Part of the Anti-Partisan Operations in Croatia series by H.L. deZeng IV

Dates: 18 – 27 February 1942. (1)

Objective: To destroy Partisan concentrations in the Bosanska Dubica – Prijedor area in West Bosnia.

Enemy Forces: 2d Krajiški (Border) NOP Detachment (3 battalions).

Axis Forces:
German
I and II Bn./Inf.Rgt. 738
I and II Bn./Inf.Rgt. 750
I Bn./Inf.Rgt. 724
718. Infanterie-Div. divisional support units
Croatian
Ustasha Obrana Battalion Jasenovac
One-half of a mountain artillery battery

Conduct of Operations and Results: Around mid-February, Partisan units attacked and isolated several companies of the German 923. Landesschützen-Btl. (923d Territorial Defense Bn.) near Prijedor in West Bosnia. German General Bader, commander in Serbia, ordered an immediate relief operation and a mainly German force was quickly assembled in the vicinity of Bosanska Dubica. The operation began on 18 February against stubborn resistance and the relief force did not reach the encircled Germans until 27 February. Casualties were relatively light, the Germans and Croatian losing 34 killed, 48 wounded and 15 missing. Partisan losses were 189 counted dead, 13 wounded and 16 captured, according to the Germans.

Footnotes
1. Aid, Matthew M. - The Croatian Armed Forced at War, 1941-1942, unpublished manuscript (Beloit (WI), 1976), p.17; ; Hehn, Paul N. - The German struggle Against Yugoslav Guerrillas in World War II, East European Monograph No. LVII (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1979), pp.94-95; [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Hronologija oslobodilačke borbe naroda jugoslavije 1941-1945 (Belgrade, 1964), p.211; [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Oslobodilački rat naroda Juooslavije 1941-1945, 2 Vols (Belgrade: 1965), p.232; NARA WashDC: RG 242 (T-501 roll 250/781-83, 794-96).