Invasion of Yugoslavia
Encyclopedia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia (code-name Directive 25 or Operation 25), also known as the April War ' onMouseout='HidePop("54811")' href="/topics/Serbian_language">Serbian
/Bosnian
: Aprilski rat), was the Axis Powers
' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II
. The invasion ended with the unconditional surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army
on 17 April 1941, annexation and occupation of the region by the Axis powers and the creation of the Independent State of Croatia
(Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, or NDH).
only to be forced back into Albania
. German dictator Adolf Hitler
recognised the need to go to the aid of his ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
. Hitler did this not only to restore diminished Axis prestige, but also to prevent the United Kingdom
from being able to bomb the Romania
n oilfields from which Germany
obtained most of her oil.
Following agreements with Hungary, Romania
and Bulgaria
that they would join the Axis, Hitler put pressure on Yugoslavia
to join the Tripartite Pact
. The Regent, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia
, succumbed to this pressure on 25 March 1941. However, this move was deeply unpopular amongst the anti-Axis Serbian public and military. A coup d'état
was launched on 27 March 1941 by anti-Paul Serbian military officers, and the Regent was replaced on the throne by King Peter II of Yugoslavia
.
Upon hearing news of the coup in Yugoslavia, Hitler called his military advisers to Berlin on 27 March. Hitler took the coup as a personal insult, and was so angered that he was determined "without waiting for possible declarations of loyalty of the new government to destroy Yugoslavia militarily and as a nation.", despite the apparent readiness of the new Yugoslav rulers to maintain Yugoslavia's involvement in the Tripartite Pact.
, the Royal Yugoslav Army
was still largely equipped with weapons and material from that era, although some modernization with Czech equipment and vehicles had begun. Of about 4,000 artillery pieces, many were aged and horse-drawn, but about 1,700 were relatively modern, including 812 Czech 37mm and 47mm anti-tank guns. There were also about 2,300 mortars, including 1600 modern 81mm pieces, as well as twenty four 220 and 305mm pieces. Of 940 anti-aircraft guns, 360 were 15 and 20mm Czech and Italian models. All of these arms were imported, from different sources, which meant that the various models often lacked proper repair and maintenance facilities.
The only mechanized units were six motorized infantry battalions in the three cavalry divisions, six motorized artillery regiments, two tank battalions equipped with one-hundred-and-ten tanks, one of which had Renault FT-17
s models of First World War origin and the other fifty-four modern French Renault R35 tanks, plus an independent tank company with eight Czech SI-D tank destroyers. Some one-thousand trucks for military purposes had been imported from the United States of America in the months just preceding the invasion.
Fully mobilized, the Royal Yugoslav Army could have put 28 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, and 35 independent regiments in the field. An independent parachute unit, of company size, was formed in late 1939, but was not yet combat-ready. Of the independent regiments, 16 were in frontier fortifications and 19 were organized as combined regiments, or "Odred", around the size of a reinforced brigade. Each Odred had one to three infantry regiments and one to three artillery battalions, with three organised as "alpine" units. The German attack, however, caught the army still mobilizing, and only some 11 divisions were in their planned defense positions at the start of the invasion. The units were filled to between 70 and 90 percent of their strength as mobilization was not completed. The strength of the Royal Yugoslav Army was about 1,200,000 as the German invasion got underway.
The Royal Yugoslav Air Force had over 450 front-line aircraft of domestic (notably the IK-3), German, Italian, French, and British origin, of which more than half were modern types. Organized into twenty-two bomber squadrons and nineteen fighter squadrons, the main aircraft types in operational use included seventy-three Messerschmitt Bf 109 E
, thirty-eight Hawker Hurricane I
(with more being built under licence in Yugoslavia), thirty Hawker Fury II
, eight Ikarus IK-2, and six Rogozarski IK3 fighters (plus more under construction), sixty-three Dornier Do 17 K
(including 40 plus licence built), sixty Bristol Blenheim I
(including some 40 licence built) and forty Savoia Marchetti SM-79 K bombers. The Naval Aviation units comprised 8 squadrons equipped with, amongst other auxiliary types, twelve Dornier Do 22 K
and fifteen Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
locally designed and built maritime patrol float-planes.
The aircraft of the Yugoslav airline Aeroput
, consisting mainly of six Lockheed Model 10 Electra
s, three Spartan Cruiser
s, and one de Havilland Dragon
were mobilised to provide transport services to the Air Force.
The Royal Yugoslav Navy was equipped with one elderly ex-German light cruiser (suitable only for training purposes), 1 large modern destroyer flotilla leader of British design, 3 modern destroyers of French design (2 built in Yugoslavia plus another still under construction), 1 seaplane tender, 4 modern submarines (2 older French-built and 2 British-built) and 10 modern motor torpedo boats (MTBs), of the older vessels, there were 6 ex-Austrian Navy medium torpedo boats, 6 mine-layers, 4 large armoured river monitors and various auxiliary craft.
was organized into three army groups and the coastal defense troops. The 3rd Army Group was the strongest with the 3rd, 3rd Territorial, 5th and 6th Armies defending the borders with Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. The 2nd Army Group with the 1st and 2nd Armies, defended the region between the Iron Gates and the Drava River. The 1st Army Group with the 4th and 7th Armies, composed mainly of Croatian troops, was in Croatia and Slovenia defending the Italian, German (Austrian) and Hungarian frontiers.
The strength of each "Army" amounted to little more than a corps
, with the 3 Army Groups consisting of the units deployed as follows; The 3rd Army Group's 3rd Army consisted of 4 infantry divisions and one cavalry odred; the 3rd Territorial Army with 3 infantry divisions and one independent motorized artillery regiment; the 5th Army with 4 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division, 2 odred and one independent motorized artillery regiment and the 6th Army with 3 infantry divisions, the 2 Royal Guards brigades (odred) and 3 infantry odred. The 2nd Army Group's 1st Army had 1 infantry and 1 cavalry divisions, 3 odred and 6 frontier defence regiments; the 2nd Army had 3 infantry divisions and 1 frontier defence regiment. Finally, the 1st Army Group consisted of the 4th Army, with 3 infantry divisions and one odred, whilst the 7th Army had 2 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division, 3 mountain odred, 2 infantry odred and 9 frontier defence regiments. The Strategic, "Supreme Command" Reserve in Bosnia comprised 4 infantry divisions, 4 independent infantry regiments, 1 tank battalion, 2 motorized engineer battalions, 2 motorized heavy artillery regiments, 15 independent artillery battalions and 2 independent anti-aircraft artillery battalions. The Coastal Defence Force, on the Adriatic opposite Zadar
comprised 1 infantry division and 2 odred, in addition to fortress brigades and anti-aircraft units at Šibenik
and Kotor
.
On the eve of invasion, clothing and footwear were available for only two-thirds or so of the potential front-line troops and only partially for other troops; some other essential supplies were available for only a third of the front-line troops; medical and sanitary supplies were available for only a few weeks, and supplies of food for men and feed for livestock were available for only about two months. In all cases there was little or no possibility of replenishment.
Beyond the problems of inadequate equipment and incomplete mobilization, the Royal Yugoslav Army
suffered badly from the Serbo-Croat schism in Yugoslav politics. "Yugoslav" resistance to the invasion collapsed overnight. The main reason was that none of the subordinate national groups; Slovenes, Croats were prepared to fight in defence of a Serbian Yugoslavia. Also, so that the Slovenes did not feel abandoned, defences were built on Yugoslavia's northern border when the natural line of defence was much further south, based on the rivers Sava and Drina. The only effective opposition to the invasion was from wholly Serbian units within the borders of Serbia itself. The Germans, thrusting north-west from Skoplje, were held up at Kacanik Pass and lost several tanks (P39, Buckley C "Greece and Crete 1941" HMSO 1977). In its worst expression, Yugoslavia's defenses were badly compromised on April 10, 1941, when some of the units in the Croatian-manned 4th and 7th Armies mutinied, and a newly formed Croatian government hailed the entry of the Germans into Zagreb
the same day. The Serbian General Staff were united on the question of Yugoslavia as a "Greater Serbia", ruled, in one way or another, by Serbia. On the eve of the invasion, there were 165 generals on the Yugoslav active list. Of these, all but four were Serbs.
