13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian)
It also fought outside the security zone on several occasions, and earned a reputation for brutality and savagery, not only during combat operations but also for atrocities committed against Serb and Jewish civilians.Over the winter of 1944–45, the unit was sent to the Baranja region, where it fought against the Red Army and Bulgarians throughout southern Hungary, falling back via a series of defensive lines until they were inside the Reich frontier.[2] NDH authorities, led by the Ustaše Militia,[3] subsequently implemented genocidal policies against the Serb, Jewish and Roma population living within the borders of the new state.[22] Due to the low number of recruits, to raise an Albanian SS regiment the Germans mobilized the population of Novi Pazar in the Kosovo region on 10 April and 30 May.Šuljak, an entirely political appointee, criticised von Krempler's Serbian dialect and his use of traditional Islamic colours and emblems (green flags and crescent moons) during the recruitment drive rather than the Ustaše symbols.On 28 March, Hadžiefendić escorted von Krempler to Sarajevo, where he introduced him to the leader of Bosnia's Islamic clergy, Hafiz Muhamed Pandža, the reis-ul-ulema, as well as other leading Muslim politicians not involved with the Ustaše.Himmler then allowed a 10 per cent Christian component, but the recruitment of sufficient Muslims continued to prove difficult, resulting in the induction of 2,800 Catholic Croats into the division.[39] The decision by the Waffen-SS to form and train the division outside Bosnia was contrary to the advice given by the NDH's German plenipotentiary general, Edmund Glaise von Horstenau.[41] On the night of 16/17 September 1943, while the 13th SS Division was training in Villefranche-de-Rouergue in France, a group of pro-Partisan soldiers led by Muslim and Catholic junior officers[36] staged a mutiny within the Pioneer battalion.[67] Operation Osterei (Easter Egg) began on 12 April 1944 intending to clear the Majevica mountain, which was held by elements of the 3rd Corps led by General Kosta Nađ.The 27th Regiment quickly captured Janja and drove through Donja Trnova to reach the Ugljevik coal mines, an important economic objective for the German war machine.Following fighting which continued into the evening of 13 April, the 27th Regiment reported Partisan casualties of 106 dead, 45 captured and two deserters along with large amounts of weapons and ammunition.The reconnaissance battalion continued the advance, driving into the western Majevicas and capturing Srebrnik and Gradačac then linking up with the Croatian Home Guard 1st Mountain Brigade.[69] During the final phase of Operation Osterei, I/28 was withdrawn from the fighting and transferred to Pristina in Kosovo to form part of the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) being raised by Himmler's order.Due to the level of the Drinjača at Kladanj, instead of fording the river and pushing east towards Vlasenica, II/28 continued south-east towards Han Pijesak, where they met elements of 7th SS Division advancing north.[76] On 17–18 May 1944, the division, along with the local Majevica-Tuzla Chetnik unit commanded by Radivoje Kerović, commenced Operation Maiglöckchen (May Bell) to destroy several Partisan brigades in the Majevicas.[78] Following Operation Rösselsprung (Knight's Move), the German attempt to kill or capture Tito at Drvar in western Bosnia on 25 May 1944, the Partisan leader ordered a general uprising.The Partisan 3rd Corps planned an offensive that involved three parallel columns of divisional strength thrusting north into the zone to engage and destroy German and local allied forces.The columns comprised:[79] Operation Vollmond (Full Moon) was devised quickly after the reconnaissance battalion observed Partisan forces crossing the Tuzla–Zvornik road on the evening of 6 June 1944.