Second battles for the Caucasus. War in the Caucasus, Great Patriotic War in the Caucasus Mountains

Defense of the Caucasus 1942-1943

Defense of the Caucasus (Battle for the Caucasus) is a major defensive-offensive operation of Soviet troops during the second period of the Great Patriotic War in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

From July 25 to December 31, 1942, an offensive was carried out by the Germans, who managed to capture part of the territories;

From December 31 to October 9, 1943, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive, recaptured territory and forced German troops to retreat.

By the beginning of autumn 1942, German troops were able to conquer most of the Kuban and North Caucasus, but after the defeat at Stalingrad they were forced to retreat again, as they suffered serious losses and feared that Soviet troops would encircle them. In 1943, the Soviet army planned an operation, as a result of which German troops were to be surrounded in the Kuban territory and defeated, but the operation failed - the Germans were evacuated to Crimea.

Background and balance of power

By June 1942, the Soviet army was in a weakened state after the failure at Kharkov. The German command, seeing that the Soviet troops could not provide worthy resistance, decided to launch an offensive in the Caucasus, taking advantage of the situation. After a series of battles, German troops were able to conquer several cities, including Rostov-on-Don, which opened the way for Hitler to the Caucasus.

The Caucasus, like Ukraine, was a very important strategic point that German troops sought to capture as early as possible. The Caucasus and Kuban contained large reserves of Soviet oil, grain and other crops, which could provide serious support for the German army to conduct further battles on the territory of the USSR. In addition, Hitler hoped that by reaching the sea he would be able to turn to Turkey for help. Moreover, the German command also counted on the help of the residents themselves, since they were aware that part of the local population did not accept Soviet power.

After the fall of Rostov-on-Don, communication between the Soviet command and the Caucasus could only be carried out by sea or by rail passing through Stalingrad. That is why Stalingrad became an important point that the Germans needed to capture. Despite the fact that Hitler threw enormous forces into the fight at Stalingrad, he was never able to take the city. The Germans lost the Battle of Stalingrad. They suffered significant losses and, largely thanks to this, later they never managed to conquer the Caucasus.

Progress in the defense of the Caucasus

The battle took place in two stages. During the first stage, the German army, not without difficulty, managed to take a number of cities: Stavropol, Armavir, Maykop, Krasnodar, Elista, Mozdok and part of Novorossiysk. In September 1942, the German army approached the Malgobek area, where it was stopped by Soviet troops.

On September 9, after fierce three-day fighting, most of the city of Novorossiysk, located on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, was abandoned. East End The city was held by Soviet troops until the complete liberation of Novorossiysk in September 1943. For the courage shown by the defenders of the city, Novorossiysk was awarded the title “Hero City”.

The first stage of the battle for the Caucasus took place from July to December 1942. The German army was able to approach the foothills of the Caucasus Range and the Terek River, but this victory was not easy - Hitler’s troops suffered colossal losses. The original plan to capture Transcaucasia was never completed, despite the fact that the Germans were still leading in this operation - Soviet troops were able to stop the German offensive in time and force the army to stop fighting, since most of the army was simply destroyed. Turkey also failed, because it never decided to enter the war and come to the aid of Hitler.

The German offensive failed largely due to the victory of Soviet troops at Stalingrad. Hitler, who had too high hopes for the capture of this city, simply did not foresee the possibility that the Soviet army could defend Stalingrad and, therefore, one of the routes to the Caucasus.

As a result of numerous losses, by the beginning of 1943 the German army was numerically inferior to the Soviet army several times.

The second stage of the battle for the Caucasus can be considered a counter-offensive of Soviet troops, which became extremely successful for the Soviet Union. Territories previously captured by the Germans were recaptured, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Rostov region, Stavropol Territory and other areas were completely liberated. Oil fields and grain crops were again returned to the control of the Soviet Union, which gave a colossal advantage in the war.

Despite the fact that the Soviet army was able to achieve serious successes, it cannot be considered that the victory definitely belonged to the Soviet Union, since the main goal that Stalin set for his army - to capture and destroy the Germans in Kuban - was never achieved. The German army fled to Crimea, however, despite this, the Caucasus returned again to the command of the USSR.

The meaning and results of the battle for the Caucasus

The successes of the Soviet Union in the battle for the Caucasus can be considered one of the most important parts of the general counter-offensive of the USSR in the second period of the war. At this time, the Soviet army not only began to recapture its territories and return captured people, but also greatly increased its combat power and could give in on equal terms in battles with the German army. The return to the control of the USSR of such an important strategic point as the Caucasus can be considered one of the greatest victories of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War.

Unfortunately, the battle for the Caucasus had Negative consequences. Part of the population was accused of assisting the enemy and many of the local residents were later exiled to Siberia.

With the victory at Stalingrad and the battle in the Caucasus, the victorious march of the Soviet Union in the Second World War began.

Battle of the Caucasus (July 25, 1942 - October 9, 1943) - a battle between the armed forces of Nazi Germany, Romania and Slovakia against the USSR during the Great Patriotic War for control of the Caucasus. The battle is divided into two stages: the offensive of German troops (July 25 - December 31, 1942) and the counter-offensive of Soviet troops (January 1 - October 9, 1943). In the fall of 1942, German troops occupied most of the Kuban and North Caucasus, but after the defeat at Stalingrad they were forced to retreat due to the threat of encirclement.

In 1943, the Soviet command failed to either lock the German units in the Kuban or inflict a decisive defeat on them: the Wehrmacht tank units (1st Tank Army) were withdrawn from the Kuban to Ukraine in January 1943, and the infantry units (17th Army) were taken from Taman Peninsula to Crimea in October of the same year. In 1943-1944. Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush and Balkars were accused of collaboration and deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

Baku and the North Caucasus were the main source of oil for the entire economy of the USSR. After the loss of Ukraine, the importance of the Caucasus and Kuban as a source of grain increased sharply. There were also reserves of strategic raw materials, for example: the Tyrnyauz tungsten-molybdenum ore deposit. The loss of the Caucasus could have a noticeable impact on the overall course of the war against the USSR, so Hitler chose this particular direction as his main one. The army group created for the attack on the Caucasus received the code "A".

The task of Group “A” was to: encircle and destroy south and southeast of Rostov-on-Don the troops of the Southern Front, which had retreated across the Don River, and capture the North Caucasus; then it was planned to bypass the Greater Caucasus with one group from the west, capturing Novorossiysk and Tuapse, and with another group from the east, capturing the oil-bearing regions of Grozny and Baku.

Simultaneously with the roundabout maneuver, it was planned to overcome the Watershed Range in its central part along the passes and exit to Georgia. After the supposed victory at Stalingrad, the preparation of a springboard for combat operations against Great Britain in the Middle East.

The German command took into account that many Terek Cossacks, the Cossack population of the Kuban and the mountain population of the North Caucasus were hostile to Soviet power. In Chechnya, anti-Soviet riots began in February 1940 under the leadership of Khasan Israilov and intensified after the defeats of the Red Army in 1941-1942. Subsequently, the Germans' assumptions were confirmed - several Cossack and mountain formations were formed in the Caucasus, fighting on the side of the Germans.

Introduction

The formidable years of the Great Patriotic War are moving further and further away from us, when in fierce battles with German fascism the people and the valiant army defended our great Motherland. Time is powerless to weaken the memory of mankind about the perseverance and courage of people, about the glory of those who stood to the death at the origins of this military and labor feat.

In order to fully appreciate the significance of victory in the Great Patriotic War, one must clearly imagine the terrible danger that the German fascists created for all of humanity. Hitler's Germany brought a terrible fate to countries and continents: the physical extermination of many tens of millions of people, the destruction of ancient cultures and civilizations, the plunder of national wealth created by entire generations, and the transformation of those who survived into slaves.

During the war years there was not a single day that could be deleted from people's memory. Every day of the war was a feat of millions.

History knows thousands of wars, large and small. But the military hurricane that hit our land in June 1941 was the most ferocious and destructive. It was brought by a powerful, pre-mobilized army

Nazi Germany, which together with the troops of its allies numbered 5.5 million people, more than 47 thousand guns and mortars, about 4.3 thousand tanks and up to 5 thousand combat aircraft.

June 22, 1941... This date will never be erased from people's memory. At dawn on Sunday, Hitler's Germany, treacherously violating the non-aggression pact, suddenly, without declaring war, dealt a huge blow to the Soviet Union. Its aviation carried out massive raids on airfields, railway junctions and groups of Soviet troops located in the border zone, as well as on the cities of Murmansk, Kaunas, Minsk, Kyiv, Odessa. Powerful strike groups of the ground forces of the German army went on the offensive on the front from the Baltic to the Carpathians. At the same time, fighting began south of the Carpathians along the Romanian border to the Black Sea.

