Battle of Caucasus - Gebirgsjäger (1/3)

Russia 1942/43 ▶ Battle of Caucasus (Part 1/2) Gebirgsjäger Mountain Troops 1. / 4. Gebirgs-Division Kaukasus / Elbruskompanie Hauptmann Heinz Groth (Ritterkreuzträger) Elbrus 5630m @GERMANHISTORYARCHIVE Playlist ▶ Subtitle: German, English, Russian On August 14, 1942, German mountain troops of the 1st and 4th Mountain Division crossed the 4000 m high pass Khotiutau and surprised the surprised Red Army crew of the Elbrus hut, which left without a fight. On the orders of Major General Hubert Lanz, commander of the 1st Mountain Division, a group of mountain troops under Captain Gämmerle climbed the West Peak despite bad weather conditions and raised the imperial war flag there, which, however, did not withstand the prevailing snowstorm for long. When the weather improved, a second ascent by an eight-man group led by Lieutenant Leupold took place on 23 August. Originally Major General Lanz had planned to rename the mountain “Adolf-Hitler-Spitze“ after the successful conquest by the mountain troops. The news of the ascent of Elbrus, however, is said to have provoked an outburst of rage in Hitler; according to Albert Speer’s memoirs, he complained about the “idiotic ambition to climb an idiotic summit“ instead of concentrating all his forces on the conquest of Sochumi on the Black Sea. After this negative reaction, the name was not changed. The climbing of the highest peak in the Caucasus was nevertheless exploited propagandistically. The scenes were only filmed afterwards, as the shots from the first ascent had been found unusable. The re-recording took place on 7 September in the presence of the mountaineer and cameraman Hans Ertl. On 27 September 1942 there was a high mountain battle on Elbrus between German and Soviet mountain troops. The Elbrushütte remained under German occupation until the beginning of January 1943. Legends arose on the Soviet side about its recapture, among other things about a successful bombing - but in fact only the fuel depot below the hut was hit. Due to bad weather conditions, the Red Army was initially unable to remove the Reichskriegsflagge from the summit of Elbrus after the Wehrmacht withdrew; a Soviet mountain infantry unit only succeeded in doing so in February. Caucasus, Kaukasus, Elbrus #history #ww2 #Caucasus #Elbrus #Россия #Germany #military #worldwar2 #mountain #wwii #simplehistory