3 Axis embarked on a third operation. The Slavonian Partisans were, however, no easier to destroy than their Bosnian colleagues, and the German troops did not succeed in eradicating them from their hilly strongholds. Axis forces amounting to the equivalent of rather more than one division were involved in these operations. 8. Another appreciable centre of unrest in Yugoslavia in the first months of 1943 was in Eastern Bosnia. All over this district there existed not only stray bands of Partisans but also groups of Mihailovic's Cetniks.