Case White

This article is about a German campaign in Yugoslavia. For the movie about the campaign, see Battle of Neretva (film). For the German invasion of Poland, see Fall Weiß (1939).

Battle of the Neretva
Part of the Yugoslav Front of World War II
Bridge on the Neretva river, repaired and twice-destroyed during the battle. Today, a monument.
Date January - April, 1943 Location Vicinity of the Neretva river, Herzegovina, occupied Yugoslavia Result Partisan retreat and heavy losses, Chetnik defeat, Axis failure to achieve strategic goals
Belligerents
Axis: Germany Italy Croatia Chetniks	Allies: Partisans
Commanders and leaders
Alexander Löhr	Josip Broz Tito
Strength
150,000 men 200+ airplanes	Unknown (about 20,000 men)
Casualties and losses
18,000 Chetniks German, Italian, and Ustaše losses are unknown	8,000

The Battle of the Neretva (Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Slovene Bitka na Neretvi), codenamed Fall Weiss, was a German strategic plan for a combined Axis attack launched in early 1943 against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout occupied Yugoslavia during the Second World War. The offensive took place between January and April 1943. It is named after the nearby river, the Neretva.

The operation is generally known as the Fourth anti-Partisan Offensive, while it is also known as the Fourth Enemy Offensive (Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian Četvrta neprijateljska ofenziva/ofanziva, Slovene četrta sovražnikova ofenziva) or the Battle for the Wounded (Bitka za ranjenike) in ex-Yugoslav sources.

Operation

The Germans aimed to destroy the central command of the Partisan movement, the Central Committee of Communist Party of Yugoslavia, as well as the main Partisan hospital. The Axis rallied nine divisions, six German, three Italian, as well as two Croatian divisions and a number of Chetnik and Ustasha formations. Estimated 150,000 Axis combatants engaged a much smaller partisan force.

The operation was carried out in three stages:

• Weiss I started on January 20, 1943, with the attack on Partisan-held areas in western Bosnia and parts of central Croatia.
• Weiss II followed on February 25, with fighting in western and southwestern Bosnia, with the Partisans retreating as far southeast as the Neretva river.
• Weiss III was launched in March, and centered around the areas of northern Herzegovina, but the targeted Partisans managed to break out from an encirclement into northern Montenegro, and the third phase was not successfully completed.

During the battle, the Partisans were caught in a pocket with their back to the Neretva river. On their side, the western side, were German forces accompanied with several elite units and supported by panzer brigades. The eastern side (opposite the Partisan pocket) was guarded only by Chetnik formations, who were acting in coordination with the Germans. The far side was connected by a sole bridge. If the Partisans could cross the river they would be relatively safe, however, they had insufficient time to cross as the Axis forces were preparing for their final push. In order to counter this strategic "checkmate", the Partisan commander, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, prepared an elaborate deception. He ordered his sappers to actually blow up the only bridge on the river. When air reconnaissance brought this information to the German command, they concluded that the Partisans must be preparing a final dash north of their current position (along the western shore of the Neretva), and had blown up the bridge as a morale boost and to prevent desertion. They thus began a redeployment of troops in the area to annihilate them as they attacked. They were, in fact, giving the Partisan engineers precious time needed to sufficiently repair the bridge and to eliminate the Chetnik troops defending its far side. The Germans, characteristically, quickly caught on, but were unable to correct their mistake and prepare a serious attack in time, because of their previous redeployment orders. With their rearguard fighting off an increasingly powerful German advance, the Partisans crossed the river under intense air bombardment (the Axis deployed large Luftwaffe formations), but the mountainous landscape prevented accurate destruction of the makeshift bridge. After the escape was complete, the weak bridge was finally rendered useless to prevent pursuit. The humiliating strategic defeat was amplified by Tito being able to keep his well known pledge to even take the wounded in the main Partisan field hospital with him, as they faced certain execution at the hands of the Axis (which later actually happened in the aftermath of the Battle of the Sutjeska).

Aftermath

By the end of March, the Axis forces had killed about eight thousand Partisans, capturing another two thousand. Despite these heavy losses and a tactical victory for the Axis powers, the partisan formations secured their command and the hospital, and were able to continue operations. In fact, once they reached the eastern parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Partisans had to face only the Chetniks, and in turn almost entirely incapacitated them in the area west of the Drina river.

The next major operation in Yugoslavia was Operation Schwarz.

The 1969 Oscar-nominated motion picture The Battle of Neretva depicts these events.

Alistair MacLean's 1968 thriller novel Force 10 From Navarone, subsequently filmed, also brings forth the fight of outnumbered Partisans against Germans and Chetniks, and the blowing up of the Neretva bridge. But, the actual historical events are not in play and the story is entirely fiction.

Order of battle

Allied order of battle

Yugoslav Partisans

• 1st Croatian Corps (16,000 men)
• 1st Bosnian Corps (11,500 men)
• Main Operational Group (14,500 men) consisting of
  • 1st Proletarian Division
  • 2nd Proletarian Division
  • 3rd Assault Division
  • 7th Banija Division (joined later)
  • 9th Dalmatian Division (joined later)

Axis order of battle

Germany

• 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
• 369th Infantry Division
• 714th Infantry Division
• 717th Infantry Division
• one regiment from 187th Reserve Division

Italy

• 12 Infantry Division Sassari
• 13 Infantry Division Re
• 57 Infantry Division Lombardia

Croatia

• 2nd Croatian Home Guard Mountain Brigade
• 3rd Croatian Home Guard Mountain Brigade

Chetniks (nominally as Italian Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia)

• around 20,000 troops

See also

• Yugoslav Partisans
• Yugoslav Front
• Seven anti-Partisan offensives
• Sava Kovačević
• Resistance during World War II
• Anti-partisan operations in World War II