Stratsin-Kumanovo operation

It was held from 8 October to 14 November 1944 and was conducted in parallel with tree another Bulgarian offensive operations in Yugoslavia: the Niš operation; the Kosovo operation and the Bregalnitsa-Strumica operation. Bulgarians supported the Soviet strategic offensive in the area, which was aided also by the Yugoslav, Albanian and Greek Partisans. The operation was conducted in order to cross the road to retreat to a group of German armies "E" from Greece to central Europe. Bulgarian troops began an offensive on 8 October and the day entered into Kriva Palanka. Consistently they keep fighting for the Ridge of Stražin (October 18) and the Stracin position, that was seized on October 25. Support was provided also by the Bulgarian Air Force. The battles for Stražin were fierce, and the enemies were German airforce ground forces. Thus Stražin was captured with a Bulgarian paratroopers' attack.[4] However 35 of them were killed, and 64 were injured, that was 1/4 of the Parachute Druzhina. Battles continued on the river Pčinja and in the city of Kumanovo (11 November) where parts of the Wehrmacht were defeated again. The Bulgarians developed their advance towards Skopje into a large-scale offensive, which gave rise to the danger for Army Group E of being cut off. The situation was desperate and the town was evacuated urgently at the night of 13/14 November.[5] As result on 13 and 14 November parts of the First and Fourth Bulgarian Armies entered Skopje, which performed their task.[6][7][8][9] The onslaught continued as part of the Kosovo operation and on 19 November Bulgarian troops captured Pristina.[10]

Skopje was seized with the decisive role of the Bulgarian troops.[11][12] In fact on a series of maps from Army Group E, showing its withdrawal through North Macedonia and Southern Serbia, as well as in the memoirs of its chief of staff, there is almost no indication of Yugoslav Partisan units, but only Bulgarian divisions.[13] Per the British commissioner in the Allied Commission in Sofia — General Walter Oxley, who personally visited the front line on Stracin, the task of the Bulgarian army was to advance in a westerly direction and to cut the railway line Skopje-Pristina-Kraljevo. He noted that the Bulgarians had been given complete freedom of action, and that there were no Soviet troops in the area of its offensive.[14] General Oxley reported that there were Yugoslav partisans in the area of the operations carried out by the Bulgarians, but because they were few, it was difficult for them to take any serious actions against the well organised German units.[15] Oxley was impressed by the discipline of the Bulgarian soldiers, but noted that this was a problem for the partisans.[16] He maintained also Skopje was seized after weak German resistance with Bulgarian Army concentric attacks, while the partisans stood waiting on the surrounding hills. They went just in time to support the Bulgarian entry into the city. According to an agreement between the Bulgarian and Yugoslav authorities, the Bulgarian troops must coordinate their entry into the city with the Yugoslav partisans.[17] The Bulgarians retained the POW-s, but they submitted the abandoned from the Germans weapons to the Tito's partisans.[18] Early on the morning of 14 November, units of the Fourth Bulgarian Army entered Skopje too, and the last nests of German resistance were cleared. The information that Skopje was captured by the Bulgarians was reported on November 14 and 15 by Radio Moscow, Radio London, the Voice of America, and Radio Sofia.[19]

In the autumn of 1944, the Bulgarian army was the real force behind the driving the Germans out of North Macedonia. The Macedonian Partisans there were not significant military force. They were ill-equipped, lacked heavy armaments (tanks, artillery, and airplanes), and were still clinging to guerrilla tactics.[20] However the official Yugoslav and later Macedonian historiography, has played down Bulgarian role by political grounds,[21] actually at the cost of historical deceptions. For example, because of the symbolic importance of the capital Skopje, according to Macedonian sources, Bulgarians did not participate in the operations for its capture, even as observers. Per general Mihajlo Apostolski, Skopje was liberated by the Yugoslav partisans after several days of heavy fighting.[22] Early on the morning of 14 November, the Bulgarian army had reached the outskirts of Skopje, but was sent back, by order of the glorious Partisans. In relation with the hoaxes written by him on that occasion, Apostolski became famous in Bulgaria with his phrase: "I have no evidence, but I claim it!"[23] In fact before the Tito-Stalin split in 1948, Apostolski has stated that from the operational viewpoint, the most helpful approach was the including of the reorganized Bulgarian army into the war against the Germans on the territory of Macedonia.[24] Bulgarian sources maintain the first unit, which entered Skopje on November 13, was the cavalry intelligence platoon of the Second infantry division of the 4th Bulgarian army at 6.30pm. In fact the city was already left from the main German forces. Afterwards the Second infantry division of the First Bulgarian army took its southern and the eastern areas at 11pm. At the midnight the Bulgarians seized its center.[25] Because all the bridges and approaches to the city were blown up by the Germans, only infantry and cavalry units entered the city first.

Some Macedonian media such as Vo Centar continue to fabricate hoaxes that Skopje was liberated by the Yugoslav communist guerrillas from the "Bulgarian fascist occupiers".[26] Indicative of this sentiment is the 2016 Macedonian film The Liberation of Skopje, which depicts Bulgarians as gangsters and Germans as gentlemen.[27] According to the Bulgarian Association for Research and Development of Civil Society, the movie, which was sponsored by the Macedonian government, is part of its propagandist agenda and breeds anti-Bulgarian hatred.[28] Against the background of numerous monuments erected in honor of the communist guerrillas, so far in North Macedonia, there are no similar ones to perpetuate the memory of those Bulgarians, fallen there at that time. In general 3,422 Bulgarian soldiers were killed and 2,136 were missing in the autumn of 1944 in today Southern Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo.[29]

In October 2019 the Bulgarian government has set tough terms for North Macedonia's EU candidature and part of them is both countries to "harmonize" their WWII historical narrative and that North Macedonia must overcome the hate speech against Bulgaria.[30] In an interview with Bulgarian media in November 2020, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev acknowledged the involvement of Bulgarian troops in the capture of Skopje, that Bulgarians were not fascist occupiers, as well as many other historical facts that have been altered and concealed for decades in North Macedonia.[31] The interview was a shock and was followed by a wave of nationalism in Skopje[32] as well by protests demanding Zaev's resignation.[33] According to the opinion of the former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski, these reactions are the result of ignorance, hypocrisy or politicking.[34]