Grave Situation MTO (id:#62506)

(Dispatches from the Bunker #40 ID: DB121)   [next]   [previous]

Drvar, Yugoslavia 1944-05-26 (3 others)

Overview:

Operation Rösselsprung (“Knight’s Move”) had been conceived to eliminate the Yugoslav Partisan leader, Josef Broz Tito. Hauptsturmführer Kurt Rybka’s SS-Fallschirmjäger battalion came so close to achieving this, having cornered Tito in a cave north of Drvar. Heavy casualties, exhaustion and growing pressure from Partisan reinforcements forced Rybka to call off the attack, and during a break in the fighting Tito had managed to escape. The Germans were now faced with the fact that Operation Rösselsprung was a failure, and with the promised relief columns nowhere in sight, it now became a matter of sheer survival. The Partisan forces saw that they had an opportunity to annihilate the trapped SS-Fallschirmjäger battalion, and as night fell they closed in to finish them off. The Partisans of the 3rd Lika Brigade pressed home the attack, supported by heavy mortar fire. Several times during the night the Partisans managed to breach the cemetery wall, and the fighting was hand-to-hand. As dawn broke, machine gun fire was heard in the distance - a relief column of the 92nd Motorized Regiment had finally arrived, and the Partisans withdrew. Originally 874 strong, all that remained of the SS-Fallschirmjäger battalion were 200 survivors.

Defender: German (SS) (SS Fallschirmjager Bataillon 500)  

Errata (source)