memoirs, Soviet Transcaucasian Front commander Ivan Tiulenev recounts how thousands of civilians attempted to flee from the Ukraine to the comparatively safe Caspian ports, such as Makhachkala and Baku. The Caucasus area became a new area of industry when 226 factories were evacuated there during the industrial evacuations undertaken by the Soviet Union in 1941. After the Grozny to Kiev line was captured during Axis advances, a new link between Moscow and Transcaucasia was established with the construction of the new railway line running from Baku to Orsk (via Astrakhan), bypassing the front line at Grozny, while a shipping line was maintained over the Caspian Sea through the town of Krasnovodsk in Turkmenistan. 1942 In 1942, the German Army launched Operation Edelweiss which was aimed at advancing to the oil fields of Azerbaijan. The German offensive slowed as it entered the mountains in the southern Caucasus and did not reach all of its 1942 objectives. After the Soviet breakthroughs in the region around Stalingrad, the German forces in the Caucasus were put on the defensive. Soviet military operations included Tikhoretsk-Stavropol Defensive Operation (25 July – 5 August 1942) Armavir-Maikop Defensive Operation (6–17 August 1942) Novorossiysk Defensive Operation (19 August – 26 September 1942) Mozdok-Malgobek Defensive Operation (1–28 September 1942) Tuapse Defensive Operation (25 September – 20 December 1942) Nalckik-Ordzhonikidze Defensive Operation (25 October – 12 November 1942) 1943 In early 1943, the Germans began to withdraw and consolidate their positions in the region due to setbacks elsewhere. They established a defensive line (Kuban bridgehead) in the Taman Peninsula from which they hoped to eventually launch new operations in the Caucasus. The fighting remained reasonably static until September 1943 when the Germans ordered fresh withdrawals which effectively ended the period of fighting in the Caucasus. Soviet Operations in 1943 consisted of the following. Salsk-Rostov Offensive (1 January – 4 February 1943) Mozdok-Stavropol Offensive (1 January – 24 January 1943) Novorossiysk-Maikop Offensive (11 January – 4 February 1943) Tikhoretsk-Eisk Offensive (24 January – 4 February 1943) Novorossiysk-Taman Operation (10 September – 9 October 1943) The key military base of Novorossiysk was retaken in September, 1943. 3 January 1943 – Red Army retakes Mozdok 21 January 1943 – Red Army retakes Stavropol 23 January 1943 – Red Army retakes Armavir 29 January 1943 – Red Army retakes Maykop 4 February 1943 – Soviet marines repel a German attempt to land at Malaya Zemlya,