Kuban occupied a serious place in Hitler's aggressive plans. The Nazis sought to seize the oil of Maikop and the cement of Novorossiysk, seaports on the Black Sea, use fertile soils to provide themselves with food. The capture of Kuban also opened the way for them to conquer the Caucasus. Therefore, the Krasnodar Territory soon became a front-line region.

Bloody battles with the enemy in the Caucasus were part of the battles waged by our army on a huge front from the ice of the Arctic to the Black Sea. Russian soldiers shaded every inch of land with their hearts, not sparing blood and life.

During the Great Patriotic War, about twenty-seven million people died in the country. Some fell on the battlefield, some were brutally tortured in the Gestapo and concentration camps, some were burned in fire, for example, as in the village of Khatyn, Minsk region, where the Nazis burned this small village along with its inhabitants. This war left many scars in the souls of people, both those who went through it and those born later. There is no family that has not lost a husband, a brother, a son. How many exploits were there in this war? It is hardly possible to measure this; there are no words in the world with which to evaluate it. How can one describe, measure the feat of a woman who fought alongside men, of girls dying in the name of victory, in the name of a future life? And now how many veterans cannot sleep at night, remembering the years of war, again losing their friends, loved ones and relatives.

For about sixty years, historians and writers have been scrutinizing the image of the fighting Motherland, tirelessly multiplying the chronicle of the war years, capturing major and large-scale events, as well as minor episodes of the war, reflecting the characters of the heroes of our Fatherland. Front-line writers of Kuban in 1995-1997 prepared and published an anthology of front-line prose and poetry about the destinies of the front-line generation. It includes three books Comfrey, published for the 50th anniversary of the Victory, The Great Son of Russia - for the 100th anniversary of Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov, and a generation scorched by the war. The first two books are honored to be kept in the museum on Poklonnaya Hill. The Book of Memory contains the names of hundreds of thousands of Kuban citizens who died on the battlefields and did not return from the war. While working on these books, a flood of memories poured in from front-line soldiers and journalists, the publication of which would require a multi-volume edition. Some essays and memoirs were published in newspapers and magazines. Much has been written and said about the terrible hard times, but in that stream there were unknown pages of the war, personal destinies, stories about comrades in arms, about the fallen and the living. These are priceless documents of contemporaries that should be collected and preserved. The time will come, someone will look for materials to write War and Peace about the Great Patriotic War, and the testimony of its participants would be documentary sources for the artist. A clear proof can be found in many works of writers about the war, depicted images of soldiers and officers in uncontrived situations, and when not only the political and economic, but also the ideological and moral commitment of the people was tested with iron and blood at the very forefront of the battle against fascism, when soldiers and officers rose to their full height towards the deadly fire. Some writers managed to reveal the origins of the feat at a high artistic level Soviet soldier in the trenches, the true drama of human feelings, to show a person in war, the unity of the historical destinies of the people, the kinship of cultures. The army was multinational, and there was no division along national lines, there was no nationalism at all, everyone went on the attack in one chain against the enemy, under the red banner, to defend honor, freedom and independence single state- Soviet Union.

ChapterI"Defense of the Caucasus".

In the second half of July 1942, the situation on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front deteriorated sharply. The enemy broke through the front of our troops between the Don and Northern Donets rivers and created a direct threat to Stalingrad and the North Caucasus. The great battle on the Volga and the battle for the Caucasus began.

Having reached the lower reaches of the Don, the fascist German command on July 25, 1942 began implementing a plan to seize the Caucasus (Operation Edelweiss). For this purpose, the Nazis created Army Group A, which included the 1st and 4th tank and 17th field armies.

The group's formations included 167 thousand soldiers and officers, 1130 aircraft, 4540 guns and mortars, and up to 1 thousand combat aircraft.

The enemy hoped to encircle and destroy Soviet troops in the area south and southeast of Rostov in order to open an unhindered route to the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Having a numerical superiority over the troops of the Southern Front in men - 1.5 times, in tanks - more than 9 times, artillery - 2 times, in aircraft - almost 8 times, the enemy hoped for quick success.

Under the pressure of Nazi troops, our units and formations began to retreat to the south and southeast.

At this time, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to unite the Southern and North Caucasian fronts into one North Caucasian front under the command of Marshal S.M. Budyonny, operationally subordinating the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Flotilla to him.

Fighting of the North Caucasus Front at the end of July and beginning of August proceeded in extremely difficult conditions. the enemy quickly advanced towards Stavropol and Kropotkin. The stubborn resistance of our forces in the Stalingrad direction forced the fascist command on July 31 to turn part of the forces of the 4th Tank Army to this direction, which weakened its Caucasian group. But superiority in forces remained on the enemy's side. Soviet troops continued to fight back. On August 10, the enemy captured Maikop, and on the 11th, Krasnodar.

Southern front.

The difficult situation in the North Caucasus required decisive measures. It was necessary to explain to the soldiers all the danger that hung over the Motherland in connection with the Nazi breakthrough on the Don. Back on July 28, 1942, an order was given by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin, which emphasized: “To retreat further means to ruin yourself and at the same time our Motherland... Not a step back without an order from the high command. This is the call of our Motherland.”

Commanders, political agencies, party and Komsomol workers explained the instructions of our party and the Supreme High Command on the protection of every meter of Soviet land. To strengthen the political apparatus, party organizations in the North Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia sent more than 6 thousand communists to the troops.

The danger looming over the Caucasus united the Soviet people even more closely. In the territory of the North Caucasus, the party underground was preparing, partisan detachments were created. 86 partisan detachments were organized in Kuban. In the Stavropol Territory, partisan detachments were created in every district.

By decision of the State Defense Committee, 90 thousand people of the local population were mobilized for the construction of defensive lines. In the rain and slush, under bombing, the Soviet people erected fortifications, built stone barriers on the roads and paths of high mountain passes, and prepared rubble in the wooded foothills.

The peoples of the Caucasus were seized with a high patriotic enthusiasm. In incredibly difficult conditions, not sparing blood, they stubbornly defended every inch of Soviet land. Here are just a few examples.

The troops of the 17th Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps, which covered the Tuapse Highway, and the 30th Irkutsk Division, which operated near Krasnodar and in the Goryachy Klyuch area, fought especially courageously in battles in the northern Caucasus.

On the approaches to the Terek there are two Soviet armored trains under the command of captains S.N. Borodavko and I.P. The Kuchmas fought heavy battles with enemy tanks. When both armored trains were engulfed in fire, the surviving soldiers with grenades entered into single combat with enemy vehicles and knocked out 18 enemy tanks. The enemy, despite heavy losses, continued to rush forward. Under these conditions, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command in short term regrouped the troops of the Transcaucasian Front. At the same time, significant forces were allocated from the General Headquarters reserve to strengthen it.

For better troop control, on August 8, by order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the Northern Group of Forces of the Transcaucasian Front was created under the command of Lieutenant General I.I. Maslennikova.

According to the plan of the fascist German command, the troops of Army Group A launched an offensive simultaneously in three directions. The 17th Army was supposed to capture the Black Sea coast from Anapa to Poti and then advance on Batumi and Tbilisi. The 49th Mountain Rifle Corps was tasked with advancing through the Main Caucasus Range to Sukhumi and Kutaisi. On the left wing of Army Group “A” from the areas of Pyatigorsk and Prokhladny in a south-eastern direction to Ordzhonikidze, Grozny, Makhachkala, Baku, the 1st Tank Army was to attack.

On August 23, the Nazis launched an attack on Mozdok in three divisions. But they were forced to stop the offensive in this area. The Nazis did not stop for tactical reasons; they were forced to do so by the unprecedented resilience of the heroic defenders of the Caucasus. Every inch of Soviet land was given to the enemy at a high price. The vaunted fascist tanks burned like torches on the Caucasian soil; selected Wehrmacht aces, robbers in the skies of France and Holland, found their deaths in air battles. North Africa. They were crushed by the Soviet wars, in whose hearts an unquenchable fire of hatred for the invaders burned.

