Case Blue

Case Blue (German: Fall Blau) was the Wehrmacht's plan for the 1942 summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The objective was to capture the oil fields of Baku (Azerbaijan SSR), Grozny and Maikop, to enable the Germans to obtain fuel and also to deny it to the Soviet Union, bringing about the complete collapse of the Soviet war effort. After Operation Barbarossa failed to destroy the Soviet Union as a political and military threat the previous year, Adolf Hitler recognized that Germany was now locked in a war of attrition and he was also aware that Germany had a chronic fuel shortage and would not be able to continue attacking deeper into Soviet territory without more. Hitler ordered the preparation of offensive plans for summer 1942 to secure the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus. The operation involved a two-pronged attack: one from the Axis right flank against the oil fields of Baku, known as Operation Edelweiss, and one from the left flank to protect the flank of the first attack, moving in the direction of Stalingrad along the Don River, known as Operation Fischreiher. Army Group South (Heeresgruppe Süd) was divided into Army Group A and Army Group B (Heeresgruppe A and Heeresgruppe B). Army Group A was to fulfil Operation Edelweiss by crossing the Caucasus Mountains to reach the Baku oil fields, while Army Group B protected its flanks along the Volga by fulfilling Operation Fischreiher. Supported by 2,035 Luftwaffe aircraft and 1,934 tanks and assault guns, the 1,570,287-man Army Group South began the offensive on 28 June, advancing 48 kilometers on the first day and easily brushing aside the 1,715,000 Red Army troops opposite, who wrongly expected a German offensive on Moscow even after Blau commenced. The...