Examine individual changes

'{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2012}} {{refimprove|date=September 2015}} {{Infobox War Faction |name = National Liberation Army and<br />Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia |war = [[World War II in Yugoslavia]] |image = [[File:Yugoslav Partisans flag (1942-1945).svg|250px|border]] |caption = Flag of the Yugoslav Partisans |active = 1941–1945 |ideology = [[Communism]],<ref name="Sharon Fisher 2006, p. 27">{{Cite book|last=Fisher|first=Sharon|title=Political change in post-Communist Slovakia and Croatia: from nationalist to Europeanist|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|year=2006|page=27|isbn=1-4039-7286-9}}</ref><ref name="Howard Jones 1997, p. 67">{{Cite book|last=Jones|first=Howard|title=A new kind of war: America's global strategy and the Truman Doctrine in Greece|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1997|page=67|isbn=0-19-511385-3}}</ref><ref name="Dennis P. Hupchick 2004, p. 374">{{Cite book|last=Hupchick|first=Dennis P.|title=The Balkans: from Constantinople to communism|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|year=2004|page=374|isbn=1-4039-6417-3}}</ref><ref name="J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. 2004, p. 397">{{Cite book|last=Rosser|first=John Barkley|authorlink=J. Barkley Rosser, Jr.|author2=Marina V. Rosser|title=Comparative economics in a transforming world economy|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|year=2004|page=397|isbn=0-262-18234-3}}</ref><ref name="Christopher Chant 1986, p. 109">{{Cite book|last=Chant|first=Christopher|title=The encyclopedia of codenames of World War II|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=1986|page=109|isbn=0-7102-0718-2}}</ref><br>[[Socialism]],<br>[[Republicanism]],<br>[[Federalism]],<br>[[Anti-fascism]] |leaders = [[Josip Broz Tito]] |headquarters = mobile, attached to the Main Operational Group |area = Axis-occupied [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] |strength = 80,000–800,000 <small>([[#Composition|see below]])</small> |next = [[Yugoslav People's Army]] |allies = [[Allies of World War II|Allied powers]] |opponents = [[Axis powers]], [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Italy]], [[Independent State of Croatia|NDH]], [[Kingdom of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–46)|Hungary]], [[Chetniks]], [[Balli Kombëtar]] |battles = [[Battle of the Neretva]], [[Battle of the Sutjeska]], [[Raid on Drvar]], [[Belgrade Offensive|Battle of Belgrade]], [[Syrmian Front]] <small>(most&nbsp;notable)</small> }} The '''Yugoslav Partisans'''<ref group="Note">[[Serbo-Croatian]], [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]], [[Slovene language|Slovene]]: ''Partizani,'' Партизани</ref><ref name=curtis>{{cite book|last=Curtis|first=Glenn E.|title=Yugoslavia: A Country Study|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|year =1992|page=39|isbn=0-8444-0735-6}}</ref> or the '''National Liberation Army''',<ref group="Note">{{lang-sh|Narodnooslobodilačka vojska}} (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); {{lang-mk|Народноослободителна војска}} (НОВ); {{lang-sl|Narodnoosvobodilna vojska}} (NOV)</ref> officially the '''National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia''',<ref group="Note">{{lang-sh|Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odredi Jugoslavije}} (NOV i POJ), Народноослободилачка војска и партизански одреди Југославије (НОВ и ПОЈ); {{lang-mk|Народноослободителна војска и партизански одреди на Југославија}} (НОВ и ПОЈ); {{lang-sl|Narodnoosvobodilna vojska in partizanski odredi Jugoslavije}} (NOV in POJ)</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Trifunovska|first=Snežana|title=Yugoslavia Through Documents:From Its Creation to Its Dissolution|publisher=[[Martinus Nijhoff Publishers]]|year=1994| page=209|isbn=0-7923-2670-9}}</ref> was Europe's most effective anti-Nazi [[Resistance during World War II|resistance movement]], often compared to the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance movement]], albeit the latter was an exceptional, non-communist autonomic movement.<ref name="JJR2013_OxfordPress">[[Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones|Jeffreys-Jones, R.]] (2013): [https://books.google.com/books?id=3gK7e8LpXvcC&pg=PA87&dq=Europe%27s+most+effective+Anti+Nazi+resistance&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6eydUaOmMsbm4QTrsoCIBQ&ved=0CC4QuwUwAA#v=onepage&q=most%20effective%20Anti%20Nazi%20resistance&f=false In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western Intelligence], Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-958097-2</ref><ref name="AS_2005">Adams, Simon (2005): [https://books.google.com/books?id=Cmm4J2Ug4o8C&pg=PA1981&dq=resistance+Europe&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1u2dUZT5IKam4gSZ3YCwDQ&ved=0CFMQuwUwBg#v=onepage&q=resistance%20Europe&f=false The Balkans], Black Rabbit Books, ISBN 978-1-58340-603-8</ref> The Yugoslav Resistance was led by the [[Communist Party of Yugoslavia]]<ref name="Dennison I. Rusinow 1978, p. 2">{{Cite book|last=Rusinow|first=Dennison I.|title=The Yugoslav experiment 1948–1974|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|year=1978|page=2|isbn=0-520-03730-8}}</ref> during [[World War II]]. Its commander was Marshal [[Josip Broz Tito]]. ==Objectives== [[File:Zgrabimo oružje svi.jpg|thumb|right|"''To arms, everyone!''", a Partisan propaganda poster.]] One of two objectives of the movement, which was the military arm of the [[Unitary National Liberation Front]] (UNOF) coalition, led by the [[Communist Party of Yugoslavia]] (KPJ)<ref name="Sharon Fisher 2006, p. 27">{{Cite book|last=Fisher|first=Sharon|title=Political change in post-Communist Slovakia and Croatia: from nationalist to Europeanist|publisher=Macmillan|year=2006|page=27|isbn=1-4039-7286-9}}</ref> and represented by the [[AVNOJ]] (Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia), the Yugoslav wartime [[deliberative assembly]], was to fight the occupying forces. Until British supplies began to arrive in appreciable quantities in 1944, the occupiers were the only source of arms.<ref>[http://www.znaci.net/00001/3_1_2.htm Basil Davidson: PARTISAN PICTURE]</ref> The other objective was to create a federal multi-ethnic [[communist state]] in Yugoslavia.<ref>[[#refTomasevich2001|Tomasevich 2001]], p. 96.</ref> To this end, the KPJ attempted to appeal to all the various ethnic groups within Yugoslavia, by preserving the rights of each group. The objectives of the rival resistance movement which emerged some weeks earlier, the [[Chetniks]], were the retention of the [[House of Karađorđević|Yugoslav monarchy]], ensuring the safety of ethnic [[Serbs|Serbian]] populations,<ref>[[Milazzo 1975|Milazzo (1975)]], pp. 30–31</ref><ref>[[Roberts 1973|Roberts (1973)]], p. 48</ref> and the establishment of a [[Greater Serbia]]<ref>[[#Tomasevich_1975|Tomasevich (1975)]], pp.166–178</ref> through the [[ethnic cleansing]] of non-Serbs from territories they considered rightfully and historically Serbian.<ref name="Banac 1996 p143">[[#Banac 1996|Banac (1996)]], p. 143<br/>"From the summer of 1941, the Chetniks increasingly gained control over Serb insurgents and carried out gruesome crimes against Muslims of eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina. Massacres of Muslims, usually by cutting the throats of the victims and tossing the bodies into various water-ways, occurred especially in eastern Bosnia, in Foča, Goražde, Čajniče, Rogatica, Višegrad, Vlasenica, Srebrenica, all in the basin of the Drina river, but also in eastern Herzegovina, where individual villages resisted Serb encirclement with ferocious determination until 1942. Chetnik documents&nbsp;– for example the minutes of the Chetnik conference in Javorine, district of Kotor Varoš, in June 1942 – speak of a determination to 'cleanse Bosnia of everything that is not Serb'. It is difficult to estimate the number of Muslim victims of this original ethnic cleansing, but it can be counted in the tens of thousands."</ref><ref name="Hirsch 2002 p76">[[#Hirsch 2002|Hirsch (2002)]], p.76</ref><ref name="Mulaj 2008 p71">[[#Mulaj 2008|Mulaj (2008)]], p.71</ref><ref>[[#Velikonja_2003|Velikonja (2003)]], p. 166</ref> Relations between the two movements were uneasy from the start, but from October 1941 they degenerated into full-scale conflict. To the Chetniks, Tito's pan-ethnic policies seemed anti-Serbian, whereas the Chetniks' [[royalism]] was anathema to the communists.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml |title=Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941–1945 |publisher=BBC |accessdate=19 November 2011}}</ref> In the early part of the war Partisan forces were predominantly composed of Serbs and given to the persecution of Muslims (e.g. the slaughter of Muslim women and children in April 1942 in [[Herzegovina]]). In that period names of Muslim and Croat commanders of Partisan forces had to be changed to protect them from their predominantly Serb colleagues.