Germans on Elbrus. "Frozen" bodies of German soldiers were found in the ice of the Elbrus region

Elbrus is the highest peak in Russia and Europe, one of the most popular peaks among climbers around the world. During the Great Patriotic War desperate battles were going on for Elbrus, and Hitler wanted to call the mountain by his own name.

The height of Elbrus was first determined in 1813 by the Russian academician Vikentiy Vishnevsky. The first ascent to the eastern summit (5621 meters) of Elbrus took place in 1829. It was made by a group led by General Georgy Emmanuel, the first to climb the summit was the guide Kilar Khashirov. The higher western peak (5642 meters) was conquered in 1874 by an English expedition led by Florence Grove. And again the first at the peak was the conductor - the Balkarian Akhii Sottayev. Russian military topographer Andrei Vasilyevich Pastukhov climbed the western peak in 1890, and six years later - the eastern one. Thus, he became the first person to conquer both peaks. In addition, he compiled detailed maps both peaks. Today Elbrus is one of the most popular peaks among climbers. According to the mountaineering classification, the mountain is assessed as 2A snow-ice, the passage of both peaks - 2B. There are other, more difficult routes, for example, Elbrus (Z) along the NW edge 3A.

Hitler's Peak

On August 21, 1942, a group of the best climbers of the 1st Mountain Division, led by Captain Heinz Groth, conquered both peaks of Elbrus. The purpose of the ascent was to plant the flags of the Third Reich. Goebbels' propaganda did not miss the opportunity and presented this event as an almost unconditional conquest of the Caucasus. The German press then wrote: “On highest point In Europe, on the Elbrus peak, the German flag is waving, and soon it will appear on Kazbek as well ”. As the fact that the Caucasus belonged to Germany, the western summit of Elbrus was intended to be named after the Fuhrer by the German authorities. All participants in the ascent were awarded with Iron Crosses, as well as special tokens with the image of the contours of Elbrus and the inscription "Hitler's Peak". But the joy of the ascents did not last long, already in the winter of 1942-1943 the Nazis were knocked out from the slopes of Elbrus, on February 13 and 17, 1943, Soviet flags were erected on both peaks.

"Shelter of eleven"

In 1909, the chairman of the Caucasian Mountain Society, Rudolf Leitzinger, stopped with a group of ten schoolchildren at a halt at an altitude of 4130 meters. On this place in 1932 was built a hotel-transfer point for climbers, which became the highest hotel in Europe. In 1938, a new three-storey building was built on the site of a wooden hotel, which stood for 60 years. During World War II, on September 28, 1942, a battle between the NKVD troops and the German mountain rifle unit took place at the Shelter of Eleven. In memory of this, a museum was set up on the third floor of the hotel by enthusiasts. On August 16, 1998, Shelter of Eleven burned down due to negligent handling of the fire. Today, a new hotel is being built on this site, albeit very slowly, and tourists can stay in a building built in 2001 on the site of a diesel station, as well as in the Liprus shelter, located at an altitude of 3912 meters, or in an acclimatization shelter " Barrels "at an altitude of 3750 meters. A cable car leads to it.

Having regrouped the forces, the enemy tried to achieve success in the regions of Novorossiysk, Malgobek and on the passes of the Main Caucasian ridge. The intense defensive battles of the Soviet troops that unfolded here continued until November 1942.

Considerable forces were thrown into the construction of defensive lines in the main directions of the upcoming enemy strikes: on the Transcaucasian Front, the number of engineering troops increased 6-7 times compared to the beginning of August, in addition, the local population was mobilized to build fortifications. Significant forces were also allocated from the headquarters reserve. By mid-August 1942, the troops of the Transcaucasian Front regrouped their forces and organized the defense of the Caucasus from the north. A second line of defense was created along the Terek and Urukh rivers, on the passes of the Main Caucasian ridge. Special attention was paid to cover the Baku direction and the approaches to Grozny.

At this stage of the operation according to the Edelweiss plan, the fascist German command intended to seize the Transcaucasia, bypassing the Main Caucasian ridge from the west and east and at the same time overcoming it from the north through the passes, and thus reach the border with Turkey and Iran. Although these countries were not formally on the side of the Hitlerite coalition, in 1942 there was a real threat that Turkish troops would invade the territory of the Caucasus with the successful offensive of the German units. And in Iran, the Reich, as best it could, supported and whipped up anti-Soviet sentiments. In addition, the Germans made a lot of efforts to sow discord among the Caucasian peoples in the region, to play on separatist sentiments.

The enemy launched an offensive in the Caucasus in three directions at once:
1) to Novorossiysk;
2) along the Black Sea coast in the direction of Anapa - Poti - Batumi;
3) through the Main Caucasian ridge to Sukhumi, Kutaisi, Grozny and Baku. In this way, fighting moved from the plains of the Don and Kuban to the foothills of the Caucasus.

