From 15 May – 15 June, the 7th SS, Prince Eugen Mountain division (said to have “developed a distinctive reputation for cruelty”) took part in Case Black aiming to pin Tito's main force of about 20,000 Partisans against the Zelengora mountain, in southeastern Bosnia. The 7th SS was raised from the so-called volksdeutsche volunteers of the region, and augmented by Balkan draftees of only partial German background.
During the battle, the division was ordered to move through the Italian zone and block the possible advance of Partisans towards the Adriatic sea and Albania, and close the south-east part of the encirclement and then advance north over mountainous terrain to crush the Partisan forces.
On May 20 the division captured Šavnik. The Partisans headed by the 1st Proletarian Division broke out of the encirclement, and two battalions of the 7th SS were moved to cover the left bank of the Sutjeska river and block the Partisan's escape route. In Case Black, the division suffered total losses of 613 men. The German claims for Partisan casualties are hard to translate into pure battle casualties, since they often counted the innocent civilians they slaughtered as “Partisans”.
Our action depicts a small piece of this overall action between Tito’s now seasoned Partisans and their hunters.
7th SS “Prince Eugen” Division Briefing
You are part of a blocking force to cut off the partisans on the run. You have a forward platoon in the village that sits across the escape route in radio contact with the company HQ off board.
The forward platoon has just cleared the village in their normal brutal manner and now occupy it.
You will have two more platoons of infantry and a strong armour platoon coming up if the occupying platoon gets in any trouble.
Once you are all assembled in the village, you will press on further down the road to chase partisan units that already passed this point before you blocked it.
You will have occasional “eyes on” via a Storch recon plane.
Reinforcements will arrive primarily via the north road with one infantry platoon via west edge. The armour element is strong: a platoon of three Italian M13/41 tanks and one heavy French Char-B with a flamethrower in lieu of its 75mm hull gun.
1st Proletarian Division Briefing
You are being pressed and are trying to evacuate in order, but a single platoon of fascists and their collaborators have occupied and are burning a village on our route.
Your unit already crossed this point and will backtrack to clear the village for those behind, including our wounded, who will enter from the west road and pass through the village and exit via the south road. You should have the element of surprise, as they will be distracted while they are rounding up the villagers for extermination.
Clear the village of the enemy before any of his reinforcements come up, make time for our wounded to pass through and get further down the road, and then hold up the fascists as long as you can before continuing our retreat.