during the preceding battles, and it is possible that Wehrmacht or Army Headquarters had decided Mickl was better suited to fighting insurgents in his native Balkans, especially given his fluency in several local languages. Yugoslavia A new division After three weeks leave, Mickl was sent to Austria to train and command the 392nd (Croatian) Infantry Division. He was appointed to this command on 13 August 1943. Commencing from 17 August, the 392nd was assembled and trained in Austria as the third and last Croatian division raised for service in the Wehrmacht, following its sister divisions the 369th and the 373rd. It was built around a cadre of 3,500 German officers, NCOs and specialists, and 8,500 soldiers of the Croatian Home Guard, the regular army of the Independent State of Croatia (, NDH). The division was commanded by Germans down to battalion and even company level in nearly all cases, and was commonly referred to as a "legionnaire division". Although originally intended for use on the Eastern Front, not long after its formation the Germans decided that the division would not be utilised outside the NDH. Initial clearing operations The division was deployed to the NDH by rail between 5 and 10 January 1944, to participate in the Nazi security warfare in the western parts of the puppet state. It became known as the "Blue Division" (, ), Mickl's task was focused on securing the Adriatic coastline along the Croatian Littoral between Fiume and Karlobag (including all islands except Krk) and about inland. This task included securing the crucial supply route between Karlovac and Senj. These areas, and in particular the port of Senj, had been largely dominated by the Yugoslav Partisans since the Italian capitulation in autumn 1943. Mickl's division was placed under the command of the XV Mountain Corps as part of the 2nd Panzer Army, with its headquarters to be established in Karlovac. The division was also to take over responsibility for the security of the Zagreb–Karlovac railway line from the 1st Cossack Division. The planned attack against Partisan forces besieging the NDH garrison at Ogulin near Karlovac involved a drive southwest from Karlovac between 13 and 16 January 1944 initially led by the 847th Infantry Regiment. In their first engagements with the Partisan 8th Division, the Croatian soldiers panicked and their German leaders were quickly wounded or killed. On 16 January, Ogulin was relieved, but the advance