The Battle of the Caucasus was a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus as part of the Eastern Front of World War II. On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, opening the Caucasus region of the southern Soviet Union to the Germans and threatening the oil fields beyond at Maikop, Grozny, and ultimately Baku. Two days prior, Adolf Hitler had issued a directive to launch an operation into the Caucasus named Operation Edelweiß. German units would reach their high water mark in the Caucasus in early November 1942, getting as far as the town of Alagir and city of Ordzhonikidze, some 610 km from their starting positions. Axis forces were compelled to withdraw from the area later that winter as Operation Little Saturn threatened to cut them off.
German tanks in formation in a Caucasus valley with infantry in the foreground, September 1942
German soldiers in the Caucasus (1942)
Some 870,000 Soviet personnel were awarded this Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus" from 1 May 1944.
Red Army units enter the reconquered city of Mozdok (January 1943).
Grozny is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia.
Image: Мечеть "Сердце Чечни"
Image: Akhmad Kadyrov Mosque at night, Grozny, Chechnya, Russia
Image: Грозный. Грозный сити
Image: Национальный музей Чеченской Республики 3
