Yugoslav Partisan War

The Yugoslav Partisan War was a guerrilla warfare carried out by communist irregular forces against the German Army during World War II. Germany had invaded Yugoslavia and Greece on April 6, 1941, during Operation Marita. Led by Josip Broz (Tito), the insurgent forces were known as the Partisans, who began their clandestine missions against the Wehrmacht in 1942. From the moment the Axis troops made their way into their country, the efforts of the patriotic guerrilla fighters were aimed at gaining strength and organizing themselves for a long armed conflict of liberation.

Aside from the Partisans, there was another guerrilla army, which was politically right-oriented; they were called the Chetniks, who were under the command of Draza Mihailovic. The Chetniks got organized into units who fought for the restoration of the monarchy. Meanwhile, Josip Broz wanted a socialist republic, aligned with the Soviet Union. At the beginning, the British declined military support to the communist Partisans, preferring to supply the Chetniks, instead, with military materiel. However, by mid 1943, the British Army had already begun also supplying the Partisans, who were organized under the name of National Liberation Army, with all kind of infantry weapons through clandestine operations. When the British government found out that Chetnik elements secretly collaborated with Germans and Italians, Churchill decided to stop providing them altogether with any kind of military aid.

In 1943, Tito's National Liberation Army was composed of 160,000 troops, who were grouped into 23 brigades. Early Partisan activities involved carrying out sabotage and hit-and-run attacks against Axis' convoys and command posts, as well as disruptions of enemy communications infrastructure. As it grew in strength, Tito's guerrilla army launched surprise attacks on Italian Army units, which were also occupying the country. However, they were unable to repel the Italo-German forces and liberate their country. For that, Josip Broz, Tito, would have to wait for the Red Army's massive counteroffensives that ended up in the Battle of Berlin. Thousands of Partisans would get killed in action by powerful German military operations specially launched to stamp them out.

Below, General Tito inspect the Partisan troops of the 1st Brigade in 1943.