Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland

Operation area of ​​the "JVuO" in 1942

Operation area of ​​the "JVuO" in 1943. Established in consultation with the German armed forces to combat the communist partisan movement.

House of Gottscheer Rudolf Tschinkel in Masern (Grčarice), in which Tito partisans destroyed a base of the "JVuO" in September 1943

Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland ( Serbian Југословенска војска у отаџбини Jugoslovenska vojska u otadžbini shortly JVuO, Slovenian Jugoslovanska vojska v domovini shortly JVvD) was from 1942 bis 1944 the official name of the self of Dragoljub Mihailovic led monarchist-nationalist Serbian Chetnik dressings. In general, the name did not catch on. Their area of ​​operation was mainly limited to Serbia and the neighboring areas of Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina .

During the Second World War , the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was occupied and divided up by the Axis powers in the course of the Balkan campaign in 1941 . The units founded under Mihailović in 1941 initially called themselves "Chetnik Departments of the Yugoslav Army" ( Četnički odredi jugoslovenske vojske ) or "Military Chetnik Units" ( Vojno-četnički odredi ).

After contacts with the royal Yugoslav government-in-exile in London under King Peter and the Western allies could be established, Mihailović was appointed Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the "Yugoslav Armed Forces in Yugoslavia" at his request . This recognition confirmed Mihailović as a representative of the legitimate resistance against the German occupation forces in Yugoslavia and did not want to endanger this recognition under any circumstances. Also Mihailovic wanted to avoid that its guerrillas merely as a Freischärlertruppe would be seen and the other Chetnik associations as of Kosta Pećanac delimit. For example, he forbade his troops to designate themselves as Chetniks under disciplinary punishment, but with little success.

The "JVuO" was hardly represented in Croatia, but maintained several underground units in Slovenia, which their opponents, the partisans of the Osvobodilna Fronta , called "blue guards" (plavogardisti) . On September 8, 1943, a few days after the capitulation of Italy , partisans destroyed a large part of the Slovenian Chetniks in the village of Measles ( Grčarice ) in the Gottschee, which had been abandoned since 1941 .

See also

• List of armed formations of the Collaboration in Yugoslavia (1941–1945)

literature

• Tamara Griesser-Pečar: The torn people. Slovenia 1941-1946. Occupation, collaboration, civil war, revolution. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2002. Chapter “The Yugoslav Army at Home (Jugoslovanska vojska v domovini, JVvD)”, pp. 217–256.