People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia Participant in the Yugoslav People's Liberation War Flag of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, used by the Partisans Active 1941 - 1945 Ideology Anti-fascism (founded primarily by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, but incorporating a wide variety of anti-fascist movements and organizations) Leaders Josip Broz Tito Headquarters mobile, attached to the Main Operational Group Area of operations Axis-occupied Yugoslavia Strength up to 800,000 men. (Four armies.) Became Yugoslav People's Army Allies Allied powers, esp. the Soviet Union Opponents Axis powers, esp. Germany, Italy, NDH, Bulgaria. Battles/wars Battle of the Neretva, Battle of the Sutjeska, Raid on Drvar, Syrmian Front; (most notable)

Soldiers of the Partisan Lika Division on the march

The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans^[1][2] (Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: Partizani, Cyrillic script: Партизани; meaning: "partisans") were a Communist-led World War II resistance movement engaged in the fight against Axis forces and their collaborators in Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav People's Liberation War (being part of World War II) from 1941 to 1945. The Partisans, led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito, were a faction that embodied a blend of republican, left-wing, and socialist ideologies, the main goals of which were the liberation of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia as a federal republic, the deposition of the monarchy (lead by King Peter II), and the recognition of all six Yugoslav nations, as opposed to the unitarianist ethnic policies of the Yugoslav royalists in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (often described as "serbianization").

The movement's full official name was People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia,^[3] (NOV i POЈ) (Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian: Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odredi Jugoslavije; Slovene: Narodnoosvobodilna vojska in partizanski odredi Jugoslavije; Macedonian: Narodno osloboditelna vojska i partizanski odredi na Jugoslavija.

The common name of the movement is "the Partisans" (capitalized), while the adjective "Yugoslav" is used sometimes in exclusively non-Yugoslav sources to distinguish them from other (World War II) partisan movements. Despite the fact that their name suggests they fought as a guerrilla force, this was only true for the first three years of the conflict. From the second half of 1944 the total forces of the Partisans numbered over 800,000 men organized in four field armies, which engaged in conventional warfare.^[4]

[edit] Background and origins

Partisan fighter Stjepan "Stevo" Filipović shouting "Death to fascism, freedom to the People!" (the Partisan slogan) seconds before his execution by a Serbian State Guard (local collaborator) unit in Valjevo, occupied Yugoslavia.

On 6 April 1941 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded from all sides by the Axis powers, primarily by German forces but including Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian formations as well. During the invasion, 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 April 17. 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. Also, some divisions within the Army refused to fight, welcoming the Germans as liberators from Serb oppression.^{[citation needed]}

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 rump Serbian state and considerable influence over its newly created puppet state,^[5] the Independent State of Croatia, 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 Italy gained the remainder of Slovenia, Kosovo, and large chunks of the coastal Dalmatia region (along with nearly all its Adriatic islands). It also gained control over the newly created Montenegrin puppet state, and was granted the kingship in the Independent State of Croatia, though wielding little real power within it. Hungary dispatched the Hungarian Third Army to occupy Vojvodina in northern Serbia, and later forcibly annexed sections of Baranja, Bačka, Međimurje and Prekmurje.^[6] Bulgaria, meanwhile, annexed nearly all of the modern-day Republic of Macedonia. (All these territorial acquisitions, and the dissolution of Yugoslavia itself, were of course not recognized by any Allied state, nor are they today considered legal by any modern-day state, or the United Nations.)

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. In certain instances Axis forces and local collaborators 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 militias and the German army.

Amid the relative chaos that ensued, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia moved to organize and unite anti-fascist factions and political forces into a nation-wide 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.

[edit] Formation and early rebellion

Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941.^[7]

First Yugoslav Partisan unit (and first anti-fascist military unit in occupied Europe^[8]) was established in Brezovica forest, near Sisak, Croatia on June 22, 1941, the day Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Various military formations more or less linked to the general liberation movement were involved in armed confrontations with Axis forces which erupted in various areas of Yugoslavia in the ensuing weeks. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia formally decided to launch an armed uprising on 4 July 1941, a date which was later marked as Fighter's Day - a public holiday in the SFR Yugoslavia. One Žikica Jovanović Španac shot the first bullet of the campaign on 7 July 1941, later the Uprising Day of the Socialist Republic of Serbia (part of SFR Yugoslavia).

