Battle of Neretva – Wikipedia

The Battle of the Neretva ^[6] (O Battle of the Natenta ^[7] ) was fought between the forces of the axis and the popular army of liberation of Yugoslavia in the culminating phase of the war operations carried out in the Balkan theater after the beginning of the German offensive Fall Weiss (“White Plan”), a strategic operation launched at the beginning of 1943 during the Second World War. The offensive took place between January and April 1943 ^[4] . The name of the battle derives from the river, the Narenta (in Croatian Neretva ), where the decisive moments of the operation took place.

The operation is also known by the name of “fourth anti-partisan offensive”, while it is called “fourth enemy offensive” in Serbian-Croatian and Bosnian ( Fourth enemy offensive/offensive ) and in Slovenian ( the fourth enemy’s offensive ) or “battle for the injured” ( the battle for the wounded ) in Yugoslave sources. The battle, harshly fought and characterized by dramatic situations with a high outcome, ended with a strategic success for the Yugoslav partisans of Tito who, despite the serious losses, managed to escape the German encircling maneuver and to inflict a harsh defeat to the Departments of the Italian Army and Cetnic Collaborations lined up on the river ^[8] .

The Germans aimed to destroy both the central command of the partisan movement (“central command of the Yugoslav Communist Party”) and the main hospital of the partisans of Tito. The axis gathered nine divisions for this purpose: six Germans, three Italians, two Croats and different formations of Cetnici and Ustasha. About 60,000-90,000 soldiers of the axis participated in the various phases of the Weiss operation against 20,000-25,000 partisan fighters (the total partisan forces present in the area, including wounded, sick, local and civil troops sympathizing, actually amounted to 50,000-90,000 ); Yugoslave sources instead calculate the axis forces at 130,000. ^[first]

Battle orders [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Battle order of the Yugoslav partisans [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Yugoslav partisans:

Battle order of the axis [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Germany ^[9]

Italy

Croatia

• 2nd mountain brigade of the Croatian National Guard
• 3rd mountain brigade of the Croatian National Guard

Cetnici (nominally were defined as: “voluntary anti-communist militia” under Italian command) ^[4]

The operation Fall Weiss It was performed in three subsequent periods ^[13] :

• Weiss I It was started on January 20, 1943 with the attack on the partisan territories in Western Bosnia and part of central Croatia.
• Weiss II He left on February 25 with the fighting in western and southwestern Bosnia and the retreat of partisans to the south-east to the Narenta river.
• Weiss III It was launched in March and concentrated on the areas of the northern erzegovina, but the partisans managed to break the encirclement of enemy forces and to take refuge in the northern Montenegro: the third phase of the offensive was therefore not successfully completed.

During the operations, Tito’s partisans were pushed into a bag closed behind the east by the Narenta river. On the other side, the western one, there were German troops accompanied by different elite units and reinforced by armored brigades. The eastern side (behind the bag) was controlled by the formations of the Cetnici, who acted in coordination with the German command.

A single bridge over the Narenta connected the two sides of the bag. If the partisans had crossed the river they would have been relatively safe (they should have fought only against the weak cetnic formations), however they had no sufficient time for the crossing with the forces of the axis that were preparing for the final assault. In addition, Tito’s troops were clumsy by thousands of injuries and sick people, as well as civilians. To prevent this strategic “Matto Scacco”, the partisan commander, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, prepared an elaborate deception. Tito ordered his genieri to detonate the only bridge over the river: an action that had of the incredible, because it meant closing the only retreat. When the aerial reconnaissance reported this information to the Germanic command, the German generals concluded that the partisans had to be preparing a final leap north of their positions, which were located along the western bank of the Narenta river, and that therefore the bridge had been detonated to lift moral and prevent desertions. The German command began to rediscover the troops in the area to annihilate the partisans when they would attack.

This move, in reality, provided to the partisan genisons with the precious time of which they needed to repair the bridge in a sufficient way and thus allow the crossing of the Narenta river which began on the night of 6-7 March 1943 and was first carried out on precarious catwalks from the men of the 2nd Dalmatian brigade of Ljubo Vučković: the Cetnic forces deployed in defense of the eastern side of the bag were quickly disarray ^[14] . The Cetnici, despite the exhortations of Ostjic a Stanisic to resist at all costs, retired in disorder and some departments disregarded; Many fugitives cetnic sought desperately the way to cut the showy beards, fearing to suffer brutal reprisals if identified by the partisans in the event of a capture ^[15] . The crossing of Narenta continued for about ten days and ended with full success despite the organizational difficulties and the precarious strategic situation; About 3,000 injured and 1,000 patients were rescued ^[16] .

The Germans quickly understood the deception, but they were unable to correct their error in profit and prepare a massive attack, due to the previous orders of giving back forces. While their rearguard tried to reject the German advance, more and more powerful, the partisans crossed the river under intense air bombings (the Axis command had used great formations of the Luftwaffe): the mountainous conformation of the territory prevented, however, an accurate bombing of the luck bridge. When the retreat was completed, the luck bridge was finally made unusable by the partisans to prevent enemy pursuit. The partisans then advanced to Drina and freed Nevesinje and Kalinovik, the Cetnic survivors sought the escape in Montenegro and Sangiacciato, while Mihailovic had to quickly abandon the operations theater and return to Serbia ^[17] .

The unexpected strategic defeat of the axis forces (unable to encircle and completely destroy the partisan troops who had appeared in a desperate situation) was amplified by the fact that Tito had been able to keep the famous promise that would also bring with him in the retreat Wounded of the main field hospital of the popular army of liberation of Yugoslavia, which would otherwise have been met to death if they had fallen into the hands of the enemy forces (which happened punctually in the following months, at the end of the battle of Sutjeska ^[18] ).

At the end of March, the axis forces had killed almost eight thousand partisans, capturing more two thousand. Despite these heavy losses and the tactical victory of the axis troops, Tito’s formations saved their command and the field hospital, and were able to continue the guerrilla warfarers in the following months. In fact, once the eastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been reached, the partisans had to face only the Cetnics, and little by little they destroyed them almost completely in the Western areas of the Drina river.
The subsequent great operation on the Yugoslav front was the operation Black .

• Gino Sarna, The war of national liberation in Yugoslavia , Milan, Mursia, 2011, ISBN 978884258661.
• Antonello Biagini and Fernando Frattolillo, Historical diary of the Supreme Command , vol. IX, Tome I, Rome, General Staff of the Army. Historical Office, 2002.
• Stephen Clissold, Yugoslavia in the storm , Milan, Garzanti, 1950.
• Eric Gobetti, Allegra occupation. Italians in Yugoslavia (1941-1943) , Rome, Carocci, 2008, ISBN 978-88-430-4171-8.
• Francesco trusted, The Yugoslavia campaign. April 1941 – September 19443 , Campobasso, Italy Editrice, 1996, pp. 125-131, ISBN 978-8129-762-7.
• Eric Gobetti, Allies of the enemy. Italian occupation in Yugoslavia (1941-1943) , Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2013, ISBN 978-88-430-4171-8.
• Giacomo Scotti, Montenegro bitter. The Odyssey of Italian soldiers between the mouths of Cattaro and the Herzegovina from July 1941 to October 1943 , Blue necklace. History and politics, Odradek, 2013, ISBN 9788896487259.