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YUGOSLAVIA IN WORLD WAR II (1941-45)

Discussion in 'Eastern Europe' started by JCFalkenbergIII, May 30, 2008.

  1. JCFalkenbergIII

    JCFalkenbergIII Expert

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    YUGOSLAVIA IN WORLD WAR II (1941-45)

    The Axis invasion caused panic in Yugoslavia, as foreign
    occupiers partitioned the country and terrorized its people.
    Bloody encounters involved both invading and domestic forces
    throughout the four years of war. The Communist-led Partisans
    (see Glossary) rose from near oblivion to dominate the country's
    resistance movement. They emerged from the war in firm control of
    the entire country.

    Partition and Terror

    Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria dismembered Yugoslavia.
    Germany occupied a rump Serbia and part of Vojvodina (see fig.
    5). It created a puppet "Independent State of Croatia" (Nezavisna
    drzava Hrvatska, NDH) including Croatia and Bosnia and
    Hercegovina, and it annexed northern Slovenia. Italy won southern
    Slovenia and much of Dalmatia, joined Kosovo with its Albanian
    puppet state, and occupied Montenegro. Hungary occupied part of
    Vojvodina and Slovenian and Croatian border regions. Bulgaria
    took Macedonia and a part of southern Serbia.

    Germany unleashed a reign of terror and Germanization in
    northern Slovenia. It resettled Slovenes in Serbia, moved German
    colonists onto Slovenian farms, and attempted to erase Slovenian
    cultural institutions. The Catholic hierarchy collaborated with
    the authorities in Italian-occupied southern Slovenia, which
    suffered less tyranny than the north.

    Germany and Italy supported the NDH and began diverting natural
    resources to the Axis war machine. When Macek refused to
    collaborate, the Nazis made Ante Pavelic head of the NDH. His
    Ustase storm troopers began eliminating the two million Serbs,
    Jews, and Gypsies in the NDH, through forced religious
    conversion, deportation, and extreme violence. The NDH was backed
    enthusiastically by some Croatian Catholic clergy, including the
    Archbishop of Sarajevo; some Franciscan priests enlisted in the
    Ustase and participated in massacres. The Archbishop of Zagreb,
    Alojzije Stepinac, publicly welcomed and appeared with Pavelic
    while privately protesting NDH atrocities. On the other hand,
    many Catholic priests condemned the violence and helped Orthodox
    Serbs to practice their religion in secret. Even the Germans were
    appalled by Ustase violence, and Berlin feared the bloodbath
    would ignite greater Serbian resistance. Italy reoccupied areas
    of Hercegovina to halt the slaughter there.

    Jews and Serbs also were massacred in areas occupied by the
    Albanians and the Hungarians. Thousands of Serbs fled to Serbia,
    where the Germans had established a puppet regime under General
    Milan Nedic. Nedic considered himself a custodian rather than a
    collaborator and strove to maintain control of violence. In the
    south of Yugoslavia, many Macedonians welcomed Bulgarian forces,
    expecting that Sofia would grant them autonomy; but a harsh
    Bulgarianization campaign ended their enthusiasm.



    Resistance in Yugoslavia developed mainly in dispersed units of
    the Yugoslav army and among Serbs fleeing genocide in Croatia and
    Bosnia and Hercegovina. Various armed groups in Serbia organized
    under the name Cetnik (pl. Cetnici--see Glossary), from the
    Serbian word for "detachment." Some Cetnici supported Nedic,
    others the Communist-led Partisan guerrillas. The best known
    Cetnici were the followers of Colonel Draza Mihajlovic, a Serbian
    nationalist, monarchist, and staunch anticommunist. Certain that
    the Allies would soon invade the Balkans, Mihajlovic advised his
    Cetnici to avoid clashes with Axis forces and prepare for a
    general uprising to coincide with the Allied push. In October
    1941, Britain recognized Mihajlovic as the leader of the Yugoslav
    resistance movement, and in 1942 the government-in-exile promoted
    him to commander of its armed forces.