Sixteen blindfolded Partisan youth await execution by German forces in Smederevska Palanka, 20 August 1941.

On 10 August 1941 in Stanulović, a mountain village, the Partisans formed the Kopaonik Partisan Detachment Headquarters. Their liberated area, 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.

On Stalin's birthday, 21 December 1941 Partisans formed the 1st Proletarian Assault Brigade (1. Proleterska Udarna Brigada) - the first regular Partisan military unit, capable of operating outside its local area. Afer the breakup between Stalina and Tito, 22 December became the "Day of the Yugoslav People's Army". 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.^[9] After the war, the Partisan ground forces were the basis for the formation of the Yugoslav People's Army, officially created on 1 March 1945.

The bulk of the early fighting occurred in Western Serbia and Montenegro. Many scholars notes that the partisans were a Serb army, and that some ninety percent^[10] of the generals were made up of Serbs and Montenegrins in this early time. In the early part of the war Partisan officers as well as the rank and file were virtually all Serbs and Montenegrins.^[11]

In 1944 Tito recorded that 44% of the Partisans were Serbs, a percentage that probably understated the extent of their participation, for it reflected the swelling numbers of other Yugoslavs who joined the Partisans later in the war.^[12]

The other anti-German resistance group was known as the Chetniks. Renowned historian Tim Judah notes that in the early stage of the war, because the Partisans were almost all Serbs,^[13] in effect a Serbian civil war had broken out.^[13] The Chetniks, were a mainly Serb oriented group. Their Serb patriotism resulted in an inability to recruit or appeal to many of the non-Serb nationalities. The Partisans on the other hand learned to play down communism in favour of a Popular Front approach which appealed to all Yugoslavs, not just the Serbs. In Bosnia, for example, 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 equity of all groups would be ensured.^[14] Chetniks attacked the Muslims in Eastern Bosnia (led by Pavle Djurisic), killing thousands. Further, Chetnik attacks on Croatians in Dalmatia boosted Croat participation.^[15] This turned these groups away from the Chetniks and towards the Partisans. Further, Italian presence and ambition to take Dalmatia resulted in even more Croat support for the Partisans. For example, Momcilo Djucic's Chetnik attack on Gala, near Split, resulted in the slaughter of 200 Croatian civilians.^[16] In particular, Mussolini's policy of forced Italianization ensured the first significant number of Croats joining the Partisans. Attacks from Croatian Ustashe, in their genocidal pogrom of the Serbian population was considered to be the most important reason for the rise of guerrilla activities,^[17] thus aiding an ever growing Partisan resistance.^[16] Districts such as Kordun and Lika quickly joined the resistance movement.^[16]

In late 1944, statistics show that the Croats represented only 60% of the Partisan troops in Croatia, thus they were under-represented.^[18] Further, in major battles, the Serbs and Montenegrins had the vast majority of the casualties.^[19] Further, the Partisan National Liberation Council has given the Serbs a predominant part of the command.^[9]

[edit] Operations

[edit] Resistance and retaliation

Yugoslav Partisan troops on the march in Slavonia, 1943.

German SS commando paratroopers above Drvar, spearheading an effort to capture the Partisan commander, Josip Broz Tito, during the Raid on Drvar, 1944.

Partisan artillery on the Syrmian Front.

Armored formations of the Yugoslav Partisans entering the Axis-occupied city of Trieste, May 1 1945.

The Partisans staged a 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, which were organized to act as civilian governments in liberated areas of the country, even limited arms industries were set-up.
At the very beginning, though, Partisan forces were relatively small, poorly armed and without any infrastructure. But they had two major advantages over other military and paramilitary formations in former Yugoslavia: the first and most immediate was 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. Another advantage, which became apparent in later stages of war, was in Partisans being 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 majority. 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 anti-Partisan offensives. These are:

• The First anti-Partisan Offensive (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, German troops attacked and reoccupied this territory, with the majority of Partisan forces escaping towards Bosnia. It was during this offensive that tenuous collaboration between the Partisans and the royalist Chetnik movement broke down and turned into open hostility.

