Operation HERBSTGEWITTER (1944)

Operation HERBSTGEWITTER

'Autumn shower' (Autumn Thunder)

Intro

German plan for general withdrawal from Adriatic islands and coastline from Senj to Valona on average 50 kilometers in depth to Grün (Green) line.

History

Unlike offensive operation Herbstgewitter previous year in 1944 codename was used for German plan to withdraw from Adriatic coast. Code name choice was probably to deceive real intentions.

With Red Army advancing through Romania and Bulgaria 2nd Panzer Army received orders to front towards southern tip of Soviet advance while at the same time to continue maintaining coastal defense of the Adriatic. For this purpose at the end of August and early September 92nd Motorized Brigade and 1st 'Brandenburg' Regiment were transferred from Dalmatia to area around Belgrade with 118th Jager Division planed.

In order for 118th Jager and 264th Infantry divisions to available new defensive line Grün would become Rijeka - Senj - Velebit - Knin - Mostar - Nevesinje - Gacko and west of Durmitor and Andrijevica to Shkodër in the south. This line would be held by German-Croatian legionary division 392nd, 373rd and 369th Infantry divisions. During evacuation anything that couldn't be take would be destroyed as well as all communications, port facilities etc.

For start of the evacuation 17 October was chosen with Dubrovnik to be evacuated by 20 October and Šibenik by 1 November. Earlier dates and proposal in November to fall back all the way to line Rijeka - Bihać - Banja Luka - Bosanski Šamac - Vinkovci - Vukovar were rejected by German High Command and Adolf Hitler (same as with similar considering parts of Hungary). Besides keeping resource base, room to maneuver there was also political issue because large German withdrawal would be serious blow to Ante Pavelić and Ustashe regime since most of the area in question belonged to Independent State of Croatia.

Being well informed on the enemy plans Yugoslav Partisans 8th Dalmatian Corps started preparation for its own 'Autumn Thunder' in desire to settle the score from previous year when its units suffered heavy losses. German units would come under attack from the front with 26th Dalmatian division and 1st Tank Brigade being located on Vis island and from the rear with several Partisans division operating on the mainland.

Partial withdrawal from Dalmatian islands soon turned into series of defeats in operations SEYDLITZ, EISBÄR and KRANICH. Partisans landing on Pelješac and subsequent battle in Vukov klanac destroyed most of the German 369th Infantry division before it could withdraw.

German navy successfully carried out operation OSTERN and several other evacuation missions but in the last mission operation WIKINGER suffered serious losses in encounter with British destroyers carrying out operation EXTERMINATE.
Group Allermann withdrawing from Šibenik to Knin was almost surrounded and managed to breakthrough suffering heavy losses only beacuse of Partisans poor coordination. But in Partisan Knin operation most of the 264th division was destroyed with 373rd suffering heavy losses. With fall of Knin Grün line was breached.

Order of Battle

Axis Order of Battle

Aftermath

German plan that was suppose to free up German units making them available to halt advance of the Red Army not only failed but resulted in heavy losses and allowed Partisans to capture large amounts of equipment and new front line had to be defended by much smaller forces then planned. German army was saved from total defeat only by Partisan lack of experience in coordinating large scale operations and most importantly lack of radios.

References

Todor Radošević: Ofanziva za oslobođenje Dalmacije

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