The artillery division, commanded by Senior Lieutenant A.Z., distinguished itself with accurate fire. Pirmisashvili. The artillerymen courageously repelled all attacks by the superior forces of the Nazis. At times it seemed that our troops would not be able to repel the enemy avalanche. But the Soviet wars accomplished the almost impossible. For the bravery and bravery shown in these battles, division commander A.Z. Pirmisashvili, the faithful son of the Georgian people, was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Hitler's headquarters was extremely dissatisfied with the actions of Army Group A. Field Marshal List was removed by Hitler from his post as commander-in-chief of this group. The enemy still could not refuse to seize the Grozny oil region. Hitler demanded from the command of the 1st Tank Army the speedy capture of Grozny. But the Nazis only managed to advance a little south of Mozdok, losing more than 6 thousand. soldiers and officers.

Having strengthened its Mozdok group with the motorized SS Viking division, the enemy decided to attack through the Elkhotov “gate” in the direction of Ordzhonikidze and along the Prokhladny-Grozny railway. On September 27, the enemy captured Elkhotovo, but was unable to break through the Elkhotovo “gate” to Grozny and was forced to abandon further attacks.

Simultaneously with the fighting in the Mozdok direction, the battle for Novorossiysk broke out. On August 21, the enemy captured the villages of Abinskaya and Krymskaya and created the threat of a breakthrough to Novorossiysk through the passes. however, units of the Novorossiysk defensive region managed to stop the further advance of the enemy. Then, having transferred the 125th Infantry Division from the Tuapse direction to the Crimean region, the Nazis again went on the offensive on August 29. Now they decided to break through to Novorossiysk bypassing from the northwest through Natukhaevskaya and Verkhne-Bakansky. At the cost of heavy losses, the enemy managed to push back the 83rd Naval Rifle Brigade, reach the Black Sea coast on August 31 and capture Anapa.

On September 1, for the convenience of command and control of troops, the Headquarters of the Upper High Command transformed the North Caucasus Front into the Black Sea Group of Forces of the Transcaucasian Front. Colonel General Ya.P. was appointed commander of the group. Cherevichenko.

On September 4, with the support of aviation and tanks, the Nazis managed to capture the Wolf Gate pass, Abrau-Dyurso and Yuzhnaya Ozereyka, and on September 6 they broke through to the northwestern outskirts of Novorossiysk. The next day, the Nazis reached the northern outskirts of Novorossiysk. Fierce street fighting broke out. Having up to 9 divisions here, the Nazis occupied most of western Novorossiysk on September 9. However, the advance of enemy troops slowed down every day.

On the southeastern outskirts of Novorossiysk, not far from the highway, there is a railway trailer on a high pedestal. There is an inscription on the carriage: “Here on September 11, 1942, the valiant warriors of units of the Soviet Army and the Black Sea Fleet blocked the enemy’s path to the Caucasus, and 360 days later, in cooperation with the amphibious assault and units from Malaya Zemlya, they began the assault on Novorossiysk and on September 16, 1943, defeating the fascist troops, liberated the city."

The courageous defenders of Novorossiysk held a heroic defense for 360 days. The enemy never managed to use the Novorossiysk port as its naval base.

After the failure of the offensive east of Novorossiysk, the Nazis tried to develop an offensive along the Black Sea coast on Tuapse. By bringing up the additional 3rd Romanian Mountain Rifle Division, the enemy hoped to strike the flank of the 47th Army to cut off the army's troops from the rest of the forces of the Black Sea Group, defeat it and reach the sea in the Gelendzhik area.

On September 19, the 3rd Romanian Mountain Division went on the offensive. The enemy managed to penetrate our defenses to a depth of 6 km. Then the Soviet troops launched a counterattack on the morning of September 25. In two days of fierce fighting, the 3rd Romanian Mountain Division was almost completely destroyed. It lost up to 8 thousand soldiers and officers killed, captured and wounded. After this defeat in the Novorossiysk direction, the enemy went on the defensive and made no further attempts to attack here with large forces.

In mid-August, fighting began on the passes of the Main Caucasus Range. Units of the 1st German Mountain Division "Edelweiss" captured some passes, but were unable to reach Transcaucasia.

With the onset of frost and snowfall, fighting on the passes ceased. Thus, in the fall of 1942, the offensive of the Nazi troops on the passes of the Main Caucasus Range was stopped.

At the end of September, the Nazi command decided to make a new attempt to break through to Tuapse. The enemy hoped to reach the Black Sea coast, cut off the Black Sea Group of Forces from the main forces of the Transcaucasian Front and deprive our Black Sea Fleet of bases and ports.

For this purpose, the Tuapse group was created, which was significantly superior in strength and armament to our 18th Army, which was defending at that time in the Tuapse direction, in infantry by two times, in artillery by three. The enemy had about 150 tanks, and the troops of the Black Sea Group had no tanks at all. The Germans had 350 aircraft, and our 5th Air Army had 71 aircraft.

At the end of October, the advanced units of the enemy reached the river valley. Tuapsinka, from which the city was about 30 km away.

Then the troops of the 18th Army launched two attacks on the flanks of the enemy group that had broken through, in converging directions in the area of ​​Mount Semashko.

In the first half of November, from separate groups surrounded by our troops in the area of ​​​​the Semashko and Two Brothers mountains, the Semashkh enemy group of up to five regiments with artillery and mortars was formed. The Soviet wars took place in difficult conditions of mountainous and forested terrain; due to heavy fog, visibility was sometimes only one to two tens of meters. But, despite all the difficulties, the Semashkh enemy group was eliminated, and its remnants were thrown back across the river. Pshish. Thus, the last threat of a breakthrough of fascist German troops to Tuapse was eliminated.

At this time, in the zone of action of the Northern Group of Forces, the Nazis made desperate attempts to reach the oil regions of Grozny and Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz).

On November 2, the enemy threw up to 100 tanks into battle and, having broken through the outer perimeter of the fortified area, advanced units reached the suburb of Ordzhonikidze. By the end of the day he had captured Gisel. At the walls of the city, the defenders of the Caucasus stood to their death. But the enemy continued to rush towards Ordzhonikidze. In the Gizeli area, he again concentrated 150 tanks and tried to expand the breakthrough. But through the efforts of soldiers of the Soviet Army and militia units, the fascist troops were stopped near the city. The group of fascist German troops near Ordzhonikidze was in the bag.

While shelling an enemy position.

The Nazis made desperate attempts to escape from the trap. Fierce fighting broke out in the Suar Gorge for the Ossetian village of Mayramadag. Here, a battalion of Caspian sailors fought bravely for 19 days and did not allow the enemy to enter the gorge overlooking the Georgian Military Road. The company of machine gunners was headed by Lieutenant E.M. Mirza-Tuniev. This multinational unit can rightfully be called a company of heroes. sailor Vladimir Mordasov destroyed 19 Nazis only when repelling one enemy attack with grenades; Sergeant Major 1st Article Vladimir Romanenko with five soldiers scattered the enemy platoon, captured two mortars and a machine gun. Local residents came to the aid of the soldiers at a critical moment.

At the walls of the capital of North Ossetia, Ordzhonikidze, its brave defenders accomplished many feats. The brothers Dmitry and Ivan Ostapenko especially distinguished themselves. In one of the battles, Dmitry knocked out 13 tanks, and Ivan - 7. Dmitry Ostapenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and Ivan - the Order of Lenin.

The Nazis were unable to penetrate the Suar Gorge and provide assistance to their group, surrounded in Giselle. The first to break into Gisel was private guards rifle brigade Ya. Shaposhnikov. In single combat with six enemy tanks, he knocked out two of them and replaced the company commander who was out of action and skillfully led the battle. For this feat, Ya. Shaposhnikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. On the morning of November 11, the troops of the 9th Army captured Gisel. In these battles, the enemy lost over 5 thousand soldiers and officers. Our troops captured 140 German tanks, 7 armored vehicles, 70 guns of various calibers, 2350 vehicles, 183 motorcycles, over 1 million rounds of ammunition, 2 ammunition depots, a food warehouse and other trophies.

As a result of five months of defensive battles, the troops of the North Caucasian and Transcaucasian fronts, in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet, stopped the enemy and inflicted serious damage on him. During their summer and autumn offensive in the Caucasus, the troops of Group A lost more than 100 thousand people.

And although the fascist German troops managed to capture the richest agricultural areas of the Kuban and Don, they did not achieve the main goal - to break into Transcaucasia and occupy the Grozny and Baku oil regions. The enemy's plans were thwarted by the heroic resistance of Soviet soldiers.

The fascists' hopes for strife between the peoples of the Caucasus did not materialize. The sons and daughters of Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus courageously fought side by side with representatives of other fraternal peoples of our country. The defense of the Caucasus was of great strategic importance. During its course, strategic troops pinned down the forces of Army Group A. And when our offensive near Stalingrad began in mid-November 1942, the German command was unable to transfer troops there from the Caucasus.