<ref name="Pinson1996">{{cite book|author=Mark Pinson|title=The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Their Historic Development from the Middle Ages to the Dissolution of Yugoslavia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yl3TAkJmztYC&pg=PA143|accessdate=2 October 2013|year=1996|publisher=Harvard CMES|isbn=978-0-932885-12-8|pages=143, 144}}</ref> By late 1944, the total forces of the Partisans numbered 650,000 men and women organized in four [[field army|field armies]] and 52 [[Division (military)|divisions]], which engaged in [[conventional warfare]].<ref name=perica>{{cite book|last=Perica|first=Vjekoslav| title=Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2004|page=96|isbn=0-19-517429-1}}</ref> By April 1945, the Partisans numbered over 800,000. ==Name== The movement was consistently referred to as the "Partisans" throughout the war. However, due to frequent changes in size and structural reorganizations, the Partisans throughout their history held four full official names: *'''National Liberation Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia'''<ref group="Note">{{lang-sh|Narodnooslobodilački partizanski odredi Jugoslavije}} (NOPOJ), Народноослободилачки партизански одреди Југославије (НОПОЈ); {{lang-mk|Народноослободителни партизански одреди на Југославија (НПОЈ)}}; {{lang-sl|Narodnoosvobodilni partizanski odredi Jugoslavije}} (NOPOJ)</ref> (June 1941 - January 1942) *'''National Liberation Partisan and Volunteer Army of Yugoslavia'''<ref group="Note">{{lang-sh|Narodnooslobodilačka partizanska i dobrovoljačka vojska Jugoslavije}} (NOP i DVJ), Народноослободилачка партизанска и добровољачка војска Југославије (НОП и ДВЈ); {{lang-mk|Народноослободителна партизанска и волонтерска војска на Југославија (НОП и ВВЈ)}}; {{lang-sl|Narodnoosvobodilna partizanska in prostovoljna vojska Jugoslavije}} (NOP in PVJ)</ref> (January - November 1942) *'''National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia''' (November 1942 - February 1945). Increasingly from November 1942, the Partisan military as a whole was often referred to simply as the '''National Liberation Army''' (''Narodnooslobodilačka vojska,'' NOV), whereas the term "Partisans" acquired a wider sense in referring to the entire resistance faction (including, for example, the [[AVNOJ]]). *'''Yugoslav Army''' <ref group="Note">{{lang-sh|Jugoslavenska armija}} (JA), Југословенска армија (ЈА); {{lang-mk|Југословенска армија (ЈА)}}; {{lang-sl|Jugoslovanska Armada}} (JA)</ref> - on 1 March 1945, the National Liberation Army was transformed into the regular armed forces of Yugoslavia and renamed accordingly. The movement was originally named National Liberation Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (''Narodnooslobodilački partizanski odredi Jugoslavije,'' NOPOJ) and held that name from June 1941 to January 1942. Because of this, their short name became simply the "Partisans" (capitalized), and stuck henceforward (the adjective "Yugoslav" is used sometimes in exclusively non-[[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] sources to distinguish them from other [[Partisan (military)|partisan]] movements). Between January 1942 and November 1942, the movement's full official name was briefly National Liberation Partisan and Volunteer Army of Yugoslavia (''Narodnooslobodilačka partizanska i dobrovoljačka vojska Jugoslavije,'' NOP i DVJ). The changes were meant to reflect the movement's character as a "volunteer army". In November 1942 the movement was renamed into the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (''Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odredi Jugoslavije,'' NOV i POJ), a name which it held until the end of the war. This last official name is the full name most associated with the Partisans, and reflects the fact that the proletarian brigades and other mobile units were organized into the National Liberation Army (''Narodnooslobodilačka vojska''). The name change also reflects the fact that the latter superseded in importance the partisan detachments themselves. Shortly before the end of the war, in March 1945, all resistance forces were reorganized into the regular armed force of Yugoslavia and renamed Yugoslav Army. It would keep this name until 1951, when it was renamed the [[Yugoslav People's Army]]. ==Background and origins== [[File:Stjepan Stevo Filipović.jpg|thumb|upright|Partisan fighter [[Stjepan Filipović|Stjepan "Stevo" Filipović]] shouting "[[Death to fascism, freedom to the people|Death to fascism, freedom to the People!]]" seconds before his execution by a [[Serbian State Guard]] (local collaborator) unit in [[Valjevo]], occupied [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. These words became the Partisan slogan afterwards.]] {{See also|Invasion of Yugoslavia}} On 6 April 1941, the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]] was [[Invasion of Yugoslavia|invaded]] from all sides by the Axis powers, primarily by [[Nazi Germany|German]] forces but including Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian formations as well. During the invasion, [[Bombing of Belgrade in World War II|Belgrade was bombed]] by the ''[[Luftwaffe]]''. The invasion lasted little more than ten days, ending with the unconditional surrender of the [[Royal Yugoslav Army]] on 17 April. Besides being hopelessly ill-equipped when compared to the [[Wehrmacht]], the Army attempted to defend all borders but only managed to thinly spread the limited resources available.<ref>[[#Tomasevich 1975|Tomasevich (1975)]], p.&nbsp;64–70</ref> The terms of the capitulation were extremely severe, as the Axis proceeded to dismember Yugoslavia. Germany occupied northern [[Slovenia]], while retaining direct occupation over a [[wiktionary:rump state|rump]] [[Nedić's Serbia|Serbian state]] and considerable influence over its newly created [[puppet state]],<ref name=britannica2>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-1413183/Independent-State-of-Croatia|title=Independent State of Croatia|year=2010|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|accessdate=15 February 2010}}</ref> the [[Independent State of Croatia]] (NDH), which extended over much of today's [[Croatia]] and contained all of modern [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] and [[Syrmia]] region of modern-day [[Serbia]]. Mussolini's [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Italy]] occupied the remainder of Slovenia (annexed and renamed as the [[Province of Ljubljana|Province of Lubiana]]), [[Kosovo]], and large chunks of the coastal [[Dalmatia]] region (along with nearly all its [[Adriatic sea|Adriatic]] islands). It also gained control over the newly created [[Independent State of Montenegro|Montenegrin puppet state]], and was granted the kingship in the Independent State of Croatia, though wielding little real power within it. [[Kingdom of Hungary (Regency)|Hungary]] dispatched the [[Hungarian Third Army]] to [[Occupation of Vojvodina, 1941-1944|occupy part of Serbian Vojvodina]], including [[Baranya (region)|Baranja]] and [[Bačka]], and annexed the Croatian area of [[Međimurje]] and the Slovene area of [[Prekmurje]]. [[Military history of Bulgaria during World War II|Bulgaria]], meanwhile, annexed nearly all of [[Republic of Macedonia|Macedonia]], and small areas of eastern Serbia and Kosovo.<ref>[[#Tomasevich 2001|Tomasevich (2001)]], pp. 61–63</ref> The dissolution of Yugoslavia, the creation of the NDH, Independent State of Montenegro and [[Nedic's Serbia]] and the annexations of Yugoslav territory by the various Axis countries were incompatible with international law in force at that time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/COM/380-600054?OpenDocument|title=Commentary on Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Part III Status and treatment of protected persons, Section III, Occupied territories, Article 47 Inviolability of Rights|year=1952|publisher=International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva|accessdate=26 December 2011}}</ref> [[File:Josip Broz Tito Bihać 1942.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Josip Broz Tito]] in [[Bihać]], 1942.]] The occupying forces instituted such severe burdens on the local populace that the Partisans came not only to enjoy widespread support but for many were the only option for survival. Early in the occupation, German forces would hang or shoot indiscriminately, including women, children and the elderly, up to 100 local inhabitants for every one German soldier killed. Furthermore, the country experienced a breakdown of law and order, with collaborationist militias roaming the countryside terrorizing the population. The government of the puppet Independent State of Croatia found itself unable to control its territory in the early stages of the occupation, resulting in a severe crackdown by the [[Ustaše militia]]s and the German army.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} Amid the relative chaos that ensued, the [[Communist Party of Yugoslavia]] moved to organize and unite anti-fascist factions and political forces into a nationwide uprising. The party, led by [[Josip Broz Tito]], was banned after its significant success in the post-World War I Yugoslav elections and operated underground since. Tito, however, could not act openly without the backing of the [[USSR]], and as the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]] was still in force, he was compelled to wait.