Stratsin-Kumanovo operation

The Stratsin-Kumanovo operation[2] (Bulgarian: Страцинско-Кумановска операция) was an offensive operation of the Bulgarian Army in occupied Yugoslavia during the participation of Bulgaria in World War II against the Third Reich, which led to the capture of Skopje in 1944.[3]

Stratsin-Kumanovo operation
Part of World War II in Yugoslavia
DateOctober 8 – November 14, 1944
Location
Stracin, Kumanovo, Skopje.
Result Allied victory
Belligerents

Bulgaria

Germany

Commanders and leaders
Vladimir Stoychev August Schmidhuber
Units involved

1st Bulgarian Army

  • 1st Sofia Infantry Division
  • 2nd Thracian Infantry Division
  • 11th Infantry Division
  • 1st Sofia Guard Division
  • 2nd Cavalry Division
 11th Luftwaffe Field Division
21st SS Skanderbeg
Strength
100 guns and mortars
35–40 tanks and vehicles
Map of the offensive of the Bulgarian troops in Yugoslavia in the autumn of 1944 (October-November). Its main task was to cover up the Soviet advance to Belgrade.
Monument of the Bulgarian paratroopers fallen during the Stratsin-Kumanovo operation in Sofia. Macedonian sources claim the Bulgarians didn't carry out a single battle there.[1]
Yugoslav monument The Liberatiors of Skopje. The sculpture depicts a cluster of Communist guerillas.

Development

Bulgarian military activity

It was held from 8 October to 14 November 1944 and was conducted in parallel with tree another Bulgarian offensive operations in Yugoslavia: the Niš operation; the Kosovo operation and the Bregalnitsa-Strumica operation. Bulgarians supported the Soviet strategic offensive in the area, which was aided also by the Yugoslav, Albanian and Greek Partisans. The operation was conducted in order to cross the road to retreat to a group of German armies "E" from Greece to central Europe. Bulgarian troops began an offensive on 8 October and the day entered into Kriva Palanka. Consistently they keep fighting for the Ridge of Stražin (October 18) and the Stracin position, that was seized on October 25. Support was provided also by the Bulgarian Air Force. The battles for Stražin were fierce, and the enemies were German airforce ground forces. Thus Stražin was captured with a Bulgarian paratroopers' attack.[4] However 35 of them were killed, and 64 were injured, that was 1/4 of the Parachute Druzhina. Battles continued on the river Pčinja and in the city of Kumanovo (11 November) where parts of the Wehrmacht were defeated again. The Bulgarians developed their advance towards Skopje into a large-scale offensive, which gave rise to the danger for Army Group E of being cut off. The situation was desperate and the town was evacuated urgently at the night of 13/14 November.[5] As result on 13 and 14 November parts of the First and Fourth Bulgarian Armies entered Skopje, which performed their task.[6][7][8][9] The onslaught continued as part of the Kosovo operation and on 19 November Bulgarian troops captured Pristina.[10]

Capture of Skopje

Skopje was seized with the decisive role of the Bulgarian troops.[11][12] In fact on a series of maps from Army Group E, showing its withdrawal through North Macedonia and Southern Serbia, as well as in the memoirs of its chief of staff, there is almost no indication of Yugoslav Partisan units, but only Bulgarian divisions.[13] Per the British commissioner in the Allied Commission in Sofia — General Walter Oxley, who personally visited the front line on Stracin, the task of the Bulgarian army was to advance in a westerly direction and to cut the railway line Skopje-Pristina-Kraljevo. He noted that the Bulgarians had been given complete freedom of action, and that there were no Soviet troops in the area of its offensive.[14] General Oxley reported that there were Yugoslav partisans in the area of the operations carried out by the Bulgarians, but because they were few, it was difficult for them to take any serious actions against the well organised German units.[15] Oxley was impressed by the discipline of the Bulgarian soldiers, but noted that this was a problem for the partisans.[16] He maintained also Skopje was seized after weak German resistance with Bulgarian Army concentric attacks, while the partisans stood waiting on the surrounding hills. They went just in time to support the Bulgarian entry into the city. According to an agreement between the Bulgarian and Yugoslav authorities, the Bulgarian troops must coordinate their entry into the city with the Yugoslav partisans.[17] The Bulgarians retained the POW-s, but they submitted the abandoned from the Germans weapons to the Tito's partisans.[18] Early on the morning of 14 November, units of the Fourth Bulgarian Army entered Skopje too, and the last nests of German resistance were cleared. The information that Skopje was captured by the Bulgarians was reported on November 14 and 15 by Radio Moscow, Radio London, the Voice of America, and Radio Sofia.[19]

