Campaign of the Yugoslav partisans to Bosnian Krajina ( serbochor. Campaign of the Yugoslav partisans near Bosansky krajinu / Pohod jugoslovenskih partizana u Bosansku krajinu ), also known as Campaign of proletarian brigades to Bosnian Krajina ( serbochor. Pohod proleosuurunu brada brušanu krajinu ) - a campaign of units of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia , which took place from late June to mid-August 1942 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main divisions of the NOAU in the person of the 1st and 2nd proletarian, 3rd Sanjak and 4th Montenegrin brigades, headed by the Supreme Headquarters of the NOA and the POU , from June 24, 1942 from Zelengora, went to western Bosnia occupied by the Independent State of Croatia. During numerous battles, the partisans repelled the cities of Konits , Bugoyno , Prozor , Livno , Kupres and created a new liberated territory. At the later stages of the campaign, the 5th Montenegrin brigade and the Herzegovina partisan detachment (later the 10th Herzegovina proletarian shock brigade) joined the brigade.
| The campaign of the Yugoslav partisans in the Bosnian Krajina | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Main Conflict: The People's Liberation War of Yugoslavia | |||
 Offensive actions of proletarian shock brigades in Bosnia in 1942 | |||
| date of | June 24 - August 14, 1942 | ||
| A place | Bosnian Krajina , Independent State of Croatia | ||
| Total | Partisan victory, formation of partisan Bihach republic | ||
| Changes | liberation of part of the territory in eastern Bosnia | ||
| Opponents | |||
| |||
| Commanders | |||
| |||
| Forces of the parties | |||
| |||
The partisans didn’t plan the campaign as a march, and the partisans expected to create free territory in Western Bosnia and expand the rebellion zone to the western parts of Yugoslavia by means of numerous attacks on the enemy’s troops, so everything was planned in several stages. At the first stage, it was necessary to defeat the enemy troops with an unexpected strike and destroy the railway between Sarajevo and Mostar , and at the next stage go to the north-west, go to the right bank of the Neretva, to the mountain source of Vrbas, to the Kupres-Livno-Imotsky line and contact Ukrainian and Dalmatian units of the NOAU [1] . The commander of the 2nd Italian army, General Mario Roatta, called the partisan army that distinguished itself in Bosnia “a small reborn phoenix” [2] .
Content
- 1 Background
- 1.1 Partisan forces in early 1942
- 1.2 German-Italian offensive
- 2 Trekking to Bosnian Krajina
- 2.1 The Battle of Konjits
- 2.2 The Battle of Livno
- 2.3 Connection of liberated lands
- 3 notes
- 4 Literature
Background
Partisan forces in early 1942
In early March 1942, the High Headquarters of the NOUA sent the 1st and 2nd proletarian brigades to Eastern Bosnia, where they coped with the Chetniks and liberated a number of territories, providing significant assistance to the partisans. The Montenegrin partisans in the first months of 1942 controlled a significant part of Montenegro, despite the onslaught of Italian and Chetnik troops. The 2nd proletarian brigade, the Herzegovinian and Montenegrin troops liberated together Boroch having beaten out the ustashi from there, and after the capture of Kalinovik , the Montenegrin and Bosnian territories, controlled by the partisan movement, were united. In Western Bosnia, guerrilla troops distinguished themselves near Grecham and Kozar, and on May 16, 1942 , the 1st and 2nd Krainsky partisan detachments took Priedor , defeating a garrison of 2 thousand people.
German-Italian offensive
To prevent the spread of the uprising, the Germans and Italians on March 3, 1942 in the city of Opatija signed an agreement on a general attack on the partisans. The offensive plan was codenamed Trio. The first phase of the operation began on April 15, 1942 with the operations of the Bader combat group, the purpose of which was the destruction of partisan units on the Rogatitsa - Kalinovik - Focha line . Opponents failed to achieve all the goals because the Italians got bogged down in Herzegovina, fighting the partisans. The 1st and 2nd proletarian brigades retreated to Sandzak and Montenegro, and then got to Herzegovina to help the partisan units, which restrained the onslaught of 9 divisions of the Italian army. In mid-1942, part of Herzegovina was nevertheless lost by the partisans.
