NORTH CAUCASUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 August 1942, Page 4

NORTH CAUCASUS

AN ENEMY OBJECTIVE MILITARY VALUES. OBSTRUCTIONS TO GERMAN I ARMIES. Rivers constitute the main natural military obstacles to the German armies in southern Russia. The terrain of present action is of the same character as that which has. been over-run —the continuance of the vast plain in which there are comparatively small areas where the land rises to as much as 1000 feet above sea level. These eminences are not usually abrupt ridges. Immediate strategic, aims are to cut the railway that runs north from Baku on the Caspian, a most important point of supply not only for Caucasian oil, but also for war equipment that is pouring in to the limit of the capacity of the Iran railways, from Britain and America. Successful in this effort, part cf the invading forces of the south might be expected to drive into the North Caucasian area. A turning movement down the river Don would include in its purpose the severing of the Volga communications at the western bend of that important summer waterway from the Caspian into the far north. MAINLY A FERTILE PLAIN. Except for the foothills of the Caucasian mountains, the most of the in or th Caucasian area is a fertile plain which has always been a zone of movement of peoples owing to its situation between the Black Sea and the Caspian. In the west and south-west, proximity to the Black Sea and the mountains means a generous rainfall and modification of summer heat and winter cold, conditions which promote intensive agriculture and dairying on the rich black earth soils. Toward the north and the cast climatic influences are continental and much drier, and the country runs into steppe which, like much of the plain, is treeless except near streams and along the Don valley. There are patches of forest, along the southern foothills and on the Black Sea slopes. A fifth of the population of about 9,000,000 is urban, the industrial towns being Rostov-on-Don, with a population of a quarter of a million, Krasnodar, with over 150,000, Taganrog, Armavir, Vladik Avkaz, Grozny, Novoros, Stavropol, and Pyatigorsk, all over 50,000. MOST NORTHERLY OIL FIELDS. Oil, not wheat, is now the chief product. Maikop and Grozny, on a pipeline that extends north of Rostov, produce 15 per cent of the total oil output of Russia and are capable of much greater development. Thus even if the wells and refineries, one of which produces aviation spirit, were destroyed by the Russians, the German occupation of the area would have high military importance. Baku, on the Caspian shore, produces about 75 per cent of Russian oil. It is connected with Batoum on the Black Sea by a pipeline over 500 miles long. Assuming that the North Caucasian area was occupied by the Germans, Baku would not be an easy prize. The normal approach to the town is along a narrow, level shore strip between the Caspian and the eastern end of the Caucasus mountains which are a formidable defence nearly 300 miles long.

PRESENT COMMUNICATIONS.

Communication between North Caucasus, and Transcaucasia, embracing the Soviet republics of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, is by the railway that goes through Baku and then swings west to Tiflis or by the Georgian military road about 150 miles long, which runs south from Vladikavkaz through the narrow and dangerous Darialsky Pass to Tiflis. Besides oil the region is rich in metals including manganese, the deposits of which at Chiaturi are reputed to be both the richest and largest in the world.

There are marked contrasts in the southern slopes of the Caucasus range which, in Elbrus of 13,526 feet, has the highest peak in Europe. The southwestern slopes, which enjoy a warm and moist climate, are covered in luxuriant forest. East of Tiflis there are arid upland plains, parched ridges and bare defiles of great grandeur. It has been said that in the Caucasus region one can change not only one’s climate and environment, but also one’s very century, for the races and types are in sharp contrast. From modern industrial plants operated by skilled mechanics one may turn aside to find a medley of Oriental races which have changed little through the centuries. There are Assyrians, Chaldeans and Kurds. And there are Khevsurs who still dress as the Crusaders did 1000 years ago and wear a cloak with a cross on its back and a shield on the arm.