving towards the lower reaches of the Don, they immediately captured a number of bridgeheads on its left bank, ”the materials of the Research Institute of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces say.
The German troops were opposed by the formations of the Southern and part of the forces of the North Caucasian fronts.
These are the 51st, 37th, 12th, 18th, 56th combined arms and 4th air armies, but almost all of them suffered heavy losses in previous battles.
In total, the formation of the Red Army consisted of only 112 thousand people, 120 tanks, about 2.2 thousand guns and mortars, 130 aircraft.
Thus, the enemy had an overwhelming advantage in both manpower and equipment.
For example, in artillery, the Wehrmacht outnumbered the Soviet troops twice, in tanks - more than nine times, in aviation - almost eight times.
Along with this, the formations of the Red Army suffered from the lack of stable control, violated during the hasty retreat to the Don.
Despite this, the leadership of the USSR ordered the command of the southern groups to stop the enemy, wear him out in defensive battles and prepare the conditions for a counteroffensive.
It was supposed to build a defensive line along the Don, but there was not enough time and resources to implement this plan.
Under the onslaught of the superior forces of the Wehrmacht, the Red Army continued to retreat deep into the Kuban, allowing the enemy to transfer more and more troops across the river.
On August 4, 1942, the southern formations of the Red Army received a new task: to stop the German offensive at the turn of the Terek and the passes of the Main Caucasian Range.
Nevertheless, the Germans continued to move forward quite dynamically towards Stavropol, Maikop and Tuapse.
German tank formations in the foothills of the Caucasus
© mil.ru
At the end of August, the enemy occupied Mozdok and aimed at capturing Grozny.
The enemy was also successful on the Black Sea coast, where by mid-September the invaders had captured most of Novorossiysk.
However, tangible counterattacks by the Soviet troops prevented a further offensive by the Wehrmacht.
The Nazis were forced to go on the defensive, and their repeated attempts to advance towards Grozny and Tuapse failed.
The Red Army managed to stop the advance of Army Group "A" thanks to the replenishment of troops with military equipment, engineering equipment, radio stations and transport, including pack.
The number of personnel was also increased - from July to October 1942, about 100 thousand military personnel arrived in the Caucasus.
The ships of the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Flotilla did a great job.
They covered the flanks of ground formations, supported the Red Army with artillery fire, carried out antiamphibious defense of the coast and disrupted the enemy's supply by sea.
In addition, the capabilities of the invaders were undermined by the counter-offensive of the Red Army near Stalingrad, which began in mid-November 1942, which made it possible to surround 300 thousand German troops.
Strategic collapse
The defensive phase of the battle for the Caucasus for the USSR continued until the very end of 1942.
Fierce battles were fought on the front with a length of 320 to 1000 km and a depth of 400 to 800 km.
As a result, the Nazis were able to occupy a significant part of the Kuban and the North Caucasus, but the key strategic objectives of the Edelweiss operation - mastering the oil fields and reaching the Turkish border - were not fulfilled.
At the same time, from July to December 1942, the German Army Group A lost more than 100 thousand soldiers.
The initiative in the battle for the Caucasus began to pass to the Red Army.
On January 3, 1943, units of the Red Army liberated Mozdok, on January 11 - Pyatigorsk, on the 21st - Stavropol, on February 12 - Krasnodar.
The immortal feat was accomplished by the Soviet marines in the battle for the liberation of Novorossiysk.
On the night of February 4, 1943, a group of black berets under the command of Major Caesar Kunikov successfully landed on a patch of the Black Sea coast, later called Malaya Zemlya.
Kunikov's detachment created a foothold for an attack on enemy positions.
The troops that arrived on Malaya Zemlya were supposed to connect with the ground units of the Red Army.
True, this plan had to be postponed due to the German counterattack in the south-east of Ukraine.
The Marines refused to leave the occupied territory and heroically held its defense, holding down significant forces of the invaders with their actions.
The black berets were able to go on the offensive only on September 9, 1943.
As reported in the materials of the Research Institute of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, under the blows of the Red Army, the Nazis suffered heavy losses, but defended themselves quite successfully.
The invaders put up stubborn resistance to units of the Red Army on the so-called Blue Line - a pre-prepared line of defense that covered the Taman Peninsula from the east.
The fighting in this area continued until October 9, 1943.
During the offensive phase of the battle for the Caucasus for the Red Army, the German command tried to avoid the blows of the Soviet troops during the retreat.
As a result, the formations of the Red Army failed to encircle the Wehrmacht groups, as planned.
Nevertheless, the enemy suffered huge losses.
Soviet troops in the Caucasus mountains
© mil.ru
According to the Research Institute of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, from January to October 1943, the Red Army exterminated about 275 thousand enemy soldiers and officers, 890 tanks and more than 2.1 thousand guns were destroyed and knocked out.
Also, Soviet soldiers captured quite rich trophies: 458 tanks, 1392 guns, 1533 mortars, over 15 thousand vehicles.
According to Surzhik, in the battle for the Caucasus, the Germans suffered a heavy defeat and finally lost the opportunity to get rid of the "fuel hunger".
Nevertheless, at the end of 1943, the German war machine was still a serious opponent of the Red Army.
“According to the results of the battle for the Caucasus, the Wehrmacht retained strength for delivering powerful counterattacks, although it no longer had a military-economic advantage over the USSR.
It was far from the complete liberation of the south and the rest of the country, but the victory in the Caucasus, of course, created the foundation for this, ”concluded Surzhik.