The 'Armavir-Maykop Defensive Operation' was the Soviet second of the five sub-operations together constituting the 'North Caucasian Strategic Defensive Operation' (6/17 August 1942).

The other sub-operations were the 'Tikhoretsk-Stavropol Defensive Operation' (25 July/5 August), the 'Krasnodar Defensive Operation' (7/14 August), the 'Novorossiysk Defensive Operation (19 August/26 September) and the 'Mozdok-Malgobek Defensive Operation' (1/28 September).

The German 'Edelweiss' operation was planned in order to gain control of the Caucasus and seize the oil fields of the Baku area as part of the summer campaign of 1942. The operation was authorised by Adolf Hitler on 23 July, and the primary force committed to its execution included Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm List’s Heeresgruppe 'A' controlling Generaloberst Ewald von Kleist’s 1^st Panzerarmee, Generaloberst Hermann Hoth’s 4^th Panzerarmee, Generaloberst Richard Ruoff’s 17^th Army and General de armatâ Petre Dumitrescu’s Romanian 3^rd Army, with air support provided by part of Generaloberst Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen’s Luftflotte IV.

With approval from above, List’s staff decided to change the direction of the army group’s main attack, the 17^th Army's formations being tasked in the west with the capture of Krasnodar in the Kuban area and the 1^st Panzerarmee in the centre with the seizure of the oil fields of Maykop and a sweep round to the west to reach the east coast of the Black Sea in the area of Tuapse, thereby encircling the main Soviet forces of Marshal Sovetskogo Soyuza Semyon K. Budyonny’s North Caucasus Front in the Kuban area.

The North Caucasus Front comprised General Major Andrei A. Grechko’s 12^th Army, General Leytenant Fyedor V. Kamkov’s 18^th Army, General Major Aleksandr I. Ryzhov’s 56^th Army and General Major Sergei K. Goryunov’s 5^th Air Force, as well a the I Separate Corps, XVII Cossack Cavalry Corps, Azov Military Flotilla and Kuban Separate Detachment of ships of the Azov Flotilla with one river gunboat, four armoured boats and 22 patrol boats.

After crossing the Don river and advancing to the south, on 6 August units of the 1^st Panzerarmee took Armavir and continued their offensive in the direction of Maykop. To prevent the Germans from breaking through to Tuapse and thereby to prevent the encirclement of the Soviet troops in the Kuban, the Soviet command organised the defence of this area by the 12^th Army, 18^th Army and XVII Cossack Cavalry Corps. For four days there was fighting on the Kuban, Belaya and Laba river before, on 10 August, the Germans took Maykop and continued their offensive on Tuapse. The German forces attacked in two groups: the units of Generalleutnant Hans-Valentin Hube’s 16^th Panzerdivision and Generalleutnant Erich Diestel’s 101^st Jägerdivision at Apsheronsky and Neftegorsk, and the units of Generalleutnant Traugott Herr’s 13^th Panzerdivision, SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner’s SS-Division 'Wiking' and Generalleutnant Ernst Rupp’s 97^th Jägerdivision at Kabardin and Khadyzhenskaya. These attempted to encircle the 18^th Army. On 12 August, the Germans captured Belorechenskaya and seized a bridgehead on the left bank of the Belaya river, but failed to break through to Tuapse on the coast.

At the same time, the 17^th Army launched an offensive against Krasnodar, and from 7 August stubborn battles were fought for the city, which was defended by units of the 56^th Army and the Krasnodar People’s Militia. During the afternoon of 10 August, German troops reached the town’s north-eastern outskirts, and then used the forces of Generalleutnant Siegmund Freiherr von Schleinitz’s 9^th Division, Generalleutnant Rudolf von Bünau’s 73^rd Division and Generalleutnant Hubert Lanz’s 1^st Gebirgsdivision to advance farther to the south-east in an effort to take the Pashkovsk river crossing, which was held by the 30^th Division, and thus cut off the Soviet forces in Krasnodar. Very bitter fighting ensued in this area, and on 12 the Germans took Krasnodar as the culmination of 'Anlauf', and the 17^th Army reached the Kuban river.

By 17 August, the German offensive had been brought to a halt along the line connecting Samurskaya and Khadyzhenskaya to the south of Klyuchevaya and Stavropolskaya.