Operation Cottbus

Significance

Operation Cottbus was an anti-partisan operation conducted during the Nazi German occupation of northern Belarus, targeting areas around Begoml, Lepel, and Ushachy beginning in May 1943. The operation involved not only German forces but also Belarusian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian collaborationist units alongside the SS Special Battalion Dirlewanger, illustrating the extent to which the occupation regime relied on auxiliary formations to prosecute counterinsurgency efforts in the region. Its conduct in these specific districts reflected the broader German effort to suppress Soviet partisan networks that had established a significant presence in the forests and rural areas of occupied Belarus during the war.