[98] In the first week of August 1944, the Second Panzer Army was finally ready to move to thwart the Partisan advance from Bosnia into Serbia, originally planned as Operation Rose.The cumulative effect of this exhaustion, the deteriorating situation that the Germans faced on all fronts and rumours probably spread among members by the Partisans and Ustaše, was that the division began to disintegrate in early September 1944.[104] In early September 1944, the division returned north to the security zone, basing the infantry battalions in the villages of Kurukaja, Vukovije (south of Foča), Osmaci and Srebrnik.The local effect was to complicate the division's logistics through the destruction of the Sarajevo-Brod railway and mass desertions of NDH troops tasked with securing supply lines.[108] In the early morning of 3 October 1944, the Partisan 28th Slavonia Division assaulted a squadron of the reconnaissance battalion at Janja close to the Drina on the eastern boundary of the security zone.[109] A few days later, the 9th Company of the 28th Regiment (9/28) displayed what could still be achieved by the Bosnians under determined leadership when Leutnant[h] Hans König ambushed the Partisan 17th Majevica Brigade near Vukosavci, killing at least 67 and capturing orders for future operations.[110] After a request from Army Group F to Himmler, a decision was made to move IX SS Mountain Corps and the division to perform road and railway security duties near Zagreb.[114] On 20 October, the Red Army and Partisan forces captured Belgrade and the following day the divisional staff imam, Abdulah Muhasilović, incited a mutiny and led 100 men back to Bosnia.[119] After a short break, the division was allocated to a sector of the Margarethe Line, a series of fixed defensive works south of Lake Balaton which held up the Soviet advance.[122] On learning of the orders, unit imams of the 28th Regiment "approached their commander, Hans Hanke and requested that they and their men be discharged and be allowed to attempt to return to their homeland ...[145] According to Gerhard von Seemen, Hampel, Karl Liecke and Hanke presumably received the Knight's Cross on the same day from the commander of the 2nd Panzer Army, General der Artillerie[k] Maximilian de Angelis.
Nazi GermanyIndependent State of CroatiaWaffen-SSGebirgsjägerMountain infantryDivisionV SS Mountain CorpsIX Waffen Mountain Corps of the SS (Croatian)LXVIII Army CorpsWorld War IIWorld War II in YugoslaviaEastern FrontOperation FrühlingserwachenKarl-Gustav SauberzweigDesiderius HampelNazi PartyWehrmachtNuremberg trialscounter-insurgencyYugoslav Partisanfascistpuppet stateGermanyCroatiaBosnia and HerzegovinaSerbiaHandscharSerbo-Croatianfighting knifescimitarOttoman EmpireBosnian MuslimsCatholicCroatsYugoslav Volksdeutscheofficersnon-commissioned officersFührerAdolf HitlerPoglavnikAnte PavelićSyrmiaBosniaSprečaJewishZagrebBaranjaRed ArmyBulgariansHungaryWestern AlliesprisonersBritish ArmyextraditedYugoslavia1947–48 civil war in Mandatory Palestine1948 Arab–Israeli WarinvasionKingdom of YugoslaviaAxis powersCroat nationalistBenito MussoliniUstašeCroatianUstaše MilitiamosqueChetniksYugoslav PartisanscommunistCroatian Home GuardHadžiefendić LegionMuhamed HadžiefendićResolution of Sarajevo MuslimsPrijedorSarajevoMostarBanja LukaBijeljinaHabsburgReichsführer-SSHeinrich HimmlerSS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SSGottlob BergerSS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SSArtur PhlepsAryansGothicIranianBosnian-Herzegovinian InfantryAustro-Hungarian ArmyJosip Broz Tito7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz EugenGermanicSiegfried KascheMladen LorkovićKrajinaStandartenführerKarl von KremplerAlija ŠuljakŽiviniceGračanica6th SS Mountain Division NordGerman-occupied territory of SerbiaSandžakItalian governorate of MontenegroKosovoNovi Pazarreis-ul-ulemaSS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen SSMufti of JerusalemHaj Amin al-HusseiniNazi saluteHusejin BiščevićSS-ObersturmbannführersignalAlbaniansAveyronLozèredépartementsEdmund Glaise von HorstenauOberstSS-OberführerPrussianOperation BarbarossaVillefranche-de-RouergueFerid Džanić