Starting on 6 April 1941, Axis armies invaded from all sides and the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) bombed Belgrade
. German armies were the first to cross the border with Hungarian and Italian armies following a few days later. Tsar
Boris III
avoided committing Bulgarian troops to the invasion by claiming that all of his battle worthy troops were guarding the flank of Germany's 12th Army against Turkey
. In a similar manner, while Romania was a staging area for German forces, no Romanian troops were committed to the invasion.
Luftflotte 4 of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe
), with a strength of seven Combat Formations (Kampfgruppen) had been committed to the campaign in the Balkans.
Hitler, infuriated at Yugoslavia's defiance, ordered the implementation of Operation Punishment (Unternehmen Strafgericht).
At 7 am
on 6 April the Luftwaffe opened the assault on Yugoslavia by conducting a saturation-type bombing raid on the capital. Flying in relays from airfields in Austria and Romania, 300 aircraft, of which a quarter were Junkers Ju 87
Stukas, protected by a heavy fighter escort began the attack. The dive-bombers were to silence the Yugoslav anti-aircraft defences while the medium bombers consisting mainly Dornier Do 17
and Junkers Ju 88
attacked the city. The initial raid was carried out at fifteen-minute intervals in three distinct waves, each lasting for approximately twenty minutes. Thus, the city was subjected to a rain of bombs for almost one and a half hours. The German bombers directed their main effort against the center of the city, where the principal government buildings were located.
The medium bomber Kampfgruppen continued their attack on the city for several days while the Stuka dive bomber
wings (Stukageschwaders) were soon diverted to Yugoslav airfields.
When the attack was over, some 4,000 inhabitants lay dead under the debris. This blow virtually destroyed all means of communication between the Yugoslav high command and the forces in the field, although most of the elements of the general staff managed to escape to one of the suburbs.
Having thus delivered the knockout blow to the enemy nerve center, the Luftwaffe was able to devote its maximum effort to military targets such as Yugoslav airfields, routes of communication, and troop concentrations, and to the close support of German ground operations.
The Yugoslav Air Force
put up its Belgrade defence interceptors from the six squadrons of the 32nd and 51st Fighter Groups to attack each wave of bombers, although as the day wore on the four squadrons from the 31st and 52nd Fighter Groups, based in central Serbia, also took part. The Messerschmitt 109E, Hawker Hurricane
Is and Rogozarski IK-3 fighters scored at least twenty "kills" amongst the attacking bombers and their escorting fighters on 6 April and a further dozen shot down on 7 April. The desperate defence by the Yugoslav Air Force over Belgrade cost it some 20 fighters shot down and 15 damaged.
Following the Belgrade Coup on 25 March 1941, the Yugoslav armed forces were put on alert, although the army was not fully mobilised for fear of provoking Hitler. The Royal Yugoslav Air Force (JKRV) command decided to disperse its forces away from their main bases to a system of 50 auxiliary airfields that had previously been prepared. However many of these airfields lacked facilities and had inadequate drainage which prevented the continued operation of all but the very lightest aircraft in the adverse weather conditions encountered in April 1941.
Despite having superior aircraft to some of the previously German-occupied eastern European nations such as Poland or Czechoslovakia, the JKRV could simply not match the overwhelming Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica superiority in terms of numbers, tactical deployment and combat experience. As a result, the 11 day fight put up by the JKRV was nothing short of extraordinary.
The bomber and maritime force hit targets in Italy, Germany (Austria), Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, as well as attacking German, Italian and Hungarian troops. Meanwhile the fighter squadrons inflicted not insignificant losses on escorted Luftwaffe bomber raids on Belgrade and Serbia, as well as upon Regia Aeronautica raids on Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro. The JKRV also provided direct air support to the hard pressed Yugoslav Army by strafing attacking troop and mechanized columns in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia (sometimes taking off and strafing the troops attacking the very base being evacuated).
Little wonder then that after a combination of air combat losses, losses on the ground to enemy air attack on bases and the overrunning of airfields by enemy troops, that after 11 days the JKRV almost ceased to exist. It must, however, be noted that between 6 and 17 April 1941 the JKRV received an additional 8 Hawker Hurricane
Is, 6 Dornier Do-17Ks, 4 Bristol Blenheim
Is, 2 Ikarus IK 2
s, 1 Rogozarski IK-3
and 1 Messerschmitt Bf 109
from the local aeronautical industry's aircraft factories and work-shops.
The JKRV's Dornier bomber force provides an illustrative case in point. At the beginning of the April war, the Royal Yugoslav Air Force was armed with some 60 German designed Dornier Do 17
Ks, purchased by Yugoslavia in the autumn of 1938, together with a manufacturing licence. The sole operator was 3 vazduhoplovni puk (3rd bomber regiment) composed of two bomber groups; the 63rd Bomber Group stationed at Petrovec airfield near Skopje
and the 64th Bomber Group stationed at Milesevo
airfield near Priština
. Other auxiliary airfields had also been prepared to aid in dispersal.
During the course of hostilities, the State Aircraft Factory in Kraljevo
managed to produce six more aircraft of this type. Of the final three, two were delivered to the JKRV on 10 April and one was delivered on 12 April 1941.
On 6 April, Luftwaffe dive-bombers and ground-attack fighters destroyed 26 of the Yugoslav Dorniers in the initial assault on their airfields, but the remaining aircraft were able to effectively hit back with numerous multi-ship attacks on German mechanized columns and upon Bulgarian airfields. By the end of the campaign total Yugoslav losses stood at four destroyed in aerial combat and 45 destroyed on the ground.
Between 14th and 15 April, the seven remaining Do 17K flew to Nikšić
airfield in Montenegro
and took part in the evacuation of King Petar II and members of the Yugoslav government to Greece. During this operation, Yugoslav gold reserves were also airlifted to Greece by the seven Do 17s, as well as by Savoia Marchetti SM-79Ks and Aeroput
Lockheed Model 10 Electra
s but after completing their mission, five Do 17K were destroyed on the ground when Italian aircraft attacked the Greek-held Paramitia airfield. Only two Do 17Ks escaped destruction in Greece and later joined the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Kingdom of Egypt
.
At 16:00 on the 15 April the C-in-C of Luftflotte 4, Generaloberst Alexander Löhr
received orders from Hermann Göring
to wind down the air-offensive and transfer the bulk of the dive-bomber force to support the campaign in Greece.
A total of 18 bomber, transport and maritime patrol aircraft (2 Dornier Do 17K, 4 Savoia Marchetti SM-79K, 3 Aeroput
Lockheed Model 10 Electra
, 8 Dornier Do-22K and 1 Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
) succeeded in escaping to the Allied base in Egypt
at the end of the campaign.
The British, Greek and Yugoslav high commands intended to use Niš as the lynch-pin in their attempts to wear down German forces in the Balkans and it is for this reason that the locality was important. The Yugoslav Supreme Command committed its reserves, including the 2nd Cavalry Division, but these were harassed by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe
) during transit to the front.
The Italian Second Army crossed the border soon after the Germans. The Second Army faced the Yugoslavian Seventh Army. The Italians encountered limited resistance and occupied parts of Slovenia
, Croatia
, and the coast of Dalmatia
. In addition to the Second Army, Italy had four divisions of the Ninth Army on the Yugoslavian border with Albania. These units defended against a Yugoslav offensive on that front. Around 300 Ustaše
volunteers under the command of Ante Pavelić
accompanied the Italian Second Army during the invasion; about the same number of Ustaše came with the German Army and other Axis allies.