• The Second anti-Partisan Offensive (Second Enemy Offensive), the coordinated Axis attack conducted in January 1942 against Partisan forces in eastern Bosnia. The Partisan troops once again avoided encirclement and were forced to retreat over Igman mountain near Sarajevo.

• The Third anti-Partisan Offensive (Third Enemy Offensive), an offensive against Partisan forces in eastern Bosnia, Montenegro, Sandžak and Hercegovina 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. This attack is mistakenly identified by some sources as the Battle of Kozara, which took place in the summer of 1942.

• The Fourth anti-Partisan Offensive (Fourth Enemy Offensive), also known as the Battle of the Neretva or Fall Weiss (Case White), a conflict spanning the area between western Bosnia and northern Herzegovina, and culminating in the Partisan retreat over the Neretva river. It took place from January to April, 1943.

• The Fifth anti-Partisan Offensive (Fifth Enemy Offensive), also known as the Battle of the Sutjeska or Fall Schwartz (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.

• The Sixth anti-Partisan Offensive (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 the autumn and winter of 1943/1944.

• The Seventh anti-Partisan Offensive (Seventh Enemy Offensive), the final attack in western Bosnia in the spring of 1944, which included Operation Rösselsprung (Knight's Leap), an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate Josip Broz Tito personally and annihilate the leadership of the Partisan movement.

The largest of these were combined by Wehrmacht, the SS, fascist Italy, Ustaše, Chetniks, and Bulgarian forces.

[edit] Allied support

Later in the conflict the Partisans were able to win the moral, as well as limited material support of the western 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.

To gather 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 Yugoslavia. The search for intelligence ultimately resulted in the demise of the Chetniks and their eclipse by Tito’s Partisans. In 1942, though 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.

His reports contained two important observations. The first was that the Partisans were courageous and aggressive in battling the German 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 travelled 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 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.^[20]

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 Fitzroy MacLean) with the aim to provide increased supplies and tactical air support for Marshal Tito's Partisan forces.

[edit] Activities increase 1943-45

With Allied air support 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 Dalmatian coast.

In 1945 the Partisans, numbering over 800,000 strong^[21] defeated the Independent State of Croatia and the Wehrmacht, achieving a hard-fought breakthrough in the Syrmian front in late winter, taking Sarajevo in early April, and the rest of Croatia 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 a day.

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 Koroška, on 14 and 15 May 1945.

[edit] Services

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 first and only resistance movement in occupied Europe to employ significant air and naval forces.

[edit] 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.

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. On 26 October 1943 it was organized first into four, and later into six, Maritime Costal 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.^[22]

[edit] Partisan Air Force

The Partisans gained an effective air force in May 1942, when the pilots of two aircraft belonging to the Independent State of Croatia military (the French-built Potez 25, and Breguet 19, formerly of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force), Franjo Kluz and Rudi Čajavec, defected to the Partisans in Bosnia.^[23] Later these pilots used their planes 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 reestablished and destroyed several times until its permanent institution.^[24] The Partisans later established a permanent air force by obtaining aircraft, equipment, and training from the British Royal Air Force (see BAF), and later the Soviet Air Force.

[edit] Statistics

Partisan supreme commander, Marshal Josip Broz Tito reviewing the 1st Proletarian Brigade.

[edit] Partisan losses

Despite their success, the Partisans suffered heavy casualties throughout the war. The table depicts Partisan losses, 7 July 1941 - 16 May 1945:^[25]

In 1944, there were some 650,000 soldiers in the Partisan army. Composition by region is as follows:^[26]

• Bosnia and Herzegovina - 100,000
• Croatia - 150,000
• Kosovo - 20,000
• Macedonia - 66,000
• Montenegro - 30,000
• Serbia (central) - 204,000
• Slovenia - 40,000
• Vojvodina - 40,000

[edit] Partisan rescue operations

Partisan medical personnel attending a rescued RAF airman in a monastery hospital.

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. During the war, 33 B-17 Flying Fortresses crashed on Slovene territory alone and the Partisans, with the help of the local civilian population, rescued 303 American and 30 British airmen.

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.

[edit] Raid at St Lorenzen

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 St Lorenzen.

