Battle of the Sutjeska
| date | May 15 to June 16, 1943 |
|---|---|
| place | on the Sutjeska , Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| output | Attrition of the Yugoslav partisans, however most of the containment by the Axis powers escapes |
| consequences | New formation of the partisans in Eastern Bosnia |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 127,000 soldiers, 300+ planes | 18,000 soldiers |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
6,391 |
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The Battle of the Sutjeska ( Serbo-Croatian Bitka na Sutjesci / Битка на Сутјесци ) describes the offensive of the Axis Powers carried out from May 15 to June 16, 1943 with the support of the independent state of Croatia against the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army near the Sutjeska River in southeastern Bosnia during World War II . The outcome of the battle was the turning point for Yugoslavia in World War II .
The German Army Command called this offensive Operation Schwarz , it followed the previously carried out Operation Fall Weiß , whose aim, the annihilation of the Yugoslav partisans and the capture of their leader Josip Broz Tito , had failed.
course
The Axis powers mobilized around 127,000 soldiers with over 300 combat aircraft to support this offensive. Opposite them stood an army of 18,000 soldiers from the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army, which was divided into 16 brigades. After the troops had gathered, the German attack began on May 15, 1943. The attackers used their advantage in the starting position to encircle the partisans in the area of the Durmitor massif in the mountainous part of northern Montenegro . They involved the partisans in heavy fighting on rocky terrain for a month.
output
Shortly before the complete encirclement, the majority of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army managed to break through the ranks of the German 118th and 104th Jäger Divisions and the 369th (Croatian) Infantry Division over the Sutjeska, towards Eastern Bosnia . Three brigades could not escape, and the partisan field hospital was also locked in. Due to a lack of food and medicine in the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army, many partisans died of typhus . The partisans lost 6,391 men (more than a third of their fighters), the losses on the other side were significantly lower. However, the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army was able to regroup in the east of Bosnia and recaptured the places Olovo , Srebrenica and Zvornik within the next 20 days .
consequences
From the German point of view, this operation is not to be seen as a victory, as it was not possible to destroy the leader of the partisans, Josip Broz Tito , or the partisan units as a whole. The operation can even be viewed as a moral defeat for the Axis powers, since after the failure became known all Yugoslav peoples supported the partisans and the Allies also supplied them with ammunition and weapons.
In post-war Yugoslavia, the battle was seen as a turning point in the entire war. The commander of the third assault division of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army, Sava Kovačević , who fell during the breakthrough , was posthumously honored as the popular hero of Yugoslavia . In the Dolina heroja ("Valley of Heroes") in Tjentište there is a memorial and a museum in honor of the fallen Yugoslav fighters in the Battle of the Sutjeska. The battle is also a symbol of the liberation of Yugoslavia "on its own", that is, without the Red Army.
literature
- Klaus Schmider : Partisan War in Yugoslavia 1941–1944 . Hamburg 2002, pp. 272-283.
- Obren Đorđević: Leksikon bezbednosti . Partizanska knjiga, Belgrade 1986.
- Janusz Piekałkiewicz : War in the Balkans 1940-1945 . Augsburg 1984, pp. 207-210.
- Milovan Djilas : The Partisan War . Vienna 1978. pp. 281-404.
- Hronologija oslobodilačke borbe naroda Jugoslavije 1941–1945 . Vojnoistorijski institut, Belgrade 1964.
- Franz Schraml: Theater of War Croatia . Neckargemünd 1962, pp. 47-53.
filming
- The fifth offensive - the cauldron battle on the Sutjeska by Stipe Delić, with Richard Burton and Ljuba Tadić.
