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

Dates: 8 – 25 July 1943. (1)

Objective: To comb out and destroy Partisan forces in the Kalnik Mountains between Varaždin and Križevci.

Enemy Forces: 12th Division NOVJ and the Kalnik NOP Detachment.

Axis Forces:
Approximately 4,000 troops with air support.
German
Reserve-Grenadier-Rgt. 462
1.Kp./Panzer-Abt. 202

Croatian
Combat Group Peričić (1st Infantry Division)
III Bn./2d Infantry Rgt.
6 to 7 Ustasha companies from the PTS
12 light tanks from the PTS

Conduct of Operations and Results: After two weeks of sporadic fighting, the Partisans withdrew southeastward from the Kalnik Mountains into the Bilo gora Mountains.

Losses (according to German figures)
Germans: 6 killed and 20 wounded.
Croatians: 40 killed, 61 wounded and 66 missing.
Partisans: 2,350 counted dead and 84 prisoners.

There was so much fighting going on in the area to the northeast of Zagreb during July 1943 that it is difficult to break it down and determine exactly what this large number (2,350) really applies to. There are no references to any massacres, so it probably refers to combined German-Croatian claims for the entire area northeast of Zagreb between 8 and 25 July, and not just those in the Kalnik Mountains.

Footnotes
1. [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Hronologija oslobodilačke borbe naroda jugoslavije 1941-1945 (Belgrade, 1964), p.513; [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Oslobodilački rat naroda Juooslavije 1941-1945, 2 Vols (Belgrade: 1965), pp.503-05; NARA WashDC: RG 242 (T-314 roll 559/353); (T-315 roll 1554/1246-47).