The Great Patriotic War, Operation Edelweiss

When it became clear in June 1942 that the Blitzkrieg (the blitzkrieg plan on the Eastern Front had failed) and long-term battles were coming, Hitler set the task for the Wehrmacht forces to deprive the Soviet troops of the opportunity to replenish fuel supplies at the expense of the Caucasian oil fields. Thus, the Germans tried to bleed the aviation and armored vehicles of the Red Army. The seizure of the Caucasus, carried out within the framework of this program, was given to them by the code name "Operation Edelweiss". Briefly about this operation itself and about why the fascists could not bring it to the end, will be told in this article.

Plans of the German Command

In order to fulfill the tasks set by the Führer, the Army Group "A", led by General-Field Marshal Wilhelm List, was to strike the western ridge from the west and capture Novorossiysk, to strike at Tuapse, which was the center of a large oil district. At the same time, Army Group "B" moved under the command of another Field Marshal-General Fyodor von Bock to seize Grozny and Baku from the eastern side of the range.

Even before the offensive began in Germany, two oil companies were established to exploit the Caucasian deposits, which were granted the exclusive right for 99 years. In addition, the High Command was ordered to stop all the bombing of sites that were of industrial interest to Germany. The defense of all the objects captured by the Germans was previously entrusted to the SS troops, as well as to the units of the Don Cossacks, General Krasnov, who had transferred to the enemy's side.

Since the operation "Edelweiss" had as its goal the solution of the most important strategic task, enormous forces were thrown at its implementation, including 168,000 soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and more than 1,500 tanks. In addition, together with the military in the Caucasus was sent to about 14 thousand oil specialists.

Division of mountain shooters

Since Edelweiss is a military operation conducted in the area of the Caucasian mountain range, for its successful fulfillment the Germans tried with maximum advantage to use the natural features of this region. Having at its disposal a mountain troop division, staffed by the indigenous inhabitants of the mountain regions of Southern Bavaria, and also by mountaineering athletes, the command assigned to it a key role in the implementation of the planned operation.

The divisions of this division, also called "Edelweiss" by the way, were ordered, having overcome the mountain pass remaining in the vicinity of Elbrus, to hit the rear of the Soviet units trying to stop the advance of the armies of group "A". Such a technically difficult maneuver was supposed to inflict an unexpected blow to the Red Army men and thereby seize the initiative.

Swastika over Elbrus

To prepare the transition of the main incoming forces of the Wehrmacht, the five mouths of the Mountain Division, each of which numbered up to 90 people, advanced forward and, having ascended to the dominant heights, were entrenched. There they also installed machine guns and mountain guns. To raise the morale of the personnel of the units, whose forces underwent Operation Edelweiss, the German command was ordered everywhere to establish the Nazi flags at the highest points.

This order was executed with a purely German pedantry, and on August 21 the banner with a swastika fluttered on the eastern and western peaks of Elbrus. Despite the fact that this action took a lot of effort and caused a delay during the whole operation, it had a great propagandistic significance, giving the Goebbels press a reason to put headlines on the front pages of the newspapers that announced that henceforth the German flag was flying over the highest point of Europe.

To top it off, the commander of the mountain troop divisions, General Hubert Lantz, sent to Berlin film footage specially received by the operators who arrived on this occasion, and initiated the renaming of Elbrus, calling it Hitler's peak.

The Nameless Company

As most military historians note, the Soviet command was completely surprised by the news that the Germans managed to climb the practically inaccessible mountain slopes and, in addition, to set fire points on the peaks.

From the Command Headquarters, an order was issued to immediately dislodge them from there. However, for its implementation, it was only possible to hastily form a unit, staffed by former Budyonnyi cavalrymen, who had no experience of combat operations, not only in mountainous terrain, but even on foot, as well as from loggers, many of which were not kept in Arms.

This hastily formed unit did not have not only its official number, but even the list of fighters listed. The command was entrusted to a purely civilian - yesterday's female hairdresser Grigoryantsu, made shortly before the lieutenants.

