Beyond the Gates

Once again the Aryans are bound for the Caucasian gates. Through these gates, said the ancients, the Asiatics descended upon Europe; among them were racial groups which some ethnologists later labeled Aryan.* Now Adolf Hitler's self-styled Aryans, going the other way, are preparing to storm the gates of the Caucasus again.

Germany's hope of reopening the Caucasian gates is not a matter of sentimental Aryan sightseeing. It springs from painful necessity. In the Caucasus lie the huge stores of oil that power the defenses of Russia. By cutting that supply Adolf Hitler would not only score a painful blow to the enemy; he would also get fuel and lubricants that the German war machine must have.

The Prize. At highest estimates, Germany has a flow of oil from all available sources of 1,000,000 tons a month, with total reserves of 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 tons. The barest minimum requirement for the home front is 700,000 tons a month. The remainder, 300,000 tons or less, is not enough to wage large-scale, fast-moving, mechanized, offensive war.

Beyond Kerch, which the Germans hold, lie three of the great Russian oilfields: Maikop and Grozny in the North Caucasus and Baku in the Transcaucasian Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. Maikop is closest to Kerch, 185 miles away. It produces 2,479,500 tons, only 7% of Russia's estimated yearly oil production. Grozny, farther along the way, produces slightly more. But Baku, nestled far down on the Caspian side of the Caucasus, is the richest oilfield in the world. Alone it produces nearly 75% of Russia's rich oil stores.

The Battleground. To reach these stores Germany must fight her way over one of the most fought-over areas in history.

The Caucasus, bounded by the Caspian and Black Seas, forms a rough umbilicus betweenAsia and Europe. Its broad steppes in the north and lush valleys in the south have offered a natural highway for migrating hordes. Its mountains, higher than any in Europe, run from northwest to southeast and form natural bastions for defenders. Successive waves of Persians, Khazars, Arabs, Huns, Turko-Mongols and Russians have died in defense of narrow Caucasian mountain passes, or in trying to storm them.

Traces of the old times still survive. At the old Persian-founded city of Derbent, on the Caspian, stands an ancient citadel, its walls and wooden, iron-framed gates forming a barrier between the mountains and the sea. The famed Georgian Military Highway, from the North Caucasus to Georgia, skirts the site of the historic ironbound Daryal gates, which in ancient days closed the Daryal Gorge. Many a solitary cliffside mountain village still has its ancient watchtowers, frowning down on all approaches.

*Or Indo-European.

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