Campaign in Bosnian Krajina
Until May 10, 1942 , the NOAU Supreme Headquarters was located in Foca, and by that time they had assembled the 3rd proletarian Sanjak, 4th and 5th proletarian Montenegrin shock brigades and Herzegovina partisan detachment. Not without the help of the 1st and 2nd proletarian brigades, which covered the volunteers during their transfer. The whole group on June 24, 1942, together with its headquarters, moved to Western Bosnia to the Kalinovik - Prozor - Kupres line . The 5th proletarian Montenegrin brigade and the Herzegovina detachment marched in the rear along with the partisan field hospital and should have retreated in the unpleasant turn of events. Near Mount Treskavitsa, a group of brigades broke up with ustashi, and on July 3, 1942, they already attacked the railway bridge between Hadzic and Konjits. By night, the brigades had already squeezed the garrison out of the station, destroyed strategically important buildings and put out of action the entire road, in addition destroying several freight trains (a couple of dozen wagons and several locomotives).
The Battle of Konjits
After a series of sabotage on the front lines, the 1st proletarian brigade defeated the enemy garrison of the city of Konits, which consisted of a battalion of home-dealers and two companies of Ustashi, took the city and destroyed the railway station and depot with 25 locomotives on the night of July 7-8 . This attack was a serious blow to the transportation system of the NHC, breaking off the connection between the main forces of the home-warriors and the Ustasha with the units of Herzegovina for two months and stopping the transportation of bauxite reserves from Mostar. After that, the group of brigades was divided into two columns: the right one from the forces of the 2nd proletarian and 4th Montenegrin brigades through Bitovane and Vranitsa attacked the Ustashi positions at the source of Vrbas, and the left column from the forces of the 1st proletarian and 3rd Sandazhsky went to the line Prozor — Livno. The right one took Gornji-Wakuf-Uskople and started a fierce battle for Bugoyno and Doni-Wakuf , and the left column took Prozor, went to Shuitsa and then occupied Duvno.
The Battle of Livno
On August 5, with the support of the Dalmatian and Krajin partisan units, the city of Livno was recaptured, which was a tremendous success for the NOAU. The first battalion of the 1st proletarian brigade burst into Livno, breaking all the lines of defense, destroying all the enemies on its way and defeating the enemy command headquarters. He also provided great assistance to other battalions during the assault on the city [3] . In early August, the 5th proletarian Montenegrin brigade arrived in Prozor, and the Herzegovinian partisan detachment followed: they were exhausted after the fighting in Zelengor.
The 2nd and 4th proletarian brigades, units of the 3rd Sandazhka and 10th Herzegovina brigades (the latter was formed on August 10 from the Hercegovinsky detachment and Konitsky battalion), together with the 1st Krai brigade and the 3rd Krainsky detachment, were later bloody fights for Cupres from August 11 to 14 .
Connection of the liberated lands
In further battles, a group of brigades, with the support of the Krainsky and Dalmatian partisans, took Arzhano , Mrkonich Grad and Egg , inspiring neighboring lands for partisan struggle. The liberated territory near Livno and Mrkonic was connected to the entire liberated part of the Bosnian Krajina.
This could not fail to attract the attention of the Chetniks: on August 28, 1942, the governor of the Chetniks, General Dragolyub Mikhailovich ordered his commander Petar Bachovich Destroy the forces of partisans in Western Bosnia:
It is imperative, necessary and very important to fight the communists everywhere, wherever they are. They are fighting a war against us because of fear that they will soon end. The actions of eastern Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia and Lika destroy the last of their remains in Western Bosnia
Original text (Serb.)Unnecessarily It is necessary and a lie it is important because the Communist is not convinced and they don’t know the tragedy. The pre-su kampaњu against us from the imp demo su near the earth will soon be overwhelmingly unstable. An action from the source of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia and Lika Unistiti, and the last remnant of western Bosnia [4] .
Notes
- ↑ RIVER FACILITIES RAT PEOPLE Ј HOLIDAY - књиг 1
- ↑ Oslobođena i poluoslobođena teritorija u Jugoslaviji 1941. (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment November 21, 2015. Archived on August 18, 2014.
- ↑ Koča Popović: Beleške Uz Ratovanje (Serbian)
- ↑ ZBORNIK DOKUMENATA VOJNOISTORIJSKOG INSTITUTA: TOM XIV, KNJIGA 1
Literature
- REMAINING RAT PEOPLE Ј HONORED - knjiga 1 . - Beograd: The War of History and the Institute of Yugoslavian People’s Army, 1957.
- Mala encyclopedia of Enlightenment , Beograd 1959. one year
- Misho Lekovi : OFFENSING THE PROFILER BRIGADE AT SUMMER 1942 , Military History Institute, Beograd 1965.
- Primorac, Rudolph. OPERATIVE TACTIC OF ART FROM TWO HALF A PEOPLE'S RED BODY RAT . - Beograd: War Publishing houses and Novinsky Centar, 1986.