In the early hours of May 25, 1944, hundreds of Waffen-SS paratroopers dropped into Josip Broz
Tito’s headquarters with the support of Luftwaffe airstrikes. The swift coup de main attack was
part of the larger Operation Rösselsprung, with the objective to capture or get rid
of the Communist leader once and for all. As World War 2 raged on, Tito had formed
a guerrilla force of 200,000 men to fight off the German occupation of Yugoslavia.
He had become a real threat to the German order, and Hitler was enraged, ordering a mission
that would finish the Yugoslav revolutionary. Still, to get close to Tito, the paratroopers
would first need to engage his entire forces, armed to the teeth with Italian weapons and ready
to fight to the last man… A Partisan
Leader On April 6, 1941, the Axis forces invaded and
surrounded Yugoslavia, overwhelming the national army and forcing it to surrender 10 days later.
The country was then divided between the victors, with the Vienna Line separating the
Northern territories that belonged to the Reich and the Southern lands occupied by the Italians.
However, after Italy's withdrawal,
armed guerrilla groups took over the spoils left behind when the country collapsed.
One such group was the Yugoslav Partisans, or the National Liberation Army, led by
Communist leader Josip Broz Tito and supported by the Americans, British, and Soviet forces.
The other group was the Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist guerrilla,
also called the Chetniks, partially aligned with Germany and led by Draža Mihailović.
Despite the success of the Case White and Case Black Axis offensives of early 1943 to eradicate
the Communist party resistance, Tito only grew stronger after Italy’s capitulation. By September,
his guerrilla forces amounted to 200,000 men, significantly
increasing his influence in the country. In addition, Tito armed his partisans with
thousands of weapons that the Italian forces had left behind.
The leader named himself Prime Minister and Marshal of Yugoslavia and established his
headquarters in Drvar, Bosnia, in the Dinaric Alps. The base was hidden inside a cave,
but as his forces grew, it was no longer possible to conceal them.
The Unac river passed through the ridgeline where the cave and the outer outposts were located,
becoming a natural obstacle against enemy incursions into the partisan territory.
Furthermore, American, British, and Soviet military intelligence personnel had also
established their operating bases around Drvar. These foreign allied forces supplied the partisans
with weapons, ammunition, intelligence, and training, and one of the British officers
giving counsel to the partisans was Major Randolph Churchill, son of Winston Churchill.
The Germans considered Tito a highly significant obstacle.
And even Generalfeldmarschall Maximilian von Weichs, the Wehrmacht’s Commander of
Southeast Europe, wrote that: (QUOTE) "Tito is our most dangerous enemy.”
For the Wehrmacht to impose order in the region, Tito had to be taken care of, no matter the cost.
Hunting Down Tito German intelligence agencies
began gathering information about Tito and his headquarters in late-1943 in preparation for an
ambitious secret operation to hunt him down. One of them was the Benesch Special Unit of Section II
of the Abwehr, which sent agents to the region to find out about Partisan activity and organization.
As members of the elite Brandenburg Division, these men blended easily with the population given
their ability to speak the local languages, facilitating cooperation with the Chetniks.
Front Reconnaissance Troop 216 of the Abwehr also tracked Tito and his forces.
However, most of the research came directly from the intelligence branch of the SS, which received
direct orders from Waffen-SS Major Otto Skorzeny. Hitler had personally designated Skorzeny for the
mission, and he did not disappoint. His men obtained enough information from partisan
deserters to conclude that Tito’s headquarters were in Drvar. Still, Skorzeny would later retract
from the operation after rumors circulated about a German plot to assassinate the Partisan leader.
SS-Hauptsturmführer Captain Kurt Rybka, commander of 500th Waffen-SS Parachute
Battalion, was then tasked with planning the operation under the codename Rösselsprung,
and Hitler approved it on May 21, 1944. It was decided that several units from
the Heer, Waffen-SS, and other foreign forces would participate.
The main assault on Tito’s headquarters would be carried out by both the XV Mountain Corps under
General der Infanterie Ernst von Leyser and the 500th Waffen-SS Paratroopers of Captain Rybka.
