Mountain battles of the Great Patriotic War

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?

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.

course of the war.
Interesting facts about the Edelweiss operation.
Conclusion

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.

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.

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".

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.

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. “

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.

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.

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.

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.