| Operation Draufgänger | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofWorld War II in Yugoslavia | |||||||
 Exhausted partisans after defeating Germans and breaking into Serbia, 4 August 1944 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Germany Bulgaria Albania Chetniks |  Yugoslav Partisans | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Artur Phleps | Peko Dapčević | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| 21st SS Skanderbeg and support units | Parts of the II Assault Corps | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| 500+ civilians (mostly Montenegrins and Serbs) | |||||||
TheOperation Draufgänger (German for "daredevil";Serbian:Операција Драуфгенгер/Operacija Draufgenger) was aGerman Wehrmacht military operation against theYugoslav Partisans at the Montenegrin-Serbian border area, aimed at breaking the Partisan foothold on theLim river which was a potential penetration point into Serbia. In turn, it was a Partisan counter-operation, known as theAndrijevica Operation (Serbian:Андријевичка операција/Andrijevačka operacija). The operation began on 18 July on theČakor–Gusinje–Andrijevica–Berane line, when Kampfgruppe E burnt down at least 16 villages and killed several hundreds inhabitants.[1] From different directions, German troops attacked villages and a part approached Andrijevica, pushed out parts of two Partisan brigades, and then took over the town on 19 July and continued attacking. The staffs of the Partisan brigades assessed the combined German forces as inadequate and self-initiatively decided to attacks, resulting in great German losses. With the possibility to surround and destroy, the II Assault Corps gave the operational command on 23 July on general attack. From different directions the German troops were surrounded in the wider region of Murino on 24 July. On 28 July the Partisan 2nd, 5th and 17th divisions were ordered to move across theIbar, which gave the opportunity for the 14th Regiment SS to break through Čakor towardsPeć, while larger part of the 21st Division SS broke and many Albanians deserted. The German troops were decisively defeated, and the Partisans moved for action in Serbia.Operation Rübezahl followed.
AtVelika, on 28 July, the 21st Division made up of Albanianskilled at least 428 civilians, mostly children, women and elderly, as a reprisal to local support for the Partisans.[2]
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