Serbian Volunteer Corps (World War II)
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Serbian Volunteer Corps | |
---|---|
Active | 1941–1945 |
Country | German-occupied territory of Serbia |
Allegiance |
|
Branch | Anti-partisan operations |
Size | 9,886 (1944)[1] |
Part of | |
Garrison/HQ | |
Nickname(s) | Ljotić's men (Ljotićevci) |
Patron | St George |
Motto(s) | "With faith in God, for the King and Fatherland!" |
March | Vojska Smene |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Kosta Mušicki |
The Serbian Volunteer Corps (
In July 1941, following a full-scale rebellion by communist Yugoslav Partisans and royalist Chetniks, the German military commander in Serbia pressured Milan Nedić's collaborationist government to deal with the uprisings under the threat of letting the armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia, Hungary, and Bulgaria occupy the territory and maintain peace and order in it. A paramilitary militia called the Serbian Volunteer Detachments was formed, the unit, never formally part of the German armed forces, numbered about 3,500 men, mostly Serbian but also included some Croats and Slovenes. It was reorganised as the Serbian Volunteer Corps, at the end of 1942, and placed under the command of Colonel Kosta Mušicki. By 1944, the majority of the Serbian Volunteer Corps recruits were draftees as opposed to volunteers and reached a peak strength of 9,886 men.[11]
After the Red Army entered Serbia and Belgrade was liberated in October 1944, the corps retreated with the Germans into the Slovene Lands. In November it was taken over by the Waffen-SS, and incorporated into the SFK: Serbisches Freiwilligen Korps (Serbian Volunteer Corps), an infantry unit composed of the various Nedić's collaborationist groups on the run. In March 1945, with defeat imminent, it was renamed the Serbian SS Corps (Serbian: Српски СС Kорпус / Srpski SS Korpus; German: Serbisches SS Korps).[citation needed] The surviving members of the three SFK regiments, retreated into Austria where they surrendered to the British on 12 May 1945 near Klagenfurt. Most of the men were returned to Yugoslavia where they were executed on charge of treason.[12]
Formation
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On 15 September 1941, Nedić proposed that the government should be dismissed and allow neighbouring states to police it, but minister Mihailo Olćan proposed that the puppet government should call upon the Serbian population to form anti-communist units.[citation needed]
The next day 234 members of
The Serbian Volunteer Corps was formally under Nedić's Command of Gendarmerie, but it was, like SDS and SGS, under direct control of SS and Police Leader August Meyszner and Commanding General in Serbia. In operations in the field, its units were put under tactical command of German divisions. Ljotić himself had no control over SDK.[14][15] SDK units were not allowed to move from the assigned territory without German authorization.[13]
Uniform
Serbian Volunteer Corps troops received Yugoslav or Italian uniforms on which they wore black cloth collar patches (dark blue after 1943[16]), rank badges on the shoulder straps, and a metal corps badge on the right breast. Their helmets were either Italian or Czechoslovak.
Active duty
The volunteers saw their first action on 17 September 1941 in Dražanj village near Grocka, clearing the area of communists with four Yugoslav Partisans and two SDK members killed. In November before an offensive in the Republic of Užice Milan Nedić ordered that the SDK, Serbian State Guard and Kosta Pećanac's Chetniks should be put under joint command. On 22 November a joint military formation called the Šumadija Corps was formed under the command of Mušicki. The Corps was put under the command of the German 113th Division with which they fought between 25 and 29 November after the majority of Partisan troops had escaped to the Italian zone.
After defeating Partisan troops, the Germans turned to fighting Draža Mihailović's Chetniks. Konstantin Mušicki informed Mihailović of the German plans and Mihailović managed to evade capture. Due to this Mušicki was arrested on 9 December in Čačak and replaced by Brigadier Ilija Kukić. Nedić intervened to secure Mušicki's release and he was back in command as soon as those Germans that were familiar with the case had left Belgrade at the end of 1942.
By 15 February 1942, the Corps had a strength of 172 officers and 3,513 men, which was very close to the planned strength for the five battalions. During 1942 SDK clashed with Partisans in southern Serbia. Although they inflicted considerable losses on the Partisans they didn't manage to crush them completely in southern Serbia. In western Serbia, SDK with gendarmerie, Germans and Chetniks attacked the Kosmaj, Valjevo and Suvobor Partisan battalions who had returned from Bosnia. They managed to defeat all except the Valjevo unit which escaped through enemy lines. At the end of 1942 there were 12 companies in 5 battalions and Germans granted them formal recognition on 1 January 1943, by officially changing its designation to the Serbian Volunteer Corps.
