Operation Edelweiss
1941 Białystok -Minsk - Dubno - Lutsk - Rovno - Smolensk - Uman - Kiev - Odessa - Leningrad - Wjasma - Bryansk - Rostov - Moscow 1942: Rzhev - Kharkov - Operation Blue - Operation Braunschweig - Operation Edelweiss - Stalingrad - Operation Mars 1943: Voronezh - Kharkov - Operation Iskra - North Caucasus - Kharkov - Operation Citadel - Smolensk - Dnieper 1944 Dnepr -Carpathian operation - Leningrad - Novgorod - Crimea - Vyborg - Petrozavodsk - Belarus - Lviv - Sandomierz - Iasi - Chisinau - Belgrade - Petsamo - Kirkenes - Baltic - Carpathian - Budapest 1945: Vistula-Oder - East Prussia - West Carpathians - Lower Silesia - East Pomerania - Balaton - Upper Silesia - Vienna - Berlin - Prague
Edelweiss was the code name for the from July 23, 1942 conducted the second part of the German summer offensive in Russia following the company case blue. The aim of the operation was to secure the oil fields in and around Baku.
Planning and Preparation
In Instruction No. 45 of July 23, 1942 Adolf Hitler laid down the objectives of the operation. The goal was the simultaneous advance of the German troops in both the Caucasus (Operation Edelweiss) and in the direction of Stalingrad ( company Braunschweig). Hitler attacked several times in the planning of the operation and made certain decisions, in particular the division of the Army Group South against the advice of the OKH. The envisaged for Edelweiss Army Group A under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelm List included the German 1st Panzer Army ( von Kleist ) and 17th Army ( Ruoff ), including a Romanian cavalry corps and stood at the beginning of the operation on the lower reaches of the Don at Rostov. She received air support from the Air Force 4 ( Richthofen ).
In Germany the development of the oil wells were set up various companies to prepare. It has trained personnel and material provided to repair any damage to the oil facilities.
The defense, the company Shamil began to secure the regions Grozny, and Maikop Malgobek.
Surgical procedure
Overall, the operations in terms of the extra space in the Caucasus ran within a few weeks. On August 4, Stavropol was occupied, reached on August 9 Krasnodar and the Kuban exceeded.
The Romanian allies to her roll up the Soviet defenses on the east coast of the Azov Sea from the north and open the Taman peninsula of " backward " her succeeded. Maikop fell on 9 August in German hands and the entrances to the Ossetian and Georgian Military Highway were placed in possession. Also the Elbrus massif itself was taken on August 21, flew from the summit, the imperial war flag. An August 26 attack begun to Tuapse was stopped after two days, but the 11th Army were on August 31, after heavy fighting, the port city of Anapa and on 11 September, after the temporary landing of parts on the Taman Peninsula ( company Blucher ), Novorossiysk, main base of the Black sea Fleet, taken. In the high mountains German troops had occupied the important mountain passes and temporary, on a broad front to the south - they were in the Abkhaz mountain village Pßchu, 20 kilometers off the coast of the Black Sea at Gudauta. To the east of Mount Elbrus, the German and Romanian troops were in the river sections of the Baksan and the Terek to Naurskaja. Just north, lost the front at the Kuma, in the Nogajer steppe and in the Kalmyk steppe.
On September 9, dismissed Hitler, Field Marshal List, whom he accused of having failed to comply with its operational requirements, his command as commander of Army Group A. The severe crisis of leadership at the Army Group A resulted in the end of September to replace the chief of staff Franz Halder. Until 22 November 1942, Hitler took over the command of Army Group A in person and then instructed von Kleist with the supreme command. The offensive movements of Army Group were anyway already come to a standstill, as the end of November through the encirclement of the 6th Army at Stalingrad came up a serious threat to the south of the Don standing troops. When the Soviet troops in late December the German relief attack companies had parried winter storm for the trapped 6th Army and went to the North Caucasus operation in the south to the counter-offensive, the occupied territories in the Caucasus had to be abandoned by the Army Group A. The December 31, initiated withdrawal movement took place in three stages, with the Kuban bridgehead could be said despite constant narrowing to 9 October 1943. The aim of Südoffensive, the conquest and exploitation of oil wells was not achieved.
Follow
This fragmentation of the forces had been warned several times by his generals in front of Hitler, is now generally regarded as a major cause of the downfall of the 6th Army in Stalingrad. Hitler had claimed for his insistence on the company war economic reasons ( conquest and exploitation of the Caucasian oil wells, cutting off Soviet freight transport on the transport hub Stalingrad ).