Operation Winterende

The Operation Winterende was the last operation conducted by the Germans and Chetniks against the Yugoslav Partisans in Slovenia. It was carried out between 10 March and 6 April 1945.

The German offensive was conducted in two sectors: the first, "Operation Frühlingsanfang" whose goal was to clear the western part of Upper Carniola and the Cerkno area and the second, "Winter Ende" whose objective was to clear partisans from Littoral.^[2]

By the spring of 1945, it became clear that German forces in northern Italy, southwestern Hungary and Dalmatia could no longer defend against Soviet, Yugoslav and Anglo-American armies. The Germans also expected the Allies to land in Istra and the Gulf of Trieste, which would make defending very difficult if the Partisan forces remained close to German positions. Therefore, the police leaders of the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, Odilo Globočnik and Erwin Rösener launched the final offensive against the 9th Corps of NOVJ.^[2]

Very strong forces were concentrated for this offensive, the units who engaged in the offensive were various Serbian formations (Chetniks, Serbian State Guard, Serbian Volunteer SS Corps), Slovene units, Italian forces, Greek collaborationists forces and SS police units.^[3]

After forming a wide encirclement around the Trnovo Forest, German, Italian and Chetnik forces launched an attack on partisan units on 28 March. Under the pressure of the superior and stronger enemy, the Partisans were forced to retreat after three days of fighting. The 31st Division, in order to avoid further encirclements by the enemy withdrew from the Pivka area, the Italian Partisan Division retreated to Banjšice Plateau, while 30th Division fell back to the Šentviška Plateau.^[4]

• Race for Trieste