German Report Series: German Antiguerilla Operations in the Balkans (1941-1944)

This slim volume, originally published soon after the Second World War, was, like others in the ‘German Report’ series, drawn from official German military records captured and taken to the US for analysis. Once the Balkans had been occupied in early 1941, the Germans and their allies were soon faced with a guerrilla opposition which sucked more and more troops into the area simply to attempt to control the civilian population. Sandwiched between British and Allied operations in the Mediterranean and the campaign in Russia to the east, the Balkan conflict achieved a momentum of its own, and the Germans were never left to indulge in the relative peace that reigned elsewhere in the parts of Europe that they occupied.'There is an analysis of the situation in the area after the German invasion was completed, together with comments on the rise of the partisan movements in both Yugoslavia and Greece. The Germans’ allies are also discussed, including the Italians, Bulgarians and Hungarians, together with comments on the puppet governments installed by the Nazis.'The Germans undertook a succession of large-scale operations against resistance in the Balkans, especially against Tito’s Yugoslav Communist Partisans, and these are treated in detail in the book. The situation after the withdrawal from the war of Italy in 1943 is treated as well. Much of the book looks at the actual guerrilla movements in Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania, and the operations against them in 1943 and 1944. The detail is supported by a series of maps showing especially Operations Gemsbock and Steinadler.'