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Raid on Šolta
Part of World War II in Yugoslavia
Date 9–11 May 1944 Location Šolta and the waters around Vis, occupied Yugoslavia Result German victory
Belligerents
Germany	Partisans
Commanders and leaders
Unknown	Unknown
Units involved
Elements of the 892th Batallion of the 264th Infantry Division	1st Dalmatian Brigade 3rd Battalion of the 12th Dalmatian Brigade
Strength
400 soldiers (initially) 500–600 (peak)	unknown
Casualties and losses
100+ dead, wounded or captured 1 landing craft sunk 1 landing-assault craft damaged	97–102 dead 1 hospital ship sunk
6 civilians killed

The raid on Šolta (Serbo-Croatian: Desantni prepad na Šoltu), also know by its Allied codename Operation Detained II, was an amphibious raid carried out by the Yugoslav Partisans on 9 May 1944 against the German garrison on the central-Dalmatian island of Šolta. Following the highly successful raid on Korčula a month earlier, the Partisans decided to stage their next attack on the strategically important island of Šolta occupied by German forces since January 1944. The attack plan called for an undetected amphibious landing followed by an assault on German positions with the help of artillery and Allied air support before retreating from the island.

The execution of the raid, however, proved to be problematic; despite arriving on the island during the night, the element of surprise was lost early on when the Germans were made aware of the troop transports approaching the island and called in additional reinforcements from Split. Partisan commanders were also given incorrect information about the whereabouts of the main German force while the Allied bombing had little effect in softening German defences. After encountering the heavily fortified bulk of the German forces and several unsuccessful attacks, the Partisans retreated suffering 40 dead and over a hundred wounded.

During the attack, the Germans responded by launching an air raid on Vis while two Kriegsmarine torpedo boats were dispatched to the waters near the islands where they encountered a Partisan hospital ship transporting the wounded from Šolta to Vis. The boats proceeded to sink it, resulting in a death toll that exceeded the number of those who were killed in the raid itself.

Background

Following the Invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the defeated Kingdom of Yugoslavia was partitioned among Axis powers with the Dalmatian coast and its islands being divided between the Kingdom of Italy and the newly-formed puppet state of Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna država Hrvatska – NDH). On 23 April, forces of Royal Italian Army landed on Brač, Hvar, Korčula, Vis and Šolta and in May, the Treaties of Rome were signed, stipulating that Brač and Hvar will become part of the NDH while all other Dalmatian islands will be ceded to the Kingdom of Italy. After the Italian surrender in September 1943, the Yugoslav Partisans began disarming Italian forces and taking control of areas previously occuppied by the Royal Italian Army, capturing a large quantaty of war materiel in the process. The Partisans were successful in capturing almost the entire Dalmatian coastline and its islands, prompting German forces to retake them in fear of a possible Allied amphibious landing. The cities of Zadar, Šibenik and Dubrovnik were quickly captured followed by Split on 27 September.

At the end of October, Axis forces launched a major offensive against the 8th Corps of the Yugoslav Partisans with the goal of securing the entire Dalmatian coast, starting with a landing on Pelješac. After heavy fighting and sustaining heavy casualties, the Partisans retreated to Korčula. German forces continued their advance and on 22 December landed on Korčula. In the ensuing fighting the Partisans again suffered heavy losses: the 18th Dalmatian Brigade lost half of its manpower between 22 and 23 December, the 1st Overseas Brigade sustained over 300 casualties while the commander of the 26th Division Nikola Martinović was killed in action. The Partisans began their retreat to Hvar and Vis on the night of 24 December, completing it by 26/27 December. In the aftermath of the fighting on Korčula, the Partisans assessed that the Axis numerical and technological advantage was too great for them to organize a defense of all of the remaining central-Dalmatian islands of Brač, Hvar and Šolta. Instead, it was decided to retreat all forces from those islands to Vis, fortify it and defend it with the help of Allied forces. The retreat was completed between 1–3 January 1944, leaving behind only light forces. During the night of 12/13 January, 300 German troops of the 264th Infantry Division landed on Šolta, securing the island after s single day of light fighting.

By late January 1944, Partisan and Allied forces stationed on Vis began performing raids against German garrisons on the recently captured islands. The first such raid occurred on 27 January when 70 British commandos landed on Hvar and with the help of the Hvar Partisan Detachment, attacked German forces in the village of Milna. This was followed by several more sucessfull raids on Hvar, prompting the German to abandon their positions on the western part of the island and focus on the eastern part around Sućuraj. On 18 March, British commandos launched Operation Detained I, a raid on Šolta by elements of No. 2 Commando and 43 Commando RM with air support provided by 36 Royal Air Force Curtiss P-40 Warhawks. The raid was a success, with the commandos returning to Vis with over 100 prisoners of war.

