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Operation GRENZWACHT

Unternehmen Grenzwacht / Operation Frontier Guard

Intro

German anti-partisan operation carried out by 392nd Infantry Division from 12 to 22 October 1944 in Gorski Kotar with goal of destroying Yugoslav Partisan 13th Division which was threat to Ogulin - Senj - Sušak road before the winter.

History

In early October, 13th Division was resting and recovering breaking off with enemy allowing German to prepare undetected.

Operation

GRENZWACHT began on 11 October with German advance from several directions catching Partisan 1st and 3rd Brigade of 13th Division inside encirclement while 2nd Brigade and two detachments were left outside:

  • Ogulin - TroÅ¡marija - Stubica - Brod Moravice against parts of 1st Brigade advanced 33rd Ustasha Battalion and 392nd Reconnaissance Battalion reinforced with 4 tanks and artillery - around 2000 soldiers
  • Brinje - Drežnica - Jasenak - Mrkopalj advanced 2nd Battalion/847th Regiment - around 800 soldiers
  • Kraljevica - Zlobin - Lokve - Delnice against 3rd Brigade advanced 3rd battalion from 847th Regiment reinforced with 4 tanks and artillery platoon - around 2000 soldiers
  • 2nd Battalion/846th Regiment from Novi

Lacking knowledge of enemy strength Staff of 13th Division could do little, 1st Brigade was ordered to attempt counterattack on 13 December which failed and brigade reverted to defense. Partisan detachments outside encirclement were ordered to gather in order to threaten enemy from the rear.

Numerous road blocks and destroyed bridges slowed down German advance. Germans entered Delnice on 14 October and Mrkopalj on 17 October

On 20 October, general Mickl ordered end of the operation and return to starting garrisons allegedly because there was another landing on Pag island and need to quickly send reinforcements to the garrison there.

Order of battle

  • Axis
    • Yugoslav Partisans
      • 13th Division - around 3108 fighters present in October

Casualties

.

  • Axis
    • 210 killed claimed by Partisans
    • 280 wounded claimed by Partisans
  • Yugoslav Partisans
    • 31 killed (German report claims 216 killed, another 200 probable)
    • 67 wounded
    • 11 captured (66 reported by Germans)
    • 121 missing
    • 8 defectors reported by Germans
    • 7 machine-guns
    • 82 rifles
    • 11 submachine-guns

Aftermath

Despite initial surprise operation failed to achieve noticeable results to make things more odd it seems division reported sending 1st and 3rd battalions/846th Regiment plus Ustasha battalion to Pag island which "defeated the enemy". In the morning of 19 October, Partisans landed small group of only 22 fighters armed with two 81mm mortars in order to shell garrison in Pag and left already at 10:00, naval infantry platoon was landed in the evening but withdrawn in the afternoon of the following day to avoid German company which arrived to search the island.

Reference

  • Petar Kleut: Jedanaesti korpus NOVJ, pages 303-310
  • Franz Schraml: Hrvatsko ratiÅ¡te : njemačko-hrvatske legijske divizije -369., 373., 392. pjeÅ¡. div. (hrv.), page 234-235