Rommel offensive
| Rommel Offensive | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II in Yugoslavia, Seven enemy offensives and Operation Achse | |||||||||
 Photo of Erwin Rommel, commander of Army Group B. The German High Command ordered him to destroy the Yugoslav Partisan units in Istria. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Nazi Germany |
 Croatian Partisans Slovene Partisans | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Adolf Hitler Erwin Rommel Paul Hausser | Unknown | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Slovene Home Guard Slovene Chetniks |
1st Istrian Briagde 2nd Istrian Brigade Učka NOP detachment Pula NOP detachment Pazin–Poreč NOP detachment | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
50,000 soldiers 150 tanks | 15,000 soldiers | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown |
4,096 Croatian and Slovene Partisans killed and 6,850 captured (Early German reports) 2,000 Partisans killed (later reports) | ||||||||
| 2,000 mainly Croatian civilians killed in reprisals | |||||||||
The Rommel Offensive was a German offensive against Partisan forces in Istria and Slovenia, led by the renowned general Erwin Rommel, commander of Army Group B. It is also known as the October Offensive, as it was carried out in October 1943. The objective of the operation was to reoccupy the free territory and suppress the mass uprising in the Slovene Littoral, Istria, the Croatian Littoral, Gorski Kotar, the Province of Ljubljana, and Žumberak, to seize ports on the northern Adriatic coast (and prevent a possible Allied landing), and to secure communications between northern Italy and the Balkans.
The operation was conducted in several phases, from 24 September to 12 November 1943:
- Phase I: Slovene Littoral (24 September – October)
- Phase II: Istria (24 September – 15 October)
- Phase III: Kvarner and Gorski Kotar
- Phase IV (15 October – 12 November): Žumberak, Dolenjska and Notranjska.
There are differing interpretations regarding the scope of this offensive. Some sources refer to all four phases as Wolkenbruch, while others apply the name only to the first phase.
In Yugoslav historiography, the Rommel Offensive is considered part of the Sixth Enemy Offensive.