Tanks in the Caucasus 1942–43

Illustrated throughout, this is the first book to study the Soviet and German armoured forces that fought the campaign for the Eastern Front’s vital oilfields. Although Sixth Army’s battle for Stalingrad dominates accounts of the German summer 1942 offensive, the parallel thrust by von Kleist’s elite First Panzer Army actually came closer to Hitler’s main strategic objective of 1942: the Caucasus oilfields. In this book, military historian William E. Hiestand presents an analysis of the armoured forces that fought this campaign. The Germans struggled with difficult terrain, stiffening Soviet resistance, and extraordinarily long lines of communications, but the campaign would see the Panzers battle into the mountains and towards the Caspian Sea, marking the Wehrmacht’s deepest thrust eastward. The Soviet defenders had to make do with tank brigades of obsolete T-26s and inferior T-70s, with limited T-34s and KV-1s, as most T-34 production was funnelled towards Stalingrad. However the Western Allies had opened the Persian Corridor to the USSR, and the Caucasus defenders made extensive use of Lend-Lease Valentine and M3 Lee tanks. Illustrated with rare photos and detailed new profiles of the tanks on both sides, this book explores how armour fought the campaign, until the collapse of German forces around Stalingrad forced von Kleist’s Panzers to retreat, ending German hopes of securing the vital oil.