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} ==Formation and early rebellion== [[Operation Barbarossa]], the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941.<ref name= higgins>{{cite book|title=Hitler and Russia|first=Trumbull|last=Higgins|publisher=The Macmillan Company|year=1966|pages=11–59, 98–151}}</ref> The first communist military unit, the [[1st Sisak Partisan Detachment|Sisak Brigade]], was established on 22 June 1941, the day [[Nazi]] Germany invaded the [[Soviet Union]]. This was ignored in official Yugoslav Historiography as it was not related to the Partisan movement.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} The first uprising, led by Tito, occurred two weeks later, in Serbia.<ref name="cohen94">[[#refCohen1996|Cohen 1996]], p. 94.</ref> The [[Communist Party of Yugoslavia]] formally decided to launch an armed uprising on 4 July, a date which was later marked as Fighter's Day – a public holiday in the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|SFR Yugoslavia]]. One [[Žikica Jovanović Španac]] shot the first bullet of the campaign on 7 July, later the Uprising Day of the [[Socialist Republic of Serbia]] (part of SFR Yugoslavia).{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} [[File:Partisan youth execution.jpg|thumb|Sixteen blindfolded Partisan youth await execution by German forces in [[Smederevska Palanka]], 20 August 1941.]] On 10 August in Stanulović, a mountain village, the Partisans formed the Kopaonik Partisan Detachment Headquarters. The area they controlled, consisting of nearby villages, was called the "Miners Republic" and lasted 42 days. The resistance fighters formally joined the ranks of the Partisans later on. In 1941 Partisan forces in Serbia and Montnegro had around 55,000 fighters, but only 4,500 succeeded to escape to Bosnia.<ref name="Ramet2006">{{cite book|last=Ramet|first=Sabrina P.|title=The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918-2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTw3lEqi2-oC&pg=PA152|year=2006|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-34656-8|page=153|quote=In 1941 Partisans had some 55,000 fighters in Serbia and Montenegro, but barely 4,500 Partisans had escaped to Bosnia.}}</ref> On 21 December 1941 they formed the [[1st Proletarian Brigade|1st Proletarian Assault Brigade]] (''1. Proleterska Udarna Brigada'') – the first regular Partisan military unit, capable of operating outside its local area. In 1942 Partisan detachments officially merged into the People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (NOV i POJ) with an estimated 236,000 soldiers in December 1942.<ref name=time>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885272,00.html|title=Foreign News: Partisan Boom|date=3 January 1944 |work=Time |accessdate=15 February 2010}}</ref> The extent of support for the Partisan movement varied according to region and nationality, reflecting the existential concerns of the local population and authorities. The first Partisan uprising occurred in Croatia on 22 June 1941, when forty Croatian Communists staged an uprising in the Brezovica woods between Sisak and Zagreb.<ref name="cohen94"/> An uprising occurred in Serbia two weeks later led by Tito ([[Uzice Republic]]), but it was quickly defeated by the Axis forces and support for the Partisans in Serbia thereafter dropped. Partisan numbers from Serbia would be diminished until 1943 when the Partisan movement gained upswing by spreading the fight against the axis.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hart|first=Stephen|title=BBC History|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml#two|work=Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941 – 1945|publisher=BBC|accessdate=12 April 2011}}</ref> Increase of number of Partisans in Serbia, similarly to other republics, came partly in response to Tito's offer of amnesty to all collaborators on 17 August 1944. At that point tens of thousands of Chetniks switched sides to the Partisans.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} The amnesty would be offered again after German withdrawal from Belgrade on 21 November 1944 and on 15 January 1945.<ref>[[#refCohen1996|Cohen 1996]], p. 61.</ref> It was a different story for Serbs in Axis occupied Croatia who turned to the multi-ethnic Partisans, or the Serb Royalist Chetniks whose brutality mirrored that of the [[Ustaše|Ustashi]].<ref name="Cohen 95">[[#refCohen1996|Cohen 1996]], p. 95.</ref> Historian [[Tim Judah]] notes that in the early stage of the war the initial preponderance of Serbs in the Partisans meant in effect a Serbian civil war had broken out.<ref>[[#refJudah2000|Judah 2000]], p. 119.</ref> A similar civil war existed within the Croatian national corpus with the competing national narratives provided by the Ustashi and Partisans. ==Operations== {{Main|World War II in Yugoslavia}} [[File:Jugoslavija i Evropa maj 1943.jpg|thumb|Territory under control of Communist Party in Yugoslavia (''Liberated Territory''), May 1943.]] {{quote|By the middle of 1943 partisan resistance to the Germans and their allies had grown from the dimensions of a mere nuisance to those of a major factor in the general situation. In many parts of occupied Europe the enemy was suffering losses at the hands of partisans that he could ill afford. Nowhere were these losses heavier than in Jugoslavia.<ref>[http://www.znaci.net/00001/3_1_0.htm Basil Davidson: PARTISAN PICTURE]</ref>|[[Basil Davidson]]}} ===Resistance and retaliation=== {{See also|Seven anti-Partisan offensives}} {{POV|section|date=July 2015}} [[File:March of Time - Yugoslav Partisans.ogv|thumb|Yugoslav Partisans engaging in various activities.]] The Partisans staged a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] campaign which enjoyed gradually increased levels of success and support of the general populace, and succeeded in controlling large chunks of Yugoslav territory. These were managed via the "People's committees", organized to act as civilian governments in areas of the country controlled by the communists, even limited arms industries were set up. At the very beginning, Partisan forces were relatively small, poorly armed and without any infrastructure. They had two major advantages over other military and paramilitary formations in former Yugoslavia: * 1) A small but valuable cadre of [[Spanish Civil War]] veterans who, unlike anyone else at the time, had experience with modern war fought in circumstances quite similar to those of World War II Yugoslavia * 2) They were founded on ideology rather than [[ethnicity]], which meant the Partisans could expect at least some levels of support in any corner of the country, unlike other paramilitary formations whose support was limited to territories with Croat or Serb majorities. This allowed their units to be more mobile and fill their ranks with a larger pool of potential recruits. Occupying and [[quisling]] forces, however, were quite aware of the Partisan threat, and attempted to destroy the resistance in what Yugoslav historiographers defined as seven major enemy offensives. These are: *The [[First Enemy Offensive]], the attack conducted by the Axis in autumn of 1941 against the "[[Republic of Užice]]", a liberated territory the Partisans established in western [[Serbia]]. In November 1941, [[Nazi Germany|German]] troops attacked and reoccupied this territory, with the majority of Partisan forces escaping towards [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]].<ref>[[#Roberts 1973|Roberts(1973)]], p. 37</ref> It was during this offensive that tenuous collaboration between the Partisans and the royalist [[Chetnik]] movement broke down and turned into open hostility.<ref>[[#Tomasevich 1975|Tomasevich (1975)]], pp. 151–155</ref> *The [[Second Enemy Offensive]], the coordinated Axis attack conducted in January 1942 against Partisan forces in eastern [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]]. The Partisan troops once again avoided encirclement and were forced to retreat over [[Igman]] mountain near [[Sarajevo]].<ref>[[#Roberts 1973|Roberts(1973)]], p. 55</ref> *The [[Third Enemy Offensive]], an offensive against Partisan forces in eastern Bosnia, [[Montenegro]], [[Sandžak]] and [[Herzegovina]] which took place in the spring of 1942. It was known as ''Operation TRIO'' by the Germans, and again ended with a timely Partisan escape.<ref>[[#Roberts 1973|Roberts(1973)]], pp. 56–57</ref> This attack is mistakenly identified by some sources as the [[Battle of Kozara]], which took place in the summer of 1942.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} *The [[Fourth Enemy Offensive]], against "[[Republic of Bihać]]", also known as the Battle of the Neretva or ''Fall Weiss'' (Case White), a conflict spanning the area between western [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]] and northern [[Herzegovina]], and culminating in the Partisan retreat over the [[Neretva]] river. It took place from January to April 1943.<ref>[[#Roberts 1973|Roberts(1973)]], pp. 100–103</ref> *The [[Fifth Enemy Offensive]], also known as the Battle of the Sutjeska or ''Fall Schwarz'' (''Case Black''). The operation immediately followed the Fourth Offensive and included a complete encirclement of Partisan forces in southeastern Bosnia and northern Montenegro in May and June 1943.