Invasion of Yugoslavia
Since three separate attack forces were converging on Belgrade simultaneously, the Army High Command was not immediately able to determine which force was the first to reach the enemy capital. Toward early evening of 12 April, SS-Obersturmfuehrer Klingenberg of the 2d SS Motorized Infantry Division, finding all Danube bridges destroyed, took an SS patrol across the river in captured pneumatic rafts. The patrol entered the city unmolested, and at 1700 hoisted a Swastika flag atop the German legation. About two hours later the mayor of Belgrade officially handed over the city to Klingenberg who was accompanied by a representative of the German Foreign Ministry, previously interned by the Yugoslavs.
At Second Army headquarters, no word from the 8th Panzer Division elements, which were last reported approaching the western outskirts of Belgrade, had been received for twenty-four hours. Finally, at 1152 on 13 April the following radio message came through from the operations officer of the division:
During the night the 8th Panzer Division drove into Belgrade, occupied the center of the city, and hoisted the Swastika flag.
However, since better communications had existed between Second Army and First Panzer Group, the following flash was received shortly before the 8th Panzer Division message came in:
Panzer Group von Kleist has taken Belgrade from the south. Patrols of Motorized Infantry Regiment Gross Deutschland have entered the city from the north. With General von Kleist at the head, the 11th Panzer Division has been rolling into the capital since 0632.
Thus the race for Belgrade ended in a close finish with all three forces reaching their objective almost simultaneously. With the fall of the city, the First Panzer Group was transferred from the Twelfth to the Second Army, while the XLVI Panzer Corps was placed under the direct command of the panzer group for the next phase of the operation - the pursuit and final destruction of the remnants of the Yugoslav Army.
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Losses
The losses sustained by the German attack forces were unexpectedly light. During the twelve days of combat the total casualty figures came to 558 men: 151 were listed as killed, 392 as wounded, and 15 as missing in action. During the XLI Panzer Corps drive on Belgrade, for example, the only officer killed in action fell victim to a civilian sniper's bullet.
The Germans took between 254,000 and 345,000 Yugoslav prisoners, excluding a considerable number of ethnic Croat, German, Hungarian, and Macedonians who had been conscripted into the Yugoslav Army and who were quickly released after screening, and Italians took 30,000 more.[11][12].
Approximately 1,000 army and several hundred air force personnel escaped via Greece to Egypt.
More than 70 Yugoslav aircraft aircraft escaped to Allied territory. Most to Greece, but 8 Dornier and Savoia Marchetti bombers set course for the USSR, with 4 Savoias making it safely. 44 aircraft were destroyed in a devastating strafing attack by the Italian air force on Paramitia airfield in Greece, with 9 bombers and transports making it to Egypt. More than 150 operational, auxilliary and training aircraft were captured and passed on to the newly created air force of the NDH (Independant State of Croatia)[13].
The Italians captured most of the Yugoslav Navy (one destroyer had spent the campaign in dry-dock). However, one destroyer was blown up at Kotor by two of its officers to prevent capture and one of the British-built submarines and 2 MTBs succeeded in escaping to Alexandria in Egypt to continue to serve with the Allied cause. 10 Yugoslav navy maritime patrol float-planes escaped to Greece, with 9 making it to Egypt, where they formed a squadron under RAF command.
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Note
This article incorporates whole sections of text from the U.S. Government work The German Campaign in the Balkans (Spring 1941), U.S. Army Center of Military History Publication 104-4, 1986.
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See also
- Partisans (Yugoslavia)
- People's Liberation Army (Yugoslavia)
- Yugoslav People's Liberation War
- Dalmatian Italians
- Greco-Italian War
- Bombing of Belgrade in World War II
- Battle of Greece
- Battle of Crete
- Nedić's Serbia
- River Flotilla of Serbian Armed Forces
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References
- History (US Govt)
- Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges Vol. 3, A. A. Gretschko, Berlin: Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1977.
- The Times Atlas of the Second World War, John Keegan (ed.), New York: Harper and Row, 1989.
- Goss, Chris. Dornier 17: In Focus. Surrey, UK: Red Kite Books, 2005. ISBN 0-9546201-4-3.
- Weal, John (1998). Junkers Ju 87 Stukageschwader of North Africa and the Mediterranean. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 1-85532-722-8
- ^ Tomasevich, Jozo. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 2001.
- ^ Geschichte, pp. 317-318
- ^ Times Atlas, p.54
- ^ Shores, C., Cull, B. and Malizia, N., Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece & Crete – 1940-41 Grub Street, London, 1987
- ^ Conways All The World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946 - Conway Maritime Press, London,1980 ISBN 0 85177 146 7
- ^ Goss 2005, p. 89.
- ^ Weal, 1998 p. 25.
- ^ a b Goss 2005, p. 10.
- ^ Shores, C., Cull, B. and Malizia, N., Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece & Crete – 1940-41 Grub Street, London, 1987
- ^ Weal, 1998 p. 29.
- ^ US Govt History, p. 64
- ^ Geschichte, p. 325
- ^ Shores, C., Cull, B. and Malizia, N., Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece & Crete – 1940-41 Grub Street, London, 1987
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External links
- History (US Govt)
- Yugoslav Royal Army (Serbian)
- March 27, 1941 (Serbian)
- Invasion of Yugoslavia (Serbian)
- The bombing of Belgrade (Serbian)
- Invasion of Yugoslavia:Kosovo war 1941 (Serbian)
- (Italian) ANPI Archives photos
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