Operation RATWEEK (1944)

Operation RATWEEK

(Nedelja pacova)

History

Simply refereed to by Partisan Supreme Headquarters as Destruction of communications on Yugoslav front from 1 to 7 September 1944, operation Ratweek was major joint effort of Allied air forces and Yugoslav partisans.

Operation BEARSKIN has shown just how successful joint coordinated action can be. Plan probably originated from ULTRA decrypts revealing planed withdrawal of German Army from Adriatic coastline and Army Group E from Greece where over 350000 German soldiers were used for occupation and coastal defense duties. Disrupting German withdrawal schedule would have serious consequences as subsequent events showed.

Agreement was made during talks between Josip Broz Tito, Winston Churchill and Henry Maitland Wilson from 6 to 14 August 1944 in Caserta and Naples. Goal was to destroy communication network (road and railway) in entire Yugoslavia simultaneously by using eight Partisan Corps (24 division and one operational group with 79 brigades, totaling 120,000 soldiers), four Partisan operational zone and units of regional staffs supported by Allied Balkan Air Force and 15th United States Army Air Force.

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From 13 to 30 September 17th Air Army took over attacks on German communications its impact seems to have been much smaller on retreating Germans.

Aftermath

15th USAAF made 1373 sorties and drooped 3000 tons of bombs, while BAF made some 600 fighter sorties. Allied air force destroyed 112 locomotives, 243 motorized transports and 413 railway carts, also attacks on the airfields destroyed 94 aircraft crippling Luftwaffe strength in Yugoslavia. The Long Range Desert Group and the Special Boat Service destroyed bridge near Gruda and attacked coastal targets in Dubrovnik region, while Royal Navy harassed German sea traffic.

Yugoslav partisans among other things, captured eight communication centers, 49 railway stations or strongholds, destroyed 77 kilometers of railroad tracks, 97 road and railway bridges, also cut 77 kilometers of phone and telegraph lines.

Axis forces had suffered 4187 killed, around 2000 wounded and 5782 captured soldiers. Railway traffic was interrupted for two to three weeks during vital period of German retreat from Balkan (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania) in front of advancing Soviet army allowing for quick liberation of Belgrade.

In following weeks Army Group E narrowly avoid being cut off and destroyed because while RATWEEK prevented timely arrival of reinforcements to Belgrade, evacuation of German garrisons from the islands went mostly uninterrupted until last possible moment (thousands of troops still had to be abandoned on Crete which remained occupied until end of the war) despite little or no protection and when finally Germans began their retreat from Greece operation ended with most Allied air-power diverted to support operations on Gothic line in Italy, another week of bombing would probably delay Army Group E enough to make escape impossible.