The growing partisan war

By the winter of 1942-43, the Germans were having to draw in an increasing number of Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, Italian and locally recruited troops to generate the manpower for setting up effective cordons around partisan bases. In response, the partisans infiltrated networks of spies into the Italian and locally recruited forces to give them advance warning of German-led operations against them. German commanders then set up special forces squads to penetrate partisan-held areas, and to provide detailed intelligence of partisan deployments to allow effective offensives to be launched.

Even with these innovative tactics, as well as having command of the air and the sea, the Germans were unable to contain Tito's partisans. The nimble partisans always seemed to be able to escape from the traps set for them by the Germans. The division of authority between the SS and the Wehrmacht High Command in Yugoslavia was a major factor in the German strategic failure. The military response to Tito's partisans was bedevilled by the conflicting policies of the SS and the Wehrmacht. Both organizations pursued different agendas, with the SS policy of terror stoking the resistance to the Wehrmacht, who were trying to pacify the country. Theoretically, Waffen-SS combat units operated in Yugoslavia under tactical control of the Wehrmacht when they were participating in anti-partisan operations, but in reality they split their time between following army and SS orders.

Himmler expanded his involvement in the Yugoslav theatre during the summer of 1943, when he formed V SS Mountain Corps headquarters to take command of Waffen-SS units fighting Tito's partisans. He had also begun to form a new division of Bosnian Muslims to capitalize on their hatred of the Croats and Serbs. Titled the Handschar Division, the new unit was formed in France and had specially designed uniforms, including fez headwear. The veteran Prinz Eugen divisional commander, Phleps, was put in charge of the corps headquarters that started to move to Yugoslavia in the autumn of 1943.

Italy's surrender in September 1943 forced the Germans to expand dramatically the size of their zone of control in Yugoslavia. This resulted in V SS Corps being given responsibility for the Dalmatian Coast, with the Prinz Eugen Division as its core unit because the Handschar Division was still in France after a mutiny severely disrupted its training.

During the following winter the corps took over responsibility for all of Bosnia, and set up its headquarters in Sarajevo. Its main job was to try to keep open strategic road and rail communications through the country's mountainous interior, which proved a thankless and never-ending task.

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