ChapterII"Liberation of the Caucasus"

After the victory on the Volge, the situation on the Soviet-German front, especially in its southern wing, changed in our favor. A turning point was coming in the battle for the Caucasus.

On January 1, 1943, the enemy, sensing the threat of encirclement, began to withdraw the main forces of the 1st Tank Army. The troops of the Northern Group began pursuing him and by the morning of January 3 reached the Terek River south of Mozdok. The enemy managed to blow up the river crossings and take up defense on the southern outskirts of Mozdok. But the troops of the 417th Infantry Division under the command of Colonel I.A. Shevchenko crossed the Terek and broke into Mozdok. The enemy fled in panic.

Having captured Mozdok, our troops drove out the enemy along the entire 320-kilometer front. On January 11, troops of the 37th Army liberated Kislovodsk. The 9th Army, in cooperation with the 37th Army, liberated Pyatigorsk and began fighting for Mineralnye Vody. Tankers of the 562nd battalion from the 52nd tank brigade under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union Captain V.Ya. were among the first to break into Mineralnye Vody. Petrova. Making their way with fire and tracks, the brave tankers went to the railway station, smashed two locomotives and created a traffic jam. The Nazis fled, abandoning many trains with ammunition at the station.

Our troops continued their offensive. Units of the 28th Army of the Southern Front captured Salsk with a swift blow and rushed to Rostov and Bataysk. During the first period of pursuit, which lasted until January 24, the troops of the Northern Group fought up to 430 km and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. The front was given the task “no later than February 10-12 to encircle the enemy’s Krasnodar group and destroy it.”

Soviet soldiers had to operate in extremely difficult conditions in the Krasnodar direction. Heavy fighting broke out in the Kuban steppes. Soviet soldiers meter by meter approached the heart of Kuban - Krasnodar. The troops of the 11th Guards Rifle Corps, having crossed the Kuban River and overcoming a number of resistance points, immediately broke into the southern outskirts of the city. On February 12, Krasnodar was liberated.

In the February days, our troops began fighting for the liberation of Novorossiysk. To assist the army troops in liberating the city, on the night of February 4, a landing force was landed in the area of ​​Ozereyka and Stanichka, in which the 83rd and 255th brigades took part Marine Corps, 165th Rifle Brigade, as well as ships and air forces of the Black Sea Fleet, artillery and aviation of the North Caucasus Front.

The landing in the Stanichki and Myskhako area was successful. The torpedo boats laid a smoke screen along the shore, landed a machine-gun group on the port pier and opened fire on the enemy. "Katyushas" from the eastern shore of Tsemes Bay continuously suppressed enemy points. Soldiers approached the shore through the fire assault groups under the command of senior lieutenants V.S. Pshechenko, A.D. Taranovsky. They were the first to land on the shore, in a short battle they suppressed enemy resistance and ensured the landing of the landing force. The 2nd and 3rd echelons were urgently transferred to the Stanichka area. The paratroopers immediately entered the battle, continuously expanding the bridgehead.

On February 6, at night, ships of the Black Sea Fleet began landing new forces on the occupied bridgehead. In a few days Malaya Zemlya More than 17 thousand were planted. soldiers and officers of the airborne troops, 21 guns, 74 mortars, 86 machine guns, 440 tons of ammunition and food. Subsequently, from February 9 to 12, 4 rifle brigades were landed on the bridgehead in the Myskhako area. In addition, 5 partisan detachments were transferred to Malaya Zemlya.

In fierce battles with the enemy, the paratroopers retook a bridgehead with an area of ​​about 28 square meters. km. The Nazis tried with all their might to eliminate him by throwing the paratroopers into the sea. Enemy aircraft sometimes produced up to 2 thousand. aircraft to the bridgehead. The entire ground was pitted with craters from shells and bombs. But no force could break the will to victory of the Soviet soldiers who heroically held Malaya Zemlya.

Paratroopers.

The 225-day epic of fighting on Malaya Zemlya is history heroic deeds Soviet soldiers. The commanders and political workers showed courage and high organizational skills.

For not a single minute did the paratroopers feel disconnected from Mainland, and this gave them strength and inspired them to new exploits for the glory of the Motherland. On Malaya Zemlya there reigned an atmosphere of heroism and mutual assistance, readiness to stand up for the Motherland, not sparing one’s life.

Having liberated Krasnodar, our troops continued to drive the enemy further and further to the west. The fascist German command took all measures to stop the advance of the Soviet troops. It threw into battle many units and formations that had previously been put into reserve. One formation of dive bombers from Tunisia and several groups of fighters from Holland were urgently transferred to Kuban. The fighting became even more fierce. They walked beyond individual villages, farms, towns, and houses.

Meanwhile, the troops of the Southern Front under the command of Colonel General R.Ya. Malinovsky continued to crush the enemy in the Bataysk area and on February 7, overcoming the stubborn resistance of the Nazis, they liberated the city. And on February 8 and 9, front troops crossed the Don and started street battles in Rostov. Among the first to break into Rostov were the soldiers of a battalion of a separate rifle brigade, commanded by senior lieutenant G.K. Madoyan. They rushed to the station and, having captured it, organized a perimeter defense. The Nazis threw significant forces against the daredevils. Over six days of continuous fighting, the brave warriors repelled 32 enemy counterattacks, but did not retreat. For the courage and bravery shown in these battles, all participants in the heroic defense of the Rostov station were awarded orders and medals, and the battalion commander, Senior Lieutenant G.K. Madoyan was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The fascist monsters almost completely destroyed Rostov. Incredible atrocities were committed by the occupiers against the Soviet people. A hospital for prisoners of war organized by the Germans was discovered on the territory of the former artillery school. The wounded and sick from different camps were housed here.

The Nazis forced up to 100 people into a small room designed for 10-15 people. People slept on the bare floor for months. The bandages of the wounded were not removed for several days.

The prisoners died in terrible agony. The corpses were not removed for 7-10 days.

The number of patients in the infirmary by the end of 1942 reached almost 8 thousand people. For six months, the prisoners received only several times 80-100 grams of bread from burnt barley.

Hitler’s monsters didn’t even give out enough water. One day they deliberately gave out rusty, rotten herring. Hungry people greedily pounced on her. A few hours later they began to be overcome by terrible thirst. But the water was hidden in advance. For three days the prisoners lived without a drop of water. On the fourth day it started to rain. Exhausted people crawled out of the barracks and tried to collect at least a handful of muddy moisture on the ground, but machine gun fire awaited everyone who crossed the threshold. On this day alone, the Nazis killed 48 people. Many, unable to bear the terrible torture, went crazy.

In January 1943, a typhus epidemic broke out in the infirmary. This scared the Nazis. They allocated a separate barracks for the sick. There were 750 people lying in a small cold room. Mortality in the infirmary increased to 100 thousand per day. There were cases when living seriously ill people who lost consciousness from high fever were buried along with the dead. The holes were barely filled with earth, and the earth was moving. At night, muffled groans could be heard from there.

After the liberation of Rostov by Soviet troops, 3,500 corpses were discovered on the territory of the infirmary.

In the spring of 1943, troops of the North Caucasus Front continued their offensive with the goal of liberating Taman. However, the enemy resisted with extraordinary tenacity. A strong defense was created here, called the Blue Line. It passed along the rivers and spurs of the main Caucasian ridge and its flanks abutted the Azov and Black Seas.

To support its troops from the air, the Nazi command concentrated about 1,000 aircraft at the airfields of Crimea and Taman and attracted up to 200 bombers based in the Donbass and southern Ukraine. Unprecedentedly large air forces from both sides were concentrated in a relatively small area. One of the largest air battles broke out in the air, lasting with unrelenting tension for about two months. In this battle, enemy aircraft suffered great damage. The enemy lost 1,100 aircraft, of which 800 were shot down in air battles. Soviet pilots fought courageously. The high military skill of pilot A.I. Pokryshkin appeared in the sky over Kuban. For courage and courage he was awarded the first Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Fighter pilots D.B. Glinka, B.B. Glinka, V.G. Semenishin, V.I. Fadeev, G.G. Golubev, N.F. Smirnov and many others distinguished themselves here.

Female pilots of the 46th Guards Night Regiment showed great courage and heroism in battles on the Kuban bridgehead. Pilots and navigators E. Nosal, I. Kashirina, M. Chechneva, V. Belik, L. Rozanova, A. Popova and others especially distinguished themselves.

After the liberation of the Crimean village, the troops of the North Caucasus Front began to prepare for decisive battles on the Taman Peninsula.