On 12 April the Hungarian Third Army crossed the border with one cavalry, two motorized and six infantry brigades. The Third Army faced the Yugoslavian First Army. By the time the Hungarians crossed the border, the Germans had been attacking Yugoslavia for over a week. As a result, the Yugoslavian forces confronting them put up little resistance, except for the units in the frontier fortifications, who had held up the Hungarian advance for some time. and inflicted some 350 casualties. Units of the Hungarian Third Army advanced into a triangular shaped area between the Danube River and the Drava River, and occupied the Bačka
region in Vojvodina
with Hungarian relative majority. The Hungarian forces occupied only those territories which were part of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon
. Showing his disagreement with the Hungarian operations, prime minister Pál Teleki
committed suicide.
In accordance with the Royal Yugoslav Army
's war plan, R-41, a strategy was formulated that, in the face of a massive Axis attack, a retreat on all fronts except in the south be performed. Here the 3rd Yugoslav Army, in cooperation with the Greek Army, was to launch an offensive against the Italian forces in Albania
. This was in order to secure space to enable the withdrawal of the main Yugoslav Army to the south. This would be via Albanian territory in order to reach Greece and the Allied forces to be based there. The strategy was based on the premise that the Yugoslav Army would, together with the Greek and British Armies, form a new version of the Salonika Front of World War I.
The 3rd Yugoslav Army of the 3rd Army Group was tasked with conducting offensive operations against the Italian army in northern Albania. For this purpose the 3rd Army had concentrated four infantry divisions and one combined regiment (Odred) in the Montenegro
and Kosovo
regions:
- 15th Infantry Division "Zetska
"
- 13th Infantry Division "Hercegovacka
"
- 31st Infantry Division "Kosovska
"
- 25th Infantry Division "Vardarska
"
- "Komski" cavalry Odred.
The strategic reserve of the 3rd Army Group, the 22nd Infantry Division "Ibarska", was situated around Uroševac
in the Kosovo region.
In addition, offensive operations against the Italian enclave of Zara (Zadar
) on the Dalmatian coast were to be undertaken by the 12th Infantry Division "Jadranska".
The first elements of the 3rd Army launched their offensive operations in North Albania on 7 April 1941, with the Komski Odred covering the Gusinje-Prokletije mountains area advancing towards the village of Raja-Puka. The Kosovska Division crossed the border in the Prizren
area of Kosovo and was advancing through the Drin River
valley. The Vardarska Division gained some local success at Debar
, while the rest of the army's units were still assembling.
The next day, the 8th, found the Zetska Division steadily advancing along the Podgorica
–Shkodër
road. The Komski cavalry Odred successfully crossed the dangerous Prokletije mountains and reached the village of Koljegcava in the Valjbone River Valley. South of them the Kosovska Division broke through the Italian defences in the Drin River Valley, but due to the fall of Skopje to the attacks by the German Army, the Vardarska Division was forced to stop its operations in Albania.
The 9 April 1941 saw little further progress for the Yugoslavs, because although the Zetska Division continued advancing towards Shkodër
and the Komski Odred reached the Drin River, the Kosovska Division had to halt all combat activities on the Albanian Front due to the appearance of German troops in Prizren.
On 10 April 1941 the Zetska Division was still steadily fighting its way towards Shkodër and had advanced 50 km in some places. These advances had been supported by aircraft of the Yugoslav Royal Air Force
's 66th and 81st Bomber Groups, who attacked airfields and Italian troop concentrations around Shkodër
, as well as the port of Durrës
.
The Komski Odred and the right column of the Kosovska Division advanced along the right bank of the Drin River towards Shkodër in order to link with Zetska Division, but the central and left column of the Kosovska Division were forced to take a defensive perimeter to hold off the increasing pressure by German troops.
Between 11–13 April 1941, with German and Italian troops advancing on its rear areas, the Zetska Division was forced to retreat back to the Pronisat River by the Italian 131st Centauro Armoured Division, where it remained until the end of the campaign on the 16th of April. The Centauro Division then advanced upon the Yugoslav fleet base of Kotor
in Montenegro
.
When Germany and Italy attacked Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, The Yugoslav Royal Navy
had available 3 destroyers, 2 submarines and 10 MTBs as the most effective units of the fleet. One other destroyer, the "Ljubljana" was in dry-dock at the time of the invasion and she and her anti-aircraft guns were used in defence of the fleet base at Kotor
. The remainder of the fleet was useful only for coastal defence and local escort and patrol work.
Kotor
was close to the Albania
n border and the Italo-Greek front there, but Zara (Zadar
), an Italian enclave, was to the north-west of the coast and to prevent a bridgehead being established, the destroyer "Beograd", 4 of the old torpedo boats and 6 MTBs were despatched to Šibenik
, 80 km to the south of Zara, in preparation for an attack. The attack was to be co-ordinated with the 12th "Jadranska" Infantry Division and two "Odred" (combined regiments) of the Royal Yugoslav Army
attacking from the Benkovac
area, supported by air attacks by the 81st Bomber Group of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force. The Yugoslav forces launched their attack on 9 April but by 13 April the Italian forces had counter-attacked and were in Benkovac by 14 April. The naval prong to this attack faltered when the destroyer "Beograd" was damaged by near misses from Italian aircraft off Šibenik
when her starboard engine was put out of action, after which she limped to Kotor
, escorted by the remainder of the force, for repair.
The maritime patrol float-planes of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force flew reconnaissance and attack missions during the campaign, as well as providing air cover for mine-laying operations off Zara (Zadar
). Some of their successes included an Italian tanker being damaged by a near miss off the Italian coast near Bari
, attacks on the Albanian port of Durrës
, as well as strikes against Italian re-supply convoys to Albania. On 9 April, one Dornier Do 22
K floatplane notably took on an Italian convoy of 12 steamers with an escort of 8 destroyers crossing the Adriatic during the day, attacking single-handed in the face of intense AA fire.
The Royal Yugoslav Navy also had at its disposal four large, heavily armed and armoured river monitor
s in its riverine flotilla. They were used to patrol the Danube, Drava and Sava rivers in the northern parts of Yugoslavia and its border with Hungary.
These monitors, the Drava, Sava, Morava and Vardar had been inherited from the Austrian Navy at the end of World War I. All were of around 400-500t with a main armament of two 120 mm guns, two or three 66 mm guns, 120 mm mortars, 40 mm AA guns and machine guns.
At the start of the campaign they had carried out offensive operations by shelling the airfield at Mohács
in Hungary on the 6th of April and again two days later, but had to begin withdrawing towards Novi Sad
by the 11th of April after coming under repeated attack by German dive-bombers.
Early in the morning of 12 April, a squadron of German Junkers Ju 87
dive-bombers attacked the Yugoslav monitors on the Danube. The "Drava", commanded by Aleksandar Berić, was hit by several of them but they were unable to penetrate the "Drava's" 300 mm thick deck armour, until, by chance, one put a bomb straight down the funnel, killing 54 of the 67 man crew. During the attack anti-aircraft gunners on the monitors claimed 3 dive-bombers shot down.
The remaining 3 monitors were scuttled by their crews later on 12 April as German and Hungarian forces had occupied the bases and the river systems upon which they operated.
The losses sustained by the German attack forces were unexpectedly light. During the twelve days of combat the total casualty figures came to 558 men: 151 were listed as killed, 392 as wounded, and 15 as missing in action. During the XLI Panzer Corps drive on Belgrade, for example, the only officer killed in action fell victim to a civilian sniper's bullet. The Luftwaffe lost approximately 60 aircraft shot down over Yugoslavia, costing the lives of at least 70 aircrew.
The Italian Army took heavy casualties in northern Albania from the Yugoslav offensive there, whilst the Italian Air Force lost approximately 10 aircraft shot down, with a further 22 damaged.
