Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  • Cited by 1
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2018
Print publication year:
2018
Online ISBN:
9781108341158

Book description

This is the story of the highest battlefield of World War Two, which brings to life the extremes endured during this harsh mountain warfare. When the German war machine began faltering from a shortage of oil after the failed Blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht launched Operation Edelweiss in the summer of 1942, a bold attempt to capture the Soviet oilfields of Grozny and Baku and open the way to securing the vast reserves of Middle Eastern oil. Hitler viewed this campaign as the key to victory in World War Two. Mountain warfare requires unique skills: climbing and survival techniques, unconventional logistical and medical arrangements and knowledge of ballistics at high altitudes. The Main Caucasus Ridge became the battleground that saw the elite German mountain divisions clash with the untrained soldiers of the Red Army, as they fought each other, the weather and the terrain.

Reviews

‘Comprehensive, engaging and full of new material. Statiev's majestic new study is not just a scholarly work, it is an exciting read, which will endure as the definitive work on this neglected theatre of the German-Soviet war for a long time to come.'

David Stahel - author of The Battle for Moscow

‘This remarkable book provides a highly-detailed and balanced account of the fighting between the Germans and the Russians in the Caucasus mountains in late 1942. It takes advantage of unique access to archival sources. Beyond this, many valuable insights are provided about mountain warfare in general, and the about military culture of the Stalin era.'

Evan Mawdsley - author of Thunder in the East: The Soviet-German War

'This fine book will be of interest for historians of the Soviet and the German war effort, but also for students of Soviet leisure and Soviet tourism.'

Mark Edele Source: European History Quarterly

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
×

Contents

  • Introduction: The Path Towards the Top Summits of World War II
    pp 1-10
  • 1 - Russia’s Historical Experience in Mountain Warfare
    pp 11-33

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.