North Caucasian operation

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Major military operations during the German-Soviet War

1941: Białystok-Minsk  - Dubno-Lutsk-Rivne  - Smolensk  - Uman  - Kiev  - Odessa  - Leningrad blockade  - Vyazma-Bryansk  - Kharkov  - Rostov  - Moscow  - Tula
1942: Rzhev  - Kharkiv  - Company Blue  - companies Braunschweig  - company Edelweiss  - Stalingrad  - Operation Mars
1943: Voronezh-Kharkov  - Operation Iskra  - North Caucasus  - Kharkov  - Citadel Company  - Oryol  - Donets-Mius  - Donbass  - Belgorod-Kharkov  - Smolensk  - Dnepr
1944: Dnepr-Carpathians  - Leningrad-Novgorod  - Crimea  - Vyborg-Petrozavodsk  - Operation Bagration  - Lviv-Sandomierz  - Jassy-Kishinew  - Belgrade  - Petsamo-Kirkenes  - Baltic States  - Carpathians  - Hungary
1945: Courland  - Vistula-Oder  - East Prussia  - West Carpathians  - Lower Silesia  - East Pomerania  - Lake Balaton  - Upper Silesia  - Vienna  - Oder  -  Berlin  - Prague

The North Caucasian Operation (also called Operation Don ; Russian Северо-Кавказская операция ) was a Red Army offensive during World War II that lasted from January 1 to February 4, 1943. Four sub-operations were performed during this operation.

prehistory

The Wintergewitter operation to relieve the Stalingrad pocket had to be broken off on December 25, 1942 by the German 4th Panzer Army due to a Soviet breakthrough in the front in the northern Italian 8th Army . With the advance of the Soviet 5th Shock Army and the 2nd Guard Army (General Malinowski ) to Rostov , the entire Army Group A threatened to be cut off in the Caucasus . On December 29th, the withdrawal of the German 1st Panzer Army from the Mosdok - Nalchik - Prochladny area was ordered in a hurry . The OKW tried to free forces for the defense of the threatened Tschir section and the relief of the boiler in Stalingrad . The Soviet 28th Army (General WF Gerassimenko ) operating in the Kalmyk steppe had snatched Elista from the German 16th Infantry Division (motorized) on December 31 , was placed under the southern front on the following day and opened with the 51st Army advancing to the north ( General Trufanov ) advanced to the Manych .

Troop strength

Two Soviet fronts, the southern front with Andrei Eremenko (from 2 February under Rodion Malinowski ) and the Transcaucasian Front under Ivan Tjulenew , with a total strength of 1,000,000 soldiers, 11,341 guns, 1,278 tanks and 900 aircraft, should the south wing of the ( Army Group Don ( GFM von Manstein ) and the entire Army Group A under Ewald von Kleist ) with a total of about 764,000 soldiers, 5,290 guns, 700 tanks and 530 aircraft (43 divisions in total) between two rivers ( Kuban and Manytsch ) and destroy them.

Army Group A

1st Panzer Army General of the tank force Eberhard von Mackensen

III. Panzer Corps General of the Panzer Troop Hermann Breith

XXXX. Panzer Corps General of the armored troop Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg

LII. Army Corps General of the Infantry Eugen Ott

17th Army Colonel General Richard Ruoff

Command staff z. b. V. Forester

XXXXIV. Army Corps General of the Artillery Maximilian de Angelis

XXXXIX. Mountain Corps (General of the Mountain Troops Rudolf Konrad )

V. Army Corps General of the Infantry Wilhelm Wetzel

Romanian Cavalry Corps (Major General Gheorghe Cealik)

