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

Dates: 12 July – 7 August 1942. (1)

Objective: To clear Partisans from the mountainous area centered approximately 15 kilometers northwest of Delnice in northwestern Croatia near the border with Slovenia, destroy their supply bases and neutralize the support they were receiving from sympathetic local civilians.

Enemy Forces: 2d Primorsko-Goranski NOP Detachment.

Axis Forces:
Italian
21st Infantry Division “Grenatieri di Sardegna”
22d Infantry Division “Cacciatori di Alpi”
152d Infantry Division “Macerata” (elements)
Group “Fabbri” (elements of 13th Infantry Division “Re”)
Croatian
- none -

Conduct of Operations and Results: Part of a much larger multi-phase anti-Partisan operation that was fought mainly in the Province of Ljubljana in Slovenia, the troops assigned to this portion swept the terrain to the west of a secondary road running between Delnice and the village of Prezid. The principal peak in the area was Mount Risnjak (1,528 meters = 4,966 feet) and this is sometimes used in the Yugoslav literature as the name for the operation. In addition to routing the handful of Partisans belonging to the detachment, the Italians carried out a scorched earth campaign by destroying the harvest, burning down some 1,000 homes, shooting 200 civilians and dragging another 2,500 men and women off to internment camps.

Footnotes
1. [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Hronologija oslobodilačke borbe naroda jugoslavije 1941-1945 (Belgrade, 1964), p.304; [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Oslobodilački rat naroda Juooslavije 1941-1945, 2 Vols (Belgrade: 1965), p.300; [Stato Maggiore Esercito - Ufficio Storico] - Le Operazioni delle Unita italiane in Jugoslavia 1941-1943 (Rome: Ministero della Difesa stato Maggiore dell' Esercito, 1978), pp.208-10.