Political debasement

Yugoslav manipulation of historical events

In the autumn of 1944, the Bulgarian army was the real force behind the driving the Germans out of North Macedonia. The Macedonian Partisans there were not significant military force. They were ill-equipped, lacked heavy armaments (tanks, artillery, and airplanes), and were still clinging to guerrilla tactics.[20] However the official Yugoslav and later Macedonian historiography, has played down Bulgarian role by political grounds,[21] actually at the cost of historical deceptions. For example, because of the symbolic importance of the capital Skopje, according to Macedonian sources, Bulgarians did not participate in the operations for its capture, even as observers. Per general Mihajlo Apostolski, Skopje was liberated by the Yugoslav partisans after several days of heavy fighting.[22] Early on the morning of 14 November, the Bulgarian army had reached the outskirts of Skopje, but was sent back, by order of the glorious Partisans. In relation with the hoaxes written by him on that occasion, Apostolski became famous in Bulgaria with his phrase: "I have no evidence, but I claim it!"[23] In fact before the Tito-Stalin split in 1948, Apostolski has stated that from the operational viewpoint, the most helpful approach was the including of the reorganized Bulgarian army into the war against the Germans on the territory of Macedonia.[24] Bulgarian sources maintain the first unit, which entered Skopje on November 13, was the cavalry intelligence platoon of the Second infantry division of the 4th Bulgarian army at 6.30pm. In fact the city was already left from the main German forces. Afterwards the Second infantry division of the First Bulgarian army took its southern and the eastern areas at 11pm. At the midnight the Bulgarians seized its center.[25] Because all the bridges and approaches to the city were blown up by the Germans, only infantry and cavalry units entered the city first.

Modern references

Some Macedonian media such as Vo Centar continue to fabricate hoaxes that Skopje was liberated by the Yugoslav communist guerrillas from the "Bulgarian fascist occupiers".[26] Indicative of this sentiment is the 2016 Macedonian film The Liberation of Skopje, which depicts Bulgarians as gangsters and Germans as gentlemen.[27] According to the Bulgarian Association for Research and Development of Civil Society, the movie, which was sponsored by the Macedonian government, is part of its propagandist agenda and breeds anti-Bulgarian hatred.[28] Against the background of numerous monuments erected in honor of the communist guerrillas, so far in North Macedonia, there are no similar ones to perpetuate the memory of those Bulgarians, fallen there at that time. In general 3,422 Bulgarian soldiers were killed and 2,136 were missing in the autumn of 1944 in today Southern Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo.[29]

In October 2019 the Bulgarian government has set tough terms for North Macedonia's EU candidature and part of them is both countries to "harmonize" their WWII historical narrative and that North Macedonia must overcome the hate speech against Bulgaria.[30] In an interview with Bulgarian media in November 2020, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev acknowledged the involvement of Bulgarian troops in the capture of Skopje, that Bulgarians were not fascist occupiers, as well as many other historical facts that have been altered and concealed for decades in North Macedonia.[31] The interview was a shock and was followed by a wave of nationalism in Skopje[32] as well by protests demanding Zaev's resignation.[33] According to the opinion of the former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski, these reactions are the result of ignorance, hypocrisy or politicking.[34]