    The Resistance Movement

    The communist-led Partisans eventually grew into Yugoslavia's
    largest, most active resistance group. The Communist Party of
    Yugoslavia (CPY) had sunk into obscurity after the government
    banned it in 1921. Police repression, internal conflict, and the
    Stalinist purges of the 1930s depleted party membership, and by
    the late 1930s its leadership in Moscow directed only a few
    hundred members inside Yugoslavia. The Partisan leader, Josip
    Broz Tito, son of a Croatian-Slovenian peasant family, had joined
    the Red Guards during the 1917 Russian Revolution and become a
    party member after returning to Yugoslavia. Tito won membership
    in the Central Committee of the Yugoslavian Communist Party in
    1934, then became secretary general after a 1937 purge. In the
    four years before the war, Tito directed a communist resurgence
    and built a strong organization of 12,000 full party members and
    30,000 members of the youth organization. The party played some
    role in demonstrations in Belgrade against the Tripartite Pact,
    and it called for a general uprising after Hitler attacked the
    Soviet Union in June 1941. The Partisan slogan "Death to Fascism,
    Freedom to the People," combined with a pan-Yugoslav appeal, won
    recruits for Tito across the country--despite the fact that
    before the war the communists had worked for the breakup of
    Yugoslavia.

    In July 1941, with some Cetnik support, the Partisans launched
    uprisings that won control of much of the Yugoslav countryside.
    The Partisan leaders established an administration and proclaimed
    the Uzice Republic in western Serbia. But in September the Axis
    struck back. Germany warned that it would execute 100 Serbs for
    every German soldier the resistance killed, and German troops
    killed several thousand civilians at Kragujevac in a single
    reprisal. Tito correctly reasoned that such actions would enrage
    the population and bring the Partisans more recruits, so he
    disregarded the German threat and continued his guerrilla
    warfare. He also arranged assassinations of local political
    figures and ordered attacks on the Cetnici to coincide with
    German action against them. Mihajlovic, however, feared that
    German reprisals would turn into a Serbian holocaust, so he
    ordered his forces not to engage the Germans. After fruitless
    negotiations with Tito, the Cetnik leader turned against the
    Partisans as his main enemy. Cetnik units attacked Partisans in
    November 1941 and began cooperating with the Germans and Italians
    to prevent a communist victory. The British liaison to Mihajlovic advised London to stop supplying the Cetnici after the Uzice attack, but Britain continued to supply Mihajlovic.

    In late 1941, the Partisans lost control of Western Serbia,
    Montenegro, and other areas, and their central command withdrew
    into Bosnia. Despite the setbacks, Bosnian Serbs and other
    Yugoslavs flocked to the Partisans. The Serbian-based Cetnici
    expanded into Montenegro, where they gained local and Italian
    support. Soviet dictator Joseph V. Stalin, fearing that Partisan
    action might weaken Allied trust of the Soviet Union, and
    suspicious of revolutionary movements not under his control,
    reportedly instructed Tito to limit the Partisans to national
    liberation and antifascist activities. Moscow refused to supply
    arms to Tito, maintained relations with the government-in-exile,
    and even offered a military mission and supplies to the Cetnici.

