It captured Gornji Vakuf on 22 February, and then found itself stuck in a ten-day-long battle against the reinforced 7th Banija Division in front of Prozor. The column from Sarajevo (named "Battle Group Annacker"), consisted of the 750th Regiment (minus one battalion), two battalions of the 7th Home Guard Regiment, one Ustaša battalion, artillery, and one platoon of tanks. It was this battle group which attacked two battalions of the 1st Proletarian Brigade in Tarčin on 21 February. The group repulsed the Partisan attack on Tarčin, threw back Partisan battalions, and on the same day reached Ivan sedlo and Raštelica. After regrouping, the Partisans reclaimed their positions on the Ivan sedlo on the next day, but a substantial part of the battle group, including one German and one Home Guard battalion, an Ustaša company, and a number of tanks, succeeded in breaking through to Konjic on 22 February. They arrived just in time to decisively strengthen the garrison before a major Partisan attack. The commander of the 1st Proletarian Brigade Danilo Lekić had to answer in person to Tito for the failure of his brigade to seal off the approaches to the lower Neretva Valley. Attack on Konjic The fact that Konjic controlled the only road leading to Eastern Herzegovina (the rest of the eastern bank of Neretva to the south of the town being dominated by the virtually unpassable Prenj mountain), made it the prime objective of the Partisan army. The Konjic garrison originally consisted of the 1st Batttalion of the 259th Regiment with artillery elements and other units. During the fighting at Prozor, Rama and Jablanica, parts of the Konjic garrison were sent as reinforcements, and were destroyed. Division Murge, as a whole, in one week suffered losses of some 2,300 men, and was affected by panic and demoralization, and this caused a lot of optimism among Partisans. But, immediately before the main Partisan attack, a two and a half battalion strong vanguard of the Battle Group Annacker entered the town. At the same time, some 3,000 strong Chetnik formation under Lukačević reached the town, and, in agreement with the garrison, assumed positions around the town. This way, it unexpectedly became a very difficult obstacle for the whole Partisan Main Operational Group. The 3rd Division decided to storm the town by using two of its brigades (the third remained in Prozor), with one (the 5th Montenegro Brigade) attacking