stupid strategic question

[Andy Fletcher]

Hi Igor,

It was the Soviets themselves that destroyed most of the oil facilities at Maikop to deny the Germans its use (poured concrete down most of the well heads, by German estimates it would take at least 6 months to start production and a year to restore a viable output). In October when it became apparent to the Germans that they would be unable to take Grozny they tried to bomb the oil facilities there but by this time the forces to do this adequately were not available, though they did cause a lot of damage. Baku the real strategic prize was never seriously damaged and as you say most of the crude was shipped across the Caspian. Oil bound for Moskow, Gorki regions was shipped to Astrakhan and then up the Volga and oil bound for the Urals and Siberia was shipped to Gurev and then by pipeline to Ufa and then onwards by train.

As you say mining the Caspian (and bombing Baku port facilities, oil terminals etc) would have been a viable German strategy if they could have reached them. All the more reason for the Soviets to try and elimate the Kuban bridgehead.