    At Bihac in November 1942, the Partisan leaders, anxious to gain
    political legitimacy, convened the first meeting of the Anti-
    Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia
    (Antifasisticko vece narodnog oslobodjenja Jugoslavije, AVNOJ), a
    committee of communist and noncommunist Partisan representatives
    from all over Yugoslavia. AVNOJ became the political umbrella
    organization for the people's liberation committees that the
    partisans established to administer territories under their
    control. AVNOJ proclaimed support for democracy, the rights of
    ethnic groups, the inviolability of private property, and freedom
    of individual economic initiative. Stalin reportedly barred Tito
    from declaring AVNOJ a provisional government. In 1943 Germany
    mounted offensives to improve its control of Yugoslavia in
    anticipation of an Allied invasion of the Balkans. The Partisans,
    fearing that an Allied invasion would benefit the Cetnici,
    attacked Mihajlovic's forces. In March the Partisans
    outmaneuvered the German army and defeated the Cetnici decisively
    in Hercegovina and Montenegro. In May, however, German, Italian,
    Bulgarian, and NDH forces surrounded the Partisans and launched a
    final crushing attack. In fierce combat in the Sutjeska Gorge,
    the Partisans escaped encirclement. This proved a turning point
    in their fortunes; when Italy surrendered in September 1943, the
    Partisans captured Italian arms, gained control of coastal
    territory, and began receiving supplies from the Allies in Italy. Tito convened a second session of AVNOJ in November 1943. This
    session, which included representatives of various ethnic and
    political groups, built the basis for the postwar government of
    Yugoslavia. AVNOJ voted to reconstitute the country on a federal
    basis; elected a national committee to act as the temporary
    government; named Tito marshal of Yugoslavia and prime minister;
    and issued a declaration forbidding King Petar to return to the
    country until a popular referendum had been held on the status of
    the monarchy. Tito did not notify Stalin of the November meeting,
    which enraged the Soviet leader. The Western Allies, however,
    were not alarmed, because they believed that the Partisans were
    the only Yugoslav resistance group actively fighting the Germans.
    At Teheran in December 1943, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin
    decided to support the Partisans. A month later, Britain stopped
    supplying the Cetnici and threw full support to the Partisans.
    The first Soviet mission arrived at Partisan headquarters shortly
    thereafter. The United States kept a military mission with
    Mihajlovic to encourage continued Cetnik aid for downed American
    fliers.



    In May 1944, German airborne forces attacked Tito's headquarters
    in Drvar, nearly capturing him. Tito fled to Italy, then
    established new headquarters on the Adriatic island of Vis. After
    throwing full support to the Partisans, Britain worked to
    reconcile Tito and Petar. In June 1944, at Britain's urging,
    Petar named Ivan Subasic, former ban of Croatia, as prime
    minister of the government-in-exile. Subasic accepted the
    resolutions of the second AVNOJ conference, and Petar agreed to
    remain outside Yugoslavia. In September the king succumbed to
    British pressure and summoned all Yugoslavs to back the
    Partisans.

    When the Red Army reached the Yugoslav-Romanian border in
    September 1944, Tito traveled secretly to Moscow, arranged for
    the Soviets to enter Yugoslavia, and secured Stalin's word that
    the Red Army would leave the country once it was secure, without
    interfering with domestic politics. Soviet troops crossed the
    border on October 1, and a joint Partisan-Soviet force liberated
    Belgrade on October 20. The majority of the Red Army then
    continued into Hungary, leaving the Partisans and the Western
    Allies to crush remaining Germans, Ustase, and Cetnici. When the
    Partisans advanced into Croatia in the bloodiest fighting of the
    war, Ustase leaders and collaborators fled to Austria with
    regular Croatian and Slovenian troops and some Cetnici. The
    Partisans finally occupied Trieste, Istria, and some Slovenian
    enclaves in Austria, but they withdrew from some of these areas
    after the Allies persuaded Tito to let the postwar peace
    conferences settle borders. The Partisans crushed a small
    Albanian nationalist revolt in Kosovo after Tito and Albanian
    Communist leader Enver Hoxha announced that they would return
    Kosovo to Yugoslavia.



    gopher://gopher.umsl.edu/00/library/govdocs/armyahbs/aahb2/aahb0148
    --
     
  2. bf109 emil

    bf109 emil Member

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    Yugoslavia was a bizarre place, one where they fought as much against other countries unfairly thrown together after WW1..The slavs of the former Austro-Hungarian empire which include Croats,sers slovanians where bunched together to form a nation, which was a huge mistake post WW1...here people speaking,writing, religious beliefs,and different pokitical ideals where all lumped into one and expected not to have wars among themselves???
    Cocentration camps where set up in Croatia to house jews, Serbs...no wonder Tito fought and backed Russia, as the Crotians where a puppet state with Germany and it's people where being used as slaves and being slaughtered.....people see Yugoslavia as a partisan bunch fighting the Germans, which isn't altogether so...Numerous Croatian pilots( now deemed yugoslavians flew and became aces against the soviets as Croatia became to back Hitler and Nazi Germany...

