Better To Sweat Than Bleed MTO (id:#58272)

Lone Canuck Publishing (Prinz Eugen Pack ID: PE6)   [next]   [previous]

Foca, Yugoslavia 1944-04-23 (2 others)

Overview:

During the spring of 1944, the 7th SS-Gebirgs Division “Prinz Eugen” attempted to regain the initiative in central Bosnia following the January setbacks, by conducting small unit “mopping up operations” in a 150-km area south of Sarajevo. In one such operation, the II/14 SS-Gebirgs Regiment was ordered to occupy the right bank of the Drina and secure the town of Foca, an important communication and railway hub. There was only one way across the swollen Drina River – a single wooden bridge that was partially destroyed. The bridge had been temporarily repaired but hung precariously between four columns. On the other side of the bridge was the hardest nut to crack: a bunker at the very end of the bridge. Behind it was a roofless barracks and beyond the barracks stood the town. Kampfgruppe Kremer, reinforced by a medium mortar and an anti-tank gun, prepared to assault the village. The plan called for the first squad to run across the bridge at exactly 0900 hours. They would be covered as well as could be expected by the heavy weapons fire that would be brought forward from hidden locations on the backside of a nearby hill just prior to 0900, in an attempt to divert the partisans’ attention from the bridge.

Defender: Yugoslav (III-Proletarian Corps and Local partisans)  

Errata (source)