Page:Robert M. Kennedy - German Antiguerrilla Operations in the Balkans (1941-1944) - CMH Pub 104-18 (1954).pdf/58

GERMAN ANTIGUERRILLA OPERATIONS IN THE BALKANS (1941–1944) vehicles unsuitable for use against the Allies in Italy. This ambitious plan to eliminate the guerrilla scourge in northwestern Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav-Italian border area, and a contemplated transfer of several divisions from Army Group B to the Commander-in-Chief, Southeast, was thwarted by developments in Italy and the departure of Marshal Rommel and his staff to France. Marshal von Weichs also lost the 1st Panzer Division, ordered to the Russian front in August.

German forces continued to move into the Balkans in the months following the defection of the Italians. By the end of September 1943, the number of German divisions had increased to 14. Total strength was approximately 600,000 military personnel, a serious drain on the Reich's dwindling manpower resources. Opposing them, the Germans estimated the rapidly growing guerrilla forced in the theater at 145,000, the bulk of them, some 90,000, under Tito's command.

By early November the German forces in the Balkans comprised 17 divisions. The Armed Forces High Command then directed a search of all cities and centers of population in the Balkan Peninsula as a preliminary to major operations to destroy the guerrillas. Despite the strenuous objections of the theater commander, who protested the personnel available to him were far too few, the search operation was carried out on schedule, but with completely unsatisfactory results.

The Bulgarians also became a problem during November, with whole units disaffected by communist agitators. On one occasion, the 24th Bulgarian Division had to be withdrawn from an operation against the Partisans when it refused to obey the orders of the German task force commander. Desertions to the guerrillas became more frequent, and several communist bands of Bulgarian deserters were organized to operate against German forces and their own government in southern and western Bulgaria from bases on Yugoslav soil.

By the end of the year, German troop strength had climbed to 700,000 men, and a total of 20 infantry, SS, and mountain divisions. Despite this impressive total, however, and the attention the theater was receiving from the Armed Forces High Command, the southeast still held a secondary place in order of priority. Troop replacements were invariably older men or those returned to duty after long pe-