December 18th, 1943
Italian campaign
Italian-style diversion
Italian front - In France, the Germans have just launched operation Nordwind, whose progress worries the allied staffs. This is why Clark is asked to launch a diversionary attack on the Italian front. True to their habit since the capture of Florence, the Italian generals lay siege to the allied staff with all sorts of offensive plans.
One of them is an operation called "65" (Sessantacinque), intended to outflank the German defenses through the hills with their mountain corps. The 1st ID Mountain ID Superga is to break through north of Pistoia, along Routes 64 and 66, at the junction between two enemy units, the 112. and 356. ID. The allied command gives its agreement this time, but the objectives are limited. It is only necessary to make the enemy believe that the Allies are preparing a new major offensive on this front.
Only the Superga is to be engaged, not the entire mountain corps (which also includes the Acqui, Arezzo and Cuneense divisions).
Balkan campaign
At the crossroads of many sinister paths
Nis (Serbia), 11:30 - After a night of cavalcade and difficult march in the cold and snow, the defeated cohort of the XXII. Gebirgs-Armee-Korps finally arrives in the ruins of Nis and begins to settle down for the day. With all the dignity left, Gustav Fehn climbs towards the fortress, in an atmosphere of somewhat medieval atmosphere of mourning.
He finds Hans-Gustav Felber, who is busy packing and receives him between two doors, so to speak. The conversation is one-sided, is concluded when the head of the XXI. GAK finally announces "My dear Fehn, my troops have been holding their positions for almost three days now in order to prevent you from being surrounded. At this very moment, they are still fighting for your salvation. Do not delay." So much for the fatigue of the average Landser - for the Brandenburgers, on the other hand, still have the benefit of their vehicles. However, it is necessary to arbitrate between the units of the two corps for the distribution of fuel. And when the main corps of the troops sets up camp at nightfall, i.e. shortly after 16:00, the city's reserves are completely empty.
South of Leskovac (Serbia) - As soon as the sun rises, the 6th Armoured troops attack again and seize Doljevac. This position taken, it continues its effort, with the support of the 10th Armoured, which Gatehouse launches in an attempt to bypass from the mamelons of Žitorađa. The maneuver, complex but well thought out, fails only thanks to the intervention of the 1. Panzer reserve, whose two PanzerGrenadier regiments are now fully engaged.
At noon, Walter Krüger announces to his command that his defenses are close to the breaking point - it is necessary to withdraw, or the British will manage to break through somewhere!
But Felber asks him for a little more time: "Hold on until nightfall and we're off." Krüger accepts, but tries to preserve his units as best he can. He takes it upon himself to retreat to a line between Mekiš and Bučić, where his armor can benefit from the cover of a depression to fire against the slope. The British tanks stop for the night, once again, but they are sure to take the stopper tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the 118. Jäger is already on the move, closely followed by the 187. ID and the 93. schwere Panzerjäger Abt, which cross Nis in the night.
A few dozen kilometers away, ready to take over from the two Armoured Divisions, the 1st Australian Armoured and the 2nd NZ camp at Vranje. The 6th Australian Infantry of Stevens has to stay for some time in Chtip, in Macedonia.
.........
"The Sherman once again stopped in this shitty plain. We had come, what, six miles since the morning? Another night of trying to warm our tea in the snow. On the radio I hear my comrade Morton: "Abel, from Cobra, tomorrow we get them!" I remember responding, "James, don't be ridiculous! Don't you see that beautiful expanse in front of us?" But he did not let himself be discouraged: "Yes, but tomorrow the whole of the 10th is going to attack with us!" And today, they had turned their thumbs? "Great, I'll tell all our friends!" We were not attentive that night - we were sure to find our work the next morning. Obviously, we were wrong. But I doubt that staying up all night would have made any difference. "(Testimony of Sergeant Winston Taylor, quoted by Robert Stan Pratsky, The Liberation of Greece and the Balkans, Flammarion, 2005)
Bubanj (5 kilometers southwest of Nis), 18:30 - The night has veiled the death and misery in the camp of Bubanj. Surveying the guard posts with a morgue which only imperfectly hides his anxiety, Major Kasun, of the Black Legion, desperately awaits instructions from his hierarchy - and they do not come. In addition to the difficulties of communication, the brave general Boban would be very busy in Belgrade. Of course, this cannot last.
