Operation Rösselsprung was a combined airborne and ground assault by the German XV Mountain Corps on the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. Launched on 25 May 1944, the operation was aimed at the Partisan leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito (pictured) and his headquarters. It is associated with the Seventh Enemy Offensive. The operation involved direct action via an airborne assault by the 500th SS Parachute Battalion and a planned subsequent link-up with ground forces, including Home Guard forces of the Independent State of Croatia and collaborationist Chetniks. Tito, his principal staff and Allied military personnel escaped. The operation failed due to fierce Partisan resistance, the failure of the various German intelligence agencies to share the limited intelligence available on Tito's exact location, and the lack of contingency planning by the commander of the German airborne force.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_R%C3%B6sselsprung_%281944%29
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1816:
The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge published one of his most famous poems, Kubla Khan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubla_Khan
1878:
Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore premiered at the Opera Comique in London. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.M.S._Pinafore
1961:
In an address to Congress, U.S. president John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo program, with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program
2011:
The final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest-rated daytime talk show in U.S. television history, was broadcast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oprah_Winfrey_Show
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
overt: Open and not concealed or secret. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/overt
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war. --Ralph Waldo Emerson https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson