Operation Mars (iv)

This was a German and Croat operation against the Yugoslav forces of Marshal Josip Broz Tito in south-western Croatia round the village of Kocerina within Axis-occupied Yugoslavia (21 December 1944).

Schemed as a successor to ‘Heuschober’, the undertaking involved two reinforced battalions of the 370th Grenadierregiment (kroatisch) of Generalleutnant Georg Reinicke’s 369th Division (kroatisch) together with Ustaše Dopukovnik Vladimir vitez Majer’s 9th Ustaše Brigade and an Ustaše militia company, and managed to push parts of 13th ‘Dalmatia’ Brigade of the 9th Division and 10th ‘Herzegovina’ Brigade of the 29th Division back to Kocerina. At the same time the 2/370th Grenadierregiment advanced into Buhovo.