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That's a reboot of a previous thread of mine.

The idea is basically Army Group A under List somehow keeps armored support longer and is able to take Baku during autumn 1942.
However, there is no use for oil fields since they have been methodically destroyed by retreating Soviet forces.
The question is how things will go on with Soviet forces trapped south of the Caucasus mountains.

We have the Tenth British Army under General Sir Edward P Quinan in Iran ready to intervene and support Soviet forces, but would it be acceptable for Stalin to see Allied forces stepping onto Soviet soil, especially with the memory of the intervention during the civil war and the case of Baku Commissars.
Also, with Germans south of the Caucasus, what's left of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet is in danger of losing its last ports in Georgia (though I don't exactly know what happened after the fall of Crimea, I guess that's where it was based then).

In the end, we still have Zhukov launching Little Saturn, perhaps ealier due to pressure from the fall of Baku, and eventually trapping Army Group A in Transcaucasus region if advanced too much for a quick retreat.
I think it's interesting to see how this ends. Since Army Group A is occupying the oil fields (though they are destroyed, there is no material to repair and even less possibility to export), I could imagine Hitler ordering them to stand on their ground, pending a later counter attack to restore contact. That might give way to a disaster of greater magnitude than IOTL. In the event of such a catastrophe, there would only be a seaborn evacuation possible, but could the Soviet Navy interdict it or not, or even the Germans have enough ships to do it?
Given the strategic importance of the oil fields, I think that Stalin wouldn't quietly sit and wait for Army Group A to be mopped up.

Your thoughts?
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