'Cottbus' (ii) was a German operation against so-called partisans operating against the lines of communication essential to Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge’s Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' in the area of Lepel, Begoml and Uszacz in the Belorussian region of the German-occupied western USSR (20 May/23 June 1943).

Under the command of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, a number of pro-German Latvian, Lithuanian, Belorussian and Ukrainian units took part in the operation alongside a combined force of Sicherheitsdienst personnel, police and SS troops of the Kampfgruppe 'von Gottberg' under the command of SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Curt von Gottberg against so-called partisans (largely Jews and other 'undesirables') in the Belorussian region of the German-occupied western USSR. This was the largest such effort by the Kampfgruppe 'von Gottberg', which was supported in this undertaking by Generalleutnant Johann-Georg Richert’s 286^th Sicherungsdivision and a force of Russian collaborators under the command of Vladimir Rodionov, which deserted en masse during the operation. The 16,000-man force also included an SS 'special battalion' (convicts), namely SS-Obersturmbannführer Oskar Dirlewanger’s SS-Sonderkommando 'Dirlewanger'.

Numerous villages were depopulated and burned in this operation whose results, as reported by the Germans, included 9,796 killed (6,087 in battle and 3,709 'liquidated'), and 4,997 men and 1,056 women collected as forced labour. These figures are likely to be underestimates of the dead. German radio reported 15,000 dead, although the SS-Sonderkommando 'Dirlewanger' alone reported Soviet losses as about 14,000 dead for its part of the whole operation. Taking into account that another two combat groups took part in the operation the likely number of dead during the operation is estimated to have been at least 20,000.

It is likely that the majority of those killed were unarmed civilians, although some contemporary German reports suggested that the majority of the dead were members of 'bands' (i.e. partisans); other German reports quote 9,796 persons killed (including 2,000 to 3,000 civilians driven into a minefield) and 6,053 persons deported for forced labour. The Germans also captured 950 weapons, and their own losses were 59 men killed. For the first time the German authorities in Belorussia expressed the fear that the indiscriminate nature and wholly unbridled brutality of such operations might lead to a general revolt of the population of Belorussia.