Operatino Blue

Operation Blue began at the end of June 1942, and at first swept all before it. The German Army Group B, with the Sixth Army in the vanguard, drove eastwards for its date with destiny on the banks of the River Volga at Stalingrad. Army Group A turned southwards after bypassing Rostov, and headed into the Caucasus with the key oil fields as its objective. The drive to the oil fields was now codenamed Operation Edelweiss.

Colonel-General Ewald von Kleist's panzers were unleashed in the second week of July and smashed through the weak Soviet defences at Rostov. The Wiking Division took part in the clearing of the city before it was ordered to lead the advance southwards, with the 13th Panzer Division, as part of LVII Panzer Corps. For a month, the panzer crews and the SS men raced across the open steppe amidst huge choking clouds of dust. There was no serious Soviet resistance, and the main problem for Kleist was keeping his spearheads supplied with fuel. Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 52 transports flew thousands of fuel cans to improvised airfields to keep the panzers rolling. Camel trains were even formed to bring up fuel.

Farther and farther east

In the first week of August, the Wiking's spearheads were in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains and resistance started to stiffen in the huge sunflower fields that were all over the region. On 9 August, Wiking had seized the first of its objectives, the Maikop oil field, after a brief fight with Soviet defenders. German mountain troops then moved to scale Mount Elbruz, the highest point in the Causasus Mountains.

Kleist's supply lines were now starting to feel the strain of supporting troops 320km (200 miles) from their main supply bases. The Wiking Division and other spearhead units were bogged down in a see-saw battle to stop the Soviets retaking the Maikop oil field, so they could not break free to restart the offensive drive to seize the next set of oil fields at Grozny and then move on to the final objective of Operation Edelweiss: Baku on the Caspian Sea. Vital Luftwaffe air support was also now being diverted away to help the Germans locked in the battle of Stalingrad that was approaching its climax.

Batle at Mozdok

By the middle of August, Kleist's panzers had broken free and were streaming eastwards in another break-neck Blitzkrieg advance. The Wiking Division was close behind. By 24 August, his spearheads had come to a halt against a Soviet defensive line at Mozdok. Everything now depended on the Wiking Division being able to open a breach in the enemy line. After several days of gruelling driving over desperate road conditions, Steiner's men were committed to action on the morning of 26 August. "All eyes are on your division", von Kleist signalled Steiner. "The whole operation depends on it being committed unsparingly."

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