On 22 April, the Partisans launched a major raid on Korčula, inflicting heavy casualties on German forces and capturing a large amount of materiel

Raid

The raiding party departed Vis at 21:00 hours on 9 May. Three Royal Navy motor gunboats and two torpedo boats were dispatched from Komiža to patrol the area near Cape Ploča, south of Rogoznica. At 00:40 on 10 May, Partisan forces approaching the Šešula cove were seen by a German observation post on the Mala Straža hill. The German command responded by sending in reinforcements from the mainland; over 150 troops were brought in from Kaštela to Split by truck, where they boarded the landing craft F-287 and assault boat 1-01, departing for Šolta at 04:10

At 04:00 the 1st Batallion of the 1st Brigade engaged German forces on Vela Straža, killing some while capturing others. At that point the Partisans realized that Vela Straža houses only a small observation post, and not the bulk of German forces as previously thought. At around 05:00 German forces reinforcements arrived in Rogač, bringing the total number of Germans soldiers on the islands to 500-600. At 06:00 Allied aircraft began their bomb run on German positions on Hill 103 and the port of Rogač lasting until 06:30. The bombardment resulted in one ship being sunk and a storage set on fire. However, German bunkers and fortified houses remained intact.

Following the end of the air raid, Partisan forces moved into positions for a full assault, but were hamphered by artillery attacks from Čiovo and a German minefields. After neutralizing the Mala Straža position, the Partisan forces commenced an attack on Grohote and Hill 103, only to be repelled with German machine gun and mortar fire with the help of the Čiovo artillery. At 10:00 after several assaults by batallions of both groups, the Partisans wre succsesful in capturing most of the village, with German forces providing heavy resistance from two to three houses in Grohote and from positions on Hills 103 and 22. The Partisans suffered heavy losses during the assualts, with enemy artillery and minefields taking the highest toll. Prior to the battle the German mines gardesn, trails and all locations which could have been used as cover from their machine gun fire, while the Partisans were insufficiently trained on detecting and dismanlint them.

The fell back in preparation for another assault, while at 14:00 Allied aircraft performed another air raid, again, with little effect. The new assault also grounded to a halt as only a small number of Partisans managed to get through barbed wire while German bunkers remained out of reach because of heavy machine gun fire and the lack of appropriate anti-tank guns for dealing with them. The failure led to Partisan decision to retreat back to Vis; their forces began a return to Sešula and Senjska were Allied ships were waiting for them, while a smaller group was left behind to cover their retreat.

http://www.znaci.net/00003/652.pdf - 234

Sinking of Marin II

Among the ships taking part in the raid was the Partisan hospital ship Marin II commanded by Ive Šimetović. At 02:15 of 10 May, Marin II docked and camouflaged in the Senjska cove. At 11:00 hours the ship sailed to Šešula where it collected the wounded before returning to Senjska at 15:00. At 18:30 hours the ship finished loading the remaining wounded and attempted to sail to Vis, but was attacked by machine gun fire from two German aircraft, forcing it to seek refugee in a nearby cove and wait until the cover of night. Two crewmen suffered minor injuries in the process, while a number of injured soldiers jumped of the ship and started swimming to the shore. Carrying over 70 wounded, the ship finally departed Šolta at 21:30. Because of the wish to transport the wounded to Vis as soon as possible, Marin II was the first ship to leave Senjska, thus travelled alone without an armed escort.

https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/309436

In response to the raid, at 20:15 the Kriegsmarine dispatched the torpedo boats S-61, S-30 and S-33 from Boka Kotorska to the waters around Vis. S-33 suffered engine problems while en route and returned to Boka Kotorska, while the remaining two arrived in the Vis Channel shortly after midnight. The island and its port were also bombed by German aircraft during the same night. Meanwhile, Marin II finally reached the vicinity of Vis at around midnight, only to see that the island was still being bombed. Fearing the ship might be discovered and attacked, the commander order the ship to sail out to open sea, and hold a position of around 3 kilometres (1.6 nautical miles) from the coast.

At 00:30, the crew of Marin II noticed S-61 and S-30 closing in on their ship at high speed. Unaware of their true identity and expecting the approaching ships to be Allied, the ship's commander and political commissar responded with predetermined signals. However, as soon as the German torpedo boats moved closer and reduced their speed, they responded by opening fire on the baffled ship. Although the ship was armed with three 8 mm (0.31 in) machine guns, the crew and the wounded Partisans didn't return fire, but instead they continued shouting at the torpedo boats, believing they were being fired upon by mistake by Allied ships. One of the rounds pierced the ship's aft compartment and caused an explosion of an oil tank, resulting in a fire which engulfed the ship. As the ship began to sank, crew members and wounded soldiers began jumping into to the sea, but were fired upon by the torpedo boats. Marin II finally sank at around 01:30 on 11 May.

Several obseration posts on Vis reported sighting a clash at sea and that one of the ships involved was ablaze. Unaware on which ship was under attack, the Partisans sent the patrol boat PČ-57 to investigate. PČ-57 soon stumbled accros the ship's commander, machine gunner and medic, who notified them about the sinking of Marin II. A more thorough search conducted by Jadran (NB-3), Kornat (NB-8), PČ-57 and three motor boats started at 05:00. Kornat (NB-8) found a wounded partisan from the 1st Brigade holding on to wooden board and transffered him to one of the motor boats which took him back to Vis. The search continuted until 08:30, finding only 11 bodies and pieces of wooden debris.

