Second Anti-partisan Offensive - Planning

Planning

The orders from General der Artillerie (Lieutenant General) Paul Bader, the German Military Commander in Serbia, directed that Operation Southeast Croatia was to be an encirclement operation. All persons encountered within the area of operations were to be treated as the enemy. The population within the area to be targeted by the operation were almost all either Orthodox Serbs or Bosnian Muslims, although there was a small Catholic Croat minority. Bader considered that the Partisans and Chetniks were using the area as winter quarters, and that their presence there was a threat to major transport routes through eastern Bosnia.

The operation itself was led by the German 342nd Infantry Division, which had been relieved of its occupation duties in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia by Bulgarian troops. The commander of the 342nd Infantry Division, Generalmajor (Brigadier) Paul Hoffman also had the 718th Infantry Division under his command for the duration of the operation. The German force was assisted by Croatian Home Guard units including seven infantry battalions and nine artillery batteries. Luftwaffe support included reconnaissance aircraft and a combat squadron. The offensive was targeted at areas held by the Romanija, Zvijezda, Birač, and Ozren Detachments of the Partisans, in the area between Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zvornik and Višegrad. To the south, along the "Vienna Line" separating the German-occupied zone of the NDH from the Italian-occupied zone, the Italians placed a cordon. In total, the area targeted by the operation was estimated by the Germans to contain around 8,000 Partisans and 20,000 Bosnian Chetniks.

The 738th Regiment of the 718th Infantry Division was reinforced by pioneers, four NDH battalions, four NDH artillery batteries and two and a half German mountain gun batteries. It drove east from Sarajevo along the Prača valley towards Rogatica.

The other regiment of the 718th Infantry Division, the 750th Regiment, was reinforced by a German artillery battery, and a NDH infantry battalion and mountain battery. It moved south from an assembly area southwest of Tuzla towards Olovo.

On 9 January 1942, the 718th Infantry Division had issued orders to both its regiments which defined all the following groups as hostile: all non–residents and residents that had been absent from their localities until recently; all identifiable Chetniks or communists with or without weapons or ammunition; and anyone concealing, supplying or providing information to those groups. Any captured Partisans were to be briefly interrogated and summarily shot, as were any other insurgents that had attacked the Germans, been caught carrying ammunition or messages, or who resisted or fled. Also, any houses from which shots were fired at German troops were to be burned.