August 1942

Eastern Front

After 2 weeks of bitter fighting in the Rzhev region, the 20th, 31st, 29th and 30th Armies have made only minor gains in the salient, but have inflicted over 20,000 casualties upon the 9th Army. Army Group Center requests permission to evacuate the salient to shorten the line and create an operational reserve but Hitler categorically refuses.

The Germans conquer the Kuban, inflicting heavy losses upon the North Caucasus Front. The divergent axes of the German advance in the Caucasus has stretched Army Group A to the breaking point, Groups Rouff and Kleist operating as two widely separated forces. With the fall of the Kuban, Army Group A begins to regroup to undertake the second phase of its offensive. The 1st Panzer Army is to push east from Voroshilovsk toward Grozny, Makhatchkala and Baku, securing the Caucasus and cutting off the Soviet forces against the Turkish border. Group Ruoff is to attack from Krasnodar, take Novorossiysk and roll up the Soviet defenses on the Black Sea coast and reach the Turkish border near Batumi. The high mountain ranges separating the 2 German axes are to be conquered by the XLIX Mountain Corps, attacking from Cherkessk. In an effort to strengthen his defenses in the mountains, Tyulenev raises Sergatskov's 46th Army and moves it north to block the German advance.