Aftermath

On 23 September 1944, MTB 655 (pictured) and MTB 633 attacked German forces retreating from Šolta, sinking three ships.

Although they failied to achieve the goal of completely overruning German positions, the command of the 8th Corps nevertheless commended the soldiers and commanders of the 1st Brigade, with the 3rd Batallion standing out. The Partisans suffered 40 dead and 129 wounded during the raid itself. However, the number of Partisan military casualties, not counting the German POWs and civilians, after the sinking of Marin II differs depending on source: according to Pribilović (1988) 57 wounded Partisans, crewmen and other personnel died in the sinking bringing it to a total of 97 dead. According to Huljić (1979), the sinking resulted in the loss of 62 military personnel, for a total of 102.

The exact figures on German casualites differ widely depending on the source. According to Sibe Kvesić (1979) the Germans suffered over 150 dead and 52 taken as prisoners. According to Mirko Novović (1985) the Germans had a total of around 130 soldiers killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Pribilović lists 34 as dead, 82 wounded and 84 missing; he also stresses the contradictoriy of the data regarding German losses, with the number of 47 captured and taken to Vis being the only certainty. Similarly to Pribilović, Huljić quotes German sources and lists 31 dead and 76 wounded.

The island itself remained under German control until 23 September 1944. By then, the Germans were being defeated on all fronts, including Yugoslavia where the People's Liberation Army launched an all-out offensive, liberating large parts of the country in the process. The liberation of the Dalmatian islands was carried out by the 8th Corps, and began in early September with the attacks on Hvar, Brač and Korčula. On 20 September Partisan scouts reported that German forces were preparing to withdraw their forces from Šolta, prompting Partisan commanders to attack them. During the course of the next two days, the Partisans landed four battalions of the 12th Brigade supported by an Allied Commando detachment numbering 450 men. After brief skirmishes, the planned full assault on German positions in Grohote never materialized, as German forces retrated to Rogač where they boarded ships waiting to transport them to Split. However, as they sailed out of Rogač, the ships were attacked by Royal Navy torpedo boats MTB 655 and MTB 633, sinking three of them with a loss of 200 lives. Six soldiers survived after swimming back to Šolta where they were taken prisoner by the 12th Brigade.

References

"Grohote, Solta - Operation Detained 1". commandoveterans.org. Retrieved 1 May 2024.

• Anić, Nikola (2004). Povijest osmog korpusa narodnooslobodilačke vojske Hrvatske: 1943.–1945 [History of the Eight Corps of the People's Liberation Army of Croatia: 1943.–1945.]. Split: Udruga antifašističkih boraca i antifašista grada Split. ISBN 953-993-72-1-3.
• Kvesić, Sibe (1979). Dalmacija u narodnooslobodilačkoj borbi [Dalmatia During the People's Liberation War]. Institut za historiju radničkog pokreta Dalmacije. OCLC 8928598.
• Pribilović, Kažimir (1988). Četvrti Pomorski Obalni Sektor Mornarice Narodnooslobodilačke Vojske Jugoslavije: 1943-1945 [Fourth Coastal Sector of the NOVJ Navy] (in Serbo-Croatian). Split: Vojnoizdavački novinski centar - Beograd. OCLC 165705818.
• Novović, Mirko (1985). Prva dalmatinska proleterska NOU brigada [First Dalmatian Proleterian NOU Brigade] (in Serbo-Croatia). Belgrade: Vojnoizdavački zavod. OCLC 39506868.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Anić, Nikola (1984). Dvanaesta dalmatinska udarna brigada (prva otočka) [Twelfth Dalmatian Strike Brigade (First Island)] (in Croatian). Supetar: Domicil 12. dalmatinske NOU brigade. OCLC 18868562.
• Huljić, Veseljko (1979). Vis 1941-1945 (in Croatia). Split: Institut za historiju radničkog pokreta Dalmacije. OCLC 443957561.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
• Barić, Nikica (April 1999). "Uspostava i djelovanje uprave NDH u dijelovima Dalmacije nakon kapitulacije Italije (rujan 1943. - studeni 1944.)". Radovi Zavoda Za Hrvatsku Povijest. 31 (1). Zavod za hrvatsku povijest Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu: 55–79. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
• Visković, Berislav (1981). "Savezničke pomorske snage u vodama Splita 1943-1945" [Allied naval forces in the waters around Split 1941-1945]. In Ćurin, Miroslav (ed.). Split u narodnooslobodilačkoj borbi i socijalističkoj revoluciji 1941-1945 [Split during the people's liberation war and the socialist revolution 1941-1945]. Biblioteka zbornici (in Serbo-Croatian). Vol. 5. Split: Institut za historiju radničkog pokreta Dalmacije. pp. 703–719. OCLC 29914543.