page_title: Operation Rösselsprung (1944)
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Rösselsprung (1944) / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Uniform of Marshall Josip Broz Tito Српски / srpski: Униформа Маршалa Јосипa Броз Титa
context_page_description: Operation Rösselsprung was a combined airborne and ground assault by the German XV Mountain Corps and collaborationist forces 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 the Partisan leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito and destroying the headquarters, support facilities and co-located Allied military missions. It is associated with the Seventh Enemy Offensive in Yugoslav history, forming part of the Seven Enemy Offensives historiographical framework. The airborne assault itself is also known as the Raid on 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 along with collaborationist Chetniks.
context_section_description: Throughout their escape, the British mission were able to maintain contact with their headquarters via radio and continued to call in support from the Balkan Air Force against the German formations taking part in Operation Rösselsprung and the Luftwaffe aircraft in the skies over Yugoslavia. This included over one thousand sorties. A costly ground attack was also launched by a combined Partisan, British and United States force on the German-held Dalmatian island of Brač. Code-named "Operation Flounced", the assault was mounted from the British-held island of Vis further out in the Adriatic Sea on the night of 1/2 June. Fighting continued late into 3 June 1944 and resulted in the reinforcement of the island by a further 1,900 German troops. After three days of fighting, the combined forces returned to Vis. The Partisans suffered losses of 67 dead, 308 wounded and 14 missing, and Allied units suffered 60 dead, 74 wounded and 20 missing, with the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jack Churchill, being captured by the Germans.
  After six days evading the Germans, the leader of the Soviet mission, Lieutenant General Nikolai Vasilevich Korneev, who had lost a leg in the Battle of Stalingrad, suggested an air evacuation of Tito and the Soviet mission and this was expanded by Street to include the whole party. After three days deliberation, Tito agreed on 3 June and Street arranged the evacuation the same night from an RAF-operated airfield near the town of Kupres. Seven Douglas C-47 Skytrain aircraft, one with a Soviet crew and the remainder with US crew, carried Tito and his party, the Allied missions and 118 wounded Partisans to Bari in Italy. Late on 6 June, Tito was delivered by the Royal Navy escort destroyer HMS Blackmore to Vis, where he re-established his headquarters and was joined by the Allied missions. The Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, believed that the British had known more about the attack than they claimed, based on the absence of both Maclean and Churchill from Drvar at the time of the attack. On 28 May, he sent a message to Korneev detailing his suspicions.
  Although Tito's headquarters, along with several other Partisan organisations, was temporarily disrupted and key staff were lost during the operation, all Partisan organisations were quickly re-located and resumed operation. Drvar reverted to Partisan control within a few weeks of the operation. The operation was a failure, as 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 several factors, including Partisan resistance in the town itself and along the approaches to Drvar. The failure of the German intelligence agencies to share the limited information available on Tito's exact location also contributed to the unsuccessful outcome for the Germans, and this failure to share intelligence was compounded by a lack of contingency planning by the commander of the German airborne force.
  The 500th SS Parachute Battalion was decimated during Operation Rösselsprung, suffering 576 killed and 48 wounded. Only 200 soldiers of the battalion were fit to fight on the morning of 26 May. It continued throughout the rest of the war as the only SS parachute unit, although its name was later changed to the 600th SS Parachute Battalion. Operation Rösselsprung was its only combat parachute operation.
  According to a German report, the ground troops of XV Mountain Corps suffered 213 killed, 881 wounded, and 51 missing during Operation Rösselsprung. The same report claimed that 6,000 Partisans were killed. The commander of the 7th SS Division, SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Otto Kumm claimed that Partisan losses included 1,916 confirmed and another 1,400 estimated killed, and 161 taken prisoner. Kumm also claimed that six Allied aircraft were shot down during the operation. According to a Partisan source, their total losses were 399 killed, 479 wounded, and at least 85 missing. Of this total, the casualties suffered in
caption: Unable to capture Tito, the Germans did find his marshal's uniform in Drvar, and later placed it on display in Vienna.
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