In 1943, the SDK clashed with the Partisans near Požarevac, Kruševac, Aranđelovac and in Mačva. They also clashed with Mihailović's Chetniks. On 28 September, Chetniks killed Dušan Marković, commander of the 4th volunteer battalion with 20 of his volunteers and soon after Miloš Vojnović Lautner, commander of the 3rd volunteer battalion. On 15 May the Wehrmacht captured 4000 Chetniks under Major Pavle Đurišić in Montenegro. Đurišić was to be sent to Strij camp in Poland but managed to escape and was in Belgrade in November that year. Đurišić was soon captured by the Gestapo but under guarantees of Nedić and Ljotić was released on the condition that he put his troops under SDK command. Đurišić accepted the offer, formed three SDK regiments and became Mušicki's second in command.
The Partisans had meanwhile grown to an army of considerable strength, and by the summer of 1943 were once again active throughout Serbia. This renewed activity greatly worried the responsible German commanders, since the strength of the occupation forces had declined considerably during the relatively peaceful months of 1942. Nedić was also aware of this problem, and went to see Adolf Hitler at Obersalzberg in the hope of finding a solution. The meeting was on 15 September 1943, and Nedić managed to secure an agreement for the reinforcement of the SDK by five additional battalions, with a further five to follow as circumstances permitted. These measures were immediately carried out, and by 20 October each of the five independent battalions had become a regiment with a strength of two battalions. Training for the five new battalions took place at the respective regimental garrison locations: SDK 1st Regiment in Valjevo, 2nd Regiment in Kragujevac, 3rd in Šabac, 4th in Smederevo, and 5th in Kruševac. Corps headquarters stayed in Belgrade.
The SDK fought the Partisans throughout the spring (attacking 2nd and 5th Partisan Divisions in western Serbia) and summer of 1944 (in
According to report by state commission set by post-war authorities dated December 25 1945, SDK members killed 618 people, mostly men, outside combat, beat up around 5 thousand people, raped 49 women, arrested around 10 thousand people, sent around thousand people to forced labour and razed 136 houses and other objects. While this report is methodologically flawed, it does represent the bases for research of crimes of occupiers and their collaborators in Serbia.[17]
Retreat and demise
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In September the Partisans with Red Army support began their final offensive in Serbia. In mid-September 1944, a corps unit saved Draža Mihailović and the Chetnik Supreme Command in northwest Serbia from capture by the Partisans.[11]
The major battle was on 9 September when the Partisans totally defeated joint SDK and Chetnik forces. SDK was in early October given a task to defend the Šabac bridgehead and Sava river against Partisans, together with some German units and under the command of Colonel Jungenfeld, the commander of the 5th Police Regiment. On 14 October the battle for Belgrade started, and Germans decided to evacuate SDK to some place where it can be used in guarding duties and anti-partisan actions, since SDK was considered unsuitable for full frontal combat. Hitler ordered to move SDK to Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, and to put it under Higher SS and Police Leader of OZAK, under Commander in Chief South-West. Army Group F Commander ordered boarding of SDK for the evacuation on 17 October on railway station Ruma, as the clearance from High Command of the South-West was received for transport on 19–21 October.[18] On its new position SDK participated in anti-Partisan operations.
The withdrawal began on 8 October during the final joint Partisan and Soviet assault on Belgrade when the 1st volunteer regiment under Major Ilija Mićašević and 4th volunteer regiment under Major Vojislav Dimitrijević crossed the
Meanwhile, major changes in Berlin affected many non-German volunteers fighting with German forces. There was a branch-of-service redistribution by ethnic group, and the Serbian volunteers now found themselves under the authority of the Waffen-SS. The order effecting the transfer was dated 9 November,[2] but not formally recognized until 27 November.[citation needed] At this time the SDK composition on paper was a corps staff, five regiments each with three battalions, a signal company, a mountain supply detachment and German liaison staff. It is important to point out at this time that the SDK's relationship with the Waffen-SS was official, but not on the ground. The troops never wore SS uniforms, and it is doubtful whether the relationship ever went beyond the simple exchange of a limited amount of paperwork. The SDK's situation was quite similar to that of the XV. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps, which was also absorbed into the Waffen-SS at about the same time.
