The Spirit of Victory. December, 1943 - January, 1944
We reached Vrasa just behind the Bulgarian troops, promptly to be attacked by some Romanian mountaineers on December 8. Later that night, our Marines were attacked further south, at Kyustendil, by another German infantry division.
Even though the battle soon ended with victory, it was not the last time this town would see a battle that month. December 8, 1943.
Apparently, our commanders were busy at that time working on a broader picture. With the events unfolding rapidly on all ends of the front, intelligence information was received confirming our suspicions that Axis command was caught off-guard by Bulgarian reverse in allegiance, and their forces were disoriented and poorly commanded for the time being, even more than we were - there where German units belonging to Armies from all possible theatres - East, Central and West, troops under Romanian, Yugoslavian command, and even divisions under direct command of OKW, like that Waffen SS division we just had a brutal fight with.
The plan devised was quite bold and opportunistic in my opinion, when I heard of it first on the evening of December 10 - but this perhaps was to do with the fact that our division was at the spearhead of the whole operation, and noone could guarantee any rate of success of our manoeuvre.
To help us with it, the commander of the Balkan front finally agreed to release our volunteer corps from guard duty in Albania, soon to be replaced by British garrison troops, and they were all shipped to Varna - 19000 men that we could trust.
Operation 'Air Balloon'. Our optimistic plan for victory. December 16, 1943
The plan seemed to work well at first - Germans seemed to be confused and reluctant to come into the open from their mountain strongholds. Just on the Christmas eve, right after the dusk, coordinated attacks were started all across Bulgaria.
Noone was safe that night. December 24, 1943
We attacked the Hungarians in Kazanlak immediately, and, as far as I know, Lithuanian volunteers in Silistria tried to hit the panzer division in Sliven from a flank as well, even though the result of those attacks differed significantly - we routed our enemies within several hours (Hungarians surrendered in several days), while they had to cancel their attack within the next day due to high losses, and almost no damage done to the Germans.
Much bloodier battles were fought further west - Sofia, protected by our undermanned 3rd division 'Zemaitija' could not hold for long the blows by three German divisions, attacking from all sides, and had to retreat on December 28 after losing almost 15% of their men, to be replaced, just in time, by a Royal marine division, led by Gen. Keightley.
By the 29th, however, the Germans from SS-Division had to finally admit that they cannot beat 3 entrenched divisions despite their fanatical fervour - for 5 days 4700 Germans tried to break through 27000 Lithuanians, Brits and Bulgarians, and only after losing more than a third of their men they stopped, and were routed the next day.
The Brits could not hold Sofia either, and by January 5 our 2nd Inf. division took their place in the defence of the Bulgarian capital. Despite a number of flanking attacks, the Germans pushed on block by block, house by house, and by January 10 our guys had to leave the city as well, after the loss of 1300 men, against 1000 Axis troops.
Sofia streets after house to house fighting. January 10, 1944
The city was not surrendered, however. Royal marines returned, and combined forces of our and Marine division pushed German infantry out of Berkovica by January 12. There was still the question of cornered SS troops and a panzer division in the mountains of central Bulgaria. Hungry, frozen and angry, they refused to surrender under any conditions offered.
Despite all Allied efforts, 2800 Germans held their positions for 7 days against 22000 of ours until succumbing, more to the forces of nature, than to our bullets and shells. January 11, 1944
We were totally exhausted. The weather turned worse, with freezing rains and freezing mud, with snowbanks waist deep higher in the mountains. Food was scarce, and we did not expect any better to appear soon. We even fought like we did not care anymore, and most of us didn't. We somehow managed to push another German panzer division away from Vratsa and back to Lom, but it did not seem to matter much - additional Axis forces were coming still, and our ranks were getting thinner by the day.
It was a clear realization - the fate of the war will not be decided in the Balkans. January 20, 1944
