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Operation Rösselsprung (1944)

Operation Rösselsprung
Part of World War II in Yugoslavia
a black and white photograph showing half a dozen men standing on a narrow wooden walkway alongside a rock wall
Marshal Josip Broz Tito (far right) with his cabinet and principal staff officers in Drvar, days before the offensive.
Date 25 May – 6 June 1944
Location Drvar region, western Bosnia, Yugoslavia
Result See the Aftermath section
Belligerents

Axis (and collaborationist forces):

Allies:
Commanders and leaders
Strength
c. 20,000 German and NDH troops c. 17,000
Casualties and losses
  • 789 killed
  • 929 wounded
  • 51 missing
 See Aftermath section

Axis (and collaborationist forces):

Allies:

Operation Rösselsprung (Knight's move) was a combined airborne and ground assault by the German XV Mountain Corps and their allies on the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Partisans located in the Bosnian town of Drvar in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. The operation was launched on 25 May 1944, and was aimed at capturing or killing Marshal Josip Broz Tito and destroying the headquarters, support facilities and co-located Allied military missions. It is associated with the Seventh Enemy Offensive (Serbo-Croatian: Sedma neprijateljska ofenziva) in Yugoslav history. The airborne assault itself is also known as the Raid on Drvar (Serbo-Croatian: Desant na Drvar).

Operation Rösselsprung was a coup de main operation, involving direct action by a combined parachute and glider-borne assault by the 500th SS Parachute Battalion and a planned subsequent link-up with ground forces of the XV Mountain Corps converging on Drvar. The airborne assault was preceded by heavy bombing of the town by the Luftwaffe. The ground forces included Home Guard forces of the Independent State of Croatia. Tito, his principal headquarters staff and the Allied military personnel escaped, despite their presence in Drvar at the time of the airborne assault. The operation failed due to a number of factors, including Partisan resistance in the town itself and along the approaches to Drvar. The failure of the various German intelligence agencies to share the limited intelligence available on Tito's exact location and the lack of contingency planning by the commander of the German airborne force also contributed to the unsuccessful outcome for the Germans.


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