    the chetnik rebels did good fighting for their king in exile...but soon Germans executed so many for each of their own killed, so in consideration, resistance against Germans stopped...

    original signing as a puppet state by the prince whom reluctantly signed made Hitler happy, but a soon attempted coup d etat by a few British dropped special forces/diplomats trying to over throw the deal so infuriated hitler, that Richtofen was sent to have his Luftwaffe flatten Belgrade....a trait he new well from the Spanish war, and would use later upon Stalingrad...
    Unsure if this made any sense, but would be almost like those backing bush went to fight with him, and those against his Iraq war, fought both bush and those backing him...(as a figure of speech)

    When Churchill was dropping weapons for Tito's gurella forces, while the American preferred backing Mihalslovic(sp?) i believe it was attlee whom asked Churchill if this was wise to be supporting a regime which would eventually back, or be backed by Russia...all churchill retorted with..."I have no intention of living their after the war....do you?"
     
  3. JeffinMNUSA

    JeffinMNUSA Member

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    Here is a Serbian perspective on Draza Mihailovic;
    Draza Mihailovich - He saved Russia
    It is a fact that the Wehrmacht did not reach the Gates of Moscow until the Fall of '41 because of the critical 6 week delay taken earlier that year during operations in Yugoslavia and Greece. It is also a fact that guerrilla actions in Greece but mostly Yugoslavia tied down German forces for the duration of WWII; and most critically during the Barbarossa to Operation Blau periods. Small nations CAN have huge effects on World events. Here are some Greek YOUtubes on the subject (Thanks to my Greek friend Courevec);
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcInAE3R7Gk&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYCCZrWEK_A&NR=1

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-PonDxfoO0&feature=related (it's a film I have wached for over 20 times!)



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hscJ68rlxAg&feature=related


    JeffinMNUSA
     
  4. bf109 emil

    bf109 emil Member

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    The biggest factor besides yougoslavia, was Hitlers reprisal for the Belgarde uprising resulting in his feeling betrayed...a reprisal started by british commandoes parachuted into Serbian (i believe territory)

    Hitlers not capturing Moscow, was not because of a 6 week late start...had the Wehrmacht had set this goal, and this goal specifically, moscow would have fell early...It was the success of the Wehrmacht, and thus Hitlers micro-managing which diverted troops, set panzer armies south then back to the North almost with reckless abandonement the Japanese had shown in the Pacific until they had their noses bloodied at Midway...

    Besides, if one thinks the battle could have began in early may,,,the excess rain that spring made roads,fields unpassable until into June...as well as the swollen rivers, terrain etc made this start date impossible
     
  5. JeffinMNUSA

    JeffinMNUSA Member

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    BF;
    Here is the history channel debate on "The Six Week Delay" factor (and others)
    History Channel: Barbarossa time period? ...
    Here is a Russian site that proposes the "Six week delay meant little" thesis (and I suspect just a touch of nationalistic braggadocio in this);
    ÷ÏÅÎÎÁÑ ÌÉÔÅÒÁÔÕÒÁ : éÓÔÏÒÉÑ ×ÏÊÎ : Fugate B., Operation Barbarossa

    My read? Well how could a six (or even two) week delay NOT had a huge effect on the first year of the war? You can argue that Hitler's switching operations to the Ukraine were much more significant and probably be right (so why did Hitler swing South when he had Moscow in his sights? Well certainly "Der Fuhrer" enjoyed the slaughter, but also there is the militarily sound principle of "securing one's flanks"-the same logic that led him to invade the Balkans). This still does not change the fact that the badly depleted, poorly equipped (for cold weather)NAZI Legions arrived at the Gates of Moscow just as the nasty weather- "rasputitsa" -was setting in. 2-6 weeks earlier could have made a huge difference. Then there were those 9 divisions left in the Balkans missing from the Wehrmacht's force mix...

    JeffinMNUSA
     

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