When the fighting in Romania developed into a German defeatin the summer of 1944, Army Group E began to withdraw from the Greek islands and the mainland. The withdrawal from the southern Balkans was successful. By the end of 1944, the army group had succeeded in repelling the attacks of Soviet and Bulgarian troops as well as the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army. On the Bosnian-Macedonian border, she was able to establish a stable defensive position. In the autumn of 1944, the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts, together with the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army, conquered Central Serbia as part of the Belgrade Operation. The Soviet troops were then taken to the Hungarian theatre of war. This forced the Army Group E and the 2nd Panzer Army to set off through the very mountainous terrain of southwestern Serbia, northern Montenegro and finally southeast Bosnia towards Croatia. Throughout the journey they were left exposed to the Yugoslav Partisans' firepower, sometimes with the Allies' assistance of Floydforce. Army Group E was joined with what was left of Maximilian von Weichs' Army Group F. That army group had been dissolved on 25 March 1945. In the spring of 1945, some troops were sent to Hungary, with some units moving to Austria and southern Germany. During the 1945 retreat the fortress units were amalgamated into the LXXXXI Army Corps.
Last fight in Croatia
Colonel General Alexander Löhr tried to hold the Independent State of Croatia against the People's Liberation Army. A major offensive by the People's Liberation Army, which began on 12 April 1945, drove the German troops together in the Slovenian-Austrian border area. A few units escaped and eventually surrendered to British forces that had occupied Styria and Carinthia. Alexander Löhr reached a partial agreement with the British Commander-in-Chief to accept the German units. On the day of the surrender, 8 May 1945, the mass of the Army group was still three day marches away from the Austrian border. Until 15 May, numerous units managed to escape to Austria. 150,000 German soldiers of the Army group were captured by Tito's forces. At that time, Army Group E consisted of seven German divisions, two Cossack divisions of the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and nine Croatian divisions. 220,000 members of the Croatian forces who fled to Austria with Army Group E were extradited by the British to the Tito partisans after their surrender. Several thousand of them were subsequently killed in the Bleiburg Massacre. A member of Army Group E who later rose to prominence was Austrian president and United NationsGeneral SecretaryKurt Waldheim, who served in the military administration of Thessaloniki.