The Hungarian Army suffered some 350 casualties (120 killed, 223 wounded and 13 missing in action) from the shelling by Yugoslav riverine forces of its frontier installations and in its attacks upon the Yugoslav frontier forces in Vojvodina
, with one quarter of a Hungarian parachute 'battalion' becoming casualties when a transport aircraft filled with 30 troops went down during an abortive drop on 12 April.
The Germans took between 254,000 and 345,000 Yugoslav prisoners, excluding a considerable number of ethnic Croat, German and Hungarian who had been conscripted into the Yugoslav Army and who were quickly released after screening, and Italians took 30,000 more.
Approximately 1,000 army and several hundred air force personnel (including one mobile-workshop unit of six vehicles) escaped via Greece to Egypt.
In their brief fight, the Royal Yugoslav Air Force suffered the loss of 49 aircraft to Axis fighters and anti-aircraft fire, with many more damaged beyond repair. These losses had cost the lives of 27 fighter pilots and 76 bomber aircrew. 85 more aircraft had been destroyed on the ground by air attack, while many others had been destroyed or disabled by their own crews, or had crashed during operations, or in evacuation flights.
,_jugoslawische_schiffe.jpg)
Despite these losses, more than 70 Yugoslav aircraft escaped to Allied territory, mostly to Greece, but 8 Dornier and Savoia Marchetti bombers set course for the USSR, with 4 making it safely. Several dozen of the escapee aircraft were destroyed in a devastating strafing attack by the Italian air force on Paramitia airfield in Greece, with 9 bombers and transports making it to Egypt
. More than 300 operational, auxiliary and training aircraft were captured and passed on to the newly created Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia
, Finland, Romania and Bulgaria.
The Italians captured most of the Yugoslav Navy (one of its 4 destroyers, the "Ljubljana", had spent the campaign in dry-dock). However, another destroyer, the "Zagreb", was blown up at Kotor
by two of its officers to prevent capture and one of the British-built submarines and 2 MTBs succeeded in escaping to Alexandria in Egypt to continue to serve with the Allied cause. It should also be noted that a fourth destroyer was captured while under construction in the Kotor shipyard, the "Split", but the Regia Marina was not able to finish her before the armistice in 1943. Eventually, she was recovered after the war by the Yugoslavians and completed under the original name.
10 Yugoslav Navy maritime patrol float-planes escaped to Greece, with 9 making it to Egypt
, where they formed a squadron under RAF command.
being occupied by Germany. The Italian-backed Croatian
fascist leader Ante Pavelić
declared an Independent State of Croatia
before the invasion was even over.
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
/Bosnian
Bosnian language
Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
: Aprilski rat), was the Axis Powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The invasion ended with the unconditional surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army
Royal Yugoslav Army
The Royal Yugoslav Army was the armed force of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from the state's formation until the force's surrender to the Axis powers on April 17, 1941...
on 17 April 1941, annexation and occupation of the region by the Axis powers and the creation of the Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
(Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, or NDH).
Background
In October 1940, Fascist Italy had attacked GreeceKingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
only to be forced back into Albania
Albania under Italy
The Albanian Kingdom existed as a protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy. It was practically a union between Italy and Albania, officially led by Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III and its government: Albania was led by Italian governors, after being militarily occupied by Italy, from 1939 until 1943...
. German dictator Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
recognised the need to go to the aid of his ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
. Hitler did this not only to restore diminished Axis prestige, but also to prevent the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
from being able to bomb the Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n oilfields from which Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
obtained most of her oil.
Following agreements with Hungary, Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
and Bulgaria
Kingdom of Bulgaria
The Kingdom of Bulgaria was established as an independent state when the Principality of Bulgaria, an Ottoman vassal, officially proclaimed itself independent on October 5, 1908 . This move also formalised the annexation of the Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia, which had been under the control...
that they would join the Axis, Hitler put pressure on Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
to join the Tripartite Pact
Tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact, also the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940, which established the Axis Powers of World War II...
. The Regent, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, also known as Paul Karađorđević , was Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the minority of King Peter II. Peter was the eldest son of his first cousin Alexander I...
, succumbed to this pressure on 25 March 1941. However, this move was deeply unpopular amongst the anti-Axis Serbian public and military. A coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
was launched on 27 March 1941 by anti-Paul Serbian military officers, and the Regent was replaced on the throne by King Peter II of Yugoslavia
Peter II of Yugoslavia
Peter II, also known as Peter II Karađorđević , was the third and last King of Yugoslavia...
.
Upon hearing news of the coup in Yugoslavia, Hitler called his military advisers to Berlin on 27 March. Hitler took the coup as a personal insult, and was so angered that he was determined "without waiting for possible declarations of loyalty of the new government to destroy Yugoslavia militarily and as a nation.", despite the apparent readiness of the new Yugoslav rulers to maintain Yugoslavia's involvement in the Tripartite Pact.
The Royal Yugoslav Armed Forces
Equipment and organization
Formed after World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the Royal Yugoslav Army
Royal Yugoslav Army
The Royal Yugoslav Army was the armed force of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from the state's formation until the force's surrender to the Axis powers on April 17, 1941...
was still largely equipped with weapons and material from that era, although some modernization with Czech equipment and vehicles had begun. Of about 4,000 artillery pieces, many were aged and horse-drawn, but about 1,700 were relatively modern, including 812 Czech 37mm and 47mm anti-tank guns. There were also about 2,300 mortars, including 1600 modern 81mm pieces, as well as twenty four 220 and 305mm pieces. Of 940 anti-aircraft guns, 360 were 15 and 20mm Czech and Italian models. All of these arms were imported, from different sources, which meant that the various models often lacked proper repair and maintenance facilities.
The only mechanized units were six motorized infantry battalions in the three cavalry divisions, six motorized artillery regiments, two tank battalions equipped with one-hundred-and-ten tanks, one of which had Renault FT-17
Renault FT-17
The Renault FT, frequently referred to in post-WWI literature as the "FT-17" or "FT17" , was a French light tank; it is among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history...
s models of First World War origin and the other fifty-four modern French Renault R35 tanks, plus an independent tank company with eight Czech SI-D tank destroyers. Some one-thousand trucks for military purposes had been imported from the United States of America in the months just preceding the invasion.
Fully mobilized, the Royal Yugoslav Army could have put 28 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, and 35 independent regiments in the field. An independent parachute unit, of company size, was formed in late 1939, but was not yet combat-ready. Of the independent regiments, 16 were in frontier fortifications and 19 were organized as combined regiments, or "Odred", around the size of a reinforced brigade. Each Odred had one to three infantry regiments and one to three artillery battalions, with three organised as "alpine" units. The German attack, however, caught the army still mobilizing, and only some 11 divisions were in their planned defense positions at the start of the invasion. The units were filled to between 70 and 90 percent of their strength as mobilization was not completed. The strength of the Royal Yugoslav Army was about 1,200,000 as the German invasion got underway.
The Royal Yugoslav Air Force had over 450 front-line aircraft of domestic (notably the IK-3), German, Italian, French, and British origin, of which more than half were modern types. Organized into twenty-two bomber squadrons and nineteen fighter squadrons, the main aircraft types in operational use included seventy-three Messerschmitt Bf 109 E
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
, thirty-eight Hawker Hurricane I
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
(with more being built under licence in Yugoslavia), thirty Hawker Fury II
Hawker Fury
The Hawker Fury was a British biplane fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force in the 1930s. It was originally named the Hornet and was the counterpart to the Hawker Hart light bomber.-Design and development:...
, eight Ikarus IK-2, and six Rogozarski IK3 fighters (plus more under construction), sixty-three Dornier Do 17 K
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17, sometimes referred to as the Fliegender Bleistift , was a World War II German light bomber produced by Claudius Dornier's company, Dornier Flugzeugwerke...