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} *The [[Sixth Enemy Offensive]], a series of operations undertaken by the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' and the ''[[Ustaše]]'' after the [[capitulation of Italy]] in an attempt to secure the [[Adriatic]] coast. It took place in late 1943 and early 1944. *The [[Seventh Enemy Offensive]], the final attack in western Bosnia in the second quarter of 1944, which included ''Operation Rösselsprung'' (Knight's Leap), an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]] and annihilate the leadership of the Partisan movement. {{quote|It was the nature of partisan resistance that operations against it must either eliminate it altogether or leave it potentially stronger than before. This had been shown by the sequel to each of the previous five offensives from which, one after another, the partisan brigades and divisions had emerged stronger in experience and armament than they had been before, with the backing of a population which had come to see no alternative to resistance but death, imprisonment, or starvation. There could be no half-measures; the Germans left nothing behind them but a trail of ruin. What in other circumstances might possibly have remained the purely ideological war that reactionaries abroad said it was (and German propaganda did their utmost to support them) became a war for national preservation. So clear was this that no room was left for provincialism; Serbs and Croats and Slovenes, Macedonians, Bosnians, Christian and Moslem, Orthdox and Catholic, sank their differences in the sheer desperation of striving to remain alive.<ref>[http://www.znaci.net/00001/3_2_8.htm Basil Davidson: PARTISAN PICTURE], znaci.net; accessed 16 July 2015.</ref>|[[Basil Davidson]]}} ===Allied support=== {{See also|Tehran Conference|Chetniks}} [[File:148 Squadron Halifax Italy WWII IWM CNA 3231.jpg|thumb|A Royal Air Force [[Halifax bomber]] of [[No. 148 Squadron RAF|148 Squadron]], loaded with parachute canisters containing supplies for the Yugoslav Partisans (1944–1945)]] Later in the conflict the Partisans were able to win the moral, as well as limited material support of the western [[Allies of World War II|Allies]], who until then had supported General [[Draža Mihailović]]'s Chetnik Forces, but were finally convinced of their collaboration fighting by many military missions dispatched to both sides during the course of the war.<ref>{{cite book|title=Tito|last=Barnett|first=Neil|authorlink=Neil Barnett|year=2006|publisher=Haus Publishing|location=London, UK|isbn=1-904950-31-0|pages=65–66}}</ref> To gather [[military intelligence|intelligence]], agents of the western Allies were infiltrated into both the Partisans and the Chetniks. The intelligence gathered by liaisons to the resistance groups was crucial to the success of supply missions and was the primary influence on Allied strategy in [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. The search for intelligence ultimately resulted in the demise of the [[Chetniks]] and their eclipse by Tito's Partisans. In 1942, although supplies were limited, token support was sent equally to each. The new year would bring a change. The Germans were executing [[Operation Schwarz]] (the Fifth anti-Partisan offensive), one of a series of offensives aimed at the resistance fighters, when F.W.D. Deakin was sent by the British to gather information.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} His reports contained two important observations. The first was that the Partisans were courageous and aggressive in battling the German [[1st Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)|1st Mountain]] and 104th Light Division, had suffered significant casualties, and required support. The second observation was that the entire German 1st Mountain Division had traveled from Russia by railway through Chetnik-controlled territory. British intercepts (ULTRA) of German message traffic confirmed Chetnik timidity. All in all, intelligence reports resulted in increased Allied interest in Yugoslavia air operations and shifted policy. In September 1943, at Churchill's request, Brigadier General [[Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet|Fitzroy Maclean]] was parachuted to Tito's headquarters near Drvar to serve as a permanent, formal liaison to the Partisans. While the Chetniks were still occasionally supplied, the Partisans received the bulk of all future support.<ref name=martin>{{cite book|last=Martin|first=David|title=Ally Betrayed: The Uncensored Story of Tito and Mihailovich|publisher=[[Prentice Hall]]|page=34|year=1946}}</ref> Thus, after the [[Tehran Conference]] the Partisans received official recognition as the legitimate national liberation force by the Allies, who subsequently set-up the [[RAF]] [[Balkan Air Force]] (under the influence and suggestion of Brigadier-General [[Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet|Fitzroy Maclean]]) with the aim to provide increased supplies and tactical air support for Marshal Tito's Partisan forces. During a meeting with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[Combined Chiefs of Staff]] of 24 November 1943, [[Winston Churchill]] pointed out that:{{quote|It was a lamentable fact that virtually no supplies had been conveyed by sea to the 222,000 followers of Tito.&nbsp;... These stalwarts were holding as many Germans in Yugoslavia as the combined Anglo-American forces were holding in Italy south of Rome. The Germans had been thrown into some confusion after the collapse of Italy and the Patriots had gained control of large stretches of the coast. We had not, however, seized the opportunity. The Germans had recovered and were driving the Partisans out bit by bit. The main reason for this was the artificial line of responsibility which ran through the Balkans. (...&nbsp;) Considering that the Partisans had given us such a generous measure of assistance at almost no cost to ourselves, it was of high importance to ensure that their resistance was maintained and not allowed to flag. |[[Winston Churchill]], 24 November 1943<ref>Walter R. Roberts, ''Tito, Mihailović, and the Allies'' Duke University Press, 1987; ISBN 0-8223-0773-1, p. 165</ref>}} ===Activities increase 1943–45=== [[File:Mlada partizanka.jpg|thumbnail|Unknown partisan woman fighter in occupied Yugoslavia.]] {{quote|The partisan army had long since grown into a regular fighting formation comparable to the armies of other small States, and infinitely superior to most of them, and especially to the pre-war Jugoslav army, in tactical skill, fieldcraft, leadership, fighting spirit and fire-power.<ref>[http://www.znaci.net/00001/3_4_2.htm Basil Davidson: PARTISAN PICTURE]</ref>|[[Basil Davidson]]}} With Allied air support (''[[Operation Flotsam 1944|Operation Flotsam]]'') and assistance from the [[Red Army]], in the second half of 1944 the Partisans turned their attention to Serbia, which had seen relatively little fighting since the fall of the Republic of Užice in 1941. On 20 October, the Red Army and the Partisans liberated [[Belgrade]] in a joint operation known as the [[Belgrade Offensive]]. At the onset of winter, the Partisans effectively controlled the entire eastern half of Yugoslavia – Serbia, [[Vardar Macedonia]] and [[Montenegro]], as well as the [[Dalmatia]]n coast.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} In 1945, the Partisans, numbering over 800,000 strong<ref name=perica/> defeated the [[Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia]] and the [[Wehrmacht]], achieving a hard-fought breakthrough in the [[Syrmia]]n front in late winter, taking [[Sarajevo]] in early April, and the rest of the NDH and Slovenia through mid-May. After taking [[Rijeka]] and [[Istria]], which were part of Italy before the war, they beat the Allies to [[Trieste]] by two days.<ref>[[#Roberts_1973|Roberts (1973)]], p. 319</ref> The "last battle of World War Two in Europe", the [[Battle of Poljana]], was fought between the Partisans and retreating [[Wehrmacht]] and [[quisling]] forces at Poljana, near [[Prevalje]] in [[Slovenian Carinthia|Carinthia]], on 14–15 May 1945.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} ==Services== [[Image:BAF Vis Reviw.jpg|thumb|left|Aircraft and men of the [[Balkan Air Force]] during a review by Marshal [[Josip Broz Tito]].]] Aside from ground forces, the Yugoslav Partisans were the only [[resistance movement]] in occupied Europe to employ significant air and naval forces.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} ===Partisan Navy=== Naval forces of the resistance were formed as early as 19 September 1942, when Partisans in [[Dalmatia]] formed their first naval unit made of fishing boats, which gradually evolved into a force able to engage the Italian Navy and [[Kriegsmarine]] and conduct complex amphibious operations. This event is considered to be the foundation of the [[Yugoslav Navy]].{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} At its peak during World War II, the Yugoslav Partisans' Navy commanded 9 or 10 armed ships, 30 patrol boats, close to 200 support ships, six coastal batteries, and several Partisan detachments on the islands, around 3,000 men.