Second Anti-partisan Offensive

Second Anti-partisan Offensive

Operation Southeast Croatia (German: Unternehmen Südost Kroatien) was a large-scale German-led counter-insurgency operation conducted in the southeastern parts of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) (modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) during World War II. It was the first of two German-led operations mainly targeting Yugoslav Partisans in eastern Bosnia between 15 January and 4 February 1942. Both operations also involved Croatian Home Guard troops. Several days after the conclusion of Operation Southeast Croatia, a follow-up operation known as Operation Ozren was launched. Operation Ozren was carried out between the Bosna and Spreča rivers. Both operations are associated with what is known as the Second Enemy Offensive (Serbo-Croatian: Druga neprijateljska ofenziva) in Yugoslav history.

The insurgents in the area of operations included groups led by either communists or Serb–chauvinist Chetniks. Although the Partisans and Chetniks had already irrevocably split in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia following Operation Uzice, this had not yet happened in eastern Bosnia and in some areas they were still cooperating. As a result, differentiating between the rank and file of the two groups was difficult, as even the communist-led insurgent groups cohnsisted mainly of Serb peasants who had little understanding of the political aims of their leaders. While there were 20,000 Chetnik-led insurgents located within the area of operations, they offered no resistance to the German-NDH forces and many withdrew east across the Drina river to avoid being engaged. This contributed to the complete unravelling of Chetnik–Partisan cooperation in eastern Bosnia. The Partisan main force was able to evade the Germans, infiltrate through the Italian cordon to the south and establish itself around Foča.

The failure of the Germans to decisively engage the Partisans during these operations resulted in the need to conduct a further major offensive, Operation Trio in the area immediately south of the area of Operations Southeast Croatia and Ozren.