2nd Army Group (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
2nd Army Group | |
---|---|
Country | Yugoslavia |
Branch | Royal Yugoslav Army |
Type | Infantry |
Size | Field army[a] |
Engagements | Invasion of Yugoslavia (1941) |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Milutin Nedić |
The 2nd Army Group was a
river.The 2nd Army Group was not directly attacked during the first few days of the invasion, but events to the east and west of its deployment area resulted in successive orders to withdraw to the lines of the
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 fascist Ustaše and the ethnic German minorities but also potentially from the pro-Bulgarian Macedonians and the Albanian population of Kosovo.[10]
Formation and composition
Yugoslav war plans saw the headquarters of the 2nd Army Group being raised at the time of
Mobilisation and deployment plan
The deployment plan for 2nd Army Group saw the 1st Army in the Bačka region between the Danube and the Tisza,[20] with formations centred around the towns of Sombor, Bačka Topola and Senta, with the 3rd Cavalry Division held in depth, south of the Danube in the Fruška Gora region.[21] The 2nd Army deployment plan saw it in the Baranya and Slavonia regions between Slatina and the Danube,[20] with its formations positioned south of the Drava from just east of Slatina to Valpovo, and around the towns of Osijek and Vinkovci.[21] The Yugoslav historian Velimir Terzić notes that the army group headquarters and headquarters of both armies were still at their mobilisation centres on 6 April, and describes the mobilisation of all formations of the 1st Army Group on 6 April as "only partial", with 80 to 90 percent of men having reported for duty and between 50 and 70 percent of its establishment strength in animals.[22]
To the right of the 1st Army Group was the
Operations
The 2nd Army Group faced the Hungarian 3rd Army across the border, and during the first few days after the commencement of the invasion, there were exchanges of fire with Hungarian border guards, but the Yugoslavs faced no direct attacks along the 2nd Army Group sector. Neither the 2nd Army Group nor the Hungarians were ready for full-scale fighting, as they were still mobilising and deploying their forces.[20] While Nedić was located at the projected headquarters in Bijeljina from 6 April, the operations staff of 2nd Army Group didn't arrived there from Sarajevo until 8 April.[23] On 9 April, due to German successes elsewhere in Yugoslavia, the 6th Army on the right flank of the 2nd Army Group was ordered to withdraw south of the Danube and deploy on a line facing east to defend against an attack from the direction of Sofia, Bulgaria. 2nd Army Group also received orders to withdraw south of the line of the Drava and Danube. 1st Army began to withdraw, and on the same day elements were approaching the Danube crossing. The headquarters of the 2nd Army issued orders to evacuate Baranja and reinforce the left flank.[16]
The following day, the situation deteriorated significantly when the German
Later that day, as the situation was becoming increasingly desperate throughout the country, Simović, who was both the Prime Minister and Yugoslav Chief of the General Staff, broadcast the following message:[26]
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, and the 2nd Army was able to evacuate Baranja and organise a defence of the left flank of the 2nd Army Group, now threatened by the 8th Panzer Division, but Croat reservists began to desert their units, significantly reducing the combat power of the 2nd Army. By the evening of 10 April, the 2nd Army Group was ordered to withdraw from these positions 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 Ustaše and their sympathisers.[27]
At dawn on 11 April, Hungarian forces,
By 12 April, the withdrawal of the 2nd Army Group was being threatened from the left flank, and by this time, according to the Polish historian Andrzej Krzak, 2nd Army had "no combat importance at all".
On the evening of 12 April, elements of the SS Motorised Infantry Division Reich, under command of XXXXI Motorised Corps, crossed the Danube in pneumatic boats and captured Belgrade without resistance. About the same time, most of the elements of XXXXVI Motorised Corps that were approaching Belgrade from the west were redirected away from the capital, but part of the 8th Panzer Division continued 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.[41]
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.[42] Early on 14 April, the remnants of 2nd Army Group continued to fight against the 8th Panzer Division and 16th Motorised Infantry Division along the Sava.[43] 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.[44]
Notes
- ^ The Royal Yugoslav Army did not field corps, but their army groups consisted of several armies, which were corps-sized.[1]
- U.S. Army lieutenant general.[12]
- U.S. Army lieutenant general.[24]
- U.S. Army brigadier general.[24]
- U.S. Army lieutenant general.[29]
Footnotes
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ Niehorster 2013a.
- ^ a b Terzić 1982, p. 100.
- ^ a b Niehorster 2013c.
- ^ Niehorster 2013d.
- ^ a b Krzak 2006, pp. 588–589.
- ^ Tomasevich 1975, pp. 34–43.
- ^ Tomasevich 1975, p. 64.
- ^ Trevor-Roper 1964, pp. 108–109.
- ^ a b c d Krzak 2006, p. 588.
- ^ a b c d Geografski institut JNA 1952, p. 1.
- ^ Terzić 1982, pp. 253–256.
- ^ Terzić 1982, p. 253.
- ^ a b Niehorster 2018b.
- ^ 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 2018a.
- ^ 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 c 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, United Kingdom: 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]. Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Vojnoistorijskog instituta JNA [Military History Institute of the JNA]. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013.
- 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: 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.
- Terzić, Velimir (1982). Slom Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1941 : uzroci i posledice poraza [The Collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941: Causes and Consequences of Defeat] (in Serbo-Croatian). Vol. 2. OCLC 10276738.
- 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.
- Trevor-Roper, Hugh (1964). Hitler's War Directives: 1939–1945. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. OCLC 852024357.
- U.S. Army (1986) [1953]. The German Campaigns in the Balkans (Spring 1941). Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. OCLC 16940402. CMH Pub 104-4. Archived from the originalon 19 June 2009. Retrieved 6 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 24 May 2014.
- Niehorster, Leo (2013b). "Balkan Operations Order of Battle Royal Yugoslavian Army 6th April 1941". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
- Niehorster, Leo (2013c). "Balkan Operations Order of Battle Royal Yugoslavian Army 1st Army 6th April 1941". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
- Niehorster, Leo (2013d). "Balkan Operations Order of Battle Royal Yugoslavian Army 2nd Army 6th April 1941". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
- Niehorster, Leo (2018a). "Royal Hungarian Armed Forces Ranks". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- Niehorster, Leo (2018b). "German Army and Waffen-SS Ranks". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 10 August 2018.