By the fall of 1943, a favorable situation had developed for the North Caucasus Front. Our troops, having defeated the enemy at Kursk Bulge and having liberated the Donbass, they reached the lower reaches of the Dnieper. The fascist group on the Taman Peninsula found itself in a difficult situation. At this time, the troops of the North Caucasus Front were tasked with eliminating this group and preventing its evacuation to Crimea. The main obstacle on the way of our troops was the Blue Line - a powerful defensive line of the enemy. The Soviet command decided to break through this long-term enemy defense in the Novorossiysk direction, since the capture of Novorossiysk weakened the entire enemy defense system on the Blue Line. In addition, here our ground forces could closely cooperate with the Black Sea Fleet. When choosing the direction of the main attack, the factor of surprise was also taken into account. The enemy, who had strongly fortified Novorossiysk, least of all expected a blow here.

The main blow was delivered in Novorossiysk by the forces of the 18th Army from land and the landing of the Black Sea Fleet from the sea.

Comprehensive party-political work was carried out among the troops preparing for the operation. A high offensive impulse was created in units and on ships. The soldiers and sailors were well prepared for the assault on Novorossiysk and were eagerly awaiting the signal to attack.

And on the night of September 9-10, the silence was broken by the powerful roar of artillery cannonades. 800 guns brought down their fire on the enemy fortifications. The sky was pierced by fiery Katyusha arrows. Our bombers attacked the enemy from the air.

At this time, torpedo boats rushed towards the port piers. There were terrible explosions. It was the sailors who hit the pillboxes and bunkers near the coastline. Then the boats landed landing groups on the Western and Eastern breakwaters and attacked enemy firing points. A detachment of landing ships with sailors from the 393rd separate marine battalion under the command of Lieutenant Commander Botylev burst into the harbor through the entrance gate and landed about 800 marines. Behind a short time they occupied six piers. The landing created the conditions for the 18th Army's ground group to go on the offensive.

The enemy put up stubborn resistance. Fighting broke out on the streets of the city. Advancing ahead was the renowned separate Marine Corps battalion, formed from soldiers from Major Ts.L.’s detachment. Kunikova. The enemy was growing in strength. It was difficult to conquer every meter of our native land. But the brave sailors, despising danger, moved forward.

On September 15, the defense system in Novorossiysk was disrupted, and by 10 o’clock on September 16, the port and city of Novorossiysk were completely cleared of the enemy.

The main task now was to prevent the enemy from leaving the Taman Peninsula. The troops of the 56th Army broke through the central section of the Blue Line and captured the main centers of enemy resistance - Kievskoye, Moldavanskoye and Neberdzhaevskaya.

In an effort to gain time and break away from our troops, the enemy resisted with strong rearguards in intermediate positions. The Nazis defended themselves especially fiercely on the approaches to Anapa. But the joint attack by tankers and sailors was swift and unexpected, and on September 21 the city and port of Anapa were free.

Soviet troops, continuing the offensive, liberated Temryuk by the morning of September 27, crossed the Kuban and continued to drive the enemy to the sea with powerful blows on land, from the sea and from the air.

Aviation of the 4th Air Army of the Black Sea Fleet, having gained air supremacy, bombed concentrations of enemy infantry and equipment at the loading points on ships and during the crossing of the strait. Soviet pilots sank about 150 enemy ships and severely damaged more than 60.

At this time, the troops of the 56th Army crossed the Staraya Kuban, crossed the floodplains and on October 4 broke into the village of Vyshesteblievskaya, then turned north and struck in the rear the enemy units defending on the northern coast of the Taman Peninsula.

This blow cut the Taman enemy group into two parts. Pressed to the sea, the Nazis especially fiercely defended their last strongholds - Kuchugury, Fontalovskaya and Gatarsky. Here the enemy threw the last forces that could still resist. But under the pressure of the troops of the 56th Army, the enemy in panic was forced to retreat to the western bank to the Chushka Spit. By dawn on October 9, the troops of the 56th Army broke through the last line, occupied the Ilyich cordon and reached the shores of the Kerch Strait.

Having defeated the Taman group, the Soviet Army and Navy finally eliminated the enemy's operationally important bridgehead in the Kuban. Thus ended the battle for the Caucasus

Conclusion

More than half a century ago, the last salvos of the Great Patriotic War died down. Millions of men returned home, having experienced all the hardships that have ever befallen a person. And many millions of military and civilians did not return. They remained on countless battlefields, in the ashes of concentration camp cremation ovens, at the bottom of several seas. Everywhere. Today they say that there are no more secrets left, and we know everything about the war.

If we know everything about the war, then where does the aching melancholy that you feel when the anthem of the Great Patriotic War sounds - Arise, huge country? Where does the pain come from, when from under a heap of luridly colorful modern photographs will a yellowed corner of a military photograph peek out, where those who died then and those who died more recently stand hugging each other? And where is the border that separates our diverse and dynamic world and the world left behind the newsreels of those cruel years? No, the last words about that war have not yet been spoken.

The feat of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War is worthy of admiration. Soldiers and officers, workers and collective farmers, scientists and cultural figures, children and adults bore an unbearable burden of hardship and suffering on their shoulders. Much has been written about the military feat and much less about the feat of those who worked in the rear. But this is a really big topic. “Everything for the front, everything for victory” - this slogan inspired home front workers and gave them new strength. And new tanks, planes, shells, cartridges and military equipment for the fighting Soviet Army came out of the factory workshops. It is difficult to imagine that this complex technology was created by the hands of women and children, because men were at the front.

The people are immortal - this is the name of one of the works of the writer Vasily Grossman. This title contains the sounds of popular marches, the groans of the wounded, the roar of advancing tank regiments, tears, and the joy of Victory Day. Yes, the people are immortal, just as their feats are immortal.

That war also had an unostentatious, unostentatious side. We must not forget that the forties, like the thirties, were at times Stalin's repressions. Often, someone who was a real hero at the front turned out to be an enemy of the people when he came home. But the Soviet people managed to overcome this too.

People of the military generation are special people. From the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, they brought faith in the future and a willingness to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others into the difficult life of the country. The life of people for a long time was filled with echoes of the hard times of war.

The height of human achievement is determined by the strength of love for life. The stronger this love, the more incomprehensible the dimension of the feat performed by a person for the love of life. And the feat of the people is a direct reflection of the feat of each person, multiplied by a million, by tens of millions.

It seems to me that the people are still capable of repeating the feat of unity, brotherhood and duty, which became the main meaning of the Great Patriotic War, which ended sixty years ago.

BATTLE FOR THE CAUCASUS - operations carried out by Soviet troops with the aim of defending the Caucasus and defeating the German troops that invaded its borders during the Great Patriotic War.

The battle for the Caucasus involved troops of the Southern, North Caucasian and Transcaucasian fronts, the Black Sea Fleet, and the Azov and Caspian military flotillas.

The main task of the Wehrmacht in the summer campaign of 1942 was to defeat the Soviet troops on the southern flank of the Eastern Front and gain access to the Volga and the Caucasus. Germany needed the oil and other resources of this region to continue its global war of attrition. Simultaneously with the start of the offensive in the Stalingrad direction (see Battle of Stalingrad), the German command developed operations to capture the Caucasus (directive of July 23, 1942). After the capture of Rostov, one group of German troops was to bypass the Main Caucasus Range from the west, capturing Novorossiysk and Tuapse, and the other from the east, capturing Grozny and Baku. At the same time, it was planned to break the Soviet defense in the central part of the Main Caucasus Range and reach the regions of Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Sukhumi. The enemy intended to paralyze the bases of the Black Sea Fleet and establish direct contact with Turkish army, 26 divisions of which were deployed near the border of the USSR. The further offensive was to develop in the direction of the Near and Middle East. The troops of Army Group A (commander - Field Marshal V. List) were to break into the Caucasus, consisting of the 1st and 4th Tank, 17th and 3rd (Romanian) armies, part of the forces of the 4th Air Force fleet (167 thousand people, 1130 tanks, up to 1000 aircraft).

They were opposed by 7 greatly weakened armies of the Southern Front (commanded by Colonel General R.Ya. Malinovsky), numbering 112 thousand people, 121 tanks and 130 aircraft of the 4th Air Army. Malinovsky's reserve had only 2 divisions. Soviet troops did not have time to fully prepare their defensive positions and experienced an acute shortage of ammunition and fuel.