(including 40 plus licence built), sixty Bristol Blenheim I
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
(including some 40 licence built) and forty Savoia Marchetti SM-79 K bombers. The Naval Aviation units comprised 8 squadrons equipped with, amongst other auxiliary types, twelve Dornier Do 22 K
Dornier Do 22
|-See also:-References:*Donald, David The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Leicester,UK:Blitz Editions. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.*Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War: Volume Six Floatplanes. London:Macdonald, 1962....
and fifteen Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
The Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H was a 1930s Yugoslav coastal reconnaissance floatplane and light bomber, twin-engined, with three crew members. It was designed and built at the Rogožarski factory in Belgrade.-Design and development:...
locally designed and built maritime patrol float-planes.
The aircraft of the Yugoslav airline Aeroput
Aeroput
Aeroput was the national airline of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was founded on 17 June 1927 in the palace of the Adriatic and the Danube bank in Belgrade as Drustvo za Vazdusni Saobracaj A D – Aeroput ...
, consisting mainly of six Lockheed Model 10 Electra
Lockheed Model 10 Electra
The Lockheed Model 10 Electra was a twin-engine, all-metal monoplane airliner developed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2...
s, three Spartan Cruiser
Spartan Cruiser
|-See also:-External links:******...
s, and one de Havilland Dragon
De Havilland Dragon
|-See also:-References:Bibliography ISBN 0-85177-813-5...
were mobilised to provide transport services to the Air Force.
The Royal Yugoslav Navy was equipped with one elderly ex-German light cruiser (suitable only for training purposes), 1 large modern destroyer flotilla leader of British design, 3 modern destroyers of French design (2 built in Yugoslavia plus another still under construction), 1 seaplane tender, 4 modern submarines (2 older French-built and 2 British-built) and 10 modern motor torpedo boats (MTBs), of the older vessels, there were 6 ex-Austrian Navy medium torpedo boats, 6 mine-layers, 4 large armoured river monitors and various auxiliary craft.
Deployment
The Royal Yugoslav ArmyRoyal Yugoslav Army
The Royal Yugoslav Army was the armed force of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from the state's formation until the force's surrender to the Axis powers on April 17, 1941...
was organized into three army groups and the coastal defense troops. The 3rd Army Group was the strongest with the 3rd, 3rd Territorial, 5th and 6th Armies defending the borders with Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. The 2nd Army Group with the 1st and 2nd Armies, defended the region between the Iron Gates and the Drava River. The 1st Army Group with the 4th and 7th Armies, composed mainly of Croatian troops, was in Croatia and Slovenia defending the Italian, German (Austrian) and Hungarian frontiers.
The strength of each "Army" amounted to little more than a corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
, with the 3 Army Groups consisting of the units deployed as follows; The 3rd Army Group's 3rd Army consisted of 4 infantry divisions and one cavalry odred; the 3rd Territorial Army with 3 infantry divisions and one independent motorized artillery regiment; the 5th Army with 4 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division, 2 odred and one independent motorized artillery regiment and the 6th Army with 3 infantry divisions, the 2 Royal Guards brigades (odred) and 3 infantry odred. The 2nd Army Group's 1st Army had 1 infantry and 1 cavalry divisions, 3 odred and 6 frontier defence regiments; the 2nd Army had 3 infantry divisions and 1 frontier defence regiment. Finally, the 1st Army Group consisted of the 4th Army, with 3 infantry divisions and one odred, whilst the 7th Army had 2 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division, 3 mountain odred, 2 infantry odred and 9 frontier defence regiments. The Strategic, "Supreme Command" Reserve in Bosnia comprised 4 infantry divisions, 4 independent infantry regiments, 1 tank battalion, 2 motorized engineer battalions, 2 motorized heavy artillery regiments, 15 independent artillery battalions and 2 independent anti-aircraft artillery battalions. The Coastal Defence Force, on the Adriatic opposite Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
comprised 1 infantry division and 2 odred, in addition to fortress brigades and anti-aircraft units at Šibenik
Šibenik
Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...
and Kotor
Kotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
.
On the eve of invasion, clothing and footwear were available for only two-thirds or so of the potential front-line troops and only partially for other troops; some other essential supplies were available for only a third of the front-line troops; medical and sanitary supplies were available for only a few weeks, and supplies of food for men and feed for livestock were available for only about two months. In all cases there was little or no possibility of replenishment.
Beyond the problems of inadequate equipment and incomplete mobilization, the Royal Yugoslav Army
Royal Yugoslav Army
The Royal Yugoslav Army was the armed force of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from the state's formation until the force's surrender to the Axis powers on April 17, 1941...
suffered badly from the Serbo-Croat schism in Yugoslav politics. "Yugoslav" resistance to the invasion collapsed overnight. The main reason was that none of the subordinate national groups; Slovenes, Croats were prepared to fight in defence of a Serbian Yugoslavia. Also, so that the Slovenes did not feel abandoned, defences were built on Yugoslavia's northern border when the natural line of defence was much further south, based on the rivers Sava and Drina. The only effective opposition to the invasion was from wholly Serbian units within the borders of Serbia itself. The Germans, thrusting north-west from Skoplje, were held up at Kacanik Pass and lost several tanks (P39, Buckley C "Greece and Crete 1941" HMSO 1977). In its worst expression, Yugoslavia's defenses were badly compromised on April 10, 1941, when some of the units in the Croatian-manned 4th and 7th Armies mutinied, and a newly formed Croatian government hailed the entry of the Germans into Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
the same day. The Serbian General Staff were united on the question of Yugoslavia as a "Greater Serbia", ruled, in one way or another, by Serbia. On the eve of the invasion, there were 165 generals on the Yugoslav active list. Of these, all but four were Serbs.
Operations
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. German armies were the first to cross the border with Hungarian and Italian armies following a few days later. Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
Boris III
Boris III of Bulgaria
Boris III the Unifier, Tsar of Bulgaria , originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver , son of Ferdinand I, came to the throne in 1918 upon the abdication of his father, following the defeat of the Kingdom of Bulgaria during World War I...
avoided committing Bulgarian troops to the invasion by claiming that all of his battle worthy troops were guarding the flank of Germany's 12th Army against Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. In a similar manner, while Romania was a staging area for German forces, no Romanian troops were committed to the invasion.
The bombing of Belgrade
- see: Bombing of Belgrade in World War IIBombing of Belgrade in World War IIThe city of Belgrade was bombed during two campaigns in World War II, the first undertaken by the Luftwaffe in 1941, and the latter by Allied air forces in 1944.- German bombing :...
Luftflotte 4 of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
), with a strength of seven Combat Formations (Kampfgruppen) had been committed to the campaign in the Balkans.
Hitler, infuriated at Yugoslavia's defiance, ordered the implementation of Operation Punishment (Unternehmen Strafgericht).
At 7 am
12-hour clock
The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...
on 6 April the Luftwaffe opened the assault on Yugoslavia by conducting a saturation-type bombing raid on the capital. Flying in relays from airfields in Austria and Romania, 300 aircraft, of which a quarter were Junkers Ju 87
Junkers Ju 87
The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...
Stukas, protected by a heavy fighter escort began the attack. The dive-bombers were to silence the Yugoslav anti-aircraft defences while the medium bombers consisting mainly Dornier Do 17
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17, sometimes referred to as the Fliegender Bleistift , was a World War II German light bomber produced by Claudius Dornier's company, Dornier Flugzeugwerke...
and Junkers Ju 88
Junkers Ju 88
The Junkers Ju 88 was a World War II German Luftwaffe twin-engine, multi-role aircraft. Designed by Hugo Junkers' company through the services of two American aviation engineers in the mid-1930s, it suffered from a number of technical problems during the later stages of its development and early...
attacked the city. The initial raid was carried out at fifteen-minute intervals in three distinct waves, each lasting for approximately twenty minutes. Thus, the city was subjected to a rain of bombs for almost one and a half hours. The German bombers directed their main effort against the center of the city, where the principal government buildings were located.
The medium bomber Kampfgruppen continued their attack on the city for several days while the Stuka dive bomber
Dive bomber
A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target reduces the distance the bomb has to fall, which is the primary factor in determining the accuracy of the drop...
wings (Stukageschwaders) were soon diverted to Yugoslav airfields.
