The Caucasus 1942-43: Kleist's Race for Oil
Robert Forczyk
Language: English
Pages: 87
ISBN: B017WQLGIY
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Much has been written of the titanic clashes between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army at Stalingrad, but this volume tells the other, equally important half of the story of Fall Blau (Case Blue). Learning from their experiences during the sweeping advances of Operation Barbarossa a year before, Wehrmacht commanders knew that Nazi Germany's lack of oil was a huge strategic problem. Seizure of the Caucasus oilfields, which were responsible for 82% of the Soviet Union's crude oil, would simultaneously alleviate the German army's oil shortages whilst denying vital fuel resources to the Red Army. While Army Group B advanced along the Volga towards Stalingrad, Army Group A, spearheaded by Ewald von Kleist's elite Panzerarmee 1 was to advance into the Caucasus to seize the oilfields of Maikop, Grozny and Baku. Featuring full-color artwork, archival photos and detailed analysis, this book follows the vicious, intense fighting that characterized one of the most important campaigns of World War II.
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CAMPAIGN 281 THE CAUCASUS 1942–43 Kleist’s race for oil ROBERT FORCZYK ILLUSTRATED BY STEVE NOON Series editor Marcus Cowper CONTENTS ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN CHRONOLOGY OPPOSING COMMANDERS German Soviet OPPOSING FORCES German Soviet Order of battle, 1 August 1942 OPPOSING PLANS German Soviet THE CAMPAIGN Crossing the Don, 20–31 July, 1942 Pursuit, 1–10 August Clearing the Kuban, 11 August–27 September Costly diversion to Tuapse, 11 August–23 October To the High Caucasus, 10.
The ports of Anapa and Novorossiysk, as well as eliminating a good part of the Soviet coastal forces. Although Wetzel spent a few days mopping up around Krasnodar, he had his four infantry divisions fairly concentrated. In addition, Lieutenant-General Mihail Racovita’s Romanian Cavalry Corps, with its 5th, 6th and 9th Cavalry divisions, was brought up to cover Wetzel’s right flank to the Sea of Azov. The Romanians had already chased the Azov Flotilla out of its base at Yeisk (8 August) and were.
Infanterie-Division and the Romanian 5th Cavalry Division had swung wide to the south and were now approaching the virtually undefended western side of the city. On 7 September, a battalion from Infanterie-Regiment 186 was the first to fight its way into the city and managed to occupy the port area. The flotilla leader Kharkov led a Soviet naval convoy carrying 2,500 reinforcements from the 137th Naval Infantry Regiment into the harbour but found it impossible to land troops in the enemy-occupied.
Had advanced with his two infantry divisions from Salsk east towards the Kalmyk Steppe. The deployment of two infantry divisions in such a flat, arid region while LVII Panzerkorps attempted to move through mountainous terrain to Tuapse demonstrates the scale of misjudgements made by List in the critical stages of the campaign. Ott’s infantry divisions, heavily dependent upon horse-drawn transport, could not advance en masse into this desert-like region, but he directed each of his divisions to.
Elevation and the tallest in Austria was 3,798m, the Caucasus Mountains had over a dozen peaks that ranged between 4,000 and 5,642m. Mount Elbrus was the tallest mountain in Europe – most previous German experience in mountain warfare was at elevations below 2,000m. Although the high-quality Gebirgsjäger put in an inspired performance in the Caucasus Mountains, they were spread too thinly across a wide front and the lack of adequate off-road logistic support greatly reduced their ability to.