However, one thing remains obvious: the German forces are gradually retreating and the lines are approaching Bubanj. In these conditions, what to do with the hostages? They will soon be useless and his men did not behave very well with them, to say the least. Robberies, rapes, a few hangings... these young boys have to have some fun - it's not as if the Serbs, Gypsies and other vermin were really human. However, the conduct of his unit could obviously be blamed on Kasun, if he were captured and the whole story of Bubanj were told.
The major returns to his headquarters, walks around the wire, goes into his office, slumps in a chair and pours himself a glass of Rakia - taken but still good. Then he puts both feet on the desk with the obvious intention to take a nap... But he has trouble falling asleep, impossible to say why. Three (or four) drinks later, the door opens with a bang and an out-of-breath soldier frames himself in the opening.
- Major, the Germans are leaving!
- What kind of nonsense is this! You've been drinking, soldier!
- No, come and see for yourself, Major!
While grumbling, Kasun gets up with difficulty to go and see, shoving the young soldier on his way. But it doesn't take him long to see that indeed, an endless column of armored vehicles and other vehicles is moving, all lights out, towards the north. Nobody warned him, of course!
- What do we do, Major?
For Kusan, whose panic-stricken mind is clouded with alcohol, one thing is clear: the Serbs are coming, we must leave very quickly. Immediately, during the night. To his assistant, arrived in the meantime, he says: "Prepare the evacuation of the material, destroy everything that is not transportable and erase all traces of our presence here.
The captain snaps his heels and salutes, with feverish haste. "At your orders, major! But, uh... What about the prisoners?" Shit, we must take care of them too. No time to evacuate them - and there's no way we're going to leave them to the Allies, they have too much to tell. Kusan sees only one way out. And he gives the order, terrible, almost stranger to the one who pronounces it: "Liquidate them!"
Nis, 22:30 - The "capital of the country at war" during the First World Conflict only presents a sinister face at the hour of the wolf, in the cold and under the snow. The city is deserted: a good part of its inhabitants fled a long time ago, most of the Croats have decamped and the German troops are retreating. Only one company of the 118. Jäger remains, which holds the fortress and has to leave at the last moment, as well as a mixed unit composed of militiamen and Ustachis, in charge of guarding the camp of Crveni Krst. It is planned to evacuate around midnight the interesting prisoners and to get rid of the others, by iron, by fire or even simply by throwing away the key to the cells. No one will be able to come to the rescue of these ones, the regular allied troops are still at least 12 kilometers away.
.........
Ottoman fortress of Nis, 23:30 - The German stronghold, about to be abandoned, is in turmoil: a coup de main is reported in the suburbs of Nis, in the camp of Crveni Krst. A revolt of prisoners that seems to have succeeded. Hauptmann Eduard Lamp, in charge of the place, thinks quickly. What to do? Go help the Croats and other followers of the SS? Retrench in the fortress? Kill the prisoners and run away as fast as possible? Bargain them off? Or simply run away?
Lamp chooses the last option: the fortress is deserted in less than ten minutes.
The first visitors who dare to go there will find without difficulty the keys of the cells... In any case, the Landsers were about to leave. Thus, and very paradoxically, the insurrection of Crveni Krst will save the lives of almost 1 500 hostages locked up for a little more than a month.
.........
Aleksinac (Serbia), 23:55 - Perched on his Kübelwagen, General Felber contemplates for the last time the south of the Morava valley, which he leaves with a non-concealed relief and a sense of accomplishment. At the head of his XXI. GAK, he saved the XXII. GAK, which is already running northwards around Deligrad, some twenty kilometers further.
His own corps begins to withdraw in echelons. The units are already all in Aleksinac, except for a few delayed elements and of course KG Braun, which is hanging around in Kruševac. Tomorrow, at dawn, the march will resume towards Paraćin, or the 297. ID of Moritz von Drebber has already prepared a collection line. Then his army corps - a phrase coined by his aide-de-camp, for he left as he had come! - could redeploy wherever Herr General Löhr decided. Ideally on the heights, because his infantry is likely to be quite tired.