As they reached Slovenia the SDK troops concentrated in the area around
The part of 5th Regiment that withdrew reached Bosnia in mid-November and began to move towards Slovenia. It was during the move north that an event befell the SDK which was to cripple the unit's leadership capability in the coming months. 30 to 40 officers were seized in Zagreb by the Croatian Ustaše and executed. The Ustaše considered them dangerous enemies of the Independent State of Croatia, and this was the Ustaše response to the German failure to obtain permission prior to transporting these Serbs through their country. Any Serb who supported the 'Greater Serbia' concept, as did Ljotić and his followers, was by definition an enemy of Pavelić's Croatia.
SDK's first major action in Slovenia was to take the Partisan-held
The next campaign participated in by the SDK was against
However, the Partisans quickly regrouped, so the Germans were forced to conduct a supplementary operation (19 March-7 April), which proved to be the final operation against Tito's 9th Corps. Four combat groups were organized along the perimeter of the area now occupied by the Partisans, with the task of bringing the 9th Corps to battle by gradually advancing in unison toward the centre, and thereby reducing the size of the area under their control. This was the standard German method of cleansing a Partisan-controlled area, that never significantly changed during the course of the war.
To the west, along a line
The area encircled was mountainous, thickly forested, and still deep in winter snow. Once off the few roads that encircle the area, the attacking forces were faced with extremely difficult terrain that limited their progress to a few kilometres each day, inhibited contact with neighbouring units, and greatly restricted the ability to rapidly bring up fresh supplies and heavy weapons. Very soon gaps developed in the line of advance, through which the main body of 9th Corps escaped. Although a number of minor
On 27 March, General Damjanović replaced General Mušicki as commander of the Serbian Volunteer Corps and the SDK became a component of Draža Mihailović’s Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, the formal name for the Chetnik forces, although the Corps was still assigned to the HSSuPF Trieste under SS-Gruppenführer Odilo Globocnik. Whether this change affected the SDK's relationship to the Waffen-SS is unknown, but doubtful. Shortly thereafter, Hermann Neubacher, Hitler's special political representative for the Balkans, paid a visit to Ljotić in Trieste to discuss German fears about what would happen when the SDK and Chetnik forces in Istria came into contact with British and American units who were expected to move in that direction from Italy. Ljotić reassured Neubacher of the SDK's loyalty.
Meanwhile, Tito's
To support this attack, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th SDK Regiments were moved up from the Postojna area. However, the regiments of the Serbian Volunteer Corps arrived too late and never made contact with the 188th Mountain Division. The attack on the airfield was unsuccessful, and by 23 April it was clear to General Kuebler that his Corps was threatened with total encirclement. Kuebler's appreciation of the situation was entirely correct, as on 22 April the general staff of Tito's 4th Army ordered a flanking movement to bypass the city. While the LXXXXVII Corps continued to be pressed by three divisions, the Partisan 20th Division was brought up from Ogulin along with one additional brigade, three tank battalions and two artillery battalions. This force moved to the north, around the German defensive perimeter, and advanced on Trieste via Ilirska Bistrica with the intention of linking up with the Partisan 9th Corps which was pushing south on Trieste.
As the battle for Rijeka moved toward its inevitable conclusion, SDK Regiments 2, 3, and 4 were sent to Ljubljana and transferred to the authority of SS-Obergruppenführer
Surrender and afterwards
At about this time, 22 April, Neubacher paid his final visit to Ljotić. A total collapse of German forces in the Balkans and in Italy was recognized as being only a matter of weeks if not days away, and Neubacher wanted to know Ljotić's plans for withdrawing and surrendering the SDK. The next day, during the hours of darkness, Ljotić accidentally drove his car into a hole that had been blown in a bridge by Allied fighter-bombers. His neck was broken and he died shortly thereafter.
On 29 April, as Tito's forces were closing on the Trieste area, General Damjanović issued orders to the 1st and 5th Regiments to cross into Italy, where on 5 May in the town of
The group that surrendered in Italy was eventually transported to a camp at
Ranks
Enlisted and NCOs
- Private (Dobrovoljac) (Literally, "Volunteer.")