The first part of the operation called for a heavy aerial bombardment conducted by the Luftwaffe
around Drvar and nearby partisan outposts. After that, the German paratroopers and
glider assault troops from the 500th SS Parachute Battalion would surround
Tito’s headquarters to decimate his forces, and a Fi-156 Storch reconnaissance aircraft
would then fly into the location to pick up Tito, regardless of his condition.
Secondary objectives included the total or partial destruction of Allied supplies in the region
and the capture of as many American, British, and Soviet intelligence officers as possible.
Afterward, the Parachute Battalion would link up with the XV Mountain
Corps to mop the scattered enemy resistance. However, Captain Rybka soon realized that
the gliders and transport aircraft available would not be enough to land all his men and
decided to split his force into two waves. The first 300 Germans would assault Tito’s
headquarters at 7:00am on May 25, while another 300 would secure nearby towns and partisan posts.
Each wave was divided into three different groups with closely related objectives
that would ultimately link up with the rest of the XV Mountain Corps.
Attack on Drvar The partisans knew that the enemy was
coming and were aware of the presence of the 500th SS Parachute Battalion and the German garrison,
even as the paratroopers had been transported to Nagy-Betskerek dressed in Heer uniforms.
When the partisans spotted them and their respective transport aircraft,
they moved Tito’s headquarters to another cave near the town of Bastasi.
Then, on May 23, a German Storch spotted the American and British military outposts,
but the Allies also saw it and warned Tito of an imminent offensive.
Tito and his staff believed such an attack was impossible,
as the area was heavily defended and surrounded by thousands of partisans.
Dismissing the warning, he stayed at Drvar and celebrated his birthday the following day.
At 5:00am on May 25, five squadrons of Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers started to
bomb Drvar, Bosanski, Petrovac, and other surrounding areas. And two hours later,
the 500th SS Parachute Battalion members began to glide and parachute into their objectives.
The Germans advanced with ruthless efficiency in the middle of the smoke,
fire, and crumbling buildings. Armed with STG44s and lightweight FG42s, the paratroopers quickly
secured Drvar and avoided enemy resistance. With the support of Panther and Red Groups,
Captain Rybka established his headquarters near a cemetery that was close to Tito’s base,
although the Yugoslav leader and the men from his personal guard were nowhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, the Brecher and Greifer groups failed to capture the desired American and
British intelligence officers but were still able to destroy some of the supplies left behind.
Other groups landed near the office of the Communist Party of the Yugoslavia Central
Committee, where its defenders resisted until the building was leveled using satchel charges.
In another brutal encounter, the Stürmer group engaged Tito’s
bodyguards in a firefight near one of the exits of the Drvar cave. And by 10:00am,
most of the town was under the control of the paratroopers.
Attacking The Caves The Germans began questioning
the civilians about Tito’s location, but no one dared say where the leader was hiding.
Then, 30 minutes later, Captain Rybka rallied his
Waffen-SS troops for a frontal attack across the Unac river after sighting the
partisans concentrating at the northern portion of the Drvar cave. In response,
the partisans used the high ground and shot down several seasoned German paratroopers.
Still, Captain Rybka managed to take his men to the base of the hill with help from
some MG42s firing directly into some of the cave openings from where the Communists were firing.
Captured partisans then confirmed that Tito and his staff were hidden inside the cave. Now the
500th and the XV Mountain Corps needed to surround the cave, but it was not going to be easy.
As the minutes passed, the Germans kept losing soldiers while the enemy only grew stronger.
More and more partisans kept pouring into Drvar and attacking them from all sides.
At around 11:30am, while the Germans were trying to make their way into the
cave and prevent the partisan forces from encircling them,
Tito and his staff were able to escape from a platform located at the mouth of the cave.
The men had to climb down a rope that led them to a creek crossing with the Unac river,
and once there, Tito and his staff went east and retreated towards the village of Potoci.
Meanwhile, Captain Rybka withdrew his men from the cave and formed a
defensive perimeter with the support of the second wave of paratroopers.
Still, by 9:00pm, the SS troops had been completely encircled by the partisans.
Rybka then evacuated after being wounded by a grenade, and the rest of the paratroopers held the
perimeter for almost an entire day until they were relieved by the 92nd Motorized Grenadier Regiment.
The mission proved a failure even as the Germans took the lives of over
9,000 partisans compared to their 400 losses. Still, Tito managed to escape, and would
eventually serve as the president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for 27 years.
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