In many post-war memoirs almost all Partisans agreed that their most dangerous opponents were the 7th SS ‘Prinz Eugen’ Mountain Division composed mainly of the German minority in Yugoslavia. This division caused them many casualties although they tried to avoid engaging it whenever possible. The photo shows a machine-gun nest armed with the murderous MG42 light machine gun.

However, in January 1943, the Partisans were for the first time faced with an attack by the crack German mountain-troop unit, the 7th SS ‘Prinz Eugen’ Division. The Germans applied new and surprise tactics against the Partisans. They attacked in several columns, each of which was so strong that the Partisan units could put up no serious resistance. They moved in linear formations, and in some places, small columns would separate from the main ones moving around the Partisan position, and during the night they would sneak up on their rear. This tactical change confused the Partisan soldiers and officers, who up to that point had never come across this strategy. The German commander quickly spotted the Partisan weak points: a lack of ammunition, their habit of firing too early, poor communications, and too little attention given to scouting, monitoring and maintaining contact with the enemy. The Germans quickly and effectively took advantage of these weaknesses in their aggressive approach. In January 1943, during the ‘Weiss’ offensive, the Germans used this strategy to sneak up behind a brigade and to surround one of its battalions with some 150 soldiers. A section of the battalion succeeded in breaking through the enemy encirclement, and one soldier, Mico Uzelac, has left a vivid account of events:

The explosions, the screams of the wounded and dying, the shouted orders from the commanders made it a living hell. Ten metres away from me, I saw two Germans stab a field nurse with bayonets as she helped a wounded Partisan. The Partisan next to me killed one of them, while I shot the other with a submachine gun. Both fell on top of the dead nurse. My deputy attacked three troopers from behind, they were unable to return fire and all three died. One of our wounded, a Polish man, hid behind a tree and ambushed a German soldier, but the explosion of his hand grenade killed both of them. Two of our machine gunners set up back-toback and created an arc of fire. They both survived the battle, despite being wounded.

The Germans employed trained snipers and they were effective. One such sniper killed eight Partisans with shots to the head in the area of Zlatni Bor, and put two machine guns out of action with hits to the weapons.

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From 1944, the Allied air forces assisted the Partisans by attacking German positions and troops in the Balkans. At times such reinforcements only came at the last minute. In protecting the withdrawal of the General Staff from Drvar on 29 May 1944, the 1st Proletarian Brigade held its position near Lipovac. One soldier, Luka Bozovic, described the attack by a battalion of the 7th SS Division:

With strong artillery support, the SS battalion launched their attack at 1400hrs on the battalion position. The Germans began their attack with a great shout, something they rarely did. We were waiting for them on rocky terrain. We had no ammunition. We had been promised a delivery, but it had not yet arrived from Ribnik. We were ordered to not shoot until the Germans came close. The Germans came so close that they began throwing hand grenades at us. Running out of ammunition, the firing rate of our soldiers dwindled, which the enemy noticed, strengthening their attack. The medical personnel were too few to pull out all the injured fighters from our positions, so the supply staff had to come in and help. When it looked as if there was absolutely no chance left for our side to continue fighting, our soldiers began to prepare to attack with our bayonets. At that moment, nine Allied aircraft flew over our positions and dropped ammunition and food supplies by parachute. The containers fell both on our positions and the German ones. All those in the rear and even the wounded who could still move about participated in gathering up the supplies. The intensity of the battle increased again as our soldiers could return fire.

From autumn 1944, the tactical initiative belonged to the Partisans and not the occupying forces: this meant that attack once again dominated defence.