Draft:Gemsbock Operation WW2

• Comment: Please use the links in the above rejection to help improve the article. It may be useful to add sections for readability (see WP:SECT). Garsh (talk) 15:39, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

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GEMSBOCK took place between 6 and 14 June, 1944 with the 1st Mountain and 297th Infantry Divisions, and the Division Group (Provisional Division) Steyrer, composed of a number of security battalions, participating. The 1st Mountain Division, as the strongest and most experienced, held the widest front, extending from Gramsh in the north, through Korea, to Vasilikon in the south. The 297th Infantry Division, in turn, held the line from a point west of Gramsh to Valona. On the south, Division Group Steyrer held the front from a point west of Vasilikon to the sea at Sarande. The XXII Mountain Corps, directing the operation, had its command post at Vasilikon and the mission of destroying an estimated 9,000 NLA and other communist irregulars in the rough square within the line Korca—Valona–Sarande–Vasilikon. The final assembly areas, to be occupied just before the attack, were situated as far as possible from the communist headquarters at Corovoda, in order to prevent outlying guerrilla groups from escaping. Despite detailed planning, the first phase of the operation was a risk in that each man had to cover a front of over 100 meters. It was of the utmost importance, therefore, that enemy intentions to effect a breakout be determined as soon as possible; this disadvantage would decrease as the circle was compressed. [English: MAP 7.—Operations GEMSBOCK.]

A shortage of fuel delayed the 297th Infantry Division in its movement to assembly areas, allowing the guerrillas time to collect their scattered units and devise a plan of defense. With the operation finally under way, heavy fighting developed on the front of the 1st Mountain Division, which succeeded in driving the guerrillas before it as the division moved westward. Probing for gaps in the German front, a number of small guerrilla groups slipped through the line formed by the 297th Infantry Division and fled to the north; the remainder of the guerrilla force moved southward, into a stronghold west of the road Vasilikon–Permet–Tepelene. Reaching the road on the fourth day of the operation, the mountain division rested and regrouped to climb the almost vertical slopes west of Permet the following morning. With escape to the north and south now blocked off, the remaining guerrillas were compressed into the mountain area about Kuc and eliminated in another three days of hard fighting. The terrain, honeycombed with caves, had to be searched carefully and the guerrillas had to be killed or captured in hand-to-hand fighting.

GEMSBOCK cost the guerrillas over 2,500 dead and prisoners, and a large stock of arms; German casualties for the operation were 120 killed and 300 wounded.

References

• Kennedy, Robert M. (1954). German Antiguerrilla Operations in the Balkans (1941-1944). Washington, D. C.: Department of the Army. p. 70. Retrieved 23 July 2024. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.