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} On 26 October 1943, it was organized first into four, and later into six, Maritime Coastal Sectors (''Pomorsko Obalni Sektor'', POS). The task of the naval forces was to secure supremacy at sea, organize defense of coast and islands, and attack enemy sea traffic and forces on the islands and along the coasts.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} ===Partisan Air Force=== The Partisans gained an effective air force in May 1942, when the pilots of two aircraft belonging to the [[Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia]] (French-designed and Yugoslav-built [[Potez 25]], and [[Breguet 19]] [[biplane]]s, themselves formerly of the [[Royal Yugoslav Air Force]]), [[Franjo Kluz]] and [[Rudi Čajavec]], defected to the Partisans in Bosnia.<ref name= donlagic>{{cite book|last1=Đonlagić|first1=Ahmet|last2=Atanacković|first2=Žarko|last3=Plenča| first3=Dušan|title=Yugoslavia in the Second World War|publisher=Međunarodna štampa Interpress|page= 85|year=1967}}</ref> Later, these pilots used their aircraft against Axis forces in limited operations. Although short-lived due to a lack of infrastructure, this was the first instance of a resistance movement having its own air force. Later, the air force would be re-established and destroyed several times until its permanent institution. The Partisans later established a permanent air force by obtaining aircraft, equipment, and training from captured Axis aircraft, the British [[Royal Air Force]] (see [[Balkan Air Force|BAF]]), and later the [[Soviet Air Force]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} ==Composition== [[File:IV crnogorska proleterska brigada.JPG|thumb|right|Soldiers of the 4th Montenegrin Proletarian Brigade]] According to Tito, the national composition of the Partisan army in May 1944 was 44% Serb, 30% Croat, 10% Slovene, 5% Montenegrin, 2.5% Macedonian, and 2.5% Bosnian Muslim.<ref name="Ramet 153">[[#refRamet2006|Ramet 1996]], p. 153.</ref> Italians and Hungarians were also in the army. 20.000 Italian fighters were in [[Partisan Battalion Pino Budicin]], [[Division Garibaldi]] and [[Division Italia]] later.<ref>Giacomo Scotti ''Ventimila caduti. Italiani in Iugoslavia 1943-45'', printed by Mursia in Milan, 1970: in page 492 there is text regarding division Italia</ref> According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, <blockquote>"In partitioned Yugoslavia, partisan resistance developed among the Slovenes in German-annexed Slovenia, engaging mostly in small-scale sabotage. In Serbia, a cetnik resistance organization developed under a former Yugoslav Army Colonel, Draža Mihailovic. After a disastrous defeat in an uprising in June 1941, this organization tended to withdraw from confrontation with the Axis occupying forces. The Communist-dominated Partisan organization under the leadership of Josef Tito was a multi-ethnic resistance force – including Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins, Bosniaks, Jews, and Slovenes. Based primarily in Bosnia and northwestern Serbia, Tito's Partisans fought the Germans and Italians most consistently and played a major role in driving the German forces out of Yugoslavia in 1945."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007332 |title=Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |publisher=Ushmm.org|date=6 January 2011|accessdate=19 November 2011}}</ref></blockquote> By April 1945, there were some 800,000 soldiers in the Partisan army. Composition by region from late 1941 to late 1944 was as follows:<ref>[[#refCohen1996|Cohen 1996]], p. 96.</ref> {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;" width="500px" !!! Late 1941 !! Late 1942 !! Sept. 1943 !! Late 1943 !! Late 1944 |- |align=left|Bosnia and Herzegovina || 20,000 || 60,000 || 89,000 || 108,000 || 100,000 |- |align=left|Croatia || 7,000 || 48,000 || 78,000 || 122,000 || 150,000 |- |align=left|Kosovo || 5,000 || 6,000 || 6,000 || 7,000 || 20,000 |- |align=left|Macedonia || 1,000 || 2,000 || 10,000 || 7,000 || 66,000 |- |align=left|Montenegro || 22,000 || 6,000 || 10,000 || 24,000 || 30,000 |- |align=left|Serbia (proper) || 23,000 || 8,000 || 13,000 || 22,000 || 204,000 |- |align=left|Slovenia{{nowrap|<ref>{{cite book|title=Razdvojeni narod: Slovenija 1941–1945: okupacija, kolaboracija, državljanska vojna, revolucija|language=Slovenian|trans_title=Divided Nation: Slovenia 1941–1945: Occupation, Collaboration, Civil War, Revolution|first=Tamara|last=Griesser-Pečar|publisher=Mladinska knjiga|year=2007|isbn=978-961-01-0208-3|pages=345–346}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=http://dk.fdv.uni-lj.si/diplomska/pdfs/pirc-primoz.pdf|title=Slovensko in italijansko odporniško gibanje - strukturna primerjava: diploma thesis|trans_title=Slovene and Italian Resistance Movement - Structural Comparison: diploma thesis|language=Slovenian|year=2008|pages=59–62|publisher=Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana|id={{COBISS|ID=27504733}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.resistance-archive.org/en/resistance/slovenia|title=Slovenia|work=European Resistance Archive|accessdate=2 March 2012|publisher=ERA Project|first=Damijan|last=Guštin}}</ref>}} || 2,000 || 4000 || 6000 || 34,000 || 38,000 |- |align=left|Vojvodina ||1,000 || 1,000 || 3,000 || 5,000 || 40,000 |- ! Total || 81,000 || 135,000 || 215,000 || 329,000 || 648,000 |} The Chetniks were a mainly Serb-oriented group and their Serb nationalism resulted in an inability to recruit or appeal to many non-Serbs. The Partisans played down communism in favour of a [[Popular Front]] approach which appealed to all Yugoslavs. In Bosnia, the Partisan rallying cry was for a country which was to be neither Serbian nor Croatian nor Muslim, but instead to be free and brotherly in which full equality of all groups would be ensured.<ref>[[#refJudah2000|Judah 2000]], p. 120.</ref> Nevertheless, Serbs remained the dominant ethnic group in the Yugoslav Partisans throughout the war.<ref>''Century of genocide: critical essays and eyewitness accounts'', Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, p. 430.</ref><ref>Biljana Vankovska, Håkan Wiberg, ''Between past and future: civil-military relations in the post-communist Balkans'', p. 197.</ref> Chetnik ethnic cleansing policies against the Muslims in Eastern Bosnia, and Dalmatia alienated Croats and Muslims from joining the Chetniks.<ref>[[#refJudah2000|Judah 2000]], p. 129.</ref> Italian collaboration with Chetniks in northern Dalmatia resulted in atrocities which further galvanized support for the Partisans among Dalmatian Croats. Chetnik attacks on Gala, near [[Split (city)|Split]], resulted in the slaughter of some 200 Croatian civilians.<ref>[[#refJudah2000|Judah 2000]], p. 128.</ref> In particular, Mussolini's policy of forced [[Italianization]] ensured the first significant number of Croats joining the Partisans in late 1941. In other areas, recruitment of Croats was hindered by some Serbs' tendency to view the organisation as exclusively Serb, rejecting non-Serb members and raiding the villages of their Croat neighbours.<ref name="Cohen 95"/> A group of Jewish youths from Sarajevo attempted to join a Partisan detachment in Kalinovnik, but the Serbian Partisans turned them back to Sarajevo, where many were captured by the Axis forces and perished.<ref>[[#refCohen1996|Cohen 1996]], p. 77.</ref> Attacks from Croatian [[Ustaše]] on the Serbian population was considered to be one of the important reasons for the rise of guerrilla activities, thus aiding an ever growing Partisan resistance.<ref>[[#refJudah2000|Judah 2000]], pp.&nbsp;127–128.</ref> ===Serbia=== {{empty section|date=January 2014}} [[File:Flag of the Serbian Partisans.svg|thumb|right|Flag of Serbian Partisans used in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia and in areas of the Independent State of Croatia where Serbs lived.]] ===Bosnia and Herzegovina=== [[File:Bosnian-Herzegovinian Partisans flag.svg|thumb|right|Flag of the [[Federal State of Bosnia and Herzegovina]], used by Partisans in Bosnia and Herzegovina.]] {{see also|Federal State of Bosnia and Herzegovina}} Until early 1942, the almost exclusively Serb Partisans in Bosnia and Herzegovina cooperated closely with the Chetniks, and some Partisans in eastern Herzegovina and western Bosnia refused to accept Muslims into their ranks. For many Muslims, the behavior of these Serb Partisans towards them meant that there was little difference for them between the Partisans and Chetniks. However, in some areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina the Partisans were successful in attracting both Muslims and Croats from the beginning, notably in the [[Kozara (mountain)|Kozara]] Mountain area in north-west Bosnia and the [[Romanija]] Mountain area near Sarajevo. In the Kozara area, Muslims and Croats made up 25 percent of Partisan strength by the end of 1941.<ref>[[#Tomasevich_2001|Tomasevich (2001)]], pp. 506–507</ref> According to Hoare, by late 1943, 70% of the Partisans in Bosnia and Herzegovina were Serb and 30% were Croat and Muslim.<ref name="Hoare 10">[[#refHoare2006|Hoare 2006]], p. 10.