On July 25, the troops of Army Group A went on the offensive from bridgeheads on the lower reaches of the Don. In two days, German troops advanced 80 km. Their tank and motorized units reached the steppe expanses of the Krasnodar Territory, creating the threat of a breakthrough to the North Caucasus. On July 28, the Supreme Command Headquarters subordinated the armies of the Southern Front, which had retreated beyond the Don, to the North Caucasus Front (commander - Marshal S.M. Budyonny). In operational terms, Budyonny was also subordinate to the Black Sea Fleet (commander - Vice Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky) and the Azov Military Flotilla (commander - Rear Admiral S.G. Gorshkov). The front was given the task of restoring the situation along the southern bank of the Don at any cost. At the end of July, the troops of the Transcaucasian Front (commanded by Army General I.V. Tyulenev), who covered the border with Turkey with part of their forces, began occupying lines in the northern foothills of the Caucasus and the passes of the Main Caucasus Range. Here the Northern Group of the Transcaucasian Front was formed (commander - Lieutenant General I.I. Maslennikov), which covered the approaches to Grozny and Makhachkala. On September 1, the North Caucasian Front, renamed the Black Sea Group (commander - Colonel General Ya.T. Cherevichenko) was included in the Transcaucasian Front.

The German offensive initially developed at a rapid pace. Until mid-August, Soviet units suffered heavy losses and were driven back from the lower reaches of the Don to the Kuban River, and then to the western foothills of the Caucasus. On August 5, the enemy captured Stavropol, on August 9 - Maykop, on August 12 - Krasnodar and Pyatigorsk. However, the Germans' attempt to break through to the Black Sea coast through the foothills of the western part of the Main Caucasus Range was unsuccessful. On August 25, units of Army Group A entered Mozdok, located 93 km from Grozny. Approximately the same distance separated them from the coast of the Caspian Sea. On August 31, they continued their offensive, hoping to capture the Grozny oil-bearing region. On September 2, units of the 1st Tank Army attempted to break through to Grozny through Ordzhonikidze, but formations of the Soviet Northern Group imposed heavy, exhausting battles on the enemy, forcing them to fight their way forward with heavy losses. Counterattacks by Soviet troops from November 6 to 12 forced the Germans to finally abandon the attack on Grozny and go on the defensive.

On August 19, fierce battles broke out in the Novorossiysk direction, where the troops of the 17th Army were advancing. The Germans' attempt to break through to the city on the move failed. But on August 28, resuming the offensive, German units managed to break through the left flank of the Soviet 47th Army and on August 31 reach the Black Sea coast, capturing Anapa. The Soviet formations, retreating, left the Taman Peninsula, where 6 German divisions landed from the Crimea on September 1-2. Having received reinforcements, the troops of the 17th Army captured significant part Novorossiysk. Their further attempts to break through along the coast and through the mountains to Tuapse were thwarted by the troops of the Black Sea Group of the Transcaucasian Front. The enemy tried to break through into Transcaucasia and through the passes of the central part of the Caucasus Range. Experienced German and Italian units operated here, with many trained climbers in their ranks. Some passes fell into enemy hands, but thanks to the selfless actions of the defending troops, operating in difficult highland conditions, the threat of the enemy reaching the southern slopes of the passes was eliminated.

At the end of November, the enemy went on the defensive here too. At the end of 1942, German troops held the economically and strategically important Kuban region, but they were unable to complete the tasks assigned to them - the capture of the oil-bearing regions of the Caucasus, the Black Sea coast and a breakthrough to the Near and Middle East - having completely exhausted their offensive capabilities in battles . Soviet troops paid a heavy price to stop the enemy. Only the irretrievable losses of Red Army units in this direction until the end of 1942 amounted to more than 192 thousand people. At the same time, the defensive period ended and the offensive period of the battle for the Caucasus began. By decision of the Supreme Command Headquarters, the troops of the Southern Front, Colonel General A.I. Eremenko (created on January 1, 1943 on the basis of the Stalingrad Front), building on the success of the counteroffensive at Stalingrad, the main forces launched an offensive on Rostov and part of the forces on Tikhoretsk. The Black Sea group of troops of the Transcaucasian Front received orders to advance towards the troops of the Southern Front - towards Krasnodar and Tikhoretsk. The Northern Group of Forces (from January 24 transformed into the North Caucasus Front) was supposed to pursue the German 1st Tank Army and strike at it, advancing in the direction of Mozdok and Armavir. By January 24, the Northern Group of Forces had already liberated Mozdok, Mineralnye Vody, Pyatigorsk, Stavropol and Armavir. At the same time, the troops of the Southern Front, advancing in the Rostov and Tikhoretsk directions, in the Salsk region united with the troops of the right wing of the Transcaucasian Front. On January 29, the Black Sea Group of Forces liberated Maykop. On February 5, it was included in the North Caucasus Front and, continuing the offensive, liberated Krasnodar on February 12. Offensive operations in the North Caucasus continued until mid-February. By this time, the troops of three fronts, with the assistance of the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov military flotilla, had advanced from 160 to 600 km, liberated Checheno-Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, most of Rostov region, Stavropol Territory and the main part of the territory of the Krasnodar Territory. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet people were saved from being forcibly deported to work in Germany. But the expulsion of the enemy required big casualties. In just 35 days of active hostilities, irretrievable losses of Soviet troops reached 69,600 people.

In the spring of 1943, Soviet troops reached the Taman Peninsula, where they met stubborn enemy resistance on a pre-prepared, deeply echeloned defense line (the so-called “Blue Line”), which ran from Sea of ​​Azov to Novorossiysk. The German 17th Army (16 divisions) held the defense here. Attempts to break it by the troops of the North Caucasus Front, weakened in previous battles, were unsuccessful. In the summer of 1943, the Red Army launched a powerful offensive in the southwestern direction of the Soviet-German front. This favored the resumption of the offensive in the North Caucasus. The North Caucasus Front (commander - Colonel General I.E. Petrov) received an order to eliminate the enemy Taman group. The front command prepared a plan for the Novorossiysk-Taman operation. The idea was to launch a joint attack from sea and land on Novorossiysk, capture it and launch an offensive against Anapa, creating a threat for the enemy to envelop it from the south. At the same time, attacks were to be carried out north and south of the Kuban River with the aim of defeating the German group in parts. The main blow was aimed at Novorossiysk. The offensive began on the night of September 10 with a powerful artillery barrage and a naval landing in the port of Novorossiysk. At the same time, formations of the 18th Army went on the attack east and south of Novorossiysk. The assault on the city began and lasted six days. On September 11, the troops of the 9th Army went on the offensive, and on September 14, the 56th Army. Great help The attacking troops were supported by the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Military Flotilla. By landing troops behind enemy lines, they did not allow him to gain a foothold on intermediate lines. At the beginning of October, the fighting on the Taman Peninsula ended. On October 3, troops of the 18th Army liberated the city of Taman, and by the morning of October 9, troops of the 56th Army cleared the entire northern part of the peninsula. The entire territory of the Caucasus region was now cleared of the enemy.

Germany's plans to destroy Soviet troops, seize the richest agricultural areas, oil sources, and penetrate into the Near and Middle East were completely thwarted. German Army Group A suffered heavy losses. About 275 thousand were killed and over 6 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were captured. The enemy lost a large amount of military equipment and weapons. However, during the retreat, the German command managed to save a significant part of its forces from death and capture, which it subsequently used on the southern sector of the Soviet-German front. In 1944, to reward Soviet soldiers who did not allow the Germans to access Caucasian oil, the medal “For the Defense of the Caucasus” was established, which was received by about 600 thousand people. Many units and formations were awarded the honorary names of Anapa, Kuban, Taman, Temryuk, and the city of Novorossiysk received the honorary title “Hero City” in 1973 for the massive heroism, courage and fortitude shown by its population and the soldiers of the Red Army.

Historical sources:

Grechko A.A. Battle for the Caucasus. M., 1967.

The Battle of the Caucasus, which lasted 442 days (from July 25, 1942 to October 9, 1943) and took place simultaneously with the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, played a large role in creating and completing a radical turning point during the Great Patriotic War. Its defensive stage covers the period from July 25 to December 31, 1942. The Wehrmacht, during fierce battles and suffering heavy losses, managed to reach the foothills of the Main Caucasus Range and the Terek River. However, in general, the German Edelweiss plan was not implemented. German troops were unable to penetrate the Transcaucasus and the Middle East, which should have led to Turkey entering the war on the side of Germany.

Plans of the German command

On June 28, 1942, the Wehrmacht's 4th Panzer Army under the command of Hermann Hoth broke through the Soviet front between Kursk and Kharkov and continued its offensive towards the Don. On July 3, Voronezh was partially captured by German troops, and the troops of S.K. Timoshenko, defending the Rostov direction, were covered from the north. The 4th Tank Army rapidly advanced southward between Donets and Don. On July 23, Rostov-on-Don was captured by the Germans. As a result, the path to the North Caucasus was open.