In a critical situation

And yet it was they who were to fight the elite shooters of the Edelweiss division. The 1942 operation to seize the Caucasus reached its culmination in early September, when the Grigoryants subunit, under cover of night darkness and fog, so frequent at this time of the year, climbed to the height of the Terskol mountain pass. Their task was to, suddenly attacking the enemy, to force him to retreat from previously occupied positions.

Having completed the first part of the plan and having risen to the specified mark, the Red Army men found themselves in a critical situation. When the morning fog cleared, they, being on an open mountainside slightly lower than the Germans, represented an ideal target for mountain riflemen. Sending fighters to the task, the command did not even provide them with camouflage gowns, and their dark gymnasts were distinctly distinguished on white snow.

Heroes of the ice slopes

Analyzing the situation, military historians unanimously come to the conclusion that the brave men of Lieutenant Grigoryants had no chance not only to drop the Germans from their positions, but even to stay alive. Apparently, the Red Army men themselves understood this, but they acted, however, like real heroes.

The letters of the German soldiers who participated in the operation are preserved, in which they talk about the amazement with which they looked at the doomed but not surrendering fighters, literally, fighting for every meter of the icy slope. They could not be forced to retreat, and only death stopped the brave. It was their unprecedented courage that predetermined the future collapse of the Edelweiss operation.

At the end of September 1942, by order of the Soviet command, a special unit was sent to Elbrus, consisting entirely of specially trained fighters. These included NKVD personnel who had received the necessary training, as well as professional mountaineers. However, even with their help, it was not possible to free the territory of the massif from the Germans.

The collapse of the Edelweiss operation

However, it was at this time that the course of the war was approaching the decisive turning point, which resulted from the defeat of the German troops at Stalingrad. And although at that time the Paulus divisions still continued their resistance, it was clear to everyone that the outcome of the battle was predetermined.

Since in the event of the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad, the Mining and Rifle Division was inevitably surrounded, the Wehrmacht command ordered its withdrawal from the Caucasus region. Thus, the operation "Edelweiss", successfully launched and widely propagandized by the Goebbels Ministry, turned into a failure.

The heroes and their heroic deed

It's sad, but almost no one from the heroically deceased unit, formed from loggers and former Budyonites, was not posthumously presented to the awards, and nowhere in the memory of them monuments were erected. Moreover, even the names of the heroes were not known, since the company assembled in a hurry, as mentioned above, had not only a military number, but even a list of personnel.

Nevertheless, the merit of these people is extraordinarily high, because it was only thanks to their courage that they managed to detain German units on Elbrus and not allow them, bypassing the Caucasian Range, to hit the rear of the Soviet troops opposing the offensive of the German armies "A" and "B". Their feat became one of many episodes of heroism of nameless Soviet soldiers, which marked the entire Great Patriotic War.

Operation "Edelweiss", conceived and carried out by the Germans in accordance with all the rules of military art, came up against the resistance of people whose persistence was beyond the real human capabilities and it was impossible to defeat.

Memory of the war years

Nowadays, the only monument of those events is the ruins of the highest mountain hotel in the Soviet Union (4130 meters above sea level), which was once called the "Shelter of the Eleven" and burned down in 1998, located in the Elbrus region. During the period when the Germans conducted the operation "Edelweiss" (WWII), it housed the headquarters of the Wehrmacht Mountain Division.

Since the general public was very little informed about the heroic company of Lieutenant Grigoryants and their feat, Russian filmmakers decided to fill this gap. In 2012, the directors of Ruslan Bozhko and Igor Malakhov produced the documentary "Operation Edelweiss." The Last Mystery. " The authors of the tape have done a great job, studying the materials stored in both domestic archives and foreign ones.

The reason for the film was the information appeared in print that today on the slopes of Mount Elbrus climbers increasingly began to find the remains of Soviet soldiers preserved in ice. Since, according to official information, there were no significant military operations in that area (the Soviet command did not like to remember its miscalculations), the question arose: what really happened there during the war years? So it became known about the feat of the fighters, thanks to which the operation "Edelweiss" was thwarted and a barrier was put on the way of the fascists to the Caucasian oil.