</ref> In the entirety of the war {{Clarify|date=July 2015}} the Bosnian Partisans were 64.1% Serb, 23% Muslim, and 8.8% Croat.<ref name="Hoare 10"/> ===Croatia=== [[File:Croatian Partisans flag.svg|thumb|right|Flag of the [[Federal State of Croatia]], used by Partisans in Croatia]] {{see also|Federal State of Croatia}} [[File:Partizanski plakat.jpg|thumb|right|Croatian Partisan poster: "''Everybody into the fight for the freedom of [[Croatia]]!''"]] By 1943 the majority of Partisans from Croatia were Croats. In late 1944, statistics show that Croats represented 61% of the Partisan troops in Croatia, while the Serbian contribution of 28% represented more than their proportion of the local population.<ref name="Cohen 95"/><ref name=strugar>{{cite book|last=Strugar|first=Vlado|title=Jugoslavija 1941–1945|publisher= Vojnoizdavački zavod|year=1969}}</ref><ref name=anic>{{cite book|last1=Anić|first1=Nikola|last2= Joksimović|first2=Sekula|last3=Gutić|first3=Mirko|title=Narodnooslobodilačka vojska Jugoslavije| publisher=Vojnoistorijski institut|year=1982}}</ref><ref name=vukovic>{{cite book|last1=Vuković| first1=Božidar|last2=Vidaković|first2=Josip|title=Putevim Glavnog štaba Hrvatske|year=1976}}</ref> This process was facilitated by the amnesty offered to all collaborators if they switch sides and join Partisans by 15 September 1944. Croatian Partisans were integral to overall Yugoslav Partisans; by the end of 1943 Croatia proper, with 24% of the Yugoslav population, provided more Partisans than Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Macedonia combined which collectively accounted for 59% of the Yugoslav population.<ref name="Cohen 95"/> Croat partisans were unique in having the highest numbers of local Jews in their ranks of any other European resistance, {{citation needed|date=July 2015}} and in early 1943 they took steps to establish [[ZAVNOH]] (National Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Croatia) to act as a parliamentary body for all of Croatia – the only one of its kind in occupied Europe. ZAVNOH held three plenary sessions during the War in areas which remained surrounded by Axis troops. At its fourth and last session, held on 24–25 July 1945 in Zagreb, ZAVNOH proclaimed itself as the Croatian Parliament or [[Sabor]].<ref name=Jelic>{{cite book|last1=Jelic|first1=Ivan| title=Croatia in War and Revolution 1941–1945|publisher=[[Zagreb: Školska knjiga]]|year=1978}}</ref> In 1941-42, the majority of Partisans in Croatia were Serbs, but by October 1943 the majority were Croats. This change was partly due to the decision of a key [[Croatian Peasant Party]] member, Božidar Magovac, to join the Partisans in June 1943, and partly due to the surrender of Italy.<ref>[[#Tomasevich_2001|Tomasevich (2001)]], pp. 362–363</ref> According to Goldstein, among Croatian partisans at the end of 1941, 77% were Serbs and 21.5% were Croats, and others as well as unknown nationalities. The percentage of Croats in the Partisans had increased to 32% by August 1942, which rose to 34% by September 1943. After the capitulation of Italy, it increased further. At the end of 1944 there were 60.4% Croats, 28.6% Serbs and 11% of other unknown nationalities in Croatian partisan units.<ref>Goldstein. ''Serbs and Croats in the national liberation war in Croatia''. , p.&nbsp;266–267.</ref> By 1944, the Partisans in Croatia were 60.4% Croat, 28.6% Serb, 2.8% Muslim and 8.2% other.<ref name="Ramet 153"/> Overall, from 1941 to 1945, the Partisans in Croatia were 61% Croat, 28% Serb, and rest composed of Slovenes, Muslims, Montenegrins, Italians, Hungarians, Czechs, Jews and ''[[Volksdeutsche]]''.<ref name="Cohen 95"/> In the liberated territories of Croatia after the war, Croatian Partisans proclaimed the Democratic Republic which was referred to by [[Winston Churchill]] as "the Croatian miracle." <ref>{{cite web|last1=Vuk-Pavlovic|first1=Stanimir|url=http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/16/opinion/l-serbs-remember-who-sided-with-nazis-croatia-s-support-328491.html|website=The New York TImes|publisher=NY Times|accessdate=9 April 2015}}</ref> ===Slovenia=== [[File:Flag of the Liberation Front.gif|thumb|right|Flag of the [[Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation]], used by Partisans in Slovenia]] [[File:Triglavka.jpg|thumb|right|The ''[[Triglavka]]'' cap]] {{see also|Slovene Partisans|Federal State of Slovenia}} Slovenia was during WWII in a unique situation in Europe, only Greece shared its experience of being trisected, however, Slovenia was the only one that experienced a further step — absorption and annexation into neighboring [[Nazi]] Germany, Fascist [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]], and [[Hungary]].<ref>Gregor Joseph Kranjc (2013). [http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Devil-Collaboration-Occupation-1941-1945/dp/1442613300/ref=sr_1_1/180-8718746-1176833?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378491455&sr=1-1&keywords=1442613300#reader_1442613300 To Walk with the Devil], University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division, p. 5 (introduction)</ref> As the very existence of the Slovene nation was threatened, the Slovene support for the Partisan movement was much more solid than in Croatia or Serbia.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13518040208430537|title=Whose is the partisan movement? Serbs, Croats and the legacy of a shared resistance|last=Hoare|first=Marko Attila|journal=The Journal of Slavic Military Studies|volume=15|issue=4|year=2002|doi=10.1080/13518040208430537}}</ref> An emphasis on the defence of ethnic identity was shown by naming the troops after important Slovene poets and writers, following the example of the [[Ivan Cankar]] battalion.<ref name="Slovene_History">[http://sistory.si/publikacije/prenos/?urn=SISTORY:ID:2250 Štih, P.; Simoniti, V.; Vodopivec, P. (2008) ''A Slovene History: Society, politics, culture'']. Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino. Ljubljana, p. 426.</ref> At the very beginning the Partisan forces were small, poorly armed and without any infrastructure, but [[Spanish Civil War]] veterans amongst them had some experience with [[guerrilla warfare]]. The Partisan movement in Slovenia functioned as the military arm of the [[Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation]], an Anti-Fascist resistance platform established in the [[Province of Ljubljana]] on 26 April 1941, which originally consisted of multiple groups of left wing orientation, most notable being Communist Party and Christian Socialists. During the course of the war, the influence of the [[Communist Party of Slovenia]] started to grow, until its supremacy was officially sanctioned in the [[Dolomiti Declaration]] of 1 March 1943.<ref name="Gow2010-48">{{cite book |title=Slovenia and the Slovenes: A Small State in the New Europe|last=Gow|first=James|author2=Carmichael, Cathie|edition=Revised and updated|year=2010|publisher=Hurst Publishers Ltd|isbn=978-1-85065-944-0|page=48}}</ref> Some of the members of Liberation Front and partisans were ex-members of the [[TIGR]] resistance movement. Representatives of all political groups in Liberation Front participated in Supreme Plenum of Liberation Front, which led the resistance efforts in Slovenia. Supreme Plenum was active until 3 October 1943 when, at the [[Kočevski zbor|Assembly of the Slovenian Nation's Delegates]] in Kočevje, the 120-member Liberation Front Plenum was elected as the supreme body of the Slovenian Liberation Front. The plenum also functioned as Slovenian National Liberation Committee, the supreme authority in Slovenia. Some historians consider the Kočevje Assembly to be the first Slovene elected [[parliament]] and Slovene Partisans as its representatives also participated on [[2nd session of the AVNOJ]] and were instrumental in adding the self-determination clause to the resolution on the establishment of a new federal Yugoslavia. The Liberation Front Plenum was renamed the [[SNOS|Slovenian National Liberation Council]] at the conference in Črnomelj on 19 February 1944 and transformed into the Slovenian parliament.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} The Slovene Partisans retained their specific organizational structure and [[Slovene language]] as the commanding language until the last months of World War II, when their language was removed as the commanding language. From 1942 till after 1944, they wore the ''[[Triglavka]]'' cap, which was then gradually replaced with the ''[[Titovka (cap)|Titovka]]'' cap as part of their uniform.<ref name="Vukšić2003">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SLix5hc4WRgC&pg=PA21&dq=%22triglav+cap%22+partisan|title=Tito's partisans 1941–45|last=Vukšić|first=Velimir|date=July 2003|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-84176-675-1|page=21}}</ref> In March 1945, the Slovene Partisan Units were officially merged with the [[Yugoslav People's Army|Yugoslav Army]] and thus ceased to exist as a separate formation.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} The partisan activities in Slovenia started in 1941 and were independent of Tito's partisans in the south. In autumn 1942, Tito attempted for the first time to control the Slovene resistance movement. [[Arsa Jovanović]], a leading Yugoslav communist who was sent from Tito's Supreme Command of Yugoslav partisan resistance, ended his mission to establish central control over the Slovene partisans unsuccessfully in April 1943. The merger of the Slovene Partisans with Tito's forces happened in 1944.