- Corporal (Kaplar)
- Sergeant (Podnarednik)
- Staff Sergeant (Narednik)
- Sergeant Major (Narednik vodnik)
Officers
- 2nd Lieutenant (Potporučnik)
- 1st Lieutenant (Poručnik)
- Captain (Kapetan)
- Major (Major)
- Lieutenant Colonel (Potpukovnik)
- Colonel (Pukovnik)
- Brigadier General (Brigadni Đeneral)
Order of battle
Order of Battle (January 1943)
- 1. Battalion
- 3 x Companies
- 2. Battalion
- 3 x Companies
- 3. Battalion
- 3 x Companies
- 4. Battalion
- 3 x Companies
- 5. Battalion
- 3 x Companies
Order of Battle (1944)
- 1. Regiment
- 3 x Battalions
- 2. Regiment
- 3 x Battalions
- 3. Regiment
- 3 x Battalions
- 4. Regiment
See also
- World War II in Yugoslavia
- Invasion of Yugoslavia
- Seven anti-partisan offensives
- Anti-partisan operations in World War II
- AVNOJ
- Croatian Home Guard (World War II)
References
- ^ after their ideological leader Dimitrije Ljotić
- ^ There are a substantial number of sources that label Zbor as a fascist organisation,[3][4][5] and also a substantial number of sources that describe Zbor's leader, Dimitrije Ljotić, as fascist.[6][7][8]
- ^ The official name of this territory was the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia.[9][10]
- Footnotes
- ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 194.
- ^ a b c Thomas & Mikulan 1995, p. 21.
- ^ Frieser & Schmider 2017, p. 1087.
- ^ Cox 2002, p. 84.
- ^ Haskin 2006, p. 28.
- ^ Hoare 2014, p. 110.
- ^ Lampe 2000, p. 227.
- ^ Tomasevich 1969, p. 80.
- ^ Hehn 1971, pp. 344–373.
- ^ Pavlowitch 2002, p. 141.
- ^ a b Tomasevich 2001, p. 191.
- ^ Bishop 2012, p. 134.
- ^ a b Tomasevich 2001, pp. 189–190.
- ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 183.
- ^ Dimitrijević 2014, p. 321.
- ^ Littlejohn 1994, p. 255.
- ^ Radanović 2016, p. 291-292.
- ^ Dimitrijević 2014, p. 505.
- ^ Radanović 2016, p. 505.
- ^ Radanović 2016, p. 511.
- Bibliography
- Antić, Ana (2012). "Police Force Under Occupation: Serbian State Guard and Volunteers' Corps in the Holocaust". In Horowitz, Sara R. (ed.). Back to the Sources: Re-examining Perpetrators, Victims and Bystanders. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. pp. 13–36. ISBN 978-0-8101-2862-0.
- Bishop, C. (2012). SS Hitler's Foreign Divisions: Foreign Volunteers in the Waffen-SS 1940–45. Military Classics. Amber Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-908273-99-4.
- Cox, John K. (2002). The History of Serbia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-31290-8.
- Dimitrijević, Bojan B. (2014). Vojska Nedićeve Srbije: oružane snage srpske vlade 1941–1945 [The Army of Nedić's Serbia: Serbian Government Armed Forces 1941–1945] (in Serbian). Belgrade, Serbia: Službeni Glasnik. ISBN 978-86-519-1811-0.
- Frieser, Karl-Heinz; Schmider, Klaus (2017). The Eastern Front 1943-1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts. Germany: Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt. ISBN 978-0-19-872346-2.
- Haskin, Jean (2006). Bosnia and Beyond: The "quiet" Revolution that Wouldn't Go Quietly. New York: Algora Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87586-428-0.
- Hehn, Paul N. (1971). "Serbia, Croatia and Germany 1941–1945: Civil War and Revolution in the Balkans". Canadian Slavonic Papers. 13 (4). University of Alberta: 344–373. . Retrieved 8 April 2012.
- Hoare, Marko Attila (2014). The Bosnian Muslims in the Second World War. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-936531-9.
- Lampe, John R. (2000). Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country (2 ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77401-7.
- Littlejohn, David (1994). Foreign Legions of the Third Reich. Vol. 3: Albania, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Hungary, and Yugoslavia (2nd ed.). San Jose, California: Bender Publishing. ISBN 0-912138-29-7.
- ISBN 9781850654773.
- Stefanović, Mladen (1984). ZBOR DIMITRIJA LJOTIĆA (PDF). Beograd: Narodna knjiga. OCLC 13418730.
- Thomas, Robert (1999). Serbia Under Milošević: Politics in the 1990s. London: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 978-1-85065-367-7.
- ISBN 978-05-200153-6-4.
- Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2.
- Radanović, Milan (2016). Kazna i zločin: Snage kolaboracije u Srbiji. Belgrade: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
- Thomas, Nigel; Mikulan, Krunoslav (1995). Axis Forces in Yugoslavia 1941–45. New York: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85532-473-2.