Operation Alfa

Operation Alfa
Part of World War II in Yugoslavia
View of Prozor in 2010
Date early October 1942 Location Prozor, Independent State of Croatia (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina) Result Partisan retreat and massacre of inhabitants by Chetnik forces
Belligerents
Italy Chetniks  Independent State of Croatia	Yugoslav Partisans
Commanders and leaders
Guglielmo Spicacci Dobroslav Jevđević Petar Baćović	Vlado Šegrt
Units involved
2nd and 29th Bersaglieri Battalions of the 94th Regiment from the 18th Infantry Division Messina Trebinje, Nevesinje, and Romanija Chetnik Corps 7th and 15th Infantry Regiments of the Croatian Home Guard	3 Battalions of the 10th Herzegovinian Brigade
Strength
4,000 soldiers 3,000–5,500 soldiers	300 partisans
Casualties and losses
543–2,500 Croat and Muslim civilians

Operation Alfa (Italian: Operazione Alfa; Serbo-Croatian: Operacija Alfa, Операција Алфа) was an offensive carried out in early October 1942 by the military forces of Italy and the Axis puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), supported by Chetnik forces under the control of vojvoda Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin. The offensive was directed against the communist-led Partisans in the Prozor region (today in Bosnia and Herzegovina), then a part of the NDH. The operation was militarily inconclusive, and in the aftermath, Chetnik forces conducted mass killings of civilians in the area.

The operation was arranged between Generale designato d'armata (acting General) Mario Roatta, commander of the Italian Second Army, and Trifunović-Birčanin, with the approval of the overall Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović. It was carried out in coordination with the Germans and included elements of the Croatian Home Guard and the NDH Air Force. Faced with heavy weaponry and seriously outnumbered, the Partisans retreated and withdrew from Prozor without significant fighting. Chetniks elements under the command of Dobroslav Jevđević and Petar Baćović then massacred between 543 and 2,500 Croats and Muslims and destroyed numerous villages in the area. Following protests from both the Italians and the Croatian authorities, the Chetnik elements were discharged or relocated. Italian and NDH forces followed up Operation Alfa with Operation Beta, which was focused on capturing Livno and surrounding localities. Baćović was killed by NDH forces near the end of the war, while Jevđević escaped to Italy and avoided prosecution by the new Yugoslav government. Mihailović was captured by the communist authorities following the war, tried and found guilty for the Chetnik actions at Prozor (among other charges), and was sentenced to death and executed.