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.si/books?id=qwBUkHaz76QC&dq=James+Stewart.+%22Slovenia%22|title=Slovenia|last=Stewart|first=James|editor=Linda McQueen|publisher=New Holland Publishers|year=2006 |isbn=978-1-86011-336-9|page=15}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.si/books?id=ORSMBFwjAKcC&dq=The+former+Yugoslavia%27s+diverse+peoples:+a+reference+sourcebook&source=gbs_navlinks_s|title=The former Yugoslavia's diverse peoples: a reference sourcebook|chapter=Histories of the Individual Yugoslav Nations|publisher=ABC-Clio, Inc|year=2004|pages=167–168}}</ref> In December 1943, the [[Franja Partisan Hospital]] was built in difficult and rugged terrain, only a few hours from Austria and the central parts of Germany. The partisans broadcast their own radio program called ''Radio Kričač'', the location of which never became known to occupying forces, although the receiver antennas from the local population had been confiscated.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} ==Casualties== Despite their success, the Partisans suffered heavy casualties throughout the war. The table depicts Partisan losses, 7 July 1941&nbsp;– 16 May 1945:<ref name=strugar/><ref name=anic/><ref name= vukovic/> {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right; width:500px;" |- !!! 1941 !! 1942 !! 1943 !! 1944 !! 1945 !! Total |- |align=left|Killed in action || 18,896 || 24,700 || 48,378 || 80,650 || 72,925 || 245,549 |- |align=left|Wounded in action || 29,300 || 31,200 || 61,730 || 147,650 || 130,000 || 399,880 |- |align=left|Died from wounds || 3,127 || 4,194 || 7,923 || 8,066 || 7,800 || 31,200 |- |align=left|Missing in action || 3,800 || 6,300 || 5,423 || 5,600 || 7,800 || 28,925 |} ==Rescue operations== The Partisans were responsible for the successful and sustained evacuation of downed Allied airmen from the Balkans. For example, between 1 January and 15 October 1944, according to statistics compiled by the US Air Force Air Crew Rescue Unit, 1,152 American airmen were airlifted from Yugoslavia, 795 with Partisan assistance and 356 with the help of the Chetniks.<ref>{{cite book|last=Leary|first=William Matthew|title=Fueling the Fires of Resistance: Army Air Forces Special Operations in the Balkans during World War II|year=1995|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=0-16-061364-7|page=34}}</ref> Yugoslav Partisans in Slovene territory rescued 303 American airmen, 389 British airmen and prisoners of war, and 120 French and other prisoners of war and slave laborers.<ref>[[#refTomasevich2001|Tomasevich 2001]], p. 115.</ref> The Partisans also assisted hundreds of Allied soldiers who succeeded in escaping from German POW camps (mostly in southern Austria) throughout the war, but especially from 1943–45. These were transported across Slovenia, from where many were airlifted from [[Semič]], while others made the longer overland trek down through Croatia for a boat passage to [[Bari]] in Italy. In the spring of 1944, the British military mission in Slovenia reported that there was a "steady, slow trickle" of escapes from these camps. They were being assisted by local civilians, and on contacting Partisans on the general line of the River [[Drava]], they were able to make their way to safety with Partisan guides.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} ===Raid at Ožbalt=== {{Main|Raid at Ožbalt}} A total of 132 Allied prisoners of war were rescued from the Germans by the Partisans in a single operation in August 1944 in what is known as the [[Raid at Ožbalt]]. In June 1944, the Allied escape organization began to take an active interest in assisting prisoners from camps in southern Austria and evacuating them through Yugoslavia. A post of the Allied mission in northern [[Slovenia]] had found that at [[Ožbalt]], just on the Austrian side of the border, about {{convert|50|km|mi|abbr=on}} from [[Maribor]], there was a poorly guarded working camp from which a raid by [[Slovene Partisans]] could free all the prisoners. Over 100 POWs were transported from [[Stalag XVIII-D]] at [[Maribor]] to Ožbalt each morning to do railway maintenance work, and returned to their quarters in the evening. Contact was made between Partisans and the prisoners with the result that at the end of August a group of seven slipped away past a sleeping guard at 15:00, and at 21:00 the men were celebrating with the Partisans in a village, {{convert|8|km|mi|abbr=on}} away on the Yugoslav side of the border.<ref name=mason>{{cite book|last1=Mason|first1=Walter W.|last2=Kippenberger|first2=Howard K.|title= Prisoners of War|publisher=Historical Publications Branch|page=383|year=1954}}</ref> The seven escapees arranged with the Partisans for the rest of the camp to be freed the following day. Next morning, the seven returned with about a hundred Partisans to await the arrival of the work-party by the usual train. As soon as work had begun the Partisans, to quote a New Zealand eye-witness, "swooped down the hillside and disarmed the eighteen guards". In a short time prisoners, guards, and civilian overseers were being escorted along the route used by the first seven prisoners the previous evening.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} At the first headquarters camp reached, details were taken of the total of 132 escaped prisoners for transmission by radio to England. Progress along the evacuation route south was difficult, as German patrols were very active. A night ambush by one such patrol caused the loss of two prisoners and two of the escort. Eventually they reached [[Semič]], in [[White Carniola]], Slovenia, which was a Partisan base catering for POWs. They were flown across to [[Bari]] on 21 September 1944 from the airport of [[Otok, Metlika|Otok]] near [[Gradac, Metlika|Gradac]].<ref name=mason/> ==Post-war== {{Main|Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia}} {{unreferenced section|date=July 2015}} SFR Yugoslavia was one of only two European countries that were largely liberated by its own forces during World War II. It received significant assistance from the Soviet Union during the [[Belgrade Offensive|liberation of Serbia]], and substantial assistance from the [[Balkan Air Force]] from mid-1944, but only limited assistance, mainly from the British, prior to 1944. At the end of the war no foreign troops were stationed on its soil. Partly as a result, the country found itself halfway between the two camps at the onset of the [[Cold War]]. In 1947–48, the Soviet Union attempted to command obedience from Yugoslavia, primarily on issues of foreign policy, which resulted in the [[Tito-Stalin split]] and almost ignited an armed conflict. A period of very cool relations with the Soviet Union followed, during which the U.S. and the UK considered courting Yugoslavia into the newly formed [[NATO]]. This however changed in 1953 with the Trieste crisis, a tense dispute between Yugoslavia and the Western Allies over the eventual Yugoslav-Italian border (see [[Free Territory of Trieste]]), and with Yugoslav-Soviet reconciliation in 1956. This ambivalent position at the start of the Cold War matured into the [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-aligned]] foreign policy which Yugoslavia actively espoused until its dissolution. ===Reprisals=== A number of Partisan units, and the local population in some areas, engaged in mass murder in the immediate postwar period against perceived Axis sympathizers, collaborators, and/or fascists. The best known incidents include the [[Bleiburg repatriations]], the [[Foibe massacres]], and the [[1944-1945 killings in Bačka|killings in Bačka]]. The repatriations at Bleiburg (although scholars disagree on how many people died and no number has been officially recognized or agreed upon) of retreating columns of [[Chetnik]] and [[Slovene Home Guard]] troops, and soldiers of the [[Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia]] and thousands of civilians heading or retreating towards Austria to surrender to western Allied forces, have been called a "massacre". The "foibe massacres" draw their name from the "foibe" pits in which Croatian Partisans of the [[8th Dalmatian Corps]] (often along with groups of angry civilian locals) shot Italian fascists, and suspected collaborationists and/or separatists. According to a mixed Slovene-Italian historical commission<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kozina.com/premik/indexeng_porocilo.htm|title=Slovene-Italian historical commission|publisher=Kozina.com|accessdate=19 November 2011}}</ref> established in 1993, which investigated only on what happened in places included in present-day Italy and Slovenia, the killings seemed to proceed from endeavors to remove persons linked with fascism (regardless of their personal responsibility), and endeavors to carry out mass executions of real, potential or only alleged opponents of the Communist government. The [[1944-1945 killings in Bačka]] were similar in nature and entailed the killing of suspected Hungarian, German and Serbian fascists, and their suspected affiliates, without regard to their personal responsibility. During this purge, a large number of civilians from the associated ethnic group were also killed.