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Operation Southeast Croatia
Part of the Yugoslav Front of World War II
Mount Igman where the 1st Proletarian Brigade crossed
Date 15–23 January 1942 Location eastern Bosnia Result Partisan withdrawal
Belligerents
Axis:  Germany  Independent State of Croatia	Allies: Partisans
Commanders and leaders
Paul Hoffman Johann Fortner	Josip Broz Tito Slaviša Vajner-Čiča  †
Strength
342nd Infantry Division 718th Infantry Division Luftwaffe support 7 Croatian Home Guard battalions 9 Croatian Home Guard artillery batteries about 30,000 - 35,000 troops in total	1st Proletarian Brigade Romanija, Zvijezda, Birač and Ozren Partisan Detachments about 8,000 troops in total
Casualties and losses
25 dead, 131 wounded, and one missing

Operation Southeast Croatia (Template:Lang-de) was a large-scale German-led counter-insurgency operation conducted in the southeastern parts of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) (modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) during World War II. It is associated with what is known as the Second Enemy Offensive (Template:Lang-sh) in Yugoslav historiography. It was the first and most significant of three German-led operations mainly targeting Yugoslav Partisans in Bosnia between mid-January and late February 1942.

While there were 20,000 Chetniks located within the area of operations, they offered no resistance to the German-NDH forces and many withdrew across the Drina river into the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia to avoid being engaged. This contributed to the complete unravelling of Chetnik-Partisan cooperation in eastern Bosnia.

Planning

The orders from General der Artillerie (General) Paul Bader, the German commander in Serbia, directed that Operation Southeast Croatia was to be an encirclement operation. All persons encountered within the area of operations were to be treated as the enemy. The operation itself was led by the German 342nd Infantry Division, which also commanded the 718th Infantry Division for the duration of the operation. They were assisted by NDH units including seven infantry battalions and nine artillery batteries. Luftwaffe support included reconnaisance aircraft and a combat squadron. The offensive was targeted at areas held by the Romanija, Zvijezda, Birač, and Ozren Detachments of the Partisans, in the area between Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zvornik and Višegrad. In total, the area targeted by the operation was estimated by the Germans to contain around 8,000 Partisans and 20,000 Bosnian Chetniks.

The 738th Regiment of the 718th Infantry Division was reinforced by pioneers, four Croatian battalions, four Croatian artillery batteries and two and a half German mountain gun batteries. It drove east from Sarajevo along the Prača valley towards Rogatica.

The other regiment of the 718th Infantry Division, the 750th Regiment, was reinforced by a German artillery battery, and a Croatian infantry battalion and mountain battery. It moved south from an assembly area southwest of Tuzla towards Olovo.

On 9 January 1942, the 718th Infantry Division had issued orders to both its regiments which defined all the following groups as "hostile"; all non-residents and residents that had been absent from their localities until recently; all identifiable Chetniks or communists with or without weapons or ammunition; and anyone concealing, supplying or providing information to those groups. Any captured Partisans were to be briefly interrogated and summarily shot, as were any other insurgents that had attacked the Germans, been caught carrying ammunition or messages, or who resisted or fled. Also, any houses from which shots were fired at German troops were to be burned.

Operation

The operation commenced on 15 January 1942. When they became aware of the commencement of Operation Southeast Croatia, the Chetnik leaders appointed by Draža Mihailović, Majors Boško Todorović and Jezdimir Dangić, advised other Chetnik commanders that the operation was targeted at the Partisans, and there was no need for the Chetniks to get involved. Following this, Chetniks units withdrew from their positions on the frontline, let the Germans pass through their areas, or went home. This severely weakened the Partisan defences with the result that they suffered significant casualties and lost a great deal of territory. These actions severed any remaining cooperative links that remained between the Chetniks and Partisans in east Bosnia.

The Romanija Detachment comprised forty percent of all Partisans in eastern Bosnia and bore most of the burden in the operation. The insurgents in the area of operations destroyed villages to deny supplies and shelter to the Germans who were operating in mountainous terrain with snow up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) deep and facing extreme temperatures (approaching −30 °C (−22 °F)). The commander of the Romanija Partisan Detachment, Slaviša Vajner-Čiča was killed in combat against the Germans. Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo reported that the detachment had "wholly collapsed".

