German Casualties in the Balkans

The personnel records for German forces in the Balkans in World War II are fairl
y complete. (See above for the casualties reported in the initial invasion.) The
reports include personnel casualties for the occupation forces for every ten-da
y period from 22 June to 20 December 1941. Irregular periodic casualty reports o
f the German occupation forces in the Balkans and Greece from 15 January to 21 O
ctober 1942 and 20 January to 28 February 1943 are also extant. Finally, ten-day
reports for the Second Panzer Army from September 1943 when it began anti-Parti
san operation in the Balkans under command of AG F, to December 1944 when it was
reassigned to the direct control of OKH are available. From these reports it is
possible to recreate the greater part of the German loss experience in anti-par
tisan operations in the Balkans.
The initial German casualties, incurred in the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece
between 6 and 27 April 1941 were 932 KIA, 3,773 WIA, and 257 MIA. Then from 28
April to 22 June the occupation forces recorded no casualties. However, severe l
osses were incurred in the airborne assault on the island of Crete (20 31 May 19
41). German losses were: Luftwaffe 1,032 KIA, 1,632 WIA, 2,097 MIA; Army (5. Geb
irgs-Division) 321 KIA, 488 WIA, 324 MIA. The 5,894 lost in the battle for Crete
accounted for 54.29 percent of the Germans total loss in the campaign.
From 22 June to 31 August 1941 German casualties were 67 KIA and 112 WIA, and av
erage of just over 2.6 casualties per day. During this period popular uprisings
erupted sporadically in areas occupied by the Axis forces 7 July in Serbia, 13 J
uly in Montenegro, 22 July in Slovenia, and 27 July in Croatia, Bosnia, and Herz
egovina. All of these uprisings were suppressed with savage force. However, by e
arly September 1941 the Partisan movement had taken strong hold in western Serbi
a and established its headquarters in Uzice (thus it was known as the Uzice Repub
lic). The first major German anti-Partisan offensive, spearheaded by the 342. Inf
anterie-Division drawn from France, was directed against the Uzice Republic and
lasted from about 1 September 1941 to 20 December 1941. On 29 November the Germa
ns captured Uzice, and the Partisans withdrew to northeastern Montenegro and the
n to eastern Bosnia. German casualties totaled 149 KIA, 325 WIA, and 194 MIA, an
increase to an average of nearly six casualties per day.
After a short lull the German offensive resumed. From 15 to 29 January 1942 the
342. and 718. Divisions, reinforced by Croatian troops, attacked Partisan positi
ons in Bosnia. They lost 25 KIA, 131 WIA and 1 MIA (about 10.5 casualties per da
y), but again forced the Partisans to retreat, this time further south to Foca.
Secondary operations in Bosnia continued from 16 February to 20 March, resulting
in another 37 KIA, 67 WIA, and 45 MIA (about 4.5 casualties per day).
Then, from 21 March to 21 October 1942, the Germans and their Allies continued t
o harry the Partisans, driving them from one enclave to another. Although the Pa
rtisans had some successes, usually against the German Croatian, Bulgarian, or I
talian Allies, they continued to suffer heavy casualties. Partisan losses for 19
42 have been estimated as 24,700 KIA, 31,200 MIA (including 4,194 DOW), and 6,30
0 MIA. The Germans also reported counting 45,692 Partisans or suspected Partisan
s killed (including executed prisoners) from 22 June 1941 to 23 July 1942. Germa
n losses to the end of the year were 295 KIA, 596 WIA, and 45 MIA, for a total o
f 320 KIA, 727 WIA, and 46 MIA for the year. German casualties in anti-Partisan
operations through the end of 1942 were 573 KIA, 1,231 WIA, and 291 MIA, a pinpr
ick compared to the losses on the Eastern Front (according to different sources,
the Wehrmacht KIA on the Eastern Front, through the end of summer 1942, were be
tween 376,290 and 501,884).
Another short lull occurred as both the Partisans and the Axis forces paused to
recover and consolidate. Then, from 20 January to 28 February 1943, the Germans
began an all-out effort to eliminate the Partisan forces in Fall Weiss I. Four G
erman and Allied divisions (SS-Prinz Eugen, 369. Croat, 717., and 718.), with th
e support of the two available armored battalions in the Balkans, seized Partisa
n positions in western Bosnia and Croatia, and forced the partisans to withdraw
south again to Montenegro. German losses were 385 KIA, 1,001 WIA, and 102 MIA, a
major increase (an average of 39.7 casualties per day) over similar periods in
1942.

