On Tue, 9 Mar 2010 17:32:28 -0800 (PST), Alfred Montestruc
wrote:
>> This was the major reason I say taking the Caucasian oilfields in 1942
>> would have benefitted Germany more by hurting Russia than helping
>> Germany since it would take a minimum of 12-18 months to get an
>> effective means of getting Russian oil to Germany once the fields were
>> taken.
>
>So what?
>
>The USSR will still collapse if you cut them off from the oilfields in
>that area and more important if the Germans can interdict supplies
>being shipped in via Iran and the Caspian sea. If the Germans have
>air supremacy over the northern Caspian sea, even without getting the
>east coast of the Caspian, they can cut that supply line to a
>trickle. If Japan declares war on the USSR and blockades Vladivostok,
>you cannot win as the USSR with only the Murmansk route, even if they
>had the oilfields in Baku. With the loss of those fields and the loss
>of the Caspian supply line, they will probably collapse..
Which once again does not equate to Hitler being handed the keys to an
intact Trans-Siberian railway with sufficient tanker stock to move
sufficient oil (refined or otherwise) to Vladivostok.
Even in 1991 after the fall of Yanaev it took the USSR 5 months to
collapse! |