- Finally, one worry at a time!" concludes Hans-Gustav Felber while making a sign to his driver to start. "There is nobody left behind, that's already a good thing! Well, almost nobody...
Shared backwardness
Albania, Bosnia and Montenegro - The formations of the 20. Armee start to redeploy according to the orders of general Rendulic. The LXVIII. Armee-Korps withdraws little by little from the river Mat and the neighboring valleys of Albania in the direction of Montenegro.
This night maneuver is carried out methodically, in discretion... and also in destruction: Hellmuth Felmy was very clear, nothing should be of use to the enemy.
The withdrawals are spread out over the next five days, with the units engaged in the mountains taking priority.
For his part, and in order to comply with the desire to hold eastern Bosnia, General Lüters detaches the 277. ID (Helmuth Huffmann), which was garrisoned in Sarajevo. Leaving without regrets its mission of maintenance of order to the 2nd Ustasha Corps (Franjo Pacak), the division leaves the camp for a three-day trip.
December in Belgrade
Belgrade - The tension in the streets of Belgrade seems to ease a little. Standartenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock's SS are less aggressive than before - the fault of the increasingly scarce supplies, the increasingly stubborn resistance of the Chetniks, the action of the Allied air force and especially ... the fact that the date of evacuation of the city is approaching. It is therefore (in the words of Colonel Morel) "either the beginning of the end, or the beginning of our end". And each side prepares its plans for the days to come.
This fragile lull is however called into question at nightfall, when the SdKfz 222 captured by the insurgents six days before reappears towards Venizelosova street, for an eminently disloyal and murderous operation. Wearing clearly visible German insignia, it passes behind the positions of a section of the 8. Regiment and sprays them with 20 mm cannon, massacring about thirty men before being neutralized. Mad with rage, the SS promise hell to their opponents for the next day - and the envoys of the 2nd Bureau wondered whether it was wise to provoke a sleeping beast.
Old Serbian grudges
Vitkovac (Serbia) - Mihailovic's Assault Brigade is now regrouped in the Vitkovac Valley - a 20-kilometer-long corridor that leads to the Kragujevac plain. Olćan's men appear to have given up and continue their withdrawal to the east and Trstenik. The royalists are now in a position to move northwards in order to hinder Belgrade's operations, but at the risk of putting themselves further in the way of the 12. Armee.
However, the Yugoslav command is optimistic: the region is literally covered with forests. The Germans would not take the risk of lingering there - and if they did, it would be enough to disperse and hold on long enough to allow the British to arrive. Only Dušan Smiljanić keeps a form of reserve: for him, the position of their forces is too well known, and they are not mobile enough. It would be wiser to disperse them right away, to temporarily revert to conventional actions and cross the Kragujevac plain in small groups.
This position is obviously supported by Colonel Fitzroy MacLean, who speaks at length about his experience in Kosovo, but the Serbian officers do not agree to take it into account. One should not confuse Muslim or communist Partisans with royalist troops! Nor Kosovo with Serbia - well yes, but it is particular... In short, the war is not the same here, dear colonel, let the Serbs take care of Serbia.
It is in the middle of one of these exchanges of acrimonious words that a disturbing dispatch arrives at full throttle - which is not just an expression: the messenger is on horseback. It is Mac Lean's assistant, Yvonne Rudellat. She is a Briton at heart and a skilled horsewoman, and she has resurrected the noble mission of the estafettes of yesteryear, on a terrain and in circumstances that are indeed much more suited to the use of the noble animal than that of motorized vehicles. "A strong German unit is in Kruševac and heading towards us!" Obviously, Mihailovic and his men have pulled the lion by the tail!
Without wasting any time, Major Dragoslav Racic gives the order to continue in a hurry towards Kragujevac, so that they could continue the mission they had set for themselves while getting away from their possible pursuers.
Black souls
Zagreb - Finally informed (with great delay) by Maximilian von Weichs of the general retreat in progress, Ante Pavelic orders the complete evacuation of Serbia, as well as the destruction or confiscation of all useful materials. This order concerns all the Croatian "regular" units and the myriad of militias dispersed in the region, including of course the Black Legion of Boban. The latter must therefore join Đakovo, in Croatia, as soon as possible for reconstitution and supplementation. The SS will have to fend for themselves - they who have been scorning the Ustasha since the beginning of their generous intervention will be able to meditate the consequences of their absence.
