Syrmian Front
Part of theYugoslav andEastern fronts of theEuropean theatre ofWorld War II
Syrmian frontline (far south-east) as a part of the EuropeanEastern Front in April 1945.
Date 21 October 1944 – 12 April 1945[3] Location Syrmia,Slavonia,Baranya Result Allied (Yugoslav) victory
Belligerents
Allies: Yugoslav Partisans (includingItalia Brigade) Soviet Union  Bulgaria	Axis:  Germany (includingRussian Protective Corps andSerbian Volunteer Corps)[1][2]  Croatia
Commanders and leaders
Peko Dapčević	Alexander Löhr
Casualties and losses
13,500+ killed[4] (including 163 killed) 1,100 killed 630 killed	Total 30,000 killed[4]

TheSyrmian Front (Serbo-Croatian:Srijemski / Sremski front) was anAxis line of defense duringWorld War II. It was established as part of theEastern Front in late October 1944 inSyrmia and eastSlavonia, northwest ofBelgrade.

After theYugoslav Partisans and theRed Army expelled the Germans from Belgrade in theBelgrade Offensive, the retreatingWehrmacht and theCroatian Armed Forces used fortifications to protect the withdrawal of GermanArmy Group E from theBalkans. With help from their Soviet allies, thePartisans (by then recognized as the Yugoslav army), joined byBulgarian andItalian forces, fought a difficult winter campaign and finally broke through the front on 12 April 1945.

After the Syrmian front was broken, occupied Yugoslavia was liberated.^[5]

After the September advance through Romania and Bulgaria in October 1944, The Red Army, together with Yugoslav forces, took Belgrade (central communication node of theBalkans) in theBelgrade Offensive. Due to Yugoslav partisan activity,^[6] the Yugoslav-AlliedOperation Ratweek, and pressure from the Bulgarian Army, the Germans failed to prevent this while they awaited the redeployment ofArmy Group E troops from Greece. The Red Army decided to exploit this delay and continued to advance with the3rd Ukrainian Front fromBelgrade to south-westHungary. The aim of the advance was to separate and protect their main attack in Hungary from attacks on the flank by Army Group E from the south.

From September 1944 to January 1945, Army Group E pushed its way throughMacedonia,Kosovo,Sanjak, andBosnia, and soon their sole available escape route was in a line betweenSarajevo andSlavonski Brod. For this reason, it was of vital significance for the Germans to defend the zone around Slavonski Brod, which was threatened by the Soviet-Yugoslav advance through Syrmia. To prevent Army Group E from being cut off, the German South-East command prepared seven successive fortified defense lines between theDanube andSava river fromRuma toVinkovci. The Syrmian Front campaign consisted of Yugoslavian attempts to break through these lines of defense.

The Syrmian Front saw some of the most difficult fighting inYugoslavia in World War II. It lasted for almost six months. As the bulk of the Red Army involved in the Belgrade operation continued theiroffensive in Hungary, the Yugoslav Army, accustomed toguerrilla warfare in the mountainous terrain of theDinaric Alps, remained to fight theentrenched front line heavily contested by the Axis on the flat ground of thePannonian plain.^[7] Young men fromVojvodina andCentral Serbia, many from freshly liberated regions, were drafteden masse and sent to the front, and the amount of training they received and their casualty levels remain in dispute.^[8]

Although mostly stationary, the front moved several times, generally westward, as the Axis forces were pushed back. The fighting started east ofRuma and stabilized in January 1945 west ofŠid after the town changed hands due to Axis counterattacks. In late March and early April 1945, Yugoslav Army units mounted ageneral offensive on all fronts. TheYugoslav First Army, commanded byPeko Dapčević, broke through GermanXXXIV Corps defenses in Syrmia on 12 April, quickly capturing the cities ofVukovar,Vinkovci, andŽupanja, and enabling further advances throughSlavonia towardSlavonski Brod andZagreb in the last month of the war.

The campaign can be divided into four distinct phases:

1. The first phase lasted from 24 October to the end of December 1944, and was characterized by slow but steady advancement of Yugoslav and Soviet forces through the seven German fortified lines of defense through fierce battles and heavy losses on both sides.^[9]
2. In the second phase, from 3 to 26 January 1945, the Germans performed a successful counterattack with the newly arrived forces ofXXXIV Corps of Army Group E, and succeeded in winning back to the Nibelung Line, the main line of defense in Syrmia, while inflicting heavy losses to the Yugoslav Army.^[10]
3. The third phase was a stalemate period from 26 January to 12 April 1945. In this period both sides only performed limited reconnaissance activities.^[11]
4. The fourth phase began when Yugoslav forces broke through the German defense lines on 12 April, with heavy German losses and fierce battles and Army Group E retreating.^[12]

• Đilas, Milovan (1977).Wartime. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.ISBN 0-15-694712-9.
• Pajović, Ljubivoje; Uzelac, Dušan; Dželebdžić, Milovan (1979). Blagojević, Radovan (ed.).Sremski Front: 1944–1945 [Syrmian Front: 1944–1945] (in Serbian). Belgrade: BIGZ.^{[ISBN missing]}
• Pavlowitch, S.K. (2008).Hitler's New Disorder: the Second World War in Yugoslavia. New York: Columbia University Press.ISBN 978-0-231-70050-4.

• Trifković, Gaj (2016)."Carnage in the Land of Three Rivers: The Syrmian Front 1944–1945".Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift.75 (1):94–122.doi:10.1515/mgzs-2016-0004.S2CID 132224010.
• Trifković, Gaj (January 2018). "The Yugoslav Partisans' Lost Victories: Operations in Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1944–1945".The Journal of Military History.82 (1):95–124.ISSN 0899-3718.

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