The Caucasus 1942–43
The Caucasus 1942–43

Author: Robert Forczyk

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-05-20

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1472805852

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Much has been written of the titanic clashes between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army at Stalingrad. 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. Whilst 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-colour artwork, archival photos and detailed analysis, this book follows the vicious, intense fighting that characterised one of the most important campaigns of World War II.

The Kuban 1943
The Kuban 1943

Author: Robert Forczyk

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-02-22

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1472822617

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In the summer of 1942, the Wehrmacht invaded the Caucasus in order to overrun critical oil production facilities at Maikop, Grozny and Baku. However, the Red Army stopped the Germans short of their objectives and then launched a devastating winter counteroffensive that encircled them at Stalingrad. Consequently, Hitler grudgingly ordered an evacuation from the Caucasus, but ordered 17. Armee to fortify the Kuban bridgehead and hold it at all costs in order to leave open the possibility of future offensives. On the other side, the Soviet Stavka ordered the North Caucasus Front and the Black Sea Fleet to eliminate the Kuban bridgehead as soon as possible. The stage was set for a contest between an immovable object and an unstoppable force. With the help of stunning specially commissioned artwork, this book tells the enthralling story of the impressive but strategically foolish German stand at Kuban, which tied down seven Soviet armies in a sideshow battle of attrition, which the Soviets dubbed 'the Kuban meat grinder.'

The Caucasus 1942–43
The Caucasus 1942–43

Author: Robert Forczyk

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-05-20

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1472805844

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Much has been written of the titanic clashes between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army at Stalingrad. 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. Whilst 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-colour artwork, archival photos and detailed analysis, this book follows the vicious, intense fighting that characterised one of the most important campaigns of World War II.

Battle for the Caucasus
Battle for the Caucasus

Author: Andrei Grechko

Publisher:

Published: 2001-06

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780898753967

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The Battle for the Caucasus (July 1942-October 1943) coincided in time with the Stalingrad and Kursk battles, and played an important role in bringing about a radical change in the course of the Second World War.In this book the prominent Soviet military commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrei Grechko, gives a stage-by-stage account of the heroic Battle for the Caucasus: the heavy fighting in the Don and Kuban steppes, the battles on the Stavropol Heights and in the foothills of the Caucasus, the defense of Novorossiisk, Krasnodar, Maikop, Tuapse and Armavir and the destruction of the enemy forces in the passes of the Main Caucasian Range.Signs of an impending turning-point appeared in January 1943 when divisions and then armies went over to the offensive driving the enemy out of Stavropol, Kransodar and the Kuban. Like a mighty mountain torrent the entire mass of Soviet troops swept the Germans out of the North Caucasus. It was a magnificent display of the power of Soviet arms, and the fraternity and friendship of the Soviet peoples.The author objectively examines every phase of the great battle and reinforces his conclusions with documents.

Stalingrad 1942–43 (1)
Stalingrad 1942–43 (1)

Author: Robert Forczyk

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-01-21

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1472842634

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After failing to defeat the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Adolf Hitler planned a new campaign for the summer of 1942 that was intended to achieve a decisive victory: Operation Blue (Case Blau). In this new campaign, Hitler directed that one army group (Heeresgruppe A) would advance to seize the Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus, while the other (Heeresgruppe B) pushed on to the Volga River. The expectation was for a rapid victory – instead, German forces had to fight hard just to reach the outskirts of Stalingrad, and then found themselves embroiled in a protracted urban battle amid the ruins of a devastated city on the Volga. The Soviet Red Army was hit hard by the initial German offensive but held onto the city and then launched Operation Uranus, a winter counteroffensive that encircled the German 6. Armee at Stalingrad. Despite a desperate German relief operation, the Red Army eventually crushed the German forces and hurled the remnants of the German southern front back in disorder. This first volume in the Stalingrad trilogy covers the period from 28 June to 11 September 1942, including operations around Voronezh. The fighting in the Don Bend, which lasted weeks, comprised some of the largest tank battles of World War II – involving more armour than the tanks employed at Prokhorovka in 1943.