Similarly, Ivan Brozovic's I Corps is instructed to move towards Doboj, in Bosnia. There, its actions would be both useful and appreciated. At least, the Poglavnik is convinced of this.
Bulgarian affair
Red curtain
Bulgaria - General Tolboukine's tanks crossed the border and the Danube as early as seven o'clock in the morning, as indicated by Moscow and on the express invitation of the new (not yet officially proclaimed) government of Kimon Georgiev. The T-34s pass through Russe, Silistra and Durankulak - among others - without encountering any resistance, the red flag flapping in the wind.
However, this was not the case in Nikopol and Svichtov, in the Pleven region, where the newly deployed Bulgarian armored brigade seems to have decided to make a last stand of honor in all unconsciousness. Major-General Trendafilov is not, however, a madman - he has had plenty of time in the last few days to see the disproportion of the forces. And he has called on his troops to lay down their arms.
The problem is that he was not listened to: his men were carved by the fire of the National Socialist forge in their training centers in Serbia, then in Hungary.
The shadow of Herr Beckerle's accomplices clouded the minds of these young people, stuffed with ideology, whose military logic is not the closest relative. Unfortunately, team spirit did the rest. Finally, only one crew out of twenty gave up resisting - the others are all there, ready to fight on the banks of the Danube.
After the surprise of the first shots, the men of the Odessa Front and the 4th Ukrainian Front react with professionalism and virility, according to the standards of the Red Army at the end of 1943. Under the combined and overwhelming pressure of the Russian air force and artillery, the courage of the Panzer III or Panzer 38t tankers does not weigh much - no more than that of their compatriots against the Germans in Pernik. And by noon, the survivors are routed and flee south, pursued by particularly snarled frontovikis.
The affair has however a very unpleasant and immediate consequence for general Marinov: without even bothering to declare it officially, the USSR considers itself now at war with Bulgaria. And the poor general must run to the premises of Radio-Bulgaria to ask for an immediate cease-fire to the Red Army - which started to shell the Bulgarian positions without questioning the actual will to fight shown by their "opponents".
The Kremlin sees no reason to be tender: Marinov has to go up to Moscow to sign the surrender of the Bulgarian army if he wants to see the fighting stop! The end of this "war" is up to him... With a heavy heart, and very worried for his country as for his person, Ivan Krastev Marinov asks the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the urgent sending to Sofia of an air transport. Stalin generously sends an impressive Petlyakov Pe 8, which arrives at the end of the day with a strong escort which does not deign to land.
The Bulgarian delegation is as reduced as possible, Bozhilov is not even part of it (he remains in Sofia, where he will be arrested the following day by the Soviets - see below).
Marinov and his few followers boarded the plane under the surveillance of a squad of the NKVD. All of them have the soul gnawed by anguish: they do not know when they will see their country again. Without wasting a moment, the four-engine plane flies to Moscow with its prisoners.
.........
Moscow - With the good mood of a victor, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Molotov invites the three major Western Allies to "send their representatives to Moscow as soon as possible for the signing of the armistice with the Sofia government." A long trip for a meager formality ...
A little sulky, the Westerners will be satisfied to be represented by a single delegate, a military man (to underline that it is the surrender of an army rather than a political agreement), assisted by attachés from their three embassies in Moscow.
General Sylvestre Audet is chosen as Montgomery's deputy (no one even considered asking Monty to go to Moscow!). It will take some time for him to make the trip, after having been provided with all the necessary warrants.
On the other hand, Peter II, who would have liked, him, to sign an armistice with Bulgaria, will have to wait the end of the war to have this pleasure, as well as the Greek leaders.
Bulgarian destinies
The misfortunes of Marinov and Bozhilov
"Ivan Krastev Marinov (1896-1945): Bulgarian officer and Minister of War in Bozhilov's second government. Son of the general-major Krastyu Marinov, hero of the Balkan wars, Marinov joined the army when he came of age and participated in the Balkan Wars and the First World War as an airplane pilot. Thanks to the protection of his family, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on August 26th, 1934, before leaving for three years in Paris as a military attaché. Appointed colonel, he returned to Sofia in 1939.