After temporarily improving the Partisan defences against the German and NDH forces, the Supreme Staff and 1st Proletarian Brigade were unable to salvage the situation and retreated south towards Foča. The Partisan 1st Proletarian Brigade, less two battalions that were accompanying the Supreme Staff, crossed the Igman mountain near Sarajevo in what is known as the "Igman March". With temperatures reaching −32 °C (−26 °F), 172 Partisans suffered severe hypothermic injury, 6 of whom died. Montenegrin Partisans crossed into the NDH to attack the Chetniks, capturing Foča on 20 January and Goražde on 22 January. The Supreme Staff entered Foča on 25 January and stayed there for three and a half months. The German and NDH forces were successful in recapturing Sokolac, Rogatica, Bratunac, Srebrenica, Vlasenica, Han Pijesak, Olovo, Bosansko Petrovo Selo, and some smaller settlements.

However, faced with ambitious objectives, a tight timeframe and atrocious weather, the combined operation failed to destroy the Partisan forces and was called off on 23 January 1942.

Aftermath

After the Chetniks failed to cooperate and give any assistance to the Partisans in the battle, the Yugoslav Central Committee ceased all further attempts to cooperate with them and issued a declaration on 22 January to "Bosnians! Serbs, Muslims, Croats!" that Chetnik leaders Boško Todorović, Aćim Babić, and others were traitors. It further proclaimed that the Partisans fought alone "all across Bosnia and Herzegovina" and ended with "long live the united people's liberation struggle of all the peoples of Bosnia!". The Supreme Staff entered Foča on 25 January and stayed there for three and a half months.

The Romanija Detachment's commander, Slaviša Vajner-Čiča, was killed in combat against the Germans. A member of the Supreme Staff of the Partisans, Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo, reported that the detachment had "wholly collapsed".

The operation was hampered by the German need to rely on their Croatian allies as well as the fact that both forces were ill-equipped for operations in mountainous terrain during extreme winter conditions. The Croatian units had proven not to be a useful addition to the operation, as they possessed little in the way of fighting power, had little unit cohesion and suffered from serious supply problems.

Operation Southeast Croatia was an early opportunity for the Germans to learn lessons about the challenges their ill-equipped and often substandard occupation troops faced fighting in the difficult terrain and weather conditions of Bosnia. However, these lessons were to be repeated many more times in the following years as German commanders persisted with their encirclement tactics and unreasonable expectations of what could be achieved in a given time and space.

Following the conclusion of Operation Southeast Croatia, German and NDH forces conducted two follow-up operations. These were Operation Ozren aimed at clearing the Partisans between the Bosna and Spreča rivers, and Operation Prijedor in northwest Bosnia. All three operations are associated with the Second enemy offensive in Yugoslav historiography. The Germans caused considerable losses to the Partisans and captured extensive territory and population centres from them; however, they failed to eliminate them as a military factor and shortly afterwards had to undertake Operation Trio in the region immediately south of the area of operations for Operation Southeast Croatia.

See also

• Resistance during World War II
• Anti-partisan operations in World War II

Notes

1. ^ Shepherd 2012, p. 162.
2. ^ Shepherd 2012, pp. 162–163.
3. Hoare 2006, p. 186.
4. ^ Shepherd 2012, p. 163.
5. Hoare 2006, p. 185.
6. ^ Hoare 2006, pp. 185–186.
7. Shepherd 2012, pp. 164–165.
8. ^ Tomasevich 1975, p. 160.
9. ^ Shepherd 2012, p. 167.
10. Popović 1988.
11. Shepherd 2012, p. 166.
12. Shepherd 2012, p. 239.
13. Shepherd 2012, pp. 162–164.
14. Tomasevich 2001, p. 413.

References

• Hoare, Marko Attila (2006). Genocide and Resistance in Hitler's Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks, 1941-1943. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0197263801. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Popović, Koča (1988). Beleške uz ratovanje. BIGZ. ISBN 8613002900. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Redžić, Enver (2005). Bosnia And Herzegovina In The Second World War. Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5625-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Shepherd, Ben (2012). Terror in the Balkans: German Armies and Partisan Warfare. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-04891-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tomasevich, Jozo (1975). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0857-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Vol. 2. San Francisco: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3615-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Seven anti-Partisan offensives
• Battles and operations of World War II
• Yugoslavia in World War II
• Eastern European theatre of World War II
• Battles involving Yugoslavia
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