Battle of Dražgoše
| Battle of Dražgoše dražgoška bitka |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II | |||||
 The village of Dražgoše below the Jelovica Plateau |
|||||
|
|||||
| Belligerents | |||||
 Slovene Partisans |
 Nazi Germany
|
||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Jože Gregorčič | Willi Hertlein | ||||
| Strength | |||||
| 200 fighters | 4000 policemen and soldiers | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
|
8 KIA, 11 wounded, |
26 casualties | ||||
Coordinates: 46°15′7.61″N 14°10′38.02″E / 46.2521139°N 14.1772278°E
8 KIA, 11 wounded,
41 shot hostages,
The Battle of Dražgoše (Slovene: dražgoška bitka) was a Second World War battle between the Slovene Partisans and Nazi Germany armed forces, which took place between January 9 and January 11, 1942, in the village of Dražgoše (nowadays Slovenia). This battle was the first direct confrontation between the two. It ended with brutal reprisals of German forces against the villagers and the destruction of the village.
Fighting (both numerically and equipment-wise) vastly superior Germans the Partisan Cankar Battalion (numbering 240 combatants) suffered eight casualties throughout the entire battle. German forces suffered 26 casualties according to German documents. After three days of fighting, the Partisans were forced to leave the village. After the battle, the Partisans were pursued and killed by the Germans.
More recent publications have cast the events in a different light, stating that the Partisans selected Dražgoše as a scene to challenge the German forces. The villagers asked the Partisans forces to leave the village, but they refused; then, when the German forces attacked, the Partisans fled. According to Corsellis and Ferrar, the Partisans believed that uprisings such as the one at Dražgoše and the resulting reprisals turned the population against the Germans. The Catholic populace considered that the Partisans staged such uprisings in or near Catholic villages deliberately so that Catholics would be targeted by reprisals.
...
Wikipedia