Chief of Staff of the 3rd Army (Black Sea coast) and active member of the Zveno movement, he then took over the commands until 1943: head of the Supply Department (Civil Mobilization Directorate), Commander of the 6th Infantry Division, then of the 15th Infantry Division, before his political friendships led to his exile on June 12th, 1942 to a minor post on the Turkish border. From there, he witnessed the tragic attempt to overthrow the Muraviev government and the establishment of a rump state in the pay of the Reich.
The rest of his story is subject to controversy. Recalled by Adolf Beckerle to Sofia in order to become the unofficial master of the country, he accepted the post of Minister of War on September 21st, 1943. The interpretation of his action is confused and the cause has still not been lifted to this day: was he a particularly ineffective executor of the Reich's criminal policy or a genuine patriot acting underhandedly to save his country from ruin? The destruction (certainly voluntary) of a large part of the archives of the time during the agony of the People's Republic of Bulgaria blurs the picture and does not allow to conclude. But it seems to be a given that, if Marinov assisted the Third Reich, it was more by his own choice than by conviction.
The interested party will never have the opportunity to defend himself: summoned to Moscow to sign the act of surrender of his country - with which the USSR was not even officially at war - he was immediately arrested and incarcerated in secret after the signing. He will not reappear on the public scene only in 1945, for a botched and staged trial which ended with his death sentence. Shot in the central prison of Sofia on April 23rd, 1945, his ashes were scattered without ceremony over the Iskar. However, the 1945 judgment was revised by the Supreme Court of Bulgaria in 1995, following the new light shed on his actions by the work of his biographers (see the fictional autobiography "I wish I had ended up a military historian")."
(Robert Stan Pratsky - Dictionary of the Second World War in the Mediterranean, Flammarion, 2008)
"Dobri Khadzhiyanakev Bozhilov (1884-1945): Bulgarian politician, Prime Minister of two collaboration governments during the Second World War.
A graduate of the Svishtov Business School, Bozhilov began his career as a simple accountant at the Bulgarian National Bank, an institution where he spent 36 years climbing the ladder one after the other. Appointed Minister of Finance in November 1938 when the Kyoseivanov government was formed, he retained this position under the Filov government, which was subservient to the Axis.
As he gradually gained importance in the latter, he was a member of the group of three regents who were to lead Bulgaria after the death of Tsar Boris III on December 4th, 1942, and while waiting for the majority of Prince Simeon I - an appointment due to the action of Filov and intended to control Prince Kyril of Preslav, who was notoriously hostile to the Axis. This title of regent was soon accompanied by the function of Prime Minister, in order to allow Bogdan Filov to devote all his time to diplomacy.
The action of the first Bozhilov government, which lasted ten months, succeeded in the feat of being both inefficient and criminal. It will fail to contribute effectively to the struggle in the Balkans, mainly due to the efforts of Prince Kyril of Preslav.
But, at the same time, the Bulgarian armies will be compromised in multiple operations of repression in Macedonia and in Thrace. On another level on the other hand, it is henceforth certain that Bozhilov will oppose all his inertia to the repeated requests and demands of the ambassador of the Reich, Beckerle, to authorize the deportation of his fellow Jews - an... inaction that should be credited to him. Unfortunately, he did not prevent the deportation of non-Bulgarian Jews to the death camps.
Bozhilov thus seemed to walk a tightrope all the time - compromised, of course, but just enough to keep his position, sacrificing some non-Bulgarian populations to annex territories and safeguard the lives of his compatriots.
His functions ended on September 6th, 1943, when Prince Kyril of Preslav had him arrested. He is incarcerated in the central prison of Sofia until September 17th, before being released by the German forces and reinstated in his post. But Bozhilov will never again be the true master of his country - having disappointed his godfathers, he will remain in the shadow of General Marinov, whom he will accompany in his fall.
Arrested on December 21st, 1943 in Sofia, this time by the Soviets, he was sentenced to death on February 14th, 1945 and shot in the central prison of Sofia. His trial has since been revised by the Bulgarian Supreme Court, which triggered energetic protests from the Greek and Yugoslav governments. (Robert Stan Pratsky - Dictionary of the Second World War in the Mediterranean, Flammarion, 2008)