See also
  • Bulgarians re-entering occupied Yugoslavia.
  • Bulgarian troops in Kriva Palanka.
  • Bulgarian Parachute Druzhina welcomed in Kumanovo.
  • Bulgarians advancing toward the ridge of Strazhin.
  • Bulgarian fighters Messerschmitt Bf 109 in the autumn of 1944.
  • Captured by Bulgarian troops Germans soldiers near Kumanovo.
  • Bulgarian troops entering Skopje on November 13.
  • Bulgarian troops greeted as liberators in Skopje on 14 November.
  • Bulgarian troops welcomed in Skopje on November, 14.
  • Bulgarian troops greeted by their return, Sofia, December.

References
  1. Тодор Атанасовски, Тито ја сакал Македонија како држава;списание Глобус; 01.12.2009 г.
  2. Ivaylo Znepolski et al., Bulgaria under Communism Routledge Histories of Central and Eastern Europe, Routledge, 2018, ISBN 1351244892, chapter: Bulgaria in the shadow of Stalin, see also: Timeline of the People's Republic of Bulgaria.
  3. Karl-Heinz Frieser, Klaus Schmider, The Eastern Front 1943-1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts, editor Karl-Heinz Frieser, translated by Barry Smerin, Oxford University Press, 2017, ISBN 0198723466, pp. 1096-1098.
  4. Андон Андонов, Димо Ангелев, История на военната авиация на България. Военно издателство, 1988, стр. 172.
  5. Karl Hnilicka: Das Ende auf dem Balkan 1944/45 – Die militärische Räumung Jugoslaviens durch die deutsche Wehrmacht, Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970. (Studien und Dokumente zur Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Band 13) ìn German; pp. 90-91; 95.
  6. Crawford, Steve. The Eastern Front Day by Day, 1941-45: A Photographic Chronology, Potomac Books, 2006, ISBN 1597970107, p. 170: "November 13, 1944: Greece, land war. The Bulgarian First Army ejects Army Group E from Skopje although, as most Axis forces have left Greece, this does not trap the army group."
  7. Stone & Ston; An online database of World War II, books and information on the Web since 1995: War Diary for Monday, 13 November 1944: German forces withdraw from Skopje as Bulgarian 1st Army advances. Bulgarian 1st Army captures Skopje. Southern flank of the Russian Front, 1944-1945; Balkan campaigns, the Aegean, and the Adriatic, 1942-1945.
  8. Alexander Perry Biddiscombe, The SS Hunter Battalions: The Hidden History of the Nazi Resistance Movement 1944-45, History Press Series, Tempus, 2006, ISBN 0752439383, p. 155. ..."By the late autumn of 1944, however, the Germans could no longer hold their base in Macedonia and they had to evacuate Skopje on 13 November, bringing covert operations against "Old Bulgaria" to a momentary hold."...
  9. Sfetas, Spyridon. "The Bulgarian-Yugoslav Dispute over the Macedonian Question as a Reflection of the Soviet-Yugoslav Controversy (1968-1980)". Balcanica. 2012. 241-271. 10.2298/BALC1243241S... "Indeed, the Soviets contributed heavily to Belgrade’s liberation in October 1944, and Bulgarians, though undesirable for the Yugoslav partisans, fought in the battles for the liberation Skopje in November 1944."
  10. Великите битки и борби на българите след освобождението, Световна библиотека, София, 2007, стр.73 – 74.
  11. Livanios, Dimitris, The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, Oxford University Publishing, 2008, ISBN 0191528722, pp. 118-141.
  12. Karl Hnilicka: Das Ende auf dem Balkan 1944/45 – Die militärische Räumung Jugoslaviens durch die deutsche Wehrmacht, Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1970. (Studien und Dokumente zur Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Band 13) ìn German; pp. 90-91; 95.
