by Wilhelm Kriessmann and Carolyn Yeager
copyright 2008 by Wilhelm Kriessmann

Introduction ….
By the beginning of 1944, Tito’s partisan forces had gained strength in the mountainous regions of Bosnia and parts of Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia of the former Yugoslavia. Churchill himself had come round to support him after discovering his former ally, the royal Cetnik leader General Draza Mihailovich, cooperated with the Croats, Italians and even with the Germans. Close to three Tito divisions were now concentrated in the wild Karst regions of northwest Bosnia; what had been partisan skirmishes in the past now became serious military engagements. From Wolfsschanze headquarters in East Prussia, Col. General Alexander Loehr, Commander in Chief of Heeres Gruppe South East in Belgrade, received orders to eliminate Tito, who had self-promoted himself to Marshall.