Operation ROUEN

Operation ROUEN

(Operation ROUEN) / (Operacija ROUEN)

History

With arrival of Yugoslav Partisan 32nd Division to Bilogora and then Kalnik, German High command wanted to clear the area and for that purpose at the end of June 1944, commander of the German 69th Corps, general Helge Auleb arrived in VaraÅ¾din to plan operation ROUEN which was to follow up on operation BIENENHAUS.

Initially Ante MoÅ¡kov gathered all NDH troops he could find and launched operation BROD in order to push back Partisans but this action failed with heavy losses suffered by NDH troops near village of Prkos where advancing column under command of LtColonel Gredelj run into Partisan 21st Brigade which surrounded them and forced them to retreat.

Original plan called for two Hungarian division to enter NDH territory which would be very unpopular amongst local population and further undermined Ustasha rule. To prevent this Ante MoÅ¡kov avoided meeting with general Auleb until he together with Rafael Boban created a plan to force Partisan to retreat and make Hungarian aid unnecessary.

In order to this a trap was set in Ludbreg which Partisans believed to be defend by single battalion of Poglavnik Bodyguard brigade but instead garrison outnumbered attacking Partisan brigade 3 to 1. Request to cancel attack on Ludbreg was denied by the 10th Corps and Partisan attack begun on night of 5/6 July but run into strong resistance from the garrison which was reinforced already on 1 July with two additional Ustasha battalions. Partisan 17th Brigade suffered heavy casualties mostly in two companies which were cut off and wiped out.

After suffering heavy losses 28th Slavonian division retread from Kalnik mountain back to Slavonia.

Orders of Battle

Axis

Yugoslav Partisans

6th Slavonian Corps

10th Zagreb Corps

Casualties

At Prkos NDH forces suffered 80 killed or missing while Partisans had 3 dead and 13 wounded, also captured by Partisans were 2 75mm Skoda guns, 90 shells, 1 mortar 81mm, 4 mortars 50mm, 30 mortar shells, 2 pads for 81mm mortars, 2 heavy machine guns, 2 light machine guns, 1 Hungarian LMG, 35 rifles, 10000 rounds of ammo, 10 horses, 12 special, 2 field kitchen, 20 rifle grandees, 4 sadels, 2 bicycles, 2 submachine guns and 1.

In attack on Ludbreg Partisan 17th Brigade suffered 99 killed and 66 missing and also lost 12 light machine-guns and 75 rifles while NDH garrison had 14 killed, 71 wounded and 73 missing.

Reference

Rade Bulat: Deseti korpus 'zagrebaÄki' NOV i POJ