Tito and His Comrades

122 World War Two and the Partisan Struggle

mapped out his vision of the postwar Balkans, stressing the pivotal role of
Yugoslavia in southeastern Europe. Once the Germans had been eliminated,
Yugoslavia was to ally itself with the Soviet Union, along with Bulgaria. The
only point that Tito found hard to swallow was the affirmation that “in our
plans, there is no Sovietization of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.”^375

Operation Rösselsprung

In the spring of 1944, the valley of the Drvar was at the height of its splendor:
sudden but brief storms blew in from the mountains, rays of light shone
through the clouds, fresh water gushed from the rocks. The entire valley was
green and full of flowers.^376 It was against this idyllic background that the Ger-
mans launched their attack, known as Operation Rösselsprung (knight’s move),
on 25 May 1944, Tito’s official birthday (Tito had two birthdays—the real one,
7 May, and the official one, 25 May).^377 It had been organized by the Fifteenth
Mountain Corps, in collaboration with infantry units from Bihać, Knin, and
Livno, and its purpose was to destroy the leadership of the resistance. Hitler
personally ordered the Wehrmacht to attempt a coup against Tito and his
Supreme Staff. It was coordinated by a center that had been specifically estab-
lished in Zagreb. The Germans prepared the operation in secret, planning to
encircle Drvar and occupy it by dropping in paratroopers. A special “punitive
battalion,” manned by condemned officers, was employed, since it was clear
that the descent was extremely risky, nearly suicidal—punitive battalions were
assigned high-risk missions with the prospect of redeeming themselves through
military heroism. They departed from the Zagreb airport, informed about their
task only two hours in advance.^378 The assault, in which two thousand soldiers
of the elite Prinz Eugen Division were also involved, took place so unexpectedly
on a Sunday that it was nearly successful. Thanks to information that had begun
filtering through in February, and because of the frequent Luftwaffe reconnais-
sance flights, the Supreme Staff had an inkling that something of the sort was
in the air and, as early as April, had called in the First Proletarian Division, led
by Koča Popović. When the Germans got wind of this, they decided to tempo-
rarily postpone the operation. Since nothing happened, Popović and his men
returned to the battlefield. When the attack came, Tito had at his disposal only
an escort battalion and the cadets of an officer school, altogether about eighty
men. The cottage, built as it was over a waterfall in front of a cave, was far from
ideal and Tito therefore decided to move to the nearby village of Bastasi, where
he would be safe as the Germans were unaware of his move.^379 Certain that
the danger had passed, on 24 May Tito returned to Drvar to participate in a din-
ner offered for members of the foreign military missions, including Churchill’s