Croatian armed forces in World War II

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Adolescent soldier in the Croatian Army . The coat of arms of the Independent State of Croatia (October 1942) on the helmet .

Croatian armed forces in World War II were set up by the Independent State of Croatia , the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy .

They were armed formations of collaboration in Yugoslavia .

Troops of the Independent State of Croatia

Hrvatsko domobranstvo

Uniforms of the Croatian Home Guard at the time of the Independent State of Croatia

On April 16, 1941, the Independent State of Croatia established the Hrvatsko domobranstvo ("Croatian Home Guard") as a regular armed forces with Slavko Kvaternik as Commander-in-Chief . In fact, however, they were under German command; operational management was carried out by German authorities in accordance with the agreements concluded in 1942 and 1943. In addition to the army, there was an air force , a national guard , a gendarmerie and a labor service modeled on the Reich labor service . A navy could only be set up later due to Italian reservations.

The Croatian Home Guard played a key role in containing the first wave of uprisings in late summer and autumn 1941. From November 1941 three were Army Corps with six infantry - divisions and a Mountain Division placed the total strength was 55,000 men. In May 1943, the six divisions were converted into four mountain and four rifle brigades.

Ustaše militia

Ante Pavelić's fascist Ustasha movement ran the paramilitary militia Ustaška vojnica ("Ustasha Army"). In 1941 this initially consisted of five battalions of infantry, two battalions of railway protection as well as the Black Legion and the Poglavnik Body Guard Battalion. The Ustascha militia also included the German team , a militia of the "German ethnic group in the independent state of Croatia".

Hrvatske oružane snage

On November 21, 1944, Pavelić merged the Heimwehr with the paramilitary Ustasha militia and took over the supreme command of the Hrvatske oružane snage ("Croatian Armed Forces"). In addition to Croats , Bosniaks , Serbs , Czechs , Slovaks , Ukrainians , Russians and members of other national minorities also served.

  • Life Guard Division
  • 1st Sturm Division
Commander: General Ante Moškov
Location: Zagreb
  • 2nd Infantry Division
Commander: General Mirko Gregurić
Location: Zagreb
  • 3rd Infantry Division
Commander: General Stjepan Mifek
Location: Vinkovci
  • 4th Infantry Division
Commander: General Antun Nardelli
Location: Dvor na Uni
  • 5th Sturm Division
Commander: General Rafael Boban
Location: Bjelovar
  • 6th Infantry Division
Commander: General Vladimir Metikoš
Location: Banja Luka
  • 7th Mountain Division
Commander: General Stjepan Perčić
Location: Nova Kapela , Batrina
  • 8th Infantry Division
Commander: General Roman Domanik
Location: Sarajevo
  • 9th Mountain Division
Commander: General Božidar Zorn
Location: Mostar
  • 10th Infantry Division
Commander: General Ivan Tomašević
Location: Bihać
  • 11th Infantry Division
Commander: Colonel Juraj Rukavina
Location: Gospić
  • 12th Infantry Division
Commander: Colonel Slavko Cesarić
Location: Brčko
  • 13th Infantry Division
Commander: General Tomislav Rolf
Location: Karlovac
  • 14th Infantry Division
Commander: Colonel Jaroslav Šotola
Location: Brod na Savi
  • 15th Infantry Division
Commander: General Zorko Čudina
Location: Doboj
  • 16. Replacement Division
Commander: General Milivoj Durbešić
Location: Zagreb
  • 18th Infantry Division

Flags

With the legislative decree of May 4, 1943, Pavelić had determined the shape of the flags and standards for the Home Guard and the Ustaša militia. The flags were all awarded by him for special merit and heroic behavior in front of the enemy. The smallest unit entitled to flag was the battalion ( bojna ) or an equivalent unit of the reserve. The minimum dimensions of the flags should be 120 cm long and 84 cm high, the standards 60 × 60 cm, whose appearance was otherwise identical to the flags. With all regimental flags, both sides of the flag cloth were provided with a silver border, which was set off and separated from the actual cloth by a 5 mm wide braid . The band was always covered with blue-white-red triangular flames.

The obverse was horizontally striped in red, white and blue and had the national coat of arms in the middle. Its 25 checkerboard squares were alternately silver and red and lined with a golden cord 3 mm thick. The coat of arms was roughly square and 12.5 cm wide, while the blue upper sign was 7.5 cm wide and high. The U for Ustasha is 2.5 cm high, which is made of 3 mm thick golden cord. In the circle around the state coat of arms there is an inscription in gold letters, which was different for each unit. The center of the lettering circle is in the middle of the cloth with an outer diameter of 56 cm. The name of the regiment is always in the upper left corner with characters 3.5 cm high and 2.5 cm wide, which start 5 cm from the top edge and the flagpole.

The lapel was made of silver-white brocade and showed in the center the 21 cm high, intertwined monogram of Ante Pavelić, embroidered in dark red, surrounded by the golden embroidered inscription: ZA POGLAVNIKA I ZA DOM (FOR LEADERS AND FATHERLAND).

The flagpole was 230 cm long, made of natural colored hardwood with a diameter of 35 mm. The standard pole was only 200 cm long. The bronze tip was 18 cm long and 7 cm wide. Inside the border decorated with Croatian wickerwork , it shows a badge that was different for each unit. A band of 10 cm width in the color of a weapon was attached to each standard. The place and date of the battle at which the regiment was able to distinguish itself was embroidered with gold thread.

Troops of the German Empire

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini inspects the SS division “Handschar”, 1943

With German support personnel and crews recruited in Croatia, both the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS set up various units.

Wehrmacht

As part of the Wehrmacht , the Croatian Legion was set up with three infantry divisions and small naval and air forces .

Armed SS

The Waffen-SS set up two "Croatian" divisions:

The teams were predominantly Bosnian Muslims who were recruited in Bosnia-Herzegovina , which was slammed in Croatia .

Troops of the Kingdom of Italy

The Italian armed forces tried to imitate the German armed forces and caused the commander-in-chief of the Croatian armed forces, Slavko Kvaternik , to also establish a “Croatian Legion” in Italian service in order to deploy it in the Italian Expeditionary Corps on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union.

literature

  • Nigel Thomas / Krunoslav Mikulan: Axis Forces in Yugoslavia 1941–45 . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 1995.

Individual evidence

  1. a b Detailed description of the Croatian troop flag. In: Uniformen-Markt , born 1943, issue 7.
  2. Description of the entire flag in the detailed report. In: Uniforms market , born 1944, issue 4, p. 7.
  3. Description of the entire flag in the detailed report. In: Uniformen-Markt , born 1943, issue 7.