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 Sankt Lorenzen ob Eibiswald, just on the Austrian side of the border, about 30 miles (50 km) from Maribor, there was a poorly guarded working camp from which a raid by Slovene Partisans could free all the prisoners. Over a hundred POWs were transported from Stalag XVIII-D at Maribor to St. Lorenzen 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 three o'clock in the afternoon, and at nine o'clock the men were celebrating with the Partisans in a village, five miles (8 km) away on the Yugoslav side of the border.^[27]

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. 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 Bela Krajina, Slovenia, which was a Partisan base catering for POWs. They were flown across to Bari on 21 September 1944.^[28]

[edit] Post-war

SFR Yugoslavia was one of only two European countries that were liberated by its own forces during the World War II, only with limited assistance and participation by the remaining Allies. It received support from both Western Allies and the Soviet Union, and 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 and 1948 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 foreign policy which Yugoslavia actively espoused until its dissolution.

[edit] Reprisals

A number of Partisan units, and the local population (whose massive support they enjoyed), engaged in retribution in the immediate postwar period against people who had collaborated with the Axis or fought against the Partisans. Known incidents include the Bleiburg massacre, the foibe massacres, and the killings in Bačka.

The Bleiburg massacre was the retribution enacted by the Partisans on the retreating column of Chetnik, Slovene Home Guard, and Ustaše soldiers that was retreating towards Austria in an attempt to surrender to western Allied forces. 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 (or even alleged) collaborationists and/or separatists, in retribution to the decades-long Italian oppression they experienced. According to a mixed Slovene-Italian historical commission^[29] 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 preventive cleansing 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 Hungarian fascist separatists, and their suspected affiliates, without regard to their personal responsibility.

The numbers of dead due to Italian, German and collaborationist organised killings, however, far outstrip even the most lavish estimates of the Partisan crimes' death toll. Indeed, the Partisans didn't have an official genocidal agenda (unlike the Ustaše, the Chetniks, the Italians, and the Germans), as their cardinal ideal was the "brotherhood and unity" of all Yugoslav nations (the phrase became the motto for the new Yugoslavia). To put in perspective the extent of genocide occurring throughout Yugoslavia during the War, it suffices to say the country suffered about 1,027,000 dead during the Axis occupation, civilian and military (in comparison, the United States and Great Britain together suffered approximately 630,000).^[30] Only a small fraction constitute civilians actually killed by the Partisans.

This controversial 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.^[31]

[edit] Cultural legacy

Monument commemorating the Battle of Sutjeska in Tjentište, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Partisan ranks included some of the most important artists and writers of 20th century Yugoslavia. The experiences of Partisans in particular had a major impact on the culture of the country. The Partisan struggle was therefore well-chronicled through the memoirs of its participants, and later those experiences served as basis for important literary works, most notably by authors like Jure Kaštelan, Joža Horvat, Oskar Davičo, Antonije Isaković, Branko Ćopić, Ivan Goran Kovačić, Mihailo Lalić, Vitomil Zupan and others.

Comic books depicting the Partisan struggle also became very popular, most notably works by Croatian artist Jules Radilović. The most popular, however, was the Mirko i Slavko comic book series.

The Partisan struggle also influenced the film industry, which developed its own genre of Partisan film, with its own set of unofficial rules and motives, very much like American Western or the Japanese Jidaigeki movies. The most notable of these was the Oscar-nominated 1969 motion picture The Battle of Neretva. The movie Force 10 from Navarone displayed the struggle of the Yugoslav Partisans during the war, as British and American special forces arrive to help them destroy a German-held bridge.

An outsider's perspective of the partisans is recorded in Evelyn Waugh's 1961 novel Unconditional Surrender, the last of The Sword of Honour trilogy. Waugh was stationed in Yugoslavia towards the end of the war.

The most visible aspect of Partisan legacy, however, is the series of monuments commemorating their struggle. Most of these sculptures belong to the socialist realism art form, with some of them becoming victims of state-sponsored vandalism following the break-up of the country in the early 1990s. (see Yugoslav wars).

