Operation Edelweiss

Operation Edelweiss, or Unternehmen Edelweiß in German, was a World War II German operation which was launched on July 25, 1942. Being part of Case Blue, its main objective was to invade and secure the Caucasus region to be able to capture the oil fields of Baku.

Operation Edelweiss had been authorized by Hitler on July 23, 1942. This military campaign of the Wehrmacht would eventually fail because Army Group B’s 6th Army eastward advance (Operation Fischreiher) would grind to a halt as it would be defeated at the Battle for Stalingrad on the Volga, leaving Army Group A’s eastern flank unprotected.

Army Group A, under the command of Wilhelm List, was the main force involved in this German attack on the Caucasus. It included the powerful 1st Panzer Army under Ewald von Kleist, plus part of the Luftwaffe’s Luftflotte 4 (Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen) and the 3rd Romanian Army (General Petre Dumitrescu). One division of Army Group B’s 4th Panzer Army temporarily assisted the Army Group A’s units in the capture of Rostov on the Don. AG A’s southward offensive was supported to the east by Army Group B commanded by Fedor von Bock and by the remaining 4th Air Fleet aircraft (1,000 aircraft in all). The land forces, accompanied by 15,000 oil industry workers, included 167,000 troops, 4,540 guns and 1,130 tanks.

When the Soviet counterattack in the Izyum-Barvenkovsk direction had been neutralized, the German Army Group A quickly attacked towards the Caucasus. After Rostov-on-Don fell to the Germans in late July, 1942, the Panzer divisions of Ewald von Kleist moved across the Caucasian Mountain Range. On their way to the oil fields, the “Edelweiss” division commander, Hubert Lanz, decided to advance through the gorges of the Kuban River basin.

With the outflanking maneuvers, the Caucasian Mountain Range crossed through such passes as Sancharo, Klukhorskiy and Marukhskiy to reach Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Sukhumi and Tbilisi. The units of the 4th German Mountain Division, manned with Tyroleans, were active in this thrust. They succeeded in advancing 30 km toward Sukhumi. To attack from the Kuban region and to cover the “Edelweiss” flank, a vanguard detachment of 150 men commanded by Colonel-General Grott was formed. From the Old Karachay through the Khurzuk aul and the Ullu-kam Gorge the detachment reached the Khotyu-tau Pass, which had not been defended by the Soviet troops. Khotyu-tau gained a new name — “The Pass of General Konrad”.

Operation Edelweiss starting point on the Krasnodar-Pyatigorsk-Maikop line was reached on August 10, 1942. On August 16 the battalion commanded by von Hirschfeld made a feint and reached the Kadar Gorge. On August 21 a Nazi flag was installed on Mount Elbrus, the highest point of the Caucasus.

Below, Map of Operation Case Blue and Edelweiss, showing the directions of the German advances

1st Panzer Army’s armored vehicles of Army Group A advancing towards the Caucasus