All Alone: A Lithuanian AAR

The Battle Was Lost. October, 1943

And the next day it started. At first we thought that there were not that many of them, coming in two lines through a narrow pass between two hills, followed by infantry squads, just behind, but then the pass opened into a hilly plain and they split their formation into a wide one, at least twenty machines wide against our hastily dug-in trenches.

It took another hour to coordinate, but soon the plan of our command started to work - 4 divisions rammed into the backs of advancing Germans, and scattering their rearguard troops.


Our line somehow held for whole three days of unrelenting assault. We managed to hit and damage several tanks, but our losses were becoming unbearable. Lack of any serious trenches did not allow us to rotate our troops, as little as we had, or even get the ammunition and meal in, and the wounded out. The feeling of despair was growing beyond what we could bear, and then, on the morning of October 9, a retreat signal was sounded, and we hastily left for Florina. We counted nearly 800 lost in action.

The battle raged further, however. Without us in front of them, Germans gathered what has left and managed to launch an overwhelming counter-attack.


This did not last long, however. In four hours after we withdrew, Germans surrendered in full. Their losses were heavy - more than half tanks burned or damaged, nearly 1200 men lost, 6500 surrendered, while joint forces had close to 400 in casualties.

We all hoped that the battle for Greece was won, when our Militia Corps reached Tirana on October 14, after pushing out Yugoslavian garrison in a short fight.

Clear Skies, Still Sea. End of October, 1943

The celebration of the victory did not take very long. However, we did not immediately returned to the front lines either, which was quite surprising, as the men were now eager to chase Yugoslavians and Romanians further north. While Brits and our volunteer corps were left to man the lines, we were ordered to board trains instead, and move to Thessaloniki. While most of the soldiers were only guessing our further destination, I had heard some discussions with higher rank officers about recent developments in the front, and had some guesses. My discussions with my brother after the war confirmed that I was right.

Apparently, the governments of Allied countries were especially concerned with impressive gains Red Army was making recently in the East front, and the sudden change in Soviet official rhetoric, as Axis forces were pushed from Kiev and Red Army stepped into Bessarabia reaching the west coast of river Dniester.

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In order to counter this advance and to ensure that their sphere of influence in Balkans, British have been in contacts for some time with the representatives of Bulgarian government. My brother was involved in these negotiations, undergoing for several days that October in Cairo.

However, Bulgarians were reluctant to commit to anything, saying that Germans were entrenched in Bulgaria and surrounding countries and did not intend to leave soon, at least until allied forces are reinforced and a full-pledged third front is opened there.

Besides, resistance movement, that was quite wide-spread at that time, was headed by Bulgarian Workers' Party, an outlawed communist party, which did not want direct involvement of Western countries.

In the end, an operation 'Thracian sword' was prepared, involving mainly Lithuanian Liberation Army, and it found approval among the people close to Tsar Boris III and Prime Minister Georgi Kioseivanov, even if opposed by a more moderate Foreign Minister Aleksander Nikolaiev.



After multiple assurances of military, political and financial assistance were granted for war- and post-wartime cooperation, a 'go' was given for the operation in the beginning of October, and Marines sailed from Tirane through Dardanelles to Black Sea, to reach the Bulgarian shores.


A part of the agreement with Bulgarian authorities, was that the attack would look like an independent landing by Allied forces, not in any way related to Bulgarian government, to avoid any possible repercussions from German forces, stationed all over Bulgaria, and Bulgarian armed forces fighting in Western, Eastern, Italian and Balkan fronts. On the other hand, we were to avoid any unnecessary military or civilian casualties as much as possible.

This was one of the reasons for landing in Burgas first, instead of Varna, which was protected by a full Bulgarian garrison. The landing was apparently quite uneventful, except for several air raids, possibly by Romanian bombers, sinking several small cargo ships with supplies for Marines.