Stracin–Kumanovo operation

The Stracin–Kumanovo operation (Bulgarian: Страцинско-Кумановска операция) was an offensive operation conducted in 1944 by the Bulgarian Army against German forces in occupied Yugoslavia which culminated in the capture of Skopje in 1944. With the Bulgarian declaration of war on Germany on September 8, followed by the Bulgarian withdrawal from the area, the German 1st Mountain Division moved north, occupied Skopje, and secured the strategic Belgrade–Nis–Salonika railroad line. On October 14, withdrawing from Greece, Army Group E faced Soviet and Bulgarian divisions advancing in Eastern Serbia and Vardar Macedonia; by November 2, the last German units left Northern Greece.

By early October, Bulgarian forces were breaking through into eastern Serbia, Vardar Macedonia and Kosovo in support of the Soviet advance towards Belgrade. Although the Bulgarian army drove the Germans out of Skopje and what is now North Macedonia, later Yugoslav and contemporary Macedonian historiography has downplayed its role for ethnopolitical reasons. Accounts of these events in post-war Yugoslav literature give the impression that the Germans were driven out by the communist Partisans who liberated the area. There was some fighting by the Yugoslav Partisans, but their actions were insignificant compared with Bulgarian military activity. The greeting of Bulgarian troops in Skopje as liberators at the end of the operation is still denied there.

After capturing Skopje on 14 November, the Bulgarian Second Army and the Yugoslav Partisans kept driving the Albanian SS Division and the Balli Kombëtar back, until Kosovo had been seized.