Casualties for the period from 1 March to 1 September 1943 have not been discove
red. However, it is possible to derive a reasonable estimate of what those casua
lties must have been by subtracting the total known losses suffered by OB-Southe
ast (AG E) in the Balkans as of 28 February 1943 (2,211 KIA, 6,493 WIA, 974 MIA)
from the losses of AG E as given up to 31 October 1943 (2,775 KIA, 7,067 WIA, a
nd 1,938 MIA and another 15 KIA and 74 WIA in the recapture of Cos and Samos in
October). The result 549 KIA, 500 WIA, and 964 MIA for an aggregate total of 2,0
13 is probably close to the actual losses incurred. Given that Fall Weiss 1 was
immediately followed by Weiss 2 and Schwartz (Black), which lasted until the end
of June, an additional 2,000 or more casualties could easily have been incurred
at only one-half of the daily average rate found in Weiss 1 (39.7 casualties pe
r day over 122 days would have been over 4,800 casualties). However, the distrib
ution of the KIA, WIA, and MIA is more difficult to explain, but is likely a res
ult of various casualty recalculations and redistributions that were a normal pa
rt of the statistical compilations of the Wehrmacht, as well as the brutal natur
e of the anti-Partisan war itself.
In any case, it appears that the first eight months of 1943 represented a major
increase in the German casualties in the Balkans. After losing fewer than 3,700
men in the 16 months of anti-Partisan operations from the end of June 1941 to th
e end of October 1942, the Germans lost nearly the same number of casualties (3,
590) in the first eight months of 1943. However, the intensity of the Partisan W
ar in the Balkans had only begun to increase.
In September 1943 the Second Panzer Army took over command of anti-Partisan oper
ations in the Balkans. Intense fighting occurred during September and October, e
specially after the capitulation of Italian forces to the Allies on 8 September
1943. German, Bulgarian and Croatian forces took over the former Italian territo
ries in the Balkans. Some of the Italian forces went over to the Partisans and s
ome went over to the Axis, but the majority was disarmed and interned by the Ger
mans, most of those who resisted disarmament were executed. By the end of the ye
ar the German Second Panzer Army had incurred a further 1,622 KIA, 4,807 WIA, an
d 928 MIA, doubling the losses of the first eight months of 1943 in just four mo
nths at the end of the year. Units under the direct command of AG F lost an addi
tional 6 KIA, 20 WIA, and 8 MIA. Partisan losses for 1943 were 48,378 KIA, 61,73
0 WIA (including 7,923 DOW) and 5,423 MIA.
The intensity of operations remained high in the early part of 1944. From 1 Janu
ary to 20 May the losses of the Second Panzer Army were 1,899 KIA, 5,218 WIA, an
d 3,985 MIA. Units under AG F lost 145 KIA, 276 WIA, and 43 MIA in the same peri
od. Then, the last major German attempt to crush the Partisans occurred on 25-27
May 1944 when a combined airborne and armored assault, code-named Fall Rsselspru
ng (Operation Knights Move) was directed on the village of Drvar. The Germans wer
e attempting to decapitate the Partisan command by capturing or killing Tito (Jo
sip Broz) the commander of the General Staff of the National Liberation Partisan
Detachments of Yugoslavia. The total of the Second Panzer Army losses in the op
eration, its preliminaries and aftermath (the period from 21 May to 10 June) wer
e 620 KIA, 1,869 WIA, and 285 MIA. Partisan casualties are unknown, but were sev
ere as well. However, Tito made good his escape and established a new headquarte
rs on the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea. Losses in AG F units were 30 KIA, 7
4 WIA, and 6 MIA.
From 11 June to 30 November 1944, when the German Second Panzer Army was transfe
rred from the command of OB Southeast and AG F to OKH and AG XXXX, it lost an ad
ditional 2,384 KIA, 8,181 WIA, and 3,110 MIA in battles with the Partisans. AG F
losses from 11 June to the end of 1944 were 377 KIA, 1,193 WIA, and 554 MIA. Lo
sses suffered by AG E in the withdrawal from Greece, 1 October to 31 December 19
44 were 2,876 KIA, 9,637 WIA, and 3,823 MIA. Overall, it appears that the German
losses in the anti-Partisan War in the Balkans in 1944 were 8,331 KIA, 26,448 W
IA, and 11,806 MIA. Partisan losses for the year were 80,650 KIA, 147,650 WIA (i
ncluding 8,066 DOW), and 5,600 MIA.
