Alternate Operation Blue

Here's the paragraph from Page 255. However, the objective wasn't the mountain passes, it was the coastal road from Tuapse to Batumi.

A final effort in the western Caucasus had also been planned, but this never matured. For it Hitler had, very belatedly, decided to play the airborne trump card which he had so carefully preserved. The Parachute Division-still called the 7th Air Division as camouflage-had been assembled in an near the Crimea for a swoop onto the coastal road from Tuapse to Batumi, in conjunction with a renewed push by the 17th Army. But then the Russian counteroffensive at Stalingrad took place, and was followed by a new Russian attack near Rzhev-where Zhukov's armies had nearly broken through in their August attempt to give indirect relief to Stalingrad. Hitler was so alarmed at the dual threat that he cancelled his last bid for Batumi, and ordered the parachute forces to be rushed north by rail to Smolensk, as a reinforcement to the central front.
 
Here's the paragraph from Page 255. However, the objective wasn't the mountain passes, it was the coastal road from Tuapse to Batumi.


Interesting, but the diversion might very well still happen ITTL. In any case, it seems like a desperate move to me which probably wouldn't have worked.
 
But might have been useful if used much earlier.

The paratroopers, you mean? I agree if they had been used at some point, the advance could have continued some distance, but it would not have reached the oil fields. That being the case, I still think going directly for the sea is the better option. There's also the issue of what happens with AGC without the reinforcement.
 
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