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

Dates: 21 – 29 December 1943. (1)

Objective: To finish off the Partisan forces that had fled Operation “Kugelblitz” into the area of East Bosnia bordered by Maglaj – Tuzla – Vlasenica – Visoko.

Enemy Forces: 3d Corps NOVJ (17th and 27th Divisions) and 5th Krajiški Division NOVJ.

Axis Forces:
Same as those used for Operation “Kugelblitz”.

Conduct of Operations and Results: Picking up where Operation “Kugelblitz” left off, the Axis forces thoroughly combed the mountainous area between Tuzla and Sarajevo. Not able to bring the Partisans to battle, they resorted to plundering and raping women and young girls, and burned an estimated 100 villages occupied by Pravoslavni (ethnic Serbs of the Eastern Orthodox faith), according to Partisan accounts. The perpetrators of the raping and looting were reportedly the Chetnik auxiliaries rather than the German troops.

Losses
No information has been found for Axis losses, but the Germans claimed several thousand counted and estimated Partisan dead plus several hundred prisoners.

Footnotes
1. [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Hronologija oslobodilačke borbe naroda jugoslavije 1941-1945 (Belgrade, 1964), pp.620-22; [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Oslobodilački rat naroda Juooslavije 1941-1945, 2 Vols (Belgrade: 1965), pp.17-22; Colić, Mladenko - Pregled Operacija na Jugoslovenskom Ratištu 1941-1945 (Belgrade: Vojnoistorijski Institut, 1988), pp.160-62; Kumm, Otto - ‘Vorwärts Prinz Eugen!’ (Osnabrück: Munin-Verlag GmbH, 1978), pp.139-54; Tomasevich, Jozo - The Chetniks (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1975), p.398.