1st Army (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
1st Army | |
---|---|
Country | 2nd Army Group |
Engagements | Invasion of Yugoslavia (1941) |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Milan Rađenković |
The 1st Army was a
rivers.The 1st Army was not directly attacked during the first few days after the invasion commenced, but attacks on its flanks resulted in successive orders to withdraw to the lines of the Danube and then the Sava. The Hungarians then crossed the border in the sector for which the 1st Army had been responsible, but the Yugoslavs were already withdrawing and the Hungarians faced almost no resistance. This was followed by the German capture of Belgrade and the rear area units of 1st Army. Remnants of the 1st Army continued to resist along the line of the Sava, within days, tens of thousands of Yugoslav soldiers had been captured. The Germans closed on Sarajevo, and accepted the unconditional surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on 17 April, which came into effect at the following day.
Background
The
The army's development was hampered by the kingdom's poor economy, and this continued during the 1920s. In 1929, King
The weaknesses of the VKJ in strategy, structure, equipment, mobility and supply were exacerbated by serious ethnic disunity within Yugoslavia, resulting from two decades of Serb hegemony and the attendant lack of political legitimacy achieved by the central government.[10][11] Attempts to address the disunity came too late to ensure that the VKJ was a cohesive force. Fifth column activity was also a serious concern, not only from the Croatian nationalist Ustaše but also from the country's Slovene and ethnic German minorities.[10]
Composition
The 1st Army was commanded by Armijski đeneral[b] Milan Rađenković, and his chief of staff was Brigadni đeneral[c] Todor Milićević.[1] It was organised and mobilised on a geographic basis from the 1st Army District, which was divided into divisional districts, each of which was subdivided into regimental regions.[13] The 1st Army consisted of:[1]
- 7th Infantry Division Potiska
- 3rd Cavalry Division
- Infantry Detachment Senta (brigade-strength)
- Infantry Detachment Sombor (brigade-strength)
Its support units included the 56th Army Artillery Regiment, the 1st
Deployment
The 1st Army was part of the
- Infantry Detachment Sombor around Sombor
- 7th Infantry Division Potiska centred on Bačka Topola with its forward elements in Subotica
- Infantry Detachment Senta around Senta
- 3rd Cavalry Division south of the Danube in the Fruška Gora region between Novi Sad and Sremska Mitrovica
The 44th Infantry Division Unska, which was under the direct command of the General Headquarters of the VKJ,[16] was deployed in the 1st Army area to the east of the 3rd Cavalry Division, centred on Stara Pazova on the road between Novi Sad and Belgrade.[15]
Operations
6–10 April
The 1st Army faced the
The following day, the situation deteriorated significantly when the German
Later that day, as the situation was becoming increasingly desperate throughout the country, Dušan Simović, who was both the Prime Minister and Yugoslav Chief of the General Staff, broadcast the following message:[19]
All troops must engage the enemy wherever encountered and with every means at their disposal. Don't wait for direct orders from above, but act on your own and be guided by your judgement, initiative, and conscience.
— Dušan Simović
The bulk of the 1st Army were able to cross the Danube and began to prepare defences. By the evening of 10 April, the 1st Army was ordered to withdraw from this line and form a defensive line behind the Sava from Debrc to the confluence with the Vrbas river, for which one or two days would be needed. On the night of 10/11 April, the whole 2nd Army Group continued its withdrawal, but units of the 2nd Army on the left flank of the 1st Army that included significant numbers of Croats began to dissolve due to the fifth column activities of the fascist Ustaše and their sympathisers.[20]
11–12 April
At dawn on 11 April, Hungarian forces,
By 12 April, the withdrawal of the 2nd Army Group was being threatened from the left flank, with 2nd Army having "no combat importance at all". On the right flank, 6th Army attempted to regroup while being pressed by the
On the evening of 12 April, elements of the SS Motorised Infantry Division Reich, under command of XLI Motorised Corps crossed the Danube in pneumatic boats and captured Belgrade without resistance. About the same time, most of the elements of XLVI Motorised Corps that were approaching Belgrade from the west were redirected away from the capital. Elements of the 8th Panzer Division did continue their thrust to capture the Sava bridges to the west of Belgrade, and entered the city during the night. The rest of the 8th Panzer Division turned southeast and drove towards Valjevo to link up with the left flank of the First Panzer Group southwest of Belgrade. The 16th Motorised Infantry Division was redirected south across the Sava, and advanced toward Zvornik.[34]
Fate
On 13 April, the Hungarians occupied Baranja without resistance, and pushed south through Bačka to reach the line of Novi Sad and the Great Bačka Canal.[35] Early on 14 April, the remnants of 2nd Army Group, including the 1st Army, continued to fight against the 8th Panzer Division and 16th Motorised Infantry Division along the Sava.[36] On 14 and 15 April, tens of thousands of Yugoslav soldiers were taken prisoner by the Germans during their drive on Sarajevo in the centre of the country, including 30,000 around Zvornik and 6,000 around Doboj. On 15 April, the 8th and 14th Panzer Divisions entered Sarajevo. After a delay in locating appropriate signatories for the surrender document, the Yugoslav High Command unconditionally surrendered in Belgrade effective at 12:00 on 18 April.[37]
Notes
- ^ The Royal Yugoslav Army did not field corps, but their armies consisted of several divisions, and were therefore corps-sized.[1]
- ^ Armijski đeneral was equivalent to a United States lieutenant general.[12]
- ^ Brigadni đeneral was equivalent to a United States brigadier general.[12]
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d Niehorster 2013b.
