World Battlefronts: Men & Mountains

Behind the wild, gloomy Caucasus Mountains lies a sunny valley that not only pours oil into Russia’s lap but has cradled many of Russia’s top leaders. From Georgia, one of a multitude of small republics and autonomous regions in the Caucasus, Joseph Stalin went forth to power. Georgia also gave to Russia Grigory Ordzhonikidze, late great commissar of heavy industry, and Ordzhonikidze gave his name to the town at the junction of two highways. These and other native sons helped to make the Caucasus strong by granting the states autonomy within the Soviet Union. Last week their land and their wisdom were at stake as the Germans drew nearer.

In the Caucasus foothills General Siegmund Wilhelm Walther List, veteran mountain campaigner in Norway, Yugoslavia and Greece, was massing a fresh German tank army. List’s predecessor as Caucasus commander, General Paul Ludwig von Kleist, had driven his tanks within 50 miles of the Grozny oilfields before he was slain by the Russians (TIME, Sept. 28). List edged the lines a little closer. He hoped to take his first Caucasus prize intact. Though within easy range, List withheld his bombers from Grozny’s oil wells and refineries.

The Russians, too, showed confidence. The Grozny fields had not yet been scorched. Here, midway between the Caspian and Black Sea, they were making a stand not only to protect Grozny’s oil, but also to guard the main routes into the heart of the Caucasus and the richer Baku oilfields. Southwest of Grozny lies industrial Ordzhonikidze, terminus of the only two highways scaling the lofty range near its center. Both highways, the Georgian and Ossetian military roads, are tortuous, treacherous routes that mount 10,000 feet through gorges giving every advantage to the defender.

Geographically, the easier invasion route is eastward through Grozny to the Caspian, thence south along the coast to Baku. Here again nature aids Russia. Halfway down the coast toward Baku is the Derbent gateway, where impenetrable mountains narrow the coastal shelf to a six-mile strip. Nature’s fortifications have been improved by man, making Derbent a formidable obstacle.

But List’s opponent, General Melnik, well knows that such barriers, even when snow clogs the high mountain passes, are not enough to save the Caucasus. Observed Red Star; “No natural obstacle can prevent enemy advances unless it is backed by fire power and men.” Melnik, commander of the Red Army’s southernmost wing, is more a flat-country fighter than a mountaineer (TIME, Oct. 12), but he is also an expert guerrilla tactician.

After Rostov, key to the northern Caucasus fell July 27, Melnik’s forces retreated steadily for seven weeks. Then for four weeks the Germans had to fight for every foot they gained. This week the Germans were trying to advance in two directions through the Caucasus. One force, striking toward Grozny and the Caspian, had been stalled for the past two months on the Terek River, which German broadcasts described as “the accursed stream where so much German blood has already been shed.” Another spearhead had moved from captured Novorossiisk toward the great oil port of Batum. It did not get far before the Russians counterattacked.

In the Axis vanguard were Rumanian units which, when they met the Russians head on, started to retreat. German forces mowed them down from behind. The Rumanians tried to advance again. The Russians mowed them down. For the moment, at least, Flat-Country Soldier Melnik had leveled Mountain Soldier List.