  • Romanian 6th and 9th Cavalry Division and Romanian 19th Infantry Division

course

German withdrawal from December 1942 to February 1943

On January 1, 1943, the Soviet attack by the Soviet 9th and 37th Armies (Lieutenant General PM Koslow) on the Terek Sector began, on January 4, Nalchik was liberated by the 2nd Guards Rifle Division (Major General Fyodor V. Sakharov) . On January 3, the Soviet 44th Army under General Chomenko had the pursuit of the already retreating German XXXX. Panzer Corps added towards Stavropol . For the breakthrough of the 44th Army, the tank group of Major General GP Lobanow was formed in the second meeting, it comprised 106 tanks and 24 self-propelled guns, consisting of the 2nd, 15th and 63rd tank brigade and the 225th tank regiment. Another tank division, which was used as part of the 9th Army, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel VI Filippov and comprised 123 tanks; it was formed from the 52nd, 140th and 207th Panzer Brigade. The cities of Malgobek and Mozdok were occupied on January 3rd by the advanced Soviet 58th Army (General Melinjow). On January 7th, the Soviet 4th and 5th Guards Cavalry Corps was combined with the tank group of Lieutenant Colonel Filippov and merged into the mechanical cavalry group under Lieutenant General Kirichenko . From January 8 to 10, fierce fighting raged on the Kuma and Solka rivers, and on January 11 the 37th Army liberated Pyatigorsk . The 11th Rifle Corps (Major General Rubanyuk ) of the Soviet 9th Army occupied Mineralnye Vody on January 12th .

The forces of the Soviet Black Sea Group (18th, 46th, 56th and 56th Army and 5th Air Army) began to advance through the Forest Caucasus on January 11 in the area northeast of Tuapse against the retreating German 17th Army . In mid-January, the 51st Soviet Army reached the Don loop in the north and the 28th Army reached the Manych Canal , thereby threatening the routes of retreat to Rostov . Meanwhile, the cities of Prochladny, Georgievsk , Essentuki and Kislovodsk were liberated in the south . On January 21, the 44th Soviet Army and partisans took Voroshilovsk (Stavropol) . By January 24, the German troops were thrown back on the Siverskyi Donets - Salsk - Belaya Glina - Armavir - Labinskaya line.

On January 28, troops of the Soviet 9th Army took Kropotkin , the 58th Army occupied Tichorezk on January 30 and reached the southern approaches to Rostov and the Sea of ​​Azov . Meanwhile, the southern front advancing in the North Caucasus reached the eastern approaches to Shakhty , Novocherkassk and Rostov. The 46th Army of the Black Sea Group liberated Maikop on January 29 and reached the Kuban River by February 4 .

The bulk of the German 1st Panzer Army ( III. And XXXX. Panzer Corps) had reached the retreat via Rostov in time, the previously subordinate LII. Army corps remained in the Caucasus. The 17th Army had on Hitler's orders with the V. , XXXXIV. and the XXXXIX. Corps to hold on the Taman Peninsula in order to be able to start the advance to the Grozny oil fields again after regaining the strategic turn . The Commander-in-Chief Colonel - General Ruoff organized a strong defensive position on the lower reaches of the Kuban River, where new attacks by the Soviet North Caucasus Front could be repulsed.

consequences

The Red Army advanced 300–600 km on the 840 km wide front and liberated Checheno-Ingushetia , North Ossetia-Alania , Kabardino-Balkaria , the Stavropol Region , parts of the Rostov Oblast and the Krasnodar Region . She lost about 155,000 soldiers (70,000 of them dead).

Although the Wehrmacht succeeded in avoiding being surrounded and broken up, this operation was of great military and political significance. The Soviet 56th Army under General Grechko managed to liberate Krasnodar on February 12th . The German 17th Army was then able to maintain the new positions during the fighting in the Kuban bridgehead and was withdrawn from the Brunhild company via the Kerch peninsula to the Crimea in October 1943 . The German plans to conquer the Caucasus had to be finally abandoned.

literature

  • Andrei Gretschko : The Battle of the Caucasus , German Military Publishing House, Berlin (East) 1972

Web links

Commons : North Caucasian Operation  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files