When the attack was over, some 4,000 inhabitants lay dead under the debris. This blow virtually destroyed all means of communication between the Yugoslav high command and the forces in the field, although most of the elements of the general staff managed to escape to one of the suburbs.
Having thus delivered the knockout blow to the enemy nerve center, the Luftwaffe was able to devote its maximum effort to military targets such as Yugoslav airfields, routes of communication, and troop concentrations, and to the close support of German ground operations.
The Yugoslav Air Force
Yugoslav Air Force
The Yugoslav Air Force may refer to:Kingdom of Yugoslavia*Yugoslav Royal Air Force, active from 1918 to 1941.Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia*SFR Yugoslav Air Force, active from 1945 to 1991....
put up its Belgrade defence interceptors from the six squadrons of the 32nd and 51st Fighter Groups to attack each wave of bombers, although as the day wore on the four squadrons from the 31st and 52nd Fighter Groups, based in central Serbia, also took part. The Messerschmitt 109E, Hawker Hurricane
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
Is and Rogozarski IK-3 fighters scored at least twenty "kills" amongst the attacking bombers and their escorting fighters on 6 April and a further dozen shot down on 7 April. The desperate defence by the Yugoslav Air Force over Belgrade cost it some 20 fighters shot down and 15 damaged.
The Air Battle
Despite having superior aircraft to some of the previously German-occupied eastern European nations such as Poland or Czechoslovakia, the JKRV could simply not match the overwhelming Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica superiority in terms of numbers, tactical deployment and combat experience. As a result, the 11 day fight put up by the JKRV was nothing short of extraordinary.
The bomber and maritime force hit targets in Italy, Germany (Austria), Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, as well as attacking German, Italian and Hungarian troops. Meanwhile the fighter squadrons inflicted not insignificant losses on escorted Luftwaffe bomber raids on Belgrade and Serbia, as well as upon Regia Aeronautica raids on Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro. The JKRV also provided direct air support to the hard pressed Yugoslav Army by strafing attacking troop and mechanized columns in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia (sometimes taking off and strafing the troops attacking the very base being evacuated).
Little wonder then that after a combination of air combat losses, losses on the ground to enemy air attack on bases and the overrunning of airfields by enemy troops, that after 11 days the JKRV almost ceased to exist. It must, however, be noted that between 6 and 17 April 1941 the JKRV received an additional 8 Hawker Hurricane
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
Is, 6 Dornier Do-17Ks, 4 Bristol Blenheim
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
Is, 2 Ikarus IK 2
Ikarus IK 2
-Bibliography:* Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Four: Fighters. London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd., 1961 . ISBN 0-356-01448-7....
s, 1 Rogozarski IK-3
Rogozarski IK-3
-References:NotesBibliography* Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Four: Fighters. London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd., 1961 . ISBN 0-356-01448-7....
and 1 Messerschmitt Bf 109
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
from the local aeronautical industry's aircraft factories and work-shops.
The JKRV's Dornier bomber force provides an illustrative case in point. At the beginning of the April war, the Royal Yugoslav Air Force was armed with some 60 German designed Dornier Do 17
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17, sometimes referred to as the Fliegender Bleistift , was a World War II German light bomber produced by Claudius Dornier's company, Dornier Flugzeugwerke...
Ks, purchased by Yugoslavia in the autumn of 1938, together with a manufacturing licence. The sole operator was 3 vazduhoplovni puk (3rd bomber regiment) composed of two bomber groups; the 63rd Bomber Group stationed at Petrovec airfield near Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
and the 64th Bomber Group stationed at Milesevo
Mileševo
Mileševo is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Bečej municipality, South Bačka District, Vojvodina province...
airfield near Priština
Pristina
Pristina, also spelled Prishtina and Priština is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality and district....
. Other auxiliary airfields had also been prepared to aid in dispersal.
During the course of hostilities, the State Aircraft Factory in Kraljevo
Kraljevo
Kraljevo is a city and municipality in central Serbia, built beside the river Ibar, 7 km west of its confluence with the Western Morava. It is located in the midst of an upland valley, between the mountains of Kotlenik in the north, and Stolovi in the south.In 2011 the city has population of...
managed to produce six more aircraft of this type. Of the final three, two were delivered to the JKRV on 10 April and one was delivered on 12 April 1941.
On 6 April, Luftwaffe dive-bombers and ground-attack fighters destroyed 26 of the Yugoslav Dorniers in the initial assault on their airfields, but the remaining aircraft were able to effectively hit back with numerous multi-ship attacks on German mechanized columns and upon Bulgarian airfields. By the end of the campaign total Yugoslav losses stood at four destroyed in aerial combat and 45 destroyed on the ground.
Between 14th and 15 April, the seven remaining Do 17K flew to Nikšić
Nikšić
Nikšić is a city in Montenegro . In 2003 the city had a total population about 75,000.Nikšić is located in Nikšić plain, at the foot of Mount Trebjesa. It is the center of the municipality , which is the largest in Montenegro by area...
airfield in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and took part in the evacuation of King Petar II and members of the Yugoslav government to Greece. During this operation, Yugoslav gold reserves were also airlifted to Greece by the seven Do 17s, as well as by Savoia Marchetti SM-79Ks and Aeroput
Aeroput
Aeroput was the national airline of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was founded on 17 June 1927 in the palace of the Adriatic and the Danube bank in Belgrade as Drustvo za Vazdusni Saobracaj A D – Aeroput ...
Lockheed Model 10 Electra
Lockheed Model 10 Electra
The Lockheed Model 10 Electra was a twin-engine, all-metal monoplane airliner developed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2...
s but after completing their mission, five Do 17K were destroyed on the ground when Italian aircraft attacked the Greek-held Paramitia airfield. Only two Do 17Ks escaped destruction in Greece and later joined the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Kingdom of Egypt
Kingdom of Egypt
The Kingdom of Egypt was the first modern Egyptian state, lasting from 1922 to 1953. The Kingdom was created in 1922 when the British government unilaterally ended its protectorate over Egypt, in place since 1914. Sultan Fuad I became the first king of the new state...
.
At 16:00 on the 15 April the C-in-C of Luftflotte 4, Generaloberst Alexander Löhr
Alexander Löhr
Alexander Löhr was an Austrian Air Force commander during the 1930s and, after the "Political Union of Germany and Austria" , he was a German Air Force commander...
received orders from Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
to wind down the air-offensive and transfer the bulk of the dive-bomber force to support the campaign in Greece.
A total of 18 bomber, transport and maritime patrol aircraft (2 Dornier Do 17K, 4 Savoia Marchetti SM-79K, 3 Aeroput
Aeroput
Aeroput was the national airline of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was founded on 17 June 1927 in the palace of the Adriatic and the Danube bank in Belgrade as Drustvo za Vazdusni Saobracaj A D – Aeroput ...
Lockheed Model 10 Electra
Lockheed Model 10 Electra
The Lockheed Model 10 Electra was a twin-engine, all-metal monoplane airliner developed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2...
, 8 Dornier Do-22K and 1 Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
The Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H was a 1930s Yugoslav coastal reconnaissance floatplane and light bomber, twin-engined, with three crew members. It was designed and built at the Rogožarski factory in Belgrade.-Design and development:...
) succeeded in escaping to the Allied base in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
at the end of the campaign.
The Three-Pronged Drive on the Yugoslav Capital
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
) during transit to the front.
Italian and Hungarian offensive actions
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, and the coast of Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
. In addition to the Second Army, Italy had four divisions of the Ninth Army on the Yugoslavian border with Albania. These units defended against a Yugoslav offensive on that front. Around 300 Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
volunteers under the command of Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelic
Ante Pavelić was a Croatian fascist leader, revolutionary, and politician. He ruled as Poglavnik or head, of the Independent State of Croatia , a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia...
accompanied the Italian Second Army during the invasion; about the same number of Ustaše came with the German Army and other Axis allies.
