Figure 1.--Milja Marin as a Serbian Partisan. She was photographer by Žorž Skrigin in northern Bosnia during winter 1943–44. She was about 16-17 years old at the time. This photograph became an iconic image for the Partisan resistance. Milja survived the war, and lived until 2007.

Several organized militry and militia forces operated in Yugoslavia during the War. The Yugoslsav Army collspsed under the German Blitzkrieg onslaught (April 1941). The Bulgarians, Hungarins, Italians, and Romanians participsted in the German overseen occupation and partition of Yugosalvia. The Germans helped organize and arm colaborating Croat and Muslim units. The two main resitance forces orgnized to resit the Germans were the Royalist Chetniks loyal to the Yugoslav Governmennt in Exile in London and the Communist Partisans basically associated with the Soviet Union. Resistance groups formed throughout NAZI. The bulk of the population was shocked with the stunning NAZI victories. Most saw no choice but to collaborate, even France. Armed resistance was not possible in most of Europe because it was so highly developed without large forrests and mountaneous areas where armed resitance groupos could operate as in the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia was different. There were large ares where forest and mountain areas guerilla groups could operate and it would take a massive German deployment to root them out. And with the German invasion of the the Soviet Union the Germans and their Axis allies simply did not have the men and material to do this. They could control the cities and many areas of Yugoslavia. hy could not control the whole country. Yugoslavia was also different from the rest of the Europe in that it was so divided by ethnic and religious groups so bitterly opposed to each other. As a result, in Yugoslavia, it was not only the Germans doing the killing, but Yugoslavs were killing each other. It would become one of the most killing fiel of the War and the Partisans introduced an ideological component into the wiches brew that made Yugoslavia such a deadly part of World War II.

Partisans

The Communist Party (CPY) led by Tito organized the struggle against the occupying armies and their Yugoslav supporters, especially the Croatian Ustaša. Tito attempted to consolidate forces that opposed the Axis and forming the National Liberation Movement. An exception here was the Chetniks. An initial alliance quickly broke down. Thus the guerilla war becane a three way struggle pitting the NAZIs/Fascists and their local collaborators, the Partisans, and the Chetniks. The Partisans organized around the Communist Party initially had a problem in that the Soviet Union as a result of the NAZI-Soviet Non-Agression Pact was allied with the NAZI invaders. This pronlem was resolved when the NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union (June 22). The Yugoslavs wre at first shocked and overwealmed by the staggering force of the NAZI invasion. Within weeks, however, resistance groups began organising. The first Partisan unit to organize was the Sisak Partisan Detachment (June 22). It is no accident that this was the day the NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union. Sisak is a town in Croatia. Groups associated with the CPY also organized in Serbia, although coordinated actiion was diffucult. The groups began launching small-scale attacks on German and Italian targets (July). The CPY decided to launch an armed struggle (July 4). This date became celebrated as Fighter's Day in post-War Yugoslabia. The first major action was led by Kopaonik in Trepča (July 30). The guerillas then moved to Kopaonik and, joining with other abti-Fascists from the Ibar valley and neighboring moutain villages, launched the liberation effort. They met in Stanulović, an isolated mountain village, to found the Kopaonik Partisan Unit Headquarters (August 1941). The area was named the Miners Republic, but only lasted 42 days before the NAZIs launched an offensive to establish control. The survivors joined forces with Tito's Peoples Liberation Army. The Partisans conducted a guerrilla campaign that eventually reached levels the Wehrmact never anticipated. lulled intocomplasceny by their quick success when they invaded Yugoslavia. The Partisans success was in large part dur to their ability in achiebing increased levels of popular support. The Partisans manage to actually liberate areas of the country. They established People's committees to serve as civilian governments and even managed to begin small-scale arms industries.

Chetniks

The World War II Chetniks were the Royalist resistance group, styling itself as the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland (Ravna Gora Movement). The Chetnik movement originated during the 19th-century Balkan liberation struggle against the Ottoman Turks. The began as the 'Serbian Committee' fonded by intelligentsia, businessmen and military officers. They began funding small groups of brigands. Many were orgabozed locally or were part of the Bulgarian revolutionary organizations active in Macedonia (IMRO and SMAC). They sought to protect the Christian population from Ottoman atrocities and persecution. The World War II Chetniks were a largely Serbian group organized by Dragoljub 'Draža' Mihailović (1893-1946). He was an ethnic Serb and a colonel in the Royal Yugoslav Government. He was at heart a Serbian nationlist in multi-rthnic Yusosklsvia. When the Germans struck (April 1941), Mihailović was a staff officer. As the German Blitzkreg unfolded, he briefly commanded a 'Rapid Unit'. When the Yugoslav High Command disolved, he took a small group into the hills. From the beginninhg, his strategic vision was not on defending borders, but on fighting in the rugged the mountainous highlands. He organized a loose network of Chetnik units mostly in Serbia and with Serb fighters. The term Chetnik was borrowed from Serbian guerrillas in the early-20th century. They were reinvented as the Royalist Yugoslav resistance, but retained a definitely Serbian orientstion. Mihailović made only limited efforts to build his network in Croat and other Yugoslav areas. The Chetniks at first received the initial support from the Allies. They engaged in marginal resistance to the Axis occupation forces. They were not prepared to launch a full-scakle war against the Germans, because of the Germn strength and resulting reprisals. They were as much concenred with the Comminist Partisans as the Axis. (The same was true of the Partisans.) They began making tactical collaborative arrangements with the Axis occupation authorities. The Chetniks were not a coherent movement and many units were not fully under Mihailović's control. As the War progressed and the Psrtians grew stronger, they increasingly collsborated with the Axuis firces. They establishing modus vivendi arrabngemnents with the occuoation authorities. Some became vurtually auxiliary Axis units. As a result, the Allies shifted their support from the Chetniks to the Psrtiusans. Some of the Chetnik movement essentuially became a collaborationist firce, although this varied from place to place. There is some differences of opinion about the level of collsboration among hisrtoirins, After thge War, the Communists in Yugosavia and other European countries like Poland tried to depict all nationalist resistance fighters as collaborators. Mihailović never had control over many if the units calling themselves Chetniks. Ther was a large degree of collboration, first with the Nedić forces in Serbuia (Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia) and then with the Italians (mostly in Dalmatia and Montenegro). They even collaborated with some Ustaše forces in northern Bosnia. After the Italian surreder (Seoptember 1943). They also began cooperating with the Germans.

Created: 2:53 PM 6/302018
Last updated: 2:53 PM 6/30/2018