Death of the Wehrmacht
Death of the Wehrmacht

Author: Robert M. Citino

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2007-10-22

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 0700617914

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For Hitler and the German military, 1942 was a key turning point of World War II, as an overstretched but still lethal Wehrmacht replaced brilliant victories and huge territorial gains with stalemates and strategic retreats. In this major reevaluation of that crucial year, Robert Citino shows that the German army's emerging woes were rooted as much in its addiction to the "war of movement"-attempts to smash the enemy in "short and lively" campaigns-as they were in Hitler's deeply flawed management of the war. From the overwhelming operational victories at Kerch and Kharkov in May to the catastrophic defeats at El Alamein and Stalingrad, Death of the Wehrmacht offers an eye-opening new view of that decisive year. Building upon his widely respected critique in The German Way of War, Citino shows how the campaigns of 1942 fit within the centuries-old patterns of Prussian/German warmaking and ultimately doomed Hitler's expansionist ambitions. He examines every major campaign and battle in the Russian and North African theaters throughout the year to assess how a military geared to quick and decisive victories coped when the tide turned against it. Citino also reconstructs the German generals' view of the war and illuminates the multiple contingencies that might have produced more favorable results. In addition, he cites the fatal extreme aggressiveness of German commanders like Erwin Rommel and assesses how the German system of command and its commitment to the "independence of subordinate commanders" suffered under the thumb of Hitler and chief of staff General Franz Halder. More than the turning point of a war, 1942 marked the death of a very old and traditional pattern of warmaking, with the classic "German way of war" unable to meet the challenges of the twentieth century. Blending masterly research with a gripping narrative, Citino's remarkable work provides a fresh and revealing look at how one of history's most powerful armies began to founder in its quest for world domination.

The Battle for the Caucasus, 1942–1943
The Battle for the Caucasus, 1942–1943

Author: Anthony Tucker-Jones

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2018-03-30

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1473894948

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In late 1942 Hitler's forces advanced far into the Caucasus in the southern Soviet Union in one of the most ambitious offensives of the Second World War, but this extraordinary episode is often forgotten-it is overshadowed by the disastrous German attack on Stalingrad which took place at the same time. Using over 150 wartime photographs Anthony Tucker-Jones gives the reader a graphic, concise introduction to this remarkable but neglected campaign on the Eastern Front.Operation Edelweiss was designed to seize the oil fields of Maikop, Baku and Grozny. Seen by some as a wholly unnecessary diversion of resources from the critical confrontation at Stalingrad, the assault on the Caucasus aimed to secure oil supplies for the Germans and deny them to the Soviets.As this memorable selection of photographs shows, the Werhmacht came close to success. Their forces advanced almost as far as Grozny, famously raising the Nazi flag over Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in the region, before they were compelled into a hurried withdrawal by the rapid deterioration of the German position elsewhere on the Eastern Front.

Operation Don's Left Wing
Operation Don's Left Wing

Author: David M. Glantz

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2019-12-13

Total Pages: 864

ISBN-13: 0700628436

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On 1 January 1943, with German Sixth Army about to be destroyed in the Stalingrad pocket, the Stavka (Soviet High Command) launched Operation Don, a strategic offensive conducted by the Red Army’s Southern, Southwestern, and Trans-Caucasus Fronts aimed at demolishing German defenses in the southern Soviet Union and decisively turning the war’s tide. Critical to this ambitious operation was the mission assigned to the Trans-Caucasus Front—to isolate and destroy German Army Group A in the northern Caucasus region in cooperation with the Southern Front. Operation Don’s Left Wing is the first detailed study of this crucial but virtually overlooked Soviet military operation. Because of the priority given to the assault on German Sixth Army at Stalingrad, the Red Army Southwestern, Southern, and Trans-Caucasus Fronts were compelled to execute their missions with scant resources—inadequate logistical support, personnel replacements, and reinforcing equipment. Based on newly released Red Army archival operational documents, David M. Glantz constructs a clear, comprehensive account of how, despite such constraints, the Trans-Caucasus Front nonetheless pursued and severely damaged German First Panzer Army—although it failed to encircle and destroy the panzer army as hoped. These documents include candid daily orders and reports, periodic situation maps, a full array of ever-changing operational plans, and strength and casualty reports prepared by Soviet formations and units throughout the offensive. With unprecedented access to these documents, Glantz delves into previously forbidden topics such as unit strengths and losses and the foibles and attitudes of commanders at every level. Following Glantz’s Operation Don’s Main Attack, this documentary study expands our understanding of a pivotal operation in the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany and a decisive moment in the history of World War II on the Eastern Front.

World War II Soviet Armed Forces (2)
World War II Soviet Armed Forces (2)

Author: Nigel Thomas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2011-07-20

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 1849084211

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In this second volume of a three-part series on the Soviet Armed Forces in World War II, author Nigel Thomas turns his attention to the mid-war period. Focusing on the uniforms and organization of Soviet troops during the campaigns of the Caucasus, Stalingrad and Kursk, this book offers a detailed breakdown of all the armed forces which conducted the valiant defensive campaigns, including the army, air force, paratroopers, navy and NKVD troops. It also covers equipment and insignia and the changes brought about by the new regulations of 1943.