Operation Knight's Move
In 1944, the fighting of the Yugoslav partisans took on a huge, truly catastrophic character for the German occupiers. In order to significantly weaken the resistance forces, the fascists prepared a special operation, the main purpose of which was to destroy the supreme command of the partisan formations led by Josip Broz Tito.
Hitler personally approved the operation plan, codenamed "Knight's March," which provided for the encirclement and destruction of the Yugoslav partisan central headquarters near the town of Drvar, and entrusted this task to the commander of the German forces in the Southeast, Maximilian von Weichs. At the same time, the most famous German saboteur Otto Skorzeny, who became famous for his spectacular operation to free the head of the Italian fascists, Benito Mussolini, arrived in the area of the partisan headquarters. According to Skorzeny, Hitler personally instructed him to start the hunt for Tito and also to advise special forces during the operation.
On the same day, during Operation Knight's March, the Germans parachuted, partly by parachute, partly from gliders, the 500th SS paratrooper battalion, reinforced by saboteurs from other units.
The progress and results of the special operation "Horse Race" are meticulously described in the "Diary of Military Operations" of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht:
"The operation began at dawn on May 25, 1944, with strong air support. The town of Drvar was captured by an airborne battalion that landed there. On the adjacent heights, the enemy put up stubborn resistance in order to gain time, apparently, to move their headquarters and dismantle equipment. A special SS combat group secretly penetrated into the area between Drvar and Jajce, from where Tito managed to escape.… The enemy retreated in a southerly direction, apparently, and Tito's headquarters were moved to this area. "
As a result of fierce fighting and at the cost of high losses, German troops captured the Central Headquarters of the partisans in the mountains and its military communications system, inflicted significant damage to the 1st and 6th Proletarian divisions, and also disrupted the well-coordinated leadership system of the People's Liberation Army for a while, thereby forcing the partisans to temporarily cease activity. in this area. However, the main objective of the operation — the destruction of the Supreme Headquarters and Josip Broz Tito himself — was not achieved.
Later, the failure of the operation was attributed by Western intelligence experts to the lack of accurate intelligence information from the Germans about the whereabouts of Tito and members of his Supreme Staff.
Also, according to Yugoslav historians, the rescue of the leadership of the People's Liberation Movement was greatly helped by the massive support and assistance of local residents who did not give the German paratroopers the secret about the location of Tito's headquarters.
Tito recalled: "All the inhabitants of Drvar knew where I was. And every skydiver had a picture of me. They approached one or another resident of the city, showed a photo, asked: "Tito, Tito, where is Tito?" But no one told them anything. Even the children… You look at all this and feel helpless. I took a rifle and wanted to shoot, but they wouldn't let me."
All of this is true, of course, but only partially. The truth that was supposed to cover up the real reason for the failure of Operation Knight's Move.
The secret of saving Tito and his inner circle has long been preserved in the most secret files of Soviet intelligence. It was only at the end of the last century that some information was made public, according to which the Yugoslav leadership was evacuated from the dense German environment by plane at the most critical moment, thanks to the skill and bravery of Soviet pilots, as well as the competent and decisive actions of the Soviet Military Mission at the Supreme Headquarters of the partisan movement.
The German High Command of the Southeast remained "generally satisfied" with the results of Operation Knight's Progress, and Tito's Supreme Headquarters was put out of action for a while. However, in reality, the Germans missed the last chance to deal with Tito and his partisan headquarters and, thereby, radically change the development of the situation in this region in their favor.
A diplomat from Tula
Soviet and Anglo-American military missions were constantly stationed at the Supreme Headquarters of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, staffed mainly by career intelligence officers and specialists in guerrilla warfare.
The Soviet mission, numbering about thirty people, was divided into two parts during the German operation Knight's Progress. One stayed with the Supreme Headquarters, the other, along with Tito and his closest associates, headed for the village of Kupresh, in the vicinity of which there was a field more or less suitable for receiving transport aircraft. There were two people in this group whose role in saving Tito cannot be overestimated. These are diplomat Vasily Sakharov and chekist, specialist in guerrilla warfare Anatoly Gorshkov.