In the first half of August german troops advanced into the Caucasus region Mineralnye Vody... On August 11, the enemy occupied Cherkessk and established control over the bridge over the Kuban River located there. Not meeting strong resistance, the enemy rushed to the passes of the central part of the Main Caucasian ridge and soon the advanced German detachments were already at the foot of the mountains. The path to the passes from Sancharo to Elbrus turned out to be open.

On August 14, the forward units of the German 49th Mountain Rifle Corps of the Edelweiss Mountain Rifle Division engaged in battles with small units of the 46th Army covering the passes in the central and western part of the Main Caucasian ridge. German Alpine shooters were recruited from the best climbers and skiers, had special mountain equipment and weapons, warm uniforms, pack transport - mules. They could quickly move in the mountains, climb glaciers and snow passes, while our fighters did not always have the necessary equipment and weapons, in addition, many of them were in the mountains for the first time. Defending the passes proved to be a daunting task. Not all officers knew the specifics of warfare in the mountains.

This is how AP Ivanchenko, a participant in those events, recalled the beginning of the battles for the passes: “On the fifteenth of August the regiment received an order to march. Late in the evening we passed the village of Zakharovka and stopped for the night in a valley with rare bushes. This was our last rest, and then we prepared for battles for two days: we received ammunition, horses, donkeys, pack saddles for them. We received a dry ration - several kilograms of crackers, 800 grams of herring and 300 grams of sugar per person. We were told that it was for ten days. Within a few days the supplies ran out, and everyone ate what he found in the forest and in the clearings.

But we had even worse when we ascended the ice. It's hard to breathe - the air is thin, cold, hungry. Everyone's feet are frayed. British vaunted thick-soled boots were barely enough for this transition: the leather of the soles was rotten like cork and was falling apart before our eyes. Many of us were left with our footcloths alone, as supplies had not yet been established in those early days.

The pass greeted us harshly. It’s dark, there are bare stones all around, there’s no fires to be made, and there’s no food. The overcoats and caps were no longer warming. They set up a guard and began to while away the time until the morning. The next day we were lucky: some shepherd from local residents, I don't remember his last name now, drove a flock of sheep to us, which he miraculously managed to save from the Germans. He said that three of his comrades were killed in the process.

We were given a kilogram or one and a half lamb. There was nowhere to cook or fry; they ate raw meat. On the morning of September 1, we went over the pass. "

By August 15, individual German units had already captured the passes and bases near Elbrus, their further goal was the Baksan Gorge, along which our units retreated, and through which it was possible to enter the Soviet rear.

West of Elbrus, due to poorly organized defense on August 17, the Germans occupied the Klukhorsky Pass, which became known to the headquarters of the 46th Army only on the third day. At the end of August 1942, L.P. Beria arrived in Tbilisi to organize the defense of the passes from Moscow. After assessing the situation and displacing the officers who were at fault, he created an operational group of NKVD troops, the leadership of which he entrusted to General Petrov. Rifle divisions were deployed in the main directions of the enemy's offensive. internal troops NKVD. To equip the army units with fighters capable of navigating the difficult mountainous environment, they began to send climbers and skiers to the Transcaucasian Front from all over the country. However, the troops still experienced great difficulties with the supply of ammunition, food and equipment. It took time to achieve any results.

On the night of August 17, a detachment of German military climbers set off from the Hotu-Tau pass to the slopes of Elbrus to the Eleven Shelter and to the meteorological station. From there, on August 21, a group of German Alpine riflemen under the command of Captain Groth ascended Elbrus and hoisted the divisional flag on both of its peaks. However, instead of gratitude, the German climbers received a penalty. The fact is that Hitler wanted to see a flag with a swastika on the highest peak in Europe. They had no choice but to rise once again to a height of 5,642 meters and place the required flag.

The Ministry of Propaganda presented this achievement as a sign of the imminent conquest of the Caucasus. The top of the mountain was supposed to be called "Hitler's Peak".

German newspapers wrote: “At the highest point of Europe, the top of Elbrus, the German flag flutters, and soon it will appear on Kazbek. The conquered Elbrus crowns the end of the fallen Caucasus ”.

Slightly to the west, other units of the German 49th Mountain Rifle Corps by that time were already fighting with Soviet troops on the southern slopes of the Klukhor Pass. By the end of the month, the enemy reached the northern slopes of the Marukh pass, captured the Umporg pass. Heavy bloody battles were fought at the Sancharsky pass. On September 5, 1942, the Nazis with a surprise attack from three sides captured the Marukh Pass.