<ref>Márton Matuska. ''Days of Revenge''. Forum Publisher, Novi Sad, 1991.<!--ISSN/ISBN, page(s) needed--></ref> The Partisans did not have an official agenda of liquidating their enemies and their cardinal ideal was the "[[brotherhood and unity]]" of all Yugoslav nations (the phrase became the motto for the new Yugoslavia). The country suffered between 900,000 and 1,150,000 civilian and military dead during the Axis occupation.<ref>[[#Tomasevich 2001|Tomasevich (2001)]], p. 737</ref> Between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed in the partisan purges and at least 30,000 people were killed in the Bleiburg killings, according to Marcus Tanner in his work, ''Croatia: a Nation Forged in War''. This chapter of Partisan history was a taboo subject for conversation in the [[SFR Yugoslavia]] until the late 1980s, and as a result, decades of official silence created a reaction in the form of numerous data manipulation for nationalist propaganda purposes.<ref name=macdonald>{{cite book|last=MacDonald|first=David B.|title=Balkan Holocausts?: Serbian and Croatian Victim Centred Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia|publisher=[[Manchester University Press]]|year=2002|isbn=0-7190-6467-8}}</ref> ==Equipment== {{unreferenced section|date=July 2015}} The first small arms for the Partisans were acquired from the defeated [[Royal Yugoslav Army]], like the [[M24 series|M24 Mauser rifle]]. Throughout the war the Partisans used any weapons they could find, mostly weapons captured from the [[Wehrmacht|Germans]], [[Royal Italian Army|Italians]], [[Croatian Home Guard (Independent State of Croatia)|Army of the NDH]], [[Ustaše]] and the [[Chetniks]], such as the [[Karabiner 98k]] rifle, [[MP 40]] submachine gun, [[MG 34]] machine gun, [[Carcano]] rifles and carbines and [[Beretta]] submachine guns. The other way that the Partisans acquired weapons was from supplies given to them by the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[United Kingdom]], including the [[PPSh-41]] and the [[Sten]] MKII submachine guns respectively. Additionally, Partisan workshops created their own weapons modelled on factory-made weapons already in use, including the so-called "[[Partisan rifle]]" and the anti-tank "[[Partisan mortar]]". ==Women== [[File:Kozarčanka - Milja Marin.jpg|thumb|''[[Kozarčanka]]'' by Žorž Skrigin (winter 1943–44)]] The Yugoslav National Liberation Movement claimed 6,000,000 civilian supporters; its two million women formed the Antifascist Front of Women (AFŽ), in which the revolutionary coexisted with the traditional. The AFŽ managed schools, hospitals and even local governments. About 100,000 women served with 600,000 men in Tito's Yugoslav National Liberation Army. It stressed its dedication to women's rights and gender equality and used the imagery of traditional folklore heroines to attract and legitimize the partizanka.<ref>Barbara Jancar, "Women in the Yugoslav National Liberation Movement: An Overview," ''Studies in Comparative Communism'' (1981) 14#2 pp&nbsp;143–164.</ref> After the war women were relegated to traditional gender roles, but Yugoslavia is unique as its historians paid extensive attention to women's roles in the resistance, until the country broke up in the 1990s. Then the memory of the women soldiers faded away.<ref>Vesna Drapac, "Resistance and the Politics of Daily Life in Hitler's Europe: The Case of Yugoslavia in a Comparative Perspective," ''Aspasia'' 2009 3: 55-78</ref><ref>Barbara Jancar-Webster, ''Women and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941–1945'' (1990)</ref> ==Cultural legacy== According to [[Vladimir Dedijer]], more than 40,000 works of folk poetry were inspired by the Partisans.<ref name=dedijer>{{cite book|last=Dedijer|first=Vladimir|title=Novi prilozi za biografiju Josipa Broza Tita|publisher=Mladost|year=1980|page=929}}</ref> ==See also== {{div col|colwidth=20em}} *[[Balkans Campaign (World War II)]] *[[Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War]] *[[Department for the Protection of the People]] OZNA *[[Franja Partisan Hospital]] *[[Liberation Front of the Slovene People]] *[[Order of the People's Hero]] *[[Po šumama i gorama]] *[[Yugoslavia and the Allies]] *[[World War II persecution of Serbs]] *[[Čačalica]] memorial park *[[German-Partisan negotiations]] *[[Communist purges in Serbia in 1944–45]] *[[Leftist errors (Yugoslavia)|Leftist errors]] {{div col end}} ==Footnotes== {{Reflist|group=Note}} ==Notes== {{Reflist|30em}} ==References== * {{cite book |title=The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Their Historic Development from the Middle Ages to the Dissolution of Yugoslavia |first=Ivo |last=Banac |chapter=Bosnian Muslims: From Religious Community to Socialist Nationhood and Post-Communist Statehood 1918–1992 |editor-last=Pinson |editor-first=Mark |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yl3TAkJmztYC |isbn=0-932885-12-8 |ref=Banac_1996 }} * {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fz1PW_wnHYMC|last1=Cohen|first1=Philip J.|last2=Riesman|first2=David|title=Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History| publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=1996|isbn=0-89096-760-1|ref=refCohen1996}} * {{cite book |title=Bosnia And Beyond: The "Quiet" Revolution That Wouldn't Go Quietly |first=Jeanne M. |last=Haskin |publisher=Algora Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=0-87586-429-5 |ref=Haskin_2006 }} * {{cite book |title=Anti-Genocide: Building an American Movement to Prevent Genocide |first=Herbert |last=Hirsch |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2002 |isbn=0-275-97676-9 |ref=Hirsch_2002 }} * {{cite book |last=Hoare |first=Marko Attila |title=Genocide and Resistance in Hitler's Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks |year=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-726380-1 |ref=Hoare_2006 }} * {{cite book |last=Judah |first=Tim |title=The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-300-08507-9 |ref=Judah_2000 }} * {{cite book |last=Milazzo |first=Matteo J. |title=The Chetnik Movement & the Yugoslav Resistance |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1975 |isbn=0-8018-1589-4 |ref=Milazzo_1975 }} * {{cite book |last=Mulaj |first=Klejda |title=Politics of Ethnic Cleansing: Nation-State Building and Provision of In/Security in Twentieth-Century Balkans |publisher=Lexington Books |year=2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C21t6bdyv3cC |ref=Mulaj_2008 }} * {{cite book|last=Ramet|first=Sabrina P.|title=The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918–2004|year=2006|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-271-01629-9|ref=refRamet2006}} * {{cite book |first=Walter R. |last=Roberts |title=Tito, Mihailović and the Allies 1941–1945 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1973 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=43CbLU8FgFsC&printsec=frontcover |ref=Roberts_1973 }} * {{cite book |last=Tomasevich |first=Jozo |title=War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks |volume=1 |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1975 |location=San Francisco |isbn=0-8047-0857-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yoCaAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover |ref=Tomasevich_1975 }} * {{cite book |first=Jozo |last=Tomasevich |title=War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration |volume=2 |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2001 |location=San Francisco |isbn=0-8047-3615-4 |ref=Tomasevich_2001 }} * {{cite book |first=Mitja |last=Velikonja |title=Religious separation and political intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2003 |location=College Station |isbn=978-1-58544-226-3 |ref=Velikonja_2003 }} ==Further reading== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book |title=Peasants and Communists: Politics and Ideology in the Yugoslav Countryside |last=Bokovoy |first=Melissa |year=1998 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |isbn=0-8229-4061-2}} *{{cite book|title=The Croat Question: Partisan Politics in the Formation of the Yugoslav Socialist State|last=Irvine|first=Jill|year=1992|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=0-8133-8542-3}} {{refend}} ==External links== {{Commons category|Yugoslav Partisans}} *[http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/balkan/intro.htm THE GERMAN CAMPAIGNS IN THE BALKANS (SPRING 1941)] reprinted by the [[United States Army Center of Military History]] {{Resistance in Yugoslavia during Second World War}} {{Navboxes|list1= {{Resistance in World War II by country}} {{Factions in the Yugoslav Front}} {{World War II}}}} [[Category:Yugoslav Partisans| ]] [[Category:Anti-fascism in Yugoslavia]] [[Category:Eastern European World War II resistance movements]] [[Category:Guerrilla organizations]] [[Category:Military wings of political parties]] [[Category:National liberation armies]] [[Category:1940s in Yugoslavia]] [[Category:Articles containing video clips]]'