Summer 1944

Back in the Bosut Woods, north of Bosnia

With the Division fully in Bosnia and operations underway, the partisans took the opportunity and moved back into the Bosut woods from which they were forced out of during Operation Sign Post. The nature of partisan fighting was revealing itself. Ground taken had to be held. Two operations would be launched and conducted largely by other German and Croat units to push them back out. German artillery (likely SS-Art. Regt 13 itself) shelled the villages of Bosut, Visnjicevo and Sremska Raca on the 16th and 17th of April, while 200 Feldgendarmes moved in from Kuzmin to Bosut and pushed a battalion belonging to the 2nd Srem Div. out of the Bosut forest. A partisan diary of the 6th Vojv. Bde. tells of further shelling on the 18th when the brigade staff HQ received accurate fire around dinner time. Three partisans were morally wounded after the German artillery observers spotted lanterns and partisans gathering around the field kitchen.

Unternehmen Kornblume – a third sweep of the Bosut woods 

On 14. June, German and Croat units once again set out to clean Bosut. A Croat HomeGuard brigade, Sicherungs Regiment 606, Frewilligen Polizei Regiments 1,2 and 3, as well as the VI Ustasa battalion set out flush out the communists. Operation “Cornflower” would continue into August, ending on the 6th.

Summer 1944 in Bosnia

23. June – Communists raid Prnjavor and Vis without success.

26. June – elements of Regt. 28 reinforce Croat troops in Derventa (western flank)

28. June – Allied P38s strafe one of the Division’s columns – 6 friendly dead

30. June – 8,000 partisans attack II/28 at Sekovici

1-2. July – a partisan attempt to cross the Sava river is turned back

4. July – 2,500 partisans repelled at Doboj by II/28, heavy enemy casualties.

14. July – Unt. Fliegenfanger – partisan airstrip at Osmaci captured by I/27 and II/27

17. July – Regt 27 launches Unt. Heidrose, kills 947 partisans, captures large weapons stockpile.

29. July – III/28 takes Kladanj back

4. August – the Division is mobilized for Op. Hackfleisch, scatters partisans in Vlasenica

16-26. August – operations on the southern edge of the security area, mopping up.

28-29. August – the division rests to recover from operational exhaustion

30. August – combat resumes, recon troops assault partisans at Osmaci and Matkovac

1. September – the division’s units return north to the security zone

4. September – Tito launches an offensive to the south of the Majevicas

4. September – Battle of Srebrenik – 11th Division in unable to take Srebrenik

Partisans keep up offensive actions and often return to the places from which the 13th SS had previously thrown them out. This frustrates the German efforts despite the ability to consistently defeat the partisans. This leads Sauberzweig to admit that liberating territory is an impossibility. Temporary pacification is only possible via constant German presence.

Autumn 1944

1-7. September – Operation Rat Week (allied air operation over Yugoslavia, targetting railways and major road junctions to coincide with the German withdrawal from Greece).

1-20. September – 2,000 Bosnians desert.

3. October – Battle of Janja – 28th Slavonia Div. is repelled. From this point on the division fights battles only from the defensive.

16-23. October – the division is transferred to N. Croatia.

20. October – Soviets take Belgrade

13. November – 33rd Division (partisan) attacks 7th Co/27.Regt at Sumecani.

9-10. November – lead elements take positions on the Danube bridgeheads.

An artilleryman recently recollected on those tumultive weeks of October 1944:

“We fought on the Majevica for 6-7 months and then when Belgrade fell to the Red Army we were taken to Janja. There I saw that half of the Germans were barefooted and even without rifles on the account of the loss of Belgrade to the Red Army.
We were seperated, Muslims here, Germans there, and asked “who wants to stay in Bosnia?” and fight on otherwise go stand over there and we’ll move out and fight on the Russian front.”
Ramo S. – 13. Art. Regt.