- ^ Figa 2004, p. 235.
- ^ Hoptner 1963, pp. 160–161.
- ^ Tomasevich 1975, p. 60.
- ^ Tomasevich 1975, p. 58.
- ^ Brayley & Chappell 2001, p. 17.
- ^ Tomasevich 1975, pp. 58–59.
- ^ Hoptner 1963, p. 161.
- ^ Tomasevich 1975, p. 57.
- ^ a b Tomasevich 1975, p. 63.
- ^ Ramet 2006, p. 111.
- ^ a b Niehorster 2013a.
- ^ Krzak 2006, p. 567.
- ^ a b Krzak 2006, p. 588.
- ^ a b c Geografski institut JNA 1952, p. 1.
- ^ Niehorster 2013d.
- ^ Krzak 2006, pp. 588–589.
- ^ Krzak 2006, p. 589.
- ^ a b c d e U.S. Army 1986, p. 53.
- ^ Krzak 2006, pp. 589–591.
- ^ a b Krzak 2006, p. 591.
- ^ Niehorster 2013c.
- ^ a b U.S. Army 1986, p. 61.
- ^ a b c Krzak 2006, p. 592.
- ^ Van Creveld 1973, p. 127.
- ^ Shores, Cull & Malizia 1987, pp. 222–223.
- ^ a b Krzak 2006, p. 590.
- ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 169.
- ^ a b c Thomas & Szábó 2008, p. 14.
- ^ Komjáthy 1993, p. 134.
- ^ Cseres 1991, pp. 61–65.
- ^ a b Neulen 2000, pp. 122–23.
- ^ Szabó 2005, p. 196, citing the obituaries of the "Royal Parachutist Squadron" (13 April) and in the periodical Pápa és Vidéke (27 April).
- ^ U.S. Army 1986, p. 54.
- ^ Krzak 2006, p. 593.
- ^ Krzak 2006, p. 596.
- ^ U.S. Army 1986, pp. 63–64.
References
Books
- Brayley, Martin & Chappell, Mike (2001). British Army 1939–45 (1): North-West Europe. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84176-052-0.
- Cseres, Tibor (1991). Vérbosszú a Bácskában [Vendetta in Bácska] (in Hungarian). OCLC 654722739.
- Figa, Jozef (2004). "Framing the Conflict: Slovenia in Search of Her Army". Civil-Military Relations, Nation Building, and National Identity: Comparative Perspectives. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-313-04645-2.
- Geografski institut JNA (1952). "Napad na Jugoslaviju 6 Aprila 1941 godine" [The Attack on Yugoslavia of 6 April 1941]. Istorijski atlas oslobodilačkog rata naroda Jugoslavije [Historical Atlas of the Yugoslav Peoples Liberation War] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade: Vojnoistorijskog instituta JNA [Military History Institute of the JNA].
- Hoptner, J.B. (1963). Yugoslavia in Crisis, 1934–1941. New York: Columbia University Press. OCLC 404664.
- Komjáthy, Anthony Tihamér (1993). Give Peace One More Chance!: Revision of the 1946 Peace Treaty of Paris. ISBN 978-0-8191-8905-9.
- Neulen, Hans Werner (2000). In the Skies of Europe: Air Forces Allied to the Luftwaffe 1939–1945. ISBN 1-86126-799-1.
- Ramet, Sabrina P. (2006). The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918–2005. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34656-8.
- Shores, Christopher F.; Cull, Brian; Malizia, Nicola (1987). Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece, and Crete, 1940–41. London: Grub Street. ISBN 978-0-948817-07-6.
- Thomas, Nigel; Szábó, László Pál (2008). The Royal Hungarian Army in World War II. ISBN 978-1-84603-324-7.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-0857-9.
- Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2.
- U.S. Army (1986) [1953]. The German Campaigns in the Balkans (Spring 1941). OCLC 16940402. CMH Pub 104-4. Archived from the originalon 19 June 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-521-20143-8.
Journals and papers
- Krzak, Andrzej (2006). "Operation "Marita": The Attack Against Yugoslavia in 1941". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 19 (3): 543–600. S2CID 219625930.
- Szabó, Miklós (2005). "Establishment of the Hungarian Air Force and the Activity of the Hungarian Royal Honvéd Air Force in World War II Respectively" (PDF). Nação e Defesa. 3. 110. ISSN 0870-757X. Archived from the original(PDF) on 14 July 2014.
Web
- Niehorster, Leo (2013a). "Royal Yugoslav Armed Forces Ranks". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- Niehorster, Leo (2013b). "Balkan Operations Order of Battle Royal Yugoslavian Army 1st Army 6th April 1941". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- Niehorster, Leo (2013c). "Balkan Operations Order of Battle 3rd Hungarian Army April 1941". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
- Niehorster, Leo (2013d). "Balkan Operations Order of Battle Royal Yugoslavian Army GHQ Direct 6th April 1941". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 19 May 2014.