  13. War and revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: occupation and collaboration, Jozo Tomasevich, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3615-4, pp. 751–752.
  14. Витка Тошкова, България-непризнатият противник на Третия райх, Военно издателство, 1995, стр. 146.
  15. Аврора Котева, Николай Котев, Британското разузнаване в България, 1939-1945; Издание 2, Военно издателство, 2003; ISBN 9545092661, стр. 168.
  16. Игнат Криворов, Военното изкуство на българската армия 1885-1945, Военно издателство, 2003; ISBN 954509270X, ст. 117.
  17. Ива Бурилкова, Цочо Билярски, БКП, Коминтернът и македонският въпрос (1917-1946): томове 1-2, Глав. управл. на архивите, 1998, ISBN 9549800040, стр. 1147.
  18. Georgi Daskalov, Bulgarian-Yugoslav political relations, 1944-1945, Kliment Ohridski University Press, 1989, p. 114; (in Bulgarian).
  19. Livanios, Dimitris, The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, Oxford University Publishing, 2008, ISBN 0191528722, pp. 134-135.
  20. Michael Palairet, Macedonia: A Voyage through History (Vol. 2), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, ISBN 1443888494, p. 212.
  21. Sfetas, Spyridon. (2012). The Bulgarian-Yugoslav dispute over the Macedonian question as a reflection of the Soviet-Yugoslav controversy (1968-1980). Balcanica. 2012. 241-271. 10.2298/BALC1243241S.
  22. Михаило Апостолски, Завршните операции на НОВ за ослободување на Македонија, „Кочо Рацин“, Скопје, 1953.
  23. Венко Марковски, "Кръвта вода не става", София, издателство на БАН, 1981 стр. 100.
  24. Anatoliy Prokopiev, Bulgaria's Preordained Choice in 1941 and 1944, p. 83, in: Multinational Operations, Alliances, and International Military Cooperation Past and Future, Center for Military History, U.S. Army, Government Printing Office, ISBN 0160872421, 2006, pp. 77-85.
  25. The first unit, which entered at 18.30 Skopje, already left from the Germans under the pressure of the Bulgarian army, was the intelligence cavalry platoon of the Second infantry division of the 4th Bulgarian army. For the liberation of Skopje contributed also detachments of the Second infantry division of the First Bulgarian Army. They forced the withdrawing Nazi detachments to retreat the city and on November 13th at 11pm took under their control the southern and the southeastern areas of the city. At the midnight they seized also its center. Georgi Daskalov, Bulgarian-Yugoslav political relations, 1944-1945, Kliment Ohridski University Press, 1989, p. 113; (in Bulgarian).
  26. Захариевa: Бугарите не биле фашистички окупатори. Тогаш на 13 ноември партизаните го ослободиле или го окупирале Скопје од Бугарите Ное. 13, 2020, Во Центар.
  27. Sheri Linden, ‘The Liberation of Skopje’: Film Review; 12/6/2016 Hollywood reporter.
  28. Македония с нов филм против българската окупация (трейлър); OFFNews.bg 27.09.2016.
  29. Йордан Величков, България срещу Третия райх, 22 юни 2015, Епицентър.
  30. Sinisa Jakov Marusic, Bulgaria Sets Tough Terms for North Macedonia’s EU Progress Skopje. BIRN; 10 October 2019.
  31. Зоран Заев: Договорът с България ще бъде закон. Меdiapool публикува интервюто на Любчо Нешков, собственик на информационната агенция БГНЕС. 25 November, 2020; Mediapool.bg.
  32. Sinisa Jakov Marusic, North Macedonia PM’s Remarks About History Hit a Nerve. BIRN, November 26, 2020.
  33. VMRO-DPMNE leader Mickoski demands PM Zaev's resignation, announces more protests. MIA, 26 November, 2020.
  34. Любчо Георгиевски: Хората са шокирани от Заев, защото не познават миналото. Епицентър, 28 ноем. 2020.

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