Operation Rösselsprung
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The Operation "Rösselsprung" (English: Operation Knight's Leap/Move; German: Unternehmen „Rösselsprung“) was the code name of a combined German military operation from 25 May to 6 June 1944 against the terrorist partisans of the "Yugoslav People's Liberation Army" (JVBA) under Josip Broz Tito. It must not be confused with the Operation Rösselsprung of the Kriegsmarine in 1942.
Contents
History
"My group had landed around the citadel except for one glider that was shot down in mid-air. The group fell from all sides over the wall into Tito's headquarters. Fleeing partisan groups are killed in hand-to-hand combat after hard resistance. Tito's personal physician and some female partisans were taken prisoner."
unit consisted of about 900 to 1,000 officers and enlisted men, of whom 634 were deployed.The first wave of 654 officers and men (divided into six combat groups), of which 340 were to be landed by gliders while the remaining 314 had to parachute, had to reckon with an enemy strength of around 20,000. The remaining 221 men were to parachute in a second wave. The commander of the SS Parachute Battalion 500, SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Rybka, was in charge of the entire parachute and airborne troops. He was initially to join the "Red" group (85 men) with his staff and then lead the attack on the "Zitadelle". Here is his order the night before the mission:
- "Focus of action for all parts of the battalion is Tito's Supreme Staff. As soon as it is known exactly where the staff is located, all parts of the battalion that have landed in the vicinity of this main target must urgently and ruthlessly eliminate Tito's Supreme Staff. If possible, important personalities should fall into our hands alive. Written material of value should be retained. Fires must be avoided at all costs in the headquarters building [...] so that the men of the intelligence service can obtain valuable material."
At 4:00 p.m. on 25 May 1944, the battalion was in the heaviest defensive battle against greatly superior partisan forces; in hand-to-hand combat the partisans were repeatedly thrown back, but by now they had almost completed the encirclement. At this point, neither Tito, his staff, nor the Allied military missions had been able to track down or capture. In view of this situation, Rybka ordered the battalion's still fighting forces to retreat towards the cemetery in order to set up a defense there. While the battalion was fighting back, Rybka was seriously wounded at 6 p.m. and flown out with the Fieseler Storch, which was actually supposed to be used to transport Tito away.
After the deputy battalion commander fell shortly afterwards, Captain Bentrup, a paratrooper officer assigned to the battalion from the 1st Parachute Regiment (Fallschirm-Jäger-Regiment 1), took over command. Bentrup had the battalion dig in behind the cemetery wall and position themselves for all-round defence. With the onset of dusk, the partisan attacks intensified, now also supported by the 4th Battalion of Tito's 3rd Brigade, which was only able to intervene later in the fight. Because the partisans no longer had to fear the German Luftwaffe, the attacks reached their climax at night when elements of the 9th Dalmatian Division joined the fighting. The remains of the SS battalion were huddled together in the cemetery. Between the graves lay the wounded and numerous prisoners, there was hardly any food and medicine left, and there was also a lack of water. Nevertheless, all attacks by the partisans, which had meanwhile reached a multiple of the German forces, were repulsed. At the height of the fighting, a group of partisans managed to break through the German defensive perimeter; the partisans who broke in were all killed in a daring counterattack by the paratroopers. By daybreak the partisans, although greatly outnumbered, were forced to flee from the pugnacious German troops.
After the remnants of the SS paratroopers fighting in Drvar had established radio contact with parts of the front reconnaissance squad or Frontaufklärungstrupp (FAT 373) at around 7 a.m. on 26 May, parts of the Croatian 373rd Infantry Division and of the Grenadier Regiment (mot.) 92 were able to relieve the paratrooper battalion that had been bled dry.
The Royal Air Force decided to provide the partisans with all possible air support from the MAAF (Mediterranean Allied Air Force) despite the fact that their own forces were heavily tied up in Italy and southern France, and on 26 May, 36 B-17 "Flying Fortress" attacked. escorted by 22 P-38 Lightnings, attacked German formations near Bihac, while fighters and fighter-bombers provided tactical close air support for the partisan formations also in the Bihac area. These operations would increase significantly over the next few days and reached their peak on 29 May 1944, when 294 B-24s, accompanied by 88 Lightnings, bombed supply facilities and troop concentrations, again in the Bihac and Bosanski Krupa area, with 481 tons of bombs, while numerous Lightnings, Hurricanes and Spitfires attacked the columns advancing against Drvar in the Knin/Bihac area. By 1 June 1944 alone, the MAAF had flown over 1,000 sorties in direct support of the partisans.