In the strategic plans of the German military-political leadership, the capture of the Caucasus, where about 90% of Soviet oil was produced before the start of the war, was allocated great place. Adolf Hitler understood the limitations of the raw material and energy base of the Third Reich and at a meeting in Poltava in June 1942 he said: “If we fail to capture the oil of Maikop and Grozny, then we will have to stop the war!” In addition, Hitler took into account the importance of the Kuban and the Caucasus as a source of food (grain), and the presence of reserves of strategic raw materials here. In particular, the Tyrnyauz tungsten-molybdenum ore deposit was located here. The plan of the German command on the Soviet-German front in the summer of 1942 included delivering the main attack in the Caucasus direction with a simultaneous attack on Stalingrad, an important transport hub and a major center of military industry. Some researchers believe that this was a strategic miscalculation by Hitler, since the division of limited military forces and resources led to the dispersion of the Wehrmacht, and ultimately to defeat in the Stalingrad and Caucasus directions.

On July 23, 1942, Hitler approved the plan for Operation Edelweiss (German: Operation Edelweiß). It provided for the encirclement and destruction of Soviet troops south and southeast of Rostov-on-Don and the capture of the North Caucasus. In the future, one group of troops was supposed to advance bypassing the Main Caucasus Range from the west and capture Novorossiysk and Tuapse, and the second was to advance from the east with the aim of capturing the oil-producing regions of Grozny and Baku. Simultaneously with this roundabout maneuver, the German command planned to break through the Main Caucasus Ridge in its central part in order to reach Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Sukhumi. With the Wehrmacht's breakthrough into the South Caucasus, the tasks of destroying the bases of the Black Sea Fleet, establishing complete dominance in the Black Sea, establishing direct contact with the Turkish armed forces and involving Turkey in the war on the side of the Reich were solved, and the preconditions were created for an invasion of the Near and Middle East region. In addition, the German command hoped that a number of Caucasian nationalities and Cossacks would support them, which would solve the problem with auxiliary troops. These expectations will be partially met.

A column of German StuG III assault guns on the march to the Caucasus.

To solve such large-scale problems, the German command concentrated a significant strike force in the Caucasian direction. For the attack on the Caucasus, Army Group A was allocated from Army Group South under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelm List (Hitler took command on September 10, 1942, and from November 22, 1942 - Colonel General Ewald von Kleist ). It consisted of: 1st Panzer Army - commander Colonel General Ewald von Kleist (until November 21, 1942, then Colonel General Eberhard von Mackensen), 4th Panzer Army - Colonel General G. Hoth (first attacked Caucasian direction, then was transferred to Group “B” - to the Stalingrad direction), 17th Field Army - Colonel General Richard Ruoff, 3rd Romanian Army - Lieutenant General Peter Dumitrescu (in September 1942 the army was transferred to Stalingrad direction). Initially, Manstein’s 11th Army was supposed to take part in the attack on the Caucasus, which after the siege of Sevastopol was located in the Crimea, but part of it was transferred to Leningrad, partly divided between Army Group Center and Army Group South. The troops of Army Group A were supported by units of the 4th Air Army of Wolfram von Richthofen (about 1 thousand aircraft in total). In total, by July 25, 1942, the strike force had about 170 thousand soldiers and officers, 15 thousand oil workers, 1,130 tanks (from July 31 - 700 tanks), over 4.5 thousand guns and mortars.

The German troops had high combat effectiveness and had a high morale, which was strengthened by recent high-profile victories. Many Wehrmacht formations took part in the defeat of Red Army units near Kharkov, southwest of Voronezh, in the June battles, when they, moving towards the lower reaches of the Don, immediately gained a foothold on its left bank. In Berlin they were confident of victory; before the battle they even founded oil companies(“Ost-Öl” and “Karpaten-Öl”), which received the exclusive right to exploit oil fields in the Caucasus for 99 years. A large number of pipes were prepared (which later went to the USSR).

Wilhelm Liszt.

Soviet troops

The German troops were opposed by the troops of the Southern Front (Rodion Malinovsky) and part of the forces of the North Caucasus Front (Semyon Budyonny). The Southern Front included the 9th Army - commander Major General F. A. Parkhomenko, the 12th Army - Major General A. A. Grechko, the 18th Army - Lieutenant General F. V. Kamkov, the 24th army - Major General D. T. Kozlov, 37th Army - Major General P. M. Kozlov, 51st Army - Major General N. I. Trufanov (on July 28 it was transferred Stalingrad Front) and the 56th Army - Major General A.I. Ryzhov. Aviation support was provided by the 4th Air Army, Major General of Aviation K. A. Vershinin (since September, Major General of Aviation N. F. Naumenko). At first glance, the composition of the front was impressive, but almost all of these armies, except the 51st, suffered heavy losses in previous battles and were bled dry. The southern front numbered about 112 thousand people; there was a significant lag behind the Germans in technology - 120 tanks, more than 2.2 thousand guns and mortars, 130 aircraft. Thus, the front that received the main attack of the enemy was inferior to the enemy in manpower by 1.5 times, in aircraft by almost 8 times, in tanks by more than 9 times, and in guns and mortars by 2 times. To this should be added the lack of a stable system of command and control, which was disrupted during their rapid retreat to the Don. On July 28, 1942, the Southern Front was abolished, its troops entered the North Caucasus Front.

The Red Army faced a very difficult task: stop the enemy’s offensive, exhaust him in defensive battles and prepare the conditions for the transition to a counter-offensive. On July 10-11, 1942, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (SVGK) ordered the Southern and North Caucasian fronts to organize a defensive line along the Don River. However, this order was difficult to carry out, because the troops of the Southern Fleet at that time were fighting heavy battles with the German troops rushing forward in the Rostov direction. The command of the Southern Fleet had neither the time nor significant reserves to prepare defensive positions on the left bank of the Don. By this time, troop control in the Caucasian direction had not been restored. In addition, at this time the SVGK paid closer attention to the Stalingrad direction, the Germans were rushing to the Volga. Under strong enemy pressure, the Southern Front armies retreated to the southern bank of the river by July 25. Don in a strip 330 km long, from Verkhnekurmoyarskaya to the mouth of the river. They were bleeding, lost a lot of heavy weapons, and some armies had no contact with the front headquarters.

At the same time, it should be noted that there were other troops in the region that also took part in the battle for the Caucasus. The troops of the North Caucasus Front under the command of Marshal Budyonny at this time defended the coasts of the Azov and Black Seas to Lazarevskaya. The SCF included: the 47th Army - under the command of Major General G.P. Kotov, the 1st Rifle and 17th Cavalry Corps. Air support was provided by the 5th Air Army of Aviation Colonel General S.K. Goryunov. Units of the Transcaucasian Front under the command of Ivan Tyulenev defended the Black Sea coast from Lazarevskaya to Batumi, the Soviet-Turkish border and provided communications for the Soviet group in Iran. In addition, units of the Polar Front were located in the Makhachkala region and covered the coast of the Caspian Sea (44th Army). At the beginning of the battle for the Caucasus, the Transcaucasian Front included the 44th Army - Lieutenant General V. A. Khomenko, the 45th Army - Lieutenant General F. N. Remezov, the 46th Army - V. F. Sergatskov (from August K. N. Leselidze) and the 15th Cavalry Corps. The front was reinforced by 14 aviation regiments. At the beginning of August 1942, the 9th, 24th (disbanded on August 28) and 37th armies were transferred to the Polar Fleet, and at the end of August the 58th army was formed. At the beginning of September, several more armies were transferred - the 12th, 18th, 56th. It should be noted that Tyulenev, having received his appointment to the post of commander of the Polar Fleet in February 1942, carried out great job to create defensive lines in case of invasion from Turkey. He insisted on the construction of defensive lines in the area of ​​the Terek River and Grozny, and the defense of the Main Caucasus Range was strengthened in advance. The events of the battle for the Caucasus showed the correctness of the commander’s decision.

After the loss of Sevastopol and Kerch, the Black Sea Fleet under the command of Philip Oktyabrsky was based in the ports of the Caucasian coast, although they were in the zone of operation of the German Air Force. The fleet had the task of interacting with ground forces in protecting coastal areas, providing sea transportation, and also attacking enemy sea communications.

Ivan Vladimirovich Tyulenev.