German losses in OB Southeast from 1 January to 20 April 1945 were 5,678 KIA, 20
,110 WIA, and 8,638 MIA. Partisan losses in 1945 were 72,925 KIA, 130,000 WIA (i
ncluding 7,800 DOW), and 7,800 MIA. However, it may be correct to say that the P

artisan War in the Balkans ceased to be an insurgency sometime in September and

October of 1944. From that time it assumed more and more of the attributes of a
conventional conflict indeed, in November 1944 the Partisans fielded the first o
f two armored brigades against the Germans (see above).
Consolidated reports on German losses in the Balkans from April 1941 to May 1945
may also be found. One states that casualties in the Balkans from the invasion
of Yugoslavia to the end of the war included 24,267 KIA, and 12,050 MIA. Another
(found in the same document) states that casualties in OB Southeast (i.e., the
Balkans including Greece) were 19,235 KIA, 55,069 WIA, and 14,805 MIA for a tota
l of 89,109. No reason was given for the discrepancy between these two figures.
However, the Heeresartz made a more precise count, reporting that as of 20 April
1945, a total of 22,370 KIA, 70,064 WIA, and 24,620 MIA (a total of 117,054) ha
d been lost in OB Southeast. That would mean that the 43,422 casualties incurred
by the Second Panzer Army from 1 September 1943 to 30 November 1944 accounted f
or 34 percent of all of the casualties incurred by OB Southeast for the entire w
ar.
The casualty reports for 22 June to 20 December 1941 and 15 January to 21 Octobe
r 1942 may be found in the records of the Twelfth Army, Ttigkeitsberichte (Activi
ty reports) in NARA RG242, T312, R462, F0379-0402 and R465, F3239~, R466, and R4
67, ~F3707. Second Panzer Army losses may be found in T313, R196, F2602~. Losses
by theater and army from 10 July 1943 to the end of the war may also be found i
n NARA RG 242, T78, R414, Der Heeresartz im Oberkommando des Heeres (Surgeon Gen
eral of the High Command of the Army).
This total includes the reported losses of the Second and Twelfth Army. A later
report of the Twelfth Army appears to contradict its earlier figures, however th
e increase was apparently caused by adding the losses of the 5. Gebirgs-Division
on Crete.
Many different counts of German losses exist and there is some dispute as to exa
ctly how many were suffered in the assault on Crete. The figures given here are
from an analysis of the operations of the Twelfth Army prepared for the German A
rmy General Staff and may be found in NARA RG242, T312, R469, F8671 and F8681. I
t appears that the Luftwaffe losses on Crete include flying personnel as well as
the parachute infantry (who were part of the Luftwaffe rather than the Heer). C
hristopher Shores, et al, Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete 1940-41 (Grub
Street: London, 1987) state that Luftwaffe aircrew losses were 75 KIA, 127 WIA,
and 236 MIA.
NARA RG242, T312, R465, F3379.
See NARA RG242, T77, R826, F2114~, Zentralststistik der Menschenverluste im Krie
ge, 30 August 1944, which compares the KIA figures accumulated by the Heeresartz
versus those of the Wehrersatzdienststellen (Military Replacement Office).
Overall losses of AG E in the occupation of Greece, Crete, and the Aegean Island
s are difficult to assess since they overlap in part with the losses incurred in
the Balkans prior to 31 October 1943. However, from 31 October 1943 to 30 Septe
mber 1944 they were 1,932 KIA, 4,414 WIA, and 1,671 MIA. It appears likely that
these include the losses incurred in retaking the island of Leros from the Briti
sh and Italians in November 1943 242 KIA, 660 WIA, and 155 MIA.
Major Percy Schramm, Foreign Military Studies, MS# P-011, German Statistical Sys
tems, (Historical Division: HQ US Army, Europe, ND). p.118
Ibid., p. 131.