Mountain battles of the Great Patriotic War

1.

Mountain battles of the
Great Patriotic War.
Есипенко Никита. 10 класс

2.

TARGETS AND GOALS:
Target
1. To study and highlight the known facts of battles in the mountainous Caucasus.
Tasks.
1. Study of materials about the Battle of the Caucasus
2. Understand what was the goal of the Germans in the mountainous Caucasus?
3. Understand what were the main points in the battle for the Caucasus?

3.

HYPOTHESIS
Hypothesis: The Caucasus Mountains were a fundamentally important object for both sides of the Great
Patriotic War.
Objects of research: Operation Edelweiss, Battle for the Caucasus, The goals of the Germans in the
Caucasus.
Research methods: Study and Analysis of Literature, Internet resources.
RELEVANCE:
Interest in the Great Patriotic War has not dried up for many years. The current generation is interested
in everything to the smallest detail, so it is important to know how and what was filmed in this horrifying
period of Russian history.

4.

PLAN
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Foreword.
Hitler's goals in the Caucasus.
How mountain battles influenced the course of the war.
Interesting facts about the Edelweiss operation.
Conclusion

5.

Foreword
The battle for the Caucasus became one of the longest in the Great Patriotic War. It lasted 442 days (from July 25,
1942 to October 9, 1943) and went down in the history of military art as a complex of defensive and offensive
operations carried out over a vast territory in difficult conditions of steppe, mountainous and mountain-wooded
areas, in coastal areas.

6.

Operation Edelweiss (German: Operation Edelweiß) is the code name for the German command's operation to seize the Caucasus, in
particular the oil-producing region of Grozny and Baku during the Great Patriotic War. The plan of operation was approved by Hitler on July
23, 1942. The operation lasted 4 weeks - until August 21, 1942. The main forces included:
Army Group A under the command of Wilhelm Liszt;
1st Panzer Army under the command of Ewald von Kleist;
4th Panzer Army of Hermann Goth;
Richard Ruoff's 17th Army of Army Group A;
Luftflotte 4 of Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen;
3rd Romanian Army of General Petre Dumitrescu.
The armies of Group A were supported from the east by the armies of Group B under the command of Fyodor von Bock and units of the 4th
Air Army (a total of one thousand aircraft). Ground troops were: 15 thousand oil workers, 167 thousand soldiers, 4540 machine guns and
1130 tanks.

7.

Before the operation began in Germany, oil firms such as Ost-Öl and Karpaten-Öl were founded, which received an
exclusive contract for 99 years of exploitation of oil fields in the Caucasus. To implement this goal, a large number
of pipes were delivered, which were later captured and used in the USSR. A special economic commission was
created, headed by Lieutenant General Nidenfugr, after which it was forbidden to drop bombs on oil fields. To
protect the captured oil industry facilities against the actions of the troops of Nikolai Baibakov and Semyon
Budyonny, special regiments were formed, consisting of SS fighters and Cossacks.
After neutralizing the Soviet counterattack in the Izyum-Barvenkovo ​operation and breaking the Blau plan, the
enemy Army Group B quickly rushed to the Caucasus. After Rostov-on-Don surrendered on July 23, 1942, Ewald
von Kleist's tank formations went to the spurs of the Caucasian ridge. Lanz Hubert, the commander of the
Edelweiss division, decided to advance through the gorges of the Kuban river basin, crossing the Marukh pass, the
Teberda and Uchkulan rivers, and the Klukhor pass. The troops of the 4th German mountain rifle division, which
included the Tyroleans, advanced in the direction of Georgia through Sancharo. To cover the flanks of the
Edelweiss division and capture the passage leading to Elbrus, a special detachment of 150 people was formed.
Through the aul Khurzuk and Ullu-kam, the detachment of the Hauptmann Grot occupied the Khotyu-tau pass,
which soon received a new name - "General Konrad's Pass".

8.

The starting point of the operation on the Krasnodar-Pyatigorsk-Maikop direction was set on August 10,
1942. On August 16, a battalion under the command of von Hirschfeld captured the Kodori Gorge. On
August 21, the pennants of the Third Reich were erected on Elbrus, the highest point in the Caucasus. This
meant the conquest of the Main Caucasian Range. The defensive stage is over. On August 24, the Germans
took Temryuk. On August 31, after heavy fighting, Anapa was occupied by Romanian troops. The troops
advancing along the coast reached the borders of the Tuapse region, where the offensive was stopped at the
cost of an incredible exertion of the forces of the remnants of scattered military formations and the civilian
population. In July 1942, Hitler approved a plan to capture Elbrus. This task was entrusted to the rangers of
the special division "Edelweiss". The division was distinguished by the fact that it was recruited from among
the best military climbers, and on their pennant and uniforms was a mountain flower - edelweiss. There was
no guard on the Hotu-tau pass, through which the German huntsmen headed to the Shelter of Eleven.
There were only two people there, so the Germans began to freely occupy the dominant heights. They built
huts at the bases, established communications. On August 21, mountain rangers climbed Elbrus and hoisted
canvases with Nazi symbols on the tops.