Only by the end of September 1942, having pulled up significant forces to the passes, the command of the Transcaucasian Front managed to stabilize the situation. Positional mountain battles began, which continued with varying success until the end of December 1942. Our troops did not manage to shoot down the German mountain riflemen and gamekeepers from the passes. In turn, the commander of the 49th German corps, General Konrad, no longer had the strength to continue the offensive and break through to the Transcaucasus.
On August 23, German troops launched an offensive on Mozdok in order to break through to the oil-bearing regions of Grozny and Makhachkala. This sector was to be defended by the 1st Panzer, 4th Air, 37th and 9th Armies. The soldiers and commanders of armored trains showed unparalleled stamina, heroism and courage.

But the advanced detachments of the Red Army put up against the enemy were forced to withdraw, and the enemy seized Mozdok with a swift blow and rushed to Malgobek. This city was strategically important, as one of the oil industrial regions, having captured which the Germans would secure a foothold for a further offensive on Grozny, and in the event of an operational pause, Malgobek would become a good base for them. On the morning of September 2, the Germans began crossing the Terek south of the city. Having seized a small bridgehead on the southern bank of the river, German troops on the night of September 4 dealt a strong blow, and advanced 10 km south of Mozdok, reaching the foot of the Tersk ridge. Here the enemy met a strong rebuff on the Nogai-Mirza - Terskaya line and weakened the onslaught for a while. The relative lull did not last long: having thrown the motorized SS Viking division from the Tuapse direction, the Germans resumed their offensive.

By the third decade of September, the battles were getting closer and closer to Malgobek. Soviet units, at the cost of huge losses, held back the onslaught of the 1st Panzer Army of the Wehrmacht. Its commander, Paul von Kleist, was forced to use all his reserves, and by the end of September his troops were severely exhausted. Besides, in German parts the problem of supplying them with fuel became more and more acute.

At the end of September, a fierce battle for the city broke out. The soldiers of the Red Army fought with great stubbornness for Malgobek, which changed hands 14 times, but nevertheless our armies were able to hold this line, and the enemy gave up the idea of ​​continuing the offensive in this direction. In addition, our troops managed to pin down and wear down significant enemy forces and prevent them from reinforcing the advancing on Stalingrad Army Group "B". However, the calm that was established on the eastern face of the Transcaucasian Front was temporary. Having abandoned the attack on Grozny from the Malgobek side, the German command began to strengthen its grouping in the Ordzhonikidze direction.

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On the Elbrus glacier in the last year, climbers unexpectedly began to find remains Soviet soldiers... How they managed to reach almost the top of Elbrus without any climbing equipment is anyone's guess. It was as if some unknown force had brought a whole company here straight from the plain. But who are these people? What kind of battle was it? Historical sources they say that there were no serious hostilities in precisely these places during the war years.

Even the initial results of the investigation undertaken by local climbers and mine rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were shocking: perhaps for 70 years one of the secrets of the Great Patriotic War was buried here - why a carefully worked out Hitler's plan"Edelweiss" to capture the Caucasus.

It is known that it was on Elbrus that the famous detachment of German mountain rangers "Edelweiss" stopped, which was tasked to immediately overcome the Main Caucasian ridge, go to the rear Soviet troops and start a sabotage war there.

There were no our units in the Elbrus region. It was a strategic miscalculation of our command, which the Germans took advantage of. However, the Nazis also made a gross military mistake. Instead of fulfilling Hitler's order - without slowing down the pace, follow to the Black Sea and the oil-bearing regions of the Caucasus - they ... set off to conquer the highest peak in Europe in order to hoist the banner of the Reich. It was Elbrus that Nazi ideologists considered the sacred mountain of the Aryans, in which the entrance to the legendary Shambhala is hidden. But by doing so, the German mountain special forces discovered themselves. The surprise effect was lost.

A categorical order came from Moscow to destroy the Edelweiss at any cost, but there was no one to do it. In the fire brigade, a company was formed from ... cavalrymen and rear personnel. Lieutenant Grigoryants, who had recently been a hairdresser, became its commander. It was these people who, at the cost of their lives, stopped the elite mountain units of the Wehrmacht.

To restore the picture of events, the film crew together with the Elbrus detachment of the Ministry of Emergency Situations undertook for the first time a purposeful mountain expedition to the places of these unknown battles. The filmmakers found the remains of the soldiers of this heroic company, who were later buried with all military honors, and also visited Germany, where they managed to find two veterans of the Wehrmacht mountain special forces who participated in this campaign.