[edit] Ethnic makeup

[edit] Overall

• 1941-42
  • Serb & Montenegrin majority^[32]
• 1944^[33]
  • Serbs: 44%
  • Croats: 30%
  • Bosniaks 2.5%
  • Others/Unknown 23.5%

[edit] Croatia

• 1941-1943
  • Serb majority^[34]
• 1943-1945
  • Croats: 61%
  • Serbs: 28%

[edit] Bosnia and Herzegovina

• 1941-1945
  • Serb majority (2/3 of those who were in the Partisans)

[edit] Participants of note

Members of the Supreme Command of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. From left to right: Ivo Lola Ribar, Aleksandar Ranković, Milovan Đilas, Josip Broz Tito, Sreten Žujović, Andrija Hebrang, Moša Pijade, Edvard Kardelj.

• Josip Broz Tito (supreme commander, Marshal)
• Arso Jovanović
• Aleksandar Ranković
• Slobodan Penezić-Krcun
• Momčilo Glišić
• Moše Pijade
• Milovan Đilas
• Kosta Nađ
• Koča Popović
• Petar Drapšin
• Peko Dapčević
• Vlado Dapčević
• Sava Kovačević
• Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo
• Franc Rozman Stane
• Petar Stambolić
• Žikica Jovanović Španac
• Nikola Ljubičić
• Marija Bursać
• Veljko Vlahović
• Rodoljub Čolaković
• Boško Buha
• Ivan Ribar
• Ivo Lola Ribar
• Ivan Gošnjak
• Petar Gračanin
• Edvard Kardelj
• Fadil Jahić
• Osman Karabegović
• Josip Kraš
• Edvard Kardelj
• Edvard Kocbek
• Ivan Goran Kovačić
• Stjepan Filipović
• Rade Končar
• Hristijan Todorovski Karpoš
• Randolph Churchill
• Evelyn Waugh

[edit] See also

• Yugoslav Front of World War II
• Yugoslavia and the Allies
• Seven anti-Partisan offensives
• Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
• History of Yugoslavia
• Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia
• Balkan Air Force
• World War II persecution and genocide of Serbs
• Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• OZNA
• Battle of Poljana
• Battle of Neretva
• Battle of Sutjeska
• People's Hero of Yugoslavia
• Republic of Užice
• Franja Partisan Hospital
• Other:
  • Balkans Campaign
  • Catenaccio Kaos

[edit] References

[edit] References for the Total Yugoslav Casualties in World War II

• 1. ^ U.S. Bureau of the Census The Population of Yugoslavia Ed. Paul F. Meyers and Arthur A. Campbell , Washington D.C.- 1954
• 2. ^ Vladimir ŽerjavićYugoslavia manipulations with the number Second World War victims, - Zagreb: Croatian Information center,1993 ISBN 0-919817-32-7 [1] and [2]
• 3. ^  Kočović ,Bogoljub-Žrtve Drugog svetskog rata u Jugoslaviji 1990 ISBN 8601019285
• 4. ^  Tomasevich, Jozo. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0804736154 In Cap.17 Alleged and True Population Losses there is a detailed account of the controversies related to Yugoslav war losses.
• 5. ^  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Jasenovac.[3]
• 6. ^  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Holocaust Era in Croatia:1941-1945, Jasenovac (go to section III Concentration Camps)[4]
• 7. ^ . Yadvashem. Jasenovac. [5]
• 8. ^ Donald Kendrick, The Destiny of Europe's Gypsies. Basic Books 1972 ISBN 0-465-01611-1

[edit] Further reading

• Hoare, Marko Attila, Genocide and Resistance in Hitler's Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks, Oxford University Press, 2006
• Bokovoy, Melissa, Peasants and Communists: Politics and Ideology in the Yugoslav Countryside, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998
• Irvine, Jill, The Croat Question: Partisan Politics in the Formation of the Yugoslav Socialist State, Westview Press, 1992
• Roberts, Walter R., Tito, Mihailovic and the Allies, Duke University Press, 1987

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yugoslav Partisans

• Alliance of Anti-fascist Fighters of Croatia
• Office of Strategic Services - Balkan Operational Group
• THE GERMAN CAMPAIGNS IN THE BALKANS (SPRING 1941)
• The German Campaigns in The Balkans Spring 1941
• Web site for the movie 'Partizanska Eskadrila'
• Wehrmacht Anti-Partisan Operations Badge
• European Resistance Archive (ERA) video interviews with members of the resistance during World War II