9.

On September 3, G. Grigoryants' company received an order to vacate the Eleven Shelter, 105 picket
and the Ice Base. The soldiers went to the glacier in infantry uniforms that were not suitable for
fighting in the mountains. The company was not assigned any number, the fighters had neither sports
training, nor terrain schemes. The Edelweiss division, on the contrary, was impeccably prepared and
provided with mountaineering equipment, skis, mortars and maps. thick fog and went unnoticed at
first. But suddenly the white shroud dissipated, and the soldiers were in front of the Germans at a
glance. They did not have time to either shoot back or retreat: they destroyed everyone. There was a
combat report that the company had come under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, but Lieutenant
Grigoryants shouted "Hurray, for Stalin!" made two more offensive attempts. Later, Hauptmann Heinz
Groth, who was in charge of the "Edelweiss", said: snowy slopes. Despite heavy losses, they continued
this senseless assault. “

10.

SECRET GERMAN ACTIVITIES ON ELBRUS
Not far from the Dzhily-Su tract there is a large flat area, which is popularly called the German airfield. An old resident of the village
Bylym Musa, said that during the war he grazed cattle and saw a German plane landing there. Officially, the airfield did not exist
there, so there is an opinion that one of the secrets of the Third Reich was the mystical SS laboratory on Elbrus. There were rumors
that skinhead people of Asian appearance flew to the airfield. Allegedly, Hitler sent Tibetan monks to meditate on Elbrus in order to
find the entrance to the mystical country of Shambhala and see the outcome of the war. They said that there is a grave of the
executed monks who "saw" the victory of the USSR. These secrets of the Elbrus airfield interested modern researchers and they
began to search for the sources of these rumors. Historian Oleg Opryshko found a report in the archives of the Ministry of Defense. It
said that the Nazis were using the Elbrus site to land the Focke Wulf aircraft. This information was checked by the publisher Viktor
Kotlyarov. He found out from the local residents that there was a man from the village connected with the airfield. At first, the study
of history came to a standstill. Old Musa claimed that he was talking to a passenger on a German plane, and he was asked a stinging
question - in what language? He replied that in Kabardian. Kotlyarov thought that Musa was engaged in myth-making. But one day
Boris Kunizhev, Doctor of Science of KBSU, called him and said that it was his uncle Anatoly Kunizhev who had landed at the airfield.
The publisher went to the village to interview relatives. They said that Anatoly was born in the village of Nartan, in his youth he left
for Turkey and became an officer. In 1941, he ended up in the German army, flew over the Caucasus and landed near Elbrus. In the
nineties, Boris Kunizhev turned to the KGB with a statement to give information about the future fate of his uncle. He was advised to
withdraw the statement, since it was impossible to disclose the details of those military events - Hitler's secret operation on Elbrus, if
it existed, was carefully guarded from disclosure. In 2017, private pilot Andrei Ivanov published a report on the study of a German
airfield. He photographed it from the air, then made measurements and calculations directly on the spot. As a result, he came to the
conclusion: in this place it is possible to land and raise the plane.

11.

And before the war, this slope
The German guy took with you!
He fell down but was saved
But now, maybe he
He prepares his machine gun for battle.
You are here again, you are all collected,
You are waiting for the coveted signal.
And the guy is here, too.
Among the shooters from "Edelweiss".
They must be thrown from the pass!
В. Высоцкий, 1966 г.

12.

Soviet flags on the peaks of Elbrus.
After the defeat of the Germans on Elbrus, enemy flags remained on both peaks. In February
1943, the authorities gave the order to drop them immediately and install Soviet flags. Although
at this time on the mountain the most dangerous and coldest season, the ascent was successful.
On February 17, the Soviet Banner fluttered on the eastern summit, and then on the western
one.

13.

BY VICTORY DAY ELBRUS GIVEN BODIES
OF THE FIGHTERS
In 2009, sliding layers of ice revealed the remains of the deceased company of Grigoryants. Defense Minister Sergei
Shoigu ordered the start of search work in order to identify and bury Soviet soldiers. The military and
mountaineers began to work on the slopes. Fragments of bodies, the remains of uniforms and ammunition were
found on the glacier and in the cracks. The body of Lieutenant Grigoryants was found in 2013, it was in a crack at a
depth of 70 meters. Remains in an officer's uniform were found with the skin still preserved, and tattoos were
visible on his arms. Archivists found that only one officer from the fallen company had tattoos. This is how the
remains of Lieutenant Guren Grigoryants were identified. Over the course of three years, fragments of 192 bodies
were found. Before the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, the soldiers were duly buried in Terskol - at the
monument to the heroes who participated in the defense of the Elbrus region.