Evening star., 1942-08-18
Caucasian Crisis

SN~oSiSu ~ttSiS
Moscows admission that the oil
! fields Of Maikop have been lost,
coupled with its acknowledgment
that Winston Churchill has been con-
ferring with Joseph Stain in the
Soviet metropolis, combine to empha-
size the crisis of the Russian cam
paign, centering on the Caucasian
front
The military situation in the Cau-
casus-Volga theater of war is as
complex as it is serious. Perhaps it
can be grasped more readily by sur
veying the main strategic aspects.
The cardinal fact is that Marshal
TimoShenkos southern army group
has been split by the German break
through across the lower Don. Be-
tween the two Segments of the di-
Vlded Red armies there is no direct
communication The main railway
line from the Caucasus northWard to
Central Russia is in German hands
to within about 80 miles of Stain
grad the key city on the Volga. This
Axis thrust from the south is coupled
with similar pressure eastward from
the elbow of the Don, less than so
miles away. To meet this pincer
movement, Timoshenko seems to
have concentrated the best of his
troops and mechanical equipment,
and has thus far made a stubborn
defense. But he has done so at the
expense of the Caucasus front, where
conditions are most unfavorable.
The typographical backbone of
that region is the mountain chain
which runs almost due east and west
from the Black to the Caspian Seas
for about 600 miles. The northern
side of the Caucasus range rises
sharply from the Kuban plains, with
only three practicable passes over
that towering mountain wall. Across
the level Kuban steppes the Axis
mechanical war machine is rolling
steadily eastward toward the Cas-
plan. 1t has already got about half
way, against little more than Rus
sian delaying actions. To. be sure,
Russian forces have retired into the
Caucasian foothills, where they may
harry the Axis right flank. But such
operations cannot be major threats,
because the Russians dare not lock
up too much strength in broken
country with poor communications
A large Russian force is almost iso-
lated in the extreme Western Cau-
casus, from the land tip opposite
Crimea to the Black Sea ports of
Novorossiisk and Tuapse. Those
ports are protected by mountains
which rise Immediately behind the
coast. AS yet, the Germans have not
launched major offensives in those
sectors, concentrating on their main
drive across the kuban toward the
Caspian. Even though entirely cut
off from the Russian main body re-
tiring in the Kuban, the Red forces
in the Western Caucasus have line
OF retreat by the coastal railroad
which skirts the Black Sea from the
port OF Tuapse to Batum. Their
position, while dangerous, is thus not
yet desperate,
Assuming that the Axis will con-
tinue to concentrate on its push to-
ward the Caspian, the next major
objective would be the Grozhny oil
fields, even richer than those of cap
tured Maikop. Grozhny is somewhat
over 100 miles from the present Ger
man advance outposts. Thence it is
another 100 miles to the shores of
the Caspian, at the port of Makhach
kale, which is also the junction
where the main railway from Baku
branches, one fork going westward
across the Kuban, the other skirting
the Caspian northWard to the port of
Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga.
This latter strategic link is recent,
having been built hurriedly during
the past two years.
The ultimate Axis objective, of
course, would be Baku, Russia s chief
oil field, on the shores of the Caspian.
Though lying just south of the Cau-
casus Mountains, the Germans would
not have to cross the range to cap
ture it, That is because the Caspian
Sea has shrunk markedly during past
ages, leaving fairly broad coastal
strip known as the Gates of Derbent,
the pathway of many historic in
vaders. Whether the Axis also will
pass those storied gates is the burn
ing query of today.