German Antiguerrilla Operations in the Balkans (1941-1944)/Part Three
THE GUERRILLA MOVEMENT IN GREECE,
YUGOSLAVIA, AND ALBANIA (1943–44)
The German prospect of victory had begun to fade by the beginning of 1943. Stalingrad would cost the Germans 22 divisions and 300,000 men of the Sixth Army by February, and Axis forces in North Africa would be forced to surrender to the Allies in May. The growing losses on all fronts could no longer be replaced in full, and Fortress Europe was threatened by invasion from the south. In their zones of Greece and Yugoslavia, the Germans were plagued by attacks on small outposts and transportation lines, sapping their strength, tying down units and equipment urgently needed in the active theaters of war, and hampering the organization of an effective defense against Allied landings.
The growing strength of the resistance forces was felt even more by Germany's Croatian and Italian allies, who had abandoned extensive areas of the countryside to the irregulars and restricted themselves to securing the larger centers of population and the main roads and rail lines. This withdrawal even permitted the organization by the Partisans of a provisional government in Bosnia.
The significance of these developments was not lost on the German Armed Forces High Command, which had issued a directive, over Hitler's signature on 28 December 1942, raising the status of the Armed Forces Commander, Southeast, to that of Commander-in-Chief, Southeast and his force to that of an army group.[1] General Loehr was enjoined, as Marshal List had been more than a year earlier, to establish adequate defenses against Allied landings, and to destroy all guerrilla groups in his rear, since they threatened the accomplishment of his mission.
- ↑ This redesignation of General Loehr's command as Army Group E, while his force was only that of an army, may also have been prompted by a desire to attain equal status in the Balkans area to that of the Italians. With their three armies, the Italians had organized an Army Group East headquarters in Tirana, Albania, and technically outranked Twelfth Army and the Armed Forces Commander, Southeast.