Yugoslavian neutrality during WWII

La Rouge Beret

La Rouge Beret

Is it plausible for Yugoslavia to remain neutral during WW II and to not be invaded.

Alternatively can Yugoslavia remain neutral until 1944 or 1945 and then declare war on the Axis?
 

Comte de Geneve

No, not ever, never. The Axis invaded Yugoslavia after the anti-Axis coup in April 1941. Without the coup Yugolsavia becomes an Axis ally. There is NO path to neutrality for Yugolsavia.
 

katchen

Banned
And if the Anti-Axis coup is crushed and Yugoslavia stays with the Axis?
Barbarossa starts in April?
 

Seleucus

April Barbarossa would be idiotic and disastrous. April would be around the height of the Rasputitsa, and any attempt at an advance would quickly become bogged down in the mud.
 

aktarian

La Rouge Beret said:
Is there any possibility of a Spanish position, i.e. neutrality and providing a volunteer division to fight communism?
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No, not with location Yugoslavia had. Germany is simply not going to allow Yugoslavia to be outside its camp and risk it turning agaisnt Germany and serve as base for British actions in Balkans.

Yugoslavia will end in Axis camp one way or the other, the question is only how and what place it will have.
 
Cook

Cook

Banned
Something like Bulgaria’s situation doesn’t seem unlikely: A member of the Axis Alliance but no active role and no D.o.W. on the Soviet Union. Potentially achieving a 'Finland' style exit from the war in early 1945.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Axis nations with territorial claims on Yugoslavia:

Italy: The Adriatic coast
Germany: Weak claim on parts of Slovenia
Hungary: Claim on Vojvodina
Bulgaria: Claim on Yugoslav Macedonia

Yugoslavia was just the nation most Axis powers wanted a slice of.
 

kalamona

yourworstnightmare said:
Axis nations with territorial claims on Yugoslavia:

Italy: The Adriatic coast
Germany: Weak claim on parts of Slovenia
Hungary: Claim on Vojvodina
Bulgaria: Claim on Yugoslav Macedonia

Yugoslavia was just the nation most Axis powers wanted a slice of.
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Does not realyl matter. Germany had claims on Italy, Hungary has claim on Germany and everyone, Romania on Bulgaria, etcetcetc.

Well, in case of Yoguslavia, these claims could have been a base for strong relations with Germany, in a "we protect you from our allies" way. Like Romania and Hungary competiting for german favors....
 

Dementor

Banned
Certainly. If Mussolini doesn't attack Greece, Germany would have no reason to force Yugoslavia in the Axis and there would be no British inspired coup to provoke an invasion of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia would remain a pro-Axis neutral as they were before 1941.
 
anotherlurker

anotherlurker

when hitler received news of the yugoslavian coup he tought they were joking. what they wanted was not having to deal with surprises from the start when the real war (invasion of the soviet union) starts, so it's either an axis yugoslavia or an occupied one.
 

Dementor

Banned
anotherlurker said:
when hitler received news of the yugoslavian coup he tought they were joking. what they wanted was not having to deal with surprises from the start when the real war (invasion of the soviet union) starts, so it's either an axis yugoslavia or an occupied one.
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Yugoslavia was probably the last country from which surprises could have come, so that was certainly not the reason for the German effort to make them sign the pact.
 

Blackfox5

Hitler would have needed to accept other agreements with Yugoslavia than forcing it to sign the Tripartite Pact. Yugoslavia offerred a non-aggression treaty and a friendship treaty instead, but Hitler didn't accept it. If Hitler understood (and cared) the tremendous political forces that would be provoked by signing the Pact, he could have gotten a stable and friendly Yugoslavia for the first several years.

By 1943, Yugoslavia would have begun serious negotiations with the Allies, but likely would not have turned on Hitler until late 1944. Probably would have been better for Hitler (and everyone except the Communists) anyway than what he actually did.
 

Halagaz

If Italy does not screw up in Greece and turn it into a major problem, sure.

If Italy does screw up in Greece, well...soon after the beginning of the war there, Yugoslavia was faced with rapidly increasing pressure to sign the Tripartite Pact. Prince Paul and other negotiators from the Yugoslav government had managed to modify the terms of Yugoslavia's agreement with the Axis to a de facto declaration of friendly neutrality (no Yugoslav armies in the Axis war effort, no passage of foreign armies over Yugoslav soil), but Yugoslavia was still required to nominally join the Axis nations. This agreement, signed on March 25, 1941, was probably the closest thing to neutrality possible after Italy's blunder. It would allow Yugoslavia to lay low for most of the war and declare war on the Axis at the first opportunity (after all, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria could), but I don't think this can be called true neutrality, since Yugoslavia would still be a nominally Axis nation until 1943 or 1944.

To keep this state of affairs, the 27th of March coup would need to either be crushed or fall apart in the planning phase.
 

MarshalBraginsky

Banned
You need to find a way to prevent the coup from happening, but the only thing I can think of is having Dusan Simovic killed off before that happens.
 

Halagaz

MarshalBraginsky said:
You need to find a way to prevent the coup from happening, but the only thing I can think of is having Dusan Simovic killed off before that happens.
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Dusan Simovic wasn't actually the leader of the conspirators, he was only pushed forward because the actual engineers of the coup (General Mirkovic, most of all) wanted to stay out of the spotlight.

But since both Simovic and Mirkovic were Air Force Generals, maybe they can both be killed in a plane crash.
 
La Rouge Beret

La Rouge Beret

The old plane crash... always a good POD.

What I am trying to establish is when Yugoslavia enters the war on the Allied side and how they would prosecute said war.

Instead of attempting to attack through Kesselring's forces would a landing occur in Friendly Yugoslavia to attack the north of Italy?
 

Wendell

One suspects that Yugoslavia in the Axis could be subject to border revisions like other secondary partners in the alliance were historically.
 
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