AHC/WI: Volga cut in 1941

Cutting the Volga by December 1941

  • Plausible

    Votes: 12 41.4%
  • Implausible

    Votes: 17 58.6%

  • Total voters
    29
With a PoD after June 22nd, 1941 under what circumstances could the Volga River supply route from the Caucasus to Moscow be cut by the end of 1941?

If it is cut, per your PoD, how might this change the outcome of Barbarossa?
 
Hitler decides to focus south rather than go for Moscow in '41? Even then, it's going to be tough. The forces in the southern theater were the only ones putting up a decent fight following the initial invasion.

If the Germans succeed in cutting the Volga, the Soviets lose their oil supply which is going to hurt mobility.
 
Question: If the germans cut the Volga, how much time would they need to clear both sides. The goal would be using ships for ferrying supplies from the black sea. t
 
Didn't the Germans get to the banks of the Volga IOTL in 1942 and could fire on the river traffic with artillery?

So maybe they actually did this?

It was argued in 1942 in the German high command, and has been argued by historians since, that if the Germans did not try to reach the Caucasus oil fields in 1942 and concentrated on securing the lower Volga river ports, they would have accomplished this. This seams plausible. The question is how much this would have crippled the USSR war effort.
 
My apologizes. I'm not deleting my response, but I just saw that this has to be done before December 1941.

In that case the answer is no. The furthest east the Germans got IOTL in 1941 was Rostov, and they were promptly kicked out of there, and Rostov is nowhere near the Volga. And just securing the south Ukraine required a massive diversion of forces from central Russia.

The Germans could have gotten further in the Ukraine, but "gotten further in the Ukraine" means being able to hold Rostov and Kharkov in the face of the Russian counter-attack. There is also a point where they would have had to stop and wait for the rail lines to be repaired, and I suspect that this point is well short of the Volga.

Maybe with a complete collapse of the Soviet Union, after the new treaty there is a German occupation/ observation force on the Volga, but then why would this force cut river traffic?
 
Hitler decides to focus south rather than go for Moscow in '41? Even then, it's going to be tough. The forces in the southern theater were the only ones putting up a decent fight following the initial invasion.

Post Kiev, I question if their (Red Army) posture was strong enough in the face of such a massive defeat.
For instance if Typhoon were called off and Guderian et al. had been directed to remain in Ukraine and continue southward could Kharkov's industrial capacity been captured before its evacuation? Could Rostov have been defended (or bypassed) ? And if so, could the timing of it all make the Volga within reach?
 
Last edited:

nbcman

Donor
Post Kiev, I question if their (Red Army) posture was strong enough in the face of such a massive defeat.
For instance if Typhoon were called off and Guderian et al. had been directed to remain in Ukraine and continue southward could Kharkov's industrial capacity been captured before its evacuation? Could Rostov have fallen? And if so, could the timing of it all make the Volga within reach?
It is another 400 kms to get to Stalingrad from Rostov with exhausted troops. I don't see how the Germans could make the additional 400 km to Stalingrad when they could barely advance from the Dneiper about 250 kms to get to Rostov in October and November.
 
Top