On 12 April the Hungarian Third Army crossed the border with one cavalry, two motorized and six infantry brigades. The Third Army faced the Yugoslavian First Army. By the time the Hungarians crossed the border, the Germans had been attacking Yugoslavia for over a week. As a result, the Yugoslavian forces confronting them put up little resistance, except for the units in the frontier fortifications, who had held up the Hungarian advance for some time. and inflicted some 350 casualties. Units of the Hungarian Third Army advanced into a triangular shaped area between the Danube River and the Drava River, and occupied the Bačka
Backa
Bačka is a geographical area within the Pannonian plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east of which confluence is located near Titel...
region in Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
with Hungarian relative majority. The Hungarian forces occupied only those territories which were part of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
. Showing his disagreement with the Hungarian operations, prime minister Pál Teleki
Pál Teleki
Pál Count Teleki de Szék was prime minister of Hungary from 19 July 1920 to 14 April 1921 and from 16 February 1939 to 3 April 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a university professor, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association...
committed suicide.
Yugoslav Albanian offensive
Royal Yugoslav Army
The Royal Yugoslav Army was the armed force of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from the state's formation until the force's surrender to the Axis powers on April 17, 1941...
's war plan, R-41, a strategy was formulated that, in the face of a massive Axis attack, a retreat on all fronts except in the south be performed. Here the 3rd Yugoslav Army, in cooperation with the Greek Army, was to launch an offensive against the Italian forces in Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
. This was in order to secure space to enable the withdrawal of the main Yugoslav Army to the south. This would be via Albanian territory in order to reach Greece and the Allied forces to be based there. The strategy was based on the premise that the Yugoslav Army would, together with the Greek and British Armies, form a new version of the Salonika Front of World War I.
The 3rd Yugoslav Army of the 3rd Army Group was tasked with conducting offensive operations against the Italian army in northern Albania. For this purpose the 3rd Army had concentrated four infantry divisions and one combined regiment (Odred) in the Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
regions:
- 15th Infantry Division "Zetska
Zeta Banovina
The Zeta Banovina or Zeta Banate was a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941. This province consisted of all of the present-day Montenegro as well as adjacent parts of Central Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina...
"
- 13th Infantry Division "Hercegovacka
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
"
- 31st Infantry Division "Kosovska
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
"
- 25th Infantry Division "Vardarska
Vardar Banovina
The Vardar Banovina or Vardar Banate or Vardarska Banovina was a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941. It was located in the southernmost part of the country, encompassing the whole of today's Republic of Macedonia, southern parts of Central Serbia and southeastern parts of...
"
- "Komski" cavalry Odred.
The strategic reserve of the 3rd Army Group, the 22nd Infantry Division "Ibarska", was situated around Uroševac
Uroševac
Ferizaj or Uroševac is a city and municipality in southern Kosovo, located some south of the capital Pristina.Uroševac is the third most populous city in Kosovo, after Pristina and Prizren.It is the administrative centre of the homonymous district...
in the Kosovo region.
In addition, offensive operations against the Italian enclave of Zara (Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
) on the Dalmatian coast were to be undertaken by the 12th Infantry Division "Jadranska".
The first elements of the 3rd Army launched their offensive operations in North Albania on 7 April 1941, with the Komski Odred covering the Gusinje-Prokletije mountains area advancing towards the village of Raja-Puka. The Kosovska Division crossed the border in the Prizren
Prizren
Prizren is a historical city located in southern Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and district.The city has a population of around 131,247 , mostly Albanians...
area of Kosovo and was advancing through the Drin River
Drin River
The Drin is the longest river in Albania with a total length of . It has two distributaries, one going directly into the Adriatic Sea, the other one into the Bojana River .- Origin :...
valley. The Vardarska Division gained some local success at Debar
Debar
Debar is a city in the western part of the Republic of Macedonia, near the border with Albania, on the road from Struga to Gostivar. It is the seat of Debar Municipality.-Geography:...
, while the rest of the army's units were still assembling.
The next day, the 8th, found the Zetska Division steadily advancing along the Podgorica
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
–Shkodër
Shkodër
Shkodër , is a city located on Lake of Shkoder in northwestern Albania in the District of Shkodër, of which it is the capital. It is one of the oldest and most historic towns in Albania, as well as an important cultural and economic centre. Shkodër's estimated population is 90,000; if the...
road. The Komski cavalry Odred successfully crossed the dangerous Prokletije mountains and reached the village of Koljegcava in the Valjbone River Valley. South of them the Kosovska Division broke through the Italian defences in the Drin River Valley, but due to the fall of Skopje to the attacks by the German Army, the Vardarska Division was forced to stop its operations in Albania.
The 9 April 1941 saw little further progress for the Yugoslavs, because although the Zetska Division continued advancing towards Shkodër
Shkodër
Shkodër , is a city located on Lake of Shkoder in northwestern Albania in the District of Shkodër, of which it is the capital. It is one of the oldest and most historic towns in Albania, as well as an important cultural and economic centre. Shkodër's estimated population is 90,000; if the...
and the Komski Odred reached the Drin River, the Kosovska Division had to halt all combat activities on the Albanian Front due to the appearance of German troops in Prizren.
On 10 April 1941 the Zetska Division was still steadily fighting its way towards Shkodër and had advanced 50 km in some places. These advances had been supported by aircraft of the Yugoslav Royal Air Force
Yugoslav Royal Air Force
The Yugoslav Royal Air Force was formed in 1918 in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and existed until Yugoslavia's surrender to the Axis powers in 1941 following the Invasion of Yugoslavia during World War II....
's 66th and 81st Bomber Groups, who attacked airfields and Italian troop concentrations around Shkodër
Shkodër
Shkodër , is a city located on Lake of Shkoder in northwestern Albania in the District of Shkodër, of which it is the capital. It is one of the oldest and most historic towns in Albania, as well as an important cultural and economic centre. Shkodër's estimated population is 90,000; if the...
, as well as the port of Durrës
Durrës
Durrës is the second largest city of Albania located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is one of the most ancient and economically important cities of Albania. Durres is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian ports of Bari...
.
The Komski Odred and the right column of the Kosovska Division advanced along the right bank of the Drin River towards Shkodër in order to link with Zetska Division, but the central and left column of the Kosovska Division were forced to take a defensive perimeter to hold off the increasing pressure by German troops.
Between 11–13 April 1941, with German and Italian troops advancing on its rear areas, the Zetska Division was forced to retreat back to the Pronisat River by the Italian 131st Centauro Armoured Division, where it remained until the end of the campaign on the 16th of April. The Centauro Division then advanced upon the Yugoslav fleet base of Kotor
Kotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
.
Naval Operations
Yugoslav Royal Navy
The Royal Yugoslav Navy was the navy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.This navy existed since the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918, which was changed in 1929 to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia...
had available 3 destroyers, 2 submarines and 10 MTBs as the most effective units of the fleet. One other destroyer, the "Ljubljana" was in dry-dock at the time of the invasion and she and her anti-aircraft guns were used in defence of the fleet base at Kotor
Kotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
. The remainder of the fleet was useful only for coastal defence and local escort and patrol work.
Kotor
Kotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
was close to the Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
n border and the Italo-Greek front there, but Zara (Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
), an Italian enclave, was to the north-west of the coast and to prevent a bridgehead being established, the destroyer "Beograd", 4 of the old torpedo boats and 6 MTBs were despatched to Šibenik
Šibenik
Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...
