The Defence and Evacuation of the Kuban Bridgehead | Jan-Oct 1943

"The operations in the Kuban bridgehead, the subject of this thesis, can certainly be included in the ranks of the forgotten battles. Indeed the entire campaign in the Caucasus during 1942-3 is often viewed as merely a footnote to the Battle of Stalingrad, even though the oilfields were the primary objective of Operation Blue, the Wehrmacht’s 1942 summer offensive, and the forces sent to the Volga were initially intended to act as a screen for the advance to the south. The Kuban bridgehead, which was held by the German Seventeenth Army from January to October 1943, receives

even less attention." By David R. Galbraith