Eighty years ago this week the Germans try to claw back ground in Yugoslavia

 

The Germans launched Operation Rösselsprung (knight's move) a full-scale attack on Drvar in the mountains of Yugoslavia where Tito's partisans were known to have their headquarters. The Italian surrender in September 1943 had put large amounts of weaponry in the partisans' hands and they held sway over large areas of the territory. The operation was led by the airborne landing of an SS paratroop battalion. The partisans were taken by surprise and the area was swiftly overrun but the Germans did not know the exact location of Tito's headquarters - sited in a cave - and he escaped. The strategic position was unchanged, although the Germans could console themselves with propaganda pictures of their soldiers in the mouth of the cave.

The British and American forces which had been pinned down on the Anzio beachhead since the landing in January finally broke out in a full scale assault, Operation Buffalo. Despite strong German resistance the Americans reached Cisterna on Route 6 towards Rome, the allies' next objective.

The Luftwaffe finally abandoned Operation Steinbock (nicknamed the Baby Blitz) after losses reached 10% in the six raids conducted in May. Some serious damage had been done to non-military targets in London but the loss of over 300 aircraft was a huge and pointless degradation of German capacity ahead of the decisive fight against the allied landing in France. Soon the V weapons would take over the campaign of reprisals for the Allied bombardment of German cities.

The British government White Paper on employment policy was released. It accepted as a clear commitment and primary aim and responsibility for government, the maintenance of a "high and stable level of employment after the war." This was a huge departure from the primacy given to fiscal and monetary stability during the interwar period. The goal was to be achieved by "planned spending on public works" and cooperation by fiscal authorities and banks (which would have included the still private Bank of England) to keep interest rates low. The austerity of Montagu Norman gave way to the social considerations of John Maynard Keynes. Curiously it was a Labour government which abolished the commitment in 1978.