13th Waffen Mountain Division of The SS Handschar (1st Croatian) - Last Battles Against The Partisans

Last Battles Against The Partisans

In early September 1944, the division returned north to the security zone, basing the infantry battalions in the villages of Kurukaja, Vukovije (south of Foča), Osmaci and Srebrnik. Almost immediately, the Partisan 3rd Corps commenced an offensive, attacking II/28 at Srebrnik. It held on despite being pressed hard during two days of fighting against the 11th Border Division. By the end of the first week in September, divisional supply columns were being attacked by Chetniks, sensing German weakness and looking for arms and supplies. II/27 was assaulted unsuccessfully at Matkovac. Over the same week, the Allies conducted Operation Ratweek throughout the Balkans, which involved Allied air power pounding Axis troop concentrations and key infrastructure in order to impede the German withdrawal from Greece. The local effect was to complicate the division's logistics through destruction of the Sarajevo-Brod railway and mass desertions of NDH troops tasked with securing supply lines.

After the first week of September, most of the division's fighting power was shifted to the western boundary of the security zone to meet Partisan incursions. The division succeeded in dislodging Partisan units from Slatna and Međeđa and allied Chetniks captured Skurgić. After relief by NDH forces, the division's fighting regiments withdrew to Brčko for rest and refit. As a result of the shift to the western area of the security zone, the zone's southern area was quickly overrun by Partisan forces. Zvornik and Tuzla had fallen by mid-September.