Case Blue
.jpg)
Case Blue (German: Fall Blau) was the German Wehrmacht's code name for its plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia. It 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 in the direction of Stalingrad along the Volga River, known as Operation Fischreiher. After initial successes, both attacks ultimately failed. The defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad forced the Axis to retreat from many of the conquered areas.
Contents
History
Case Blue led to the Battle of Voronezh, Battle of Stalingrad, and the Battle of the Caucasus. It was originally intended to be called Operation Siegfried, after the mythical Teutonic hero. However, Adolf Hitler, recalling the last grandiosely named offensive operation in Russia, Barbarossa, and its results which had fallen short of German expectations, settled on the more modest name of "Blue".
- On 5 April 1942, Führer Directive No. 42 was issued, containing the guidelines for the German summer offensive against the Red Army. It stipulated that Army Groups A (Army Commander List, later von Kleist) and B (Army Commander von Bock, later von Weichs), newly formed from Army Group South, should first capture Stalingrad. After blocking the massive flow of goods across the Volga, the army groups were to advance into the Caucasus and along the Black Sea coast to the oil fields of Maikop and Grozny, before finally advancing to Baku. Following preparations, in June 1942, five German armies, along with Romanian, Hungarian, and Italian troops, took up offensive positions between the Sea of Azov and Kursk. The general offensive of 1942 began on 28 June 1942. [...] On 30 June, Operation Braunschweig began with the advance of the 6th Army under Friedrich Paulus. The 4th Panzer Army, under Generaloberst Hermann Hoth, led the attack against Voronezh and was subsequently intended to reach the Don River, which flows into the Sea of Azov. As early as 6 July 1942, after suffering heavy losses, Moscow ordered its troops to withdraw, with the primary task of defending the Stalingrad area and the Caucasus. On 14 July, the Supreme Soviet declared a state of war in the Stalingrad defense area.
Army Group South (Heeresgruppe Süd) was selected for a sprint forward through the southern Russian steppes into the Caucasus to capture vital oil fields of the Caucasus, then belonging to the Soviet Union. The summer offensive was named Fall Blau ("Case Blue"—German military plans were "cases", or solutions, to problems). It included the Sixth and Seventeenth Armies and the Fourth and First Panzer Armies, and saw spectacular initial gains. However the Red Army defeated the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad, and then forced the Germans to pull back from their newly-conquered territory, by conducting Operation Uranus and Operation Saturn.
Operation Braunschweig
Operation Braunschweig (Brunswick), named after Braunschweig, was the German summer offensive that began on 28 June 1942. The operation was initially named Fall Blau (Case Blue), which is the common name used for the whole offensive. The name was changed from Blau to Braunschweig on 30 June. The plans following the original Case Blue (originally named Blue I and Blue II) were renamed to Operation Clausewitz and Operation Dampfhammer. Clausewitz detailed the beginning of the operations of Army Group A in July 1942, Dampfhammer the follow-up operations in July 1942.
Operation Fischreiher
Operation Fischreiher (Fish Heron) was the code name for the continuation of Army Group B's offensive (Case Blue) in 1942 down the Volga, targeting Astrakhan on the way to Stalingrad. At the same time, the sister Army Group A was under the command of Operation Edelweiß.
Operation Edelweiß
Operation Edelweiß was the code name for the second part of the German summer offensive on the Eastern Front in Russia, conducted by Army Group A starting on 23 July 1942, as part of the major operational offensive "Case Blue." The aim of the operation was to secure the oil deposits in and around Baku.
See also
Further reading
- Pat McTaggart: Derailing Case Blue, 2020
- Case Blue: the Eastern Front between Barbarossa and Stalingrad, 2022