, 80 km to the south of Zara, in preparation for an attack. The attack was to be co-ordinated with the 12th "Jadranska" Infantry Division and two "Odred" (combined regiments) of the Royal Yugoslav Army
Royal Yugoslav Army
The Royal Yugoslav Army was the armed force of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from the state's formation until the force's surrender to the Axis powers on April 17, 1941...
attacking from the Benkovac
Benkovac
Benkovac is a town and municipality in the interior of Zadar County, Croatia.- Geography :Benkovac is located where the plain of Ravni Kotari and the karstic plateau of Bukovica meet, 20 km from the town of Biograd na Moru and 30 km from Zadar. The Zagreb-Split motorway and Zadar-Knin...
area, supported by air attacks by the 81st Bomber Group of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force. The Yugoslav forces launched their attack on 9 April but by 13 April the Italian forces had counter-attacked and were in Benkovac by 14 April. The naval prong to this attack faltered when the destroyer "Beograd" was damaged by near misses from Italian aircraft off Šibenik
Šibenik
Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...
when her starboard engine was put out of action, after which she limped to Kotor
Kotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
, escorted by the remainder of the force, for repair.
The maritime patrol float-planes of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force flew reconnaissance and attack missions during the campaign, as well as providing air cover for mine-laying operations off Zara (Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
). Some of their successes included an Italian tanker being damaged by a near miss off the Italian coast near Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
, attacks on the Albanian port of Durrës
Durrës
Durrës is the second largest city of Albania located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is one of the most ancient and economically important cities of Albania. Durres is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian ports of Bari...
, as well as strikes against Italian re-supply convoys to Albania. On 9 April, one Dornier Do 22
Dornier Do 22
|-See also:-References:*Donald, David The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Leicester,UK:Blitz Editions. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.*Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War: Volume Six Floatplanes. London:Macdonald, 1962....
K floatplane notably took on an Italian convoy of 12 steamers with an escort of 8 destroyers crossing the Adriatic during the day, attacking single-handed in the face of intense AA fire.
The Royal Yugoslav Navy also had at its disposal four large, heavily armed and armoured river monitor
Monitor (warship)
A monitor was a class of relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s until the end of World War II, and saw their final use by the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.The monitors...
s in its riverine flotilla. They were used to patrol the Danube, Drava and Sava rivers in the northern parts of Yugoslavia and its border with Hungary.
These monitors, the Drava, Sava, Morava and Vardar had been inherited from the Austrian Navy at the end of World War I. All were of around 400-500t with a main armament of two 120 mm guns, two or three 66 mm guns, 120 mm mortars, 40 mm AA guns and machine guns.
At the start of the campaign they had carried out offensive operations by shelling the airfield at Mohács
Mohács
Mohács is a town in Baranya county, Hungary on the right bank of the Danube.-History:Two famous battles took place there:# Battle of Mohács, 1526# Battle of Mohács, 1687...
in Hungary on the 6th of April and again two days later, but had to begin withdrawing towards Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
by the 11th of April after coming under repeated attack by German dive-bombers.
Early in the morning of 12 April, a squadron of German Junkers Ju 87
Junkers Ju 87
The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...
dive-bombers attacked the Yugoslav monitors on the Danube. The "Drava", commanded by Aleksandar Berić, was hit by several of them but they were unable to penetrate the "Drava's" 300 mm thick deck armour, until, by chance, one put a bomb straight down the funnel, killing 54 of the 67 man crew. During the attack anti-aircraft gunners on the monitors claimed 3 dive-bombers shot down.
The remaining 3 monitors were scuttled by their crews later on 12 April as German and Hungarian forces had occupied the bases and the river systems upon which they operated.
Losses
The Italian Army took heavy casualties in northern Albania from the Yugoslav offensive there, whilst the Italian Air Force lost approximately 10 aircraft shot down, with a further 22 damaged.
The Hungarian Army suffered some 350 casualties (120 killed, 223 wounded and 13 missing in action) from the shelling by Yugoslav riverine forces of its frontier installations and in its attacks upon the Yugoslav frontier forces in Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
, with one quarter of a Hungarian parachute 'battalion' becoming casualties when a transport aircraft filled with 30 troops went down during an abortive drop on 12 April.
The Germans took between 254,000 and 345,000 Yugoslav prisoners, excluding a considerable number of ethnic Croat, German and Hungarian who had been conscripted into the Yugoslav Army and who were quickly released after screening, and Italians took 30,000 more.
Approximately 1,000 army and several hundred air force personnel (including one mobile-workshop unit of six vehicles) escaped via Greece to Egypt.
In their brief fight, the Royal Yugoslav Air Force suffered the loss of 49 aircraft to Axis fighters and anti-aircraft fire, with many more damaged beyond repair. These losses had cost the lives of 27 fighter pilots and 76 bomber aircrew. 85 more aircraft had been destroyed on the ground by air attack, while many others had been destroyed or disabled by their own crews, or had crashed during operations, or in evacuation flights.
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. More than 300 operational, auxiliary and training aircraft were captured and passed on to the newly created Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia
Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia
The Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia, the Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske was the national air force of the Independent State of Croatia during World War II, founded under German authority in April 1941...
, Finland, Romania and Bulgaria.
The Italians captured most of the Yugoslav Navy (one of its 4 destroyers, the "Ljubljana", had spent the campaign in dry-dock). However, another destroyer, the "Zagreb", was blown up at Kotor
Kotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
by two of its officers to prevent capture and one of the British-built submarines and 2 MTBs succeeded in escaping to Alexandria in Egypt to continue to serve with the Allied cause. It should also be noted that a fourth destroyer was captured while under construction in the Kotor shipyard, the "Split", but the Regia Marina was not able to finish her before the armistice in 1943. Eventually, she was recovered after the war by the Yugoslavians and completed under the original name.
10 Yugoslav Navy maritime patrol float-planes escaped to Greece, with 9 making it to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, where they formed a squadron under RAF command.
Aftermath
The Axis victory was swift. On 17 April 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered after only eleven days. The insistence of the Yugoslav Army on trying to defend all the borders did not help matters. Yugoslavia was subsequently divided amongst Germany, Hungary, Italy and Bulgaria, with most of SerbiaSerbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
being occupied by Germany. The Italian-backed Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
fascist leader Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelic
Ante Pavelić was a Croatian fascist leader, revolutionary, and politician. He ruled as Poglavnik or head, of the Independent State of Croatia , a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia...
declared an Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
before the invasion was even over.
Note
This article incorporates whole sections of text from the U.S. Government work The German Campaign in the Balkans (Spring 1941), United States Army Center of Military History Publication 104-4, 1986.See also
- Adriatic Campaign of World War IIAdriatic Campaign of World War IIThe Adriatic Campaign of World War II was a minor naval campaign fought during World War II between the Greek, Yugoslavian and Italian navies, the Kriegsmarine, and the Mediterranean squadrons of the United Kingdom, France, and the Yugoslav Partisan naval forces...
- Bombing of Belgrade in World War IIBombing of Belgrade in World War IIThe city of Belgrade was bombed during two campaigns in World War II, the first undertaken by the Luftwaffe in 1941, and the latter by Allied air forces in 1944.- German bombing :...
- Independent State of CroatiaIndependent State of CroatiaThe Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
- Yugoslav Partisans
- Royal Yugoslav ArmyRoyal Yugoslav ArmyThe Royal Yugoslav Army was the armed force of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from the state's formation until the force's surrender to the Axis powers on April 17, 1941...
- Royal Yugoslav Air Force
- Serbia (1941–1944)
- River Flotilla of Serbian Armed ForcesRiver Flotilla of Serbian Armed ForcesThe Serbian River flotilla is the specific unit of the Serbian Land Forces with the task of keeping and optimum operational regime of sailing and of protection of Serbian interests in interior sailing corridors, which consists of rivers and canals with a total length of 1,626 km...
- Greco-Italian WarGreco-Italian WarThe Greco-Italian War was a conflict between Italy and Greece which lasted from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941. It marked the beginning of the Balkans Campaign of World War II...
- Yugoslav Royal NavyYugoslav Royal NavyThe Royal Yugoslav Navy was the navy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.This navy existed since the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918, which was changed in 1929 to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia...
- Second League of PrizrenSecond League of PrizrenThe Second League of Prizren was an organisation founded by leading Albanian officials in Kosovo in 1943 to campaign for the ethnic unification of Albanians in Albania....