8th Dalmatian Assault brigade of Yugoslav Partisans

8th Dalmatian Assault brigade

(8. dalmatinska udarna brigada - Å¡ibenska)

History

Yugoslav Partisans Å ibenik brigade was one of many formed in chaos of Italian capitulation. Officially brigade was formed on 10 September 1943 but in reality process took several days with 890 soldiers being organized into 4 battalions each with 3 companies and support platoon.

Attempts of Partisans to persuade Italian garrison in Å ibenik to either join them in fight against Germans or supply them with weapons failed and general Paolo Grimaldi surrendered his 5000 soldiers to German 741st Rifle and 661st Artillery regiments of German 114th Jager Division arriving around 18h on 11 September. Most Italians were sent to Germany with only 327 soldiers and 30 officers joining Germans.

Newly formed brigade was given for its first assignment a difficult task of halting German advance towards Split-Trogir region from direction of Å ibenik in order to secure evacuation of people and captured equipment.

During 11/12 September brigade successfully disarmed Italian garrisons in PrimoÅ¡ten and Rogoznica along with coastal batteries resulting in 9 guns, 4 howitzers, 13 heavy and 1 machine-gun, 5 light machine-guns, 370 rifles and several radios.

On 7 October 1943, Å ibenik brigade becomes part of 20th Dalmatian division and is named 8th Dalmatian brigade.
In March 1944 brigade strength was at 631 out of which less then 500 were present, equipped with:

477 rifles

65 light machine-guns

6 heavy machine-guns

4 anti-tank rifles

1 light mortars

3 heavy mortars

On 20 December 1944 brigade had strength of 2281:

1678 Croats

126 Serbs

23 Slovenes

2 Macedonians

1 Montenegrin

3 Muslims

439 Italians (5th Battalion)

2 Russians

7 Poles

equipped with:

1439 rifles

130 submachine guns

76 light machine-guns

19 heavy machine-guns

38 MG-34/42 machine-guns

13 light mortars

13 heavy mortars

153 pistols

1081 hand grandees

3 anti-tank rifles

1 bazooka

7 PIAT

6 land mines

1 radio

3 field telephones switchboards

32 field telephones

40 km of phone cables

15 signal pistols

3 motorcycles

10 bicycles

8 wagons

24 riding horses

195 pack horses

24 draft horses

15 mules

8 donkeys

.

Staff

Brigade Commander

Branko LjubiÄ‡

Nedjeljko ManojloviÄ‡

Ljubo Truta

Ivo PuriÅ¡iÄ‡

Political Commissar

SreÄ‡ko Peran

Nikola JonÄiÄ‡ - KoÄa

Drago Crnogorac

Deputy Commander

Drago Å½ivkoviÄ‡

Branko LjubiÄ‡

Jozo Vukman

Deputy Political Commissar

Ivo DruÅ¾iÄ‡

Andro GabeliÄ‡

Chief of Staff

Mario DumaniÄ‡

Mate Bazdan

Mile Bosna

Operational officer

Mile Bosna

Vlade Majder

Battles & Campaigns

References