Hitler’s Adventure Tours – The Trip to Caucaus

Friedrich von Paulus – I am not going to shoot myself for a Bohemian Corporal.

That Bohemian Corporal, Adolf Hitler by name was the sole reason for the failure of Russia campaign and for the destruction of the empire he created. Just three incidents are sufficient to prove how right Paulus was –

1. The target was Moscow. Collapse of it would have impacted Soviet resistance very severly. But, instead of going for Moscow when the doors are wide open, he went for destruction of Russian armies at Kiev. Though the Russians lost more than 600,000, it blunted the speed of German attack.

2. Caucaus Campaign. The target was Baku which produced 80% of Soviet oil. Instead of going for the real target, Hitler, seeing the name Stalingrad on a map would have diverted his forces there out of personal ego instead of putting it under a light blockade. This means unnecessary energy was wasted on a city, which is nothing more than the next one. Failure at Stalingrad forced the Germans, now in fear of encirclement to evacuate the Caucus.

3. Nazi-Turkish Pact. It is said that Hitler was not ready to give any concession to the Turks unless they prove themselves. See the sequence of events as a consequence of this – Germany was not able to support the Iraqi rebellion, Persian invasion by Britain and no exit route for Germany out of Caucaus. Had Turkey been made a partner in crime, a Turkish advance of a joint Nazi-Turkish advance over Caucaus linking German Crimea and Grozny with Turkish advance in conjunction with Iran and Iraq would have made the Axis history a multi-headed hydra. That may even have made Japan advance upon Russia. The added advantage was a Turkish invasion of Egypt through a Free French Transjordan cutting off the allies. Another alternate was a German invasion of Turkey. Only a statesman and a strategist with proper vision can do this, not a corporal with basic education and no knowledge of geo-politics.

The map below depicts the maximum German advance in Caucaus before they turned back for good.

And tracing the army path –

And below is the timeline, first column giving the dates of German capture and the second, Soviet retake after German retreat. It is such an absurd operation, looking like a tour plan of two different groups. Someone should have looked at it and the back out plan more seriously. Added to it, we see the Corporal taking direct control of the Army Group after sacking the Field Marshal(Wilhelm List) leading it. Had he left the military planning to real generals, may be, we will be speaking German instead of English today.

	German Advance	Soviet Capture
Battle of Voronezh	28 Jun to 24 Jul 1942	15 Jan to 25 Jan 1943
Fall of Ostrogozhsky	06-Jul-42	20-Jan-43
Fall of Rossosh	09-Jul-42	27-Jan-43
Fall of Voroshilovgrad	18-Jul-42	21-Jan-43
Siege of Rostov-on-Don	22 to 25 Jul 1942	14-Feb-43
Fall of Bataysk	27-Jul-42
Fall of Proletarskaya	29-Jul-42
Fall of Salsk	01-Aug-42	23-Jan-43
Fall of Stavropol	03-Aug-42	21-Jan-43
Fall of Tikhoretsk	06-Aug-42
Fall of Temryuk		27-Sep-43
Fall of Armavir
Fall of Krymsk		05-May-43
Fall of Krasnodar	09-Aug-42	23-Jan-43
Fall of Maikop	09-Aug-42	29-Jan-43
Fall of Elista	12-Aug-42
Seige of Krasnodar	14 to 18 Aug 1942	12-Feb-43
Raising of flag over Mt Elbrus	23-Aug-42
Siege of Grozny – failed	15 Aug to 4 Nov 1942	N/A
Fall of Cherkessk		18-Jan-43
Battle of Staligrad	23 Aug 42 to 2 Feb 1943
Fall of Mozdok	25-Aug-42	03-Jan-43
Capture of Taman Peninsula	02-Sep-42	09-Oct-43
Fall of Terek	20-Sep-42	01-Jan-43
Fall of Malgobek	06-Oct-42	03-Jan-43
Fall of Anastasyevsk		31-Mar-43
Fall of Novorossiysk	06-Oct-42	16-Sep-43
Fall of Nalchik	29-Sep-42	03-Jan-43
Fall of Alagir	01-Nov-42	03-Jan-43
Siege of Ordshonikidze – failed	05-Nov-42	N/A

• Corporal Wars
• Second World War