The second measure was a landing operation against the island of Brac with a strong contingent of British troops of over 1,000 men, including around 100 US soldiers, supported by 2,500 men of the People's Liberation Army partisan troops. However, this landing attempt failed with high losses due to the bitter resistance of the defeated German crew. However, the hope of a withdrawal of forces that had been used in "Rösselsprung" was only fulfilled for a short time, because a battalion of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen", which was ordered to reinforce the island crew after the start of the landing operation, had been stopped and ordered back.
Despite heavy losses (almost 800 men) it was possible for the SS Parachute Battalion 500, reinforced by parts of the Airborne Assault Regiment 1 of the Luftwaffe (Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment 1), the squad of Brandenburgers under Lieutenant Kirchner and the Defense Squad Savadil,[1] men of the Mountain Infantry Regiment 13 from the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen", the participating Brandenburgers of the 4th Regiment (Major Benesch's Wildschutz protection association under the leadership of Lieutenant Dowe), the united Croatian units of the Wehrmacht – 373rd and 369th Infantry Division (Croatian) under German leadership –, 300 Ustasha, 500 anti-communist Chetniks from Serbia and the "Squad Savadil", to destroy the base, seize British "journalists" (Secret Intelligence Service agents and partisan handlers left behind), to secure valuable intelligence equipment and numerous boxes with files, maps and secret orders.
The SS Parachute Battalion 500 and the "shadow warriors" of the Brandenburgers had succeeded in surprising the enemy, taking Drvar against numerically greatly superior partisan forces and destroying the partisan headquarters there. There is military criticism that the plateau above Tito's hiding place, a large cave[2] (object "Citadel"), was not occupied from the outset, which could have prevented Tito's escape. In this context, the question of using a second paratrooper battalion should be of a purely hypothetical nature, since the transport of one battalion already fully utilized the available air transport capacities and made it necessary to land with parachutes and gliders in two waves. The goal of capturing Tito was not achieved, but the command structures of the JVBA were temporarily disrupted by Tito's escape and the high number of casualties. Due to the Invasion of Normandy, the operation was the last of seven offensives to combat the Yugoslav partisans and is therefore also referred to as the Seventh Offensive in the Yugoslav context.
Although it was clearly a tactical victory for the Axis powers, including in terms of the 6,240 dead, wounded and captured on the Communist side, some military historians have described the operation as a "brilliantly planned and prepared failure".
Combat groups
Glider group
The glider group (Lastenseglergruppe) was divided into six combat groups:
- Group "Panther" (110 men): should take the object "Citadel" by suspecting gang leader Tito with his staff.
- Group "Greifer" (40 men): should capture the British military mission
- Group "Stürmer" (50 men): should capture the Soviet military mission
- Group "Brecher" (50 men): should capture the US military mission
- Group "Beißer" (20 men): should support Grabber
- Group "Draufgänger" (70 men): should capture the radio station
Jump group
The jump group should conquer the city and prevent escape attempts. In addition, there was the battalion staff with 34 men. The jump group formed three combat groups:
- "Blue" (100 men)
- "Green" (95 men)
- "Red" (85 men)
Second wave
The 2nd wave (221 men) should follow suit as soon as possible. On the eve of X-Day, the combat groups of the two mountain corps under Lothar Rendulic moved into their starting positions at Knin (Croatia), Srb (Croatia) and Bihać (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in the greatest secrecy.
Further reading
- Karl-Dieter Wolff: Das Unternehmen „Rösselsprung“, 1970 (Archive)
References
- ↑ Lieutenant Savadil's six-man squad (and four other soldiers from the SS Intelligence School in Metz, including SS Untersturmfuhrer Peter Renold) joined SS Untersturmfuhrer Witzemann's group. Their task was to secure important document material from the partisans on behalf of the counterintelligence (counterespionage/intelligence gathering).
- ↑ It was a developed cave in the ridge surrounding the city.