One of the main participants in the evacuation of Josip Broz Tito and his staff was Vasily Mikhailovich Sakharov, adviser to the USSR Military Mission in Yugoslavia. He was born into a family of teachers in the Tolstoy family estate of Nikolsky-Vyazemsky, Chernsky District, Tula province. He graduated from Tula Pedagogical College and Moscow State University. He worked as an employee of the 4th European Department of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, and as a research assistant for Yugoslavia. In 1940, when diplomatic relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia were established, V.M. Sakharov was appointed attache of the Soviet plenipotentiary mission in Belgrade. At the outbreak of the war, he was sent as the second secretary of the Soviet Embassy in London. In 1944, V.M. Sakharov's knowledge and skills were needed to work at the Yugoslav partisan headquarters. It was Vasily Mikhailovich who was one of the main organizers and participants in the rescue of Marshal I.B. Tito and his inner circle.
In 1999, V.M. Sakharov recalled this operation:
"On May 25, 1944, to the small town of D. (Drvar). In the mountains of Bosnia, a powerful landing force of Nazi troops was parachuted and glided with the task of capturing Tito, the Supreme Headquarters of the People's Liberation Army and military missions: Soviet and Anglo-American. It was very dangerous, but the Yugoslav leadership and members of the military missions managed to get out into the mountains. The Nazis managed to surround them. The situation was hopeless, but our mission managed to call our plane from Italy. The head of the mission, Lieutenant General Korneev, and I arranged for Tito and members of the Supreme Staff to board the plane and accompany them on the flight to Italy, then to the island of Vis, occupied by a division of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army, off the Yugoslav coast. The operation to evacuate the Yugoslav leadership literally from under the noses of the Nazis occupies an honorable place in the history of the Second World War."
Tula chekist
During the dramatic events of Marshal Tito's rescue, the members of the Anglo-American military mission played their game. In the struggle for influence over the leader of the Yugoslav partisan movement, they seemed even ready to hand him over to German saboteurs. But the Soviet Chekists were "looking out" for the allies. Anatoly Petrovich Gorshkov, the deputy head of the Soviet military mission, an experienced chekist and specialist in guerrilla warfare, constantly maintained contact with them. In the autumn of 1941, he commanded the Tula Workers' regiment, with which he successfully participated in the defense of the city of gunsmiths, and then in the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops who drove the Nazis back from Moscow to the west. In 1942, Anatoly Gorshkov served as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Bryansk Front partisan movement. In 1944, he received a new responsible assignment to Yugoslavia, where he immediately began supplying long-range aviation with weapons, ammunition and medicines from the Soviet Union.
The report of the Soviet military mission to Moscow stated succinctly that "thanks to the prompt actions of the staff of the Soviet military mission in early June 1944, the task of evacuating I. Broz Tito and members of the Supreme Staff of the PLA from the Kupreshko Pole area to the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea was solved."
In fact, in order for the crew of the Si-47 aircraft under the command of A.S. Shornikov to successfully make two deadly flights to a mountainous area surrounded by fascists, it was necessary to resort to cunning. During a game of chess with an employee of the Anglo-American military mission, the son of British Prime Minister Randolph Churchill, Anatoly Gorshkov accidentally let slip the arrival date of the Soviet plane. In fact, the plane arrived unexpectedly for the British a day earlier.
The crew of A.S. Shornikov took off from Bari airfield. Below is the Adriatic, then the ranges of the Dinaric Mountains, whose peaks reach three kilometers. Low clouds, strong winds, and lack of landmarks. The site prepared by the partisans is very small, it is in the narrows. The enemy is somewhere nearby. You can only board the plane the first time. Shornikov and Kalinkin land the car by the last campfire. A little more and a steep cliff. 20 people boarded the plane: Marshal Tito, his first deputy Kardelj, Chief of the General Staff NOAJU Jovanovic, Yugoslav generals, head of the Soviet military mission General Korneev, head of the Anglo-American military mission Street. Return flight. After a few hours, everything is safe.
But for A.S. Shornikov and his pilots, the work is not finished. On the same night, the crew flew to Kupreshko Field for the second time in even more difficult conditions and took out 20 more officers of the General Staff of the PLA. A few hours later, German tanks crawled onto the plateau.
High state awards from the USSR and Yugoslavia were awarded to all participants in the rescue of Tito and his staff. The pilots were awarded the titles of heroes of both countries, the rest received orders and medals.
Few people know that in addition to the order, Soviet chekist Anatoly Gorshkov received another award from Josip Broz Tito after the war. The marshal declared Anatoly Petrovich his personal friend, and he received the right to have free annual vacations at one of the marshal's residences.
On September 7, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree posthumously awarding Anatoly Petrovich Gorshkov the title of Hero of Russia.