The bodies of German soldiers were found in the ice of the Elbrus region. Most likely these are German huntsmen from the Edelweiss division. This sensational news was reported by a local historian and publisher from Kabardino-Balkaria Viktor Kotlyarov.
“Knowing that in addition to publishing work we are also engaged in research, people come to our office to tell about interesting artifacts found in Kabardino-Balkaria, unusual phenomena, little-known sights. This time, the boy who came to the publishing house brought several identification tokens of German soldiers. He found them together with two comrades in the highlands and showed them on the map exactly where, ”said Kotlyarov. It turned out that tokens are only a small part of what the guys found. In one of the gorges - narrow, steep, shaded - last summer they found a group of several dozen German soldiers, apparently caught in an avalanche.
V last years active melting of glaciers began, the snow cap lying on top of them melted, exposing ice, and in it - at a depth of a little more than a meter - the bodies of German soldiers. They are scattered over a fairly long area - at least 250-300 meters. In groups of 5-7 people, in a crowd, one on one - only the general gray-green mass is visible. There are several such groups.
Many lie apart. Even faces can be seen through the icy mirror among the gray-greenish mass. It is very difficult to calculate the total number of soldiers, but it comes about tens, and maybe even hundreds of people. From the picture, looking through the ice, we can conclude that they died instantly. There is no doubt that it is from an avalanche. She came down on the left side and buried everyone in this rather narrow gorge under a huge mass of snow. The snow compressed with time and temperature, walled up the soldiers for many years, but also preserving them as they were in September-November 1942. Having preserved the bodies and, of course, everything that was with living people - documentation, personal belongings ...
“If the message is true, and there is no reason to doubt it (the names of the guys are known, their personal interest is visible, the place is specified), then it is really sensational. So that after more than 70 years the fate of such a large group of German soldiers becomes clear - this has not happened yet and is hardly possible. Moreover, all the bodies have survived, and therefore, there are identification tokens, ”Kotlyarov noted. In his opinion, now it is necessary to raise the German staff documents in order to understand what kind of group it is, what goals were set for it, what is known about its disappearance. Kotlyarov connected his foreign friends on Facebook to the search; one of them helped to attribute the found tokens to which branch of the army the found tokens belong. However, many of them are from another burial - located nearby.
Kotlyarov also involved Oleg Opryshko, a prominent specialist in the battles for the Caucasus, the author of the book "The Transcendental Front of the Elbrus Region", to study the situation. But he expressed doubt that such a large group of German soldiers could end up in the mountains and disappear without a trace, said that he had not heard anything about it; suggested that these are our fighters.

“Nevertheless, it is necessary to speak about German soldiers, moreover: Alpine huntsmen, possibly Romanian mountain hunters. You can see through the ice mirror that they are wearing jackets and hats on their heads. Our troops did not have such uniforms, "Kotlyarov is convinced.
It is known that the battles in these places in the fall of 1942 were very fierce. Kashif Mamishev, one of the leading organizers of tourism in Kabardino-Balkaria, who has traveled across the Elbrus region for five decades, also confirms the finding in these places of numerous evidence of military operations, including the bodies of dead soldiers. He believes that the group may have disappeared between September and November 1942. By and large, even this framework should be expanded - from August 20 to the end of December, because this place is available in winter time... It is incredibly difficult, but nevertheless possible.
History does not know subjunctive mood... The Germans came here as conquerors and they will remain. But today, when hatred has passed and an understanding of the common tragedy has come, we must fulfill our human duty - to bury those whose faces and destinies Elbrus opened to us. In the year of the 70th anniversary Great Victory, there is an opportunity not only to remember those who defended the honor and independence of our homeland, but also the soldiers of the other side. This is not an act of reconciliation, this is an understanding: wars end, life goes on.
Vladimir Vysotsky composed a song about Alpine shooters, which sounded in the famous film "Vertical": "You are here again, you are all collected, / You are waiting for the cherished signal. / And the guy is here, too. / Among the shooters from "Edelweiss". / They must be thrown from the pass! "

The verse verse of this song is perceived today as the quintessence of the feat of Soviet soldiers who fought for the Caucasus: "Leave talk / Forward and upward, and there ... / After all, these are our mountains, / They will help us!"
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And finally. As a boy, in 1988 I was in the Elbrus region, climbed to the left peak of Elbrus, with guides, of course. And in the Baksan Valley, where my father and I lived, I had a chance to talk with a local resident. He was then under 90. Satisfied that he had found a listener, he told me how, before the war, the mountaineer Otto from Germany had stayed with him more than once with his comrades. And in 1942, Otto reappeared here. As part of Edelweiss. The Germans immediately took under the "tutelage" of their pre-war "acquaintances". It means that when the Gestapo thugs tried to "check" the mountaineers, the guys from "Edelweiss" turned them around.
However, you shouldn't idealize mountain shooters. After the North Caucasus, they persecuted a lot.