The importance of the Caucasus for the USSR

The Caucasus at that time was of great importance for the country, it was an inexhaustible source of industrial and military-strategic raw materials, and an important food base for the Union. During the years of the Soviet pre-war five-year plans, the industry of the Transcaucasian republics grew significantly, and a powerful industry was created here through the efforts of the people. Hundreds of new heavy and light industry enterprises were built here. Thus, only in the Baku region for the period from 1934 to 1940. 235 new wells were drilled, and in total, 1,726 new wells were launched in the region by 1940 (about 73.5% of all wells that were commissioned in the USSR during this period of time). The Baku oil-bearing region played a huge role. It provided up to 70% of all-Union oil production. It is clear that only the loss of the Baku region could have a sharply negative impact on the industry of the USSR and its defense capability. Much attention was also paid to the development of oil production in Checheno-Ingushetia and Kuban.

Along with the oil industry, production developed rapidly natural gas. The gas industry of Azerbaijan provided the country with about 2.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 1940, i.e., about 65% of the total gas production of the USSR. The electric power base developed rapidly; before the Great War, new power plants of all-Union and local significance were built in the Caucasus. Manganese ore, which is of great economic and military-strategic importance, was mined in Georgia. Thus, the Chiatura mines produced 1448.7 thousand tons of manganese ore in 1940, or about 56.5% of the total production of manganese ore in the USSR.

The Caucasus and Kuban were important as one of the food bases of the USSR. The region was one of the richest in the state in the production of wheat, corn, sunflowers and sugar beets. The South Caucasus produced cotton, sugar beets, tobacco, grapes, tea, citrus fruits and essential oil crops. Thanks to the availability of rich feed, livestock farming was developed. On the basis of agricultural products in the pre-war years, the food and light industries were developed. Cotton, silk, weaving, wool, leather and shoe factories, canning factories for processing fruits, vegetables, meat and fish products, wineries and tobacco factories, etc. were erected.

Great importance the region had in terms of communications and foreign trade. A large flow of goods passed through the Caucasus region and its ports on the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. In particular, 55% of all exports and 50% of imports of the Soviet Union went through southern, including Caucasian, ports. Communications of the Black and Caspian Seas connected Russia with Persia and Turkey, and through the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea straits with the routes of the World Ocean. It should be noted that during the war, communications that went through the Persian Gulf, Iran and the Caspian Sea took second place in the supply of equipment, ammunition, food and strategic raw materials from the United States and the territories subordinate to the British Empire. The significance of the Caucasus also lay in its unique geographical position: the Caucasus is located in an important strategic area of ​​the planet, through which trade and strategic routes run, connecting the countries of Europe, Asia, the Near and Middle East into a single hub. We must not forget the mobilization capabilities of the region’s human resources.

Soviet mounted reconnaissance in the Caucasus mountains.

North Caucasus strategic defensive operation

On July 23, 1942, the Germans occupied Rostov-on-Don and began an attack on Kuban. The forces of the 1st and 4th tank armies delivered a powerful blow to the left flank of the Southern Front, where the defense was held by the 51st and 37th armies. Soviet troops suffered heavy losses and retreated. The Germans in the defense zone of the 18th Army broke through to Bataysk. In the defense zone of the 12th Army, things initially were not so good and the Wehrmacht was unable to cross the Don on the first day. On July 26, the 18th and 37th Soviet armies, having received reinforcements, tried to launch a counterattack, but to no avail. As a result, already from the first days of the battle, the situation in the defense zone of the entire Southern Fleet sharply worsened; there was a threat of German troops entering the Salsk region, cutting the Southern Front into two parts and the enemy entering the rear of the Soviet group, which continued to defend south of Rostov. The Soviet command tried to withdraw the troops of the left flank to the line of the southern bank of the Kagalnik River and the Manych Canal. However, units of the Southern Front, in conditions of overwhelming enemy superiority in tank forces, aviation and artillery, were unable to withdraw in an organized manner to the positions indicated by them. The retreat turned into flight. German troops, no longer encountering serious resistance, continued their offensive.

In the critical conditions created, the Supreme Command Headquarters took measures to correct the situation. On July 28, the Southern Front, in order to unite efforts and improve troop control, was disbanded. His armies became part of the North Caucasus fronts under the command of Marshal Budyonny (in fact, the two fronts were united). The Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Military Flotilla were subordinate to the front command. SCF received the task of stopping the advance of German troops and restoring the position of the front along the left bank of the Don River. But such a task was actually impossible, since the enemy had a strategic initiative and led a well-organized offensive with superior forces and means. It is also necessary to take into account the factor that it was necessary to organize command and control of troops on a strip with a length of over 1 thousand km, and this in the conditions of the collapse of the front and the successful offensive of enemy troops. Therefore, the Headquarters allocated two operational groups within the SCF: 1) the Don group led by Rodion Malinovsky (it included the 37th Army, the 12th Army and the 4th Air Army), it was supposed to cover the Stavropol direction; 2) Primorsky group under the command of Colonel General Yakov Cherevichenko (18th Army, 56th Army, 47th Army, 1st Rifle, 17th Cavalry Corps and 5th Air Army, Azov Military Flotilla), one was supposed to defend the Krasnodar direction. In addition, the 9th and 24th armies were withdrawn to the area of ​​Nalchik and Grozny, and the 51st was transferred to the Stalingrad Front. The troops of the Polar Front received the task of occupying and preparing for defense the approaches to the Caucasus Range from the north. The Military Council of the Transcaucasian Front prepared a combat plan, which was approved by the Supreme Command Headquarters on August 4, 1942. Its essence was to stop the advance of German troops at the turn of the Terek and the passes of the Main Caucasus Range. Units of the 44th Army from the Makhachkala and Baku region were transferred to defensive positions on the Terek, Sulak and Samur rivers. It was supposed to defend Grozny, cover the Georgian Military and Ossetian Military roads. At the same time, other parts of the Polar Fleet were transferred from the Soviet-Turkish border and from the Black Sea coast to the Terek and Urukh border. Simultaneously with the transfer of units of the Polar Front to fight German troops, Headquarters replenished the forces of the front from the reserve. Thus, from August 6 to September, the Polar Fleet received 2 guards rifle corps and 11 separate rifle brigades.

At the same time, the German command transferred the 4th Tank Army to the Stalingrad direction as part of Army Group B. Perhaps they thought that the Soviet front in the Caucasus had collapsed and the remaining troops would be sufficient to accomplish the assigned tasks.

The fighting in the Caucasus at the end of July - beginning of August took on an exceptionally fierce and dynamic character. The Germans still had numerical superiority and, possessing the strategic initiative, developed an offensive in the direction of Stavropol, Maikop and Tuapse. On August 2, 1942, the Germans continued their offensive in the Salsk direction, and on August 5 they captured Voroshilovsk (Stavropol). In the Krasnodar direction, the Wehrmacht was unable to immediately break through the defenses of the 18th and 56th armies; Soviet troops tried to counterattack, but soon retreated across the Kuban River. On August 6, the 17th German Army launched a new offensive in the Krasnodar direction. On August 10, the Azov flotilla had to be evacuated from the Azov coast, and Krasnodar fell on August 12.

The German command decided to take advantage of the moment and block Soviet troops south of Kuban. Part of the strike force that captured Stavropol was sent to the west. On August 6, units of the 1st German Tank Army captured Armavir, on August 10 - Maikop and continued to move to Tuapse. Part of the 17th Army, from Krasnodar, also began to advance in the direction of Tuapse. Only by August 15-17 did the Red Army units manage to stop the enemy’s advance and prevent the Wehrmacht from breaking through to Tuapse. As a result, during the first stage of the offensive (July 25 - August 19), the German command was able to partially fulfill the assigned tasks: the Red Army in the Caucasian direction suffered a serious defeat (although there were no large “cauldrons”), most of the Kuban, part of the Northern Caucasus. Soviet troops were able to stop the enemy only at Tuapse. At the same time, the Soviet command carried out a lot of preparatory work to reorganize the troops, create new defensive lines, transfer troops of the Polar Fleet and the Headquarters reserve, which ultimately led to the failure of the German offensive and victory in the battle for the Caucasus.

German soldiers in the Caucasus.

Headquarters, in order to restore the combat effectiveness of Soviet troops and ensure the defense of the Caucasus in the northern direction, on August 8 united the 44th and 9th armies into the Northern Group of the Polar Fleet. Lieutenant General Ivan Maslennikov was appointed its commander. On August 11, the 37th Army was included in the Northern Group. In addition, the Headquarters paid great attention to organizing the defense of Novorossiysk and Tuapse. The measures taken already from mid-August 1942 began to have a positive effect on the situation at the front, resistance to the enemy increased sharply.

To be continued….