Operation Steinschlag

rock fall

'Steinschlag' was a German and Croat operation against the partisan forces of Marshal Josip Broz Tito in the Otočac and Vrhovine area of the puppet state of Croatia in German-occupied Yugoslavia (30 March/4 April 1944).

The objective of this undertaking was the destruction of the partisan 13th and 35th Divisions and their supply bases in the vicinity of Otočac, including one near Vrhovine which was also being used as a dropping zone for Allied supply flights from Italy.

The Axis force comprised Generalleutnant Johann Mickl’s 392nd Division (kroatische) and, as the Croat contribution, Ustase Dopukovnik Delko Bogdanić's 4th Ustase Brigade. Advancing from Otočac and Perusić, the Germans and Croats took the partisan-held villages of Vrhovine, Ramljani and Turjanski after two days of heavy fighting, the partisans being dispersed and their supply bases destroyed. No loss figures have been found for this operation.