April 16th, 1944
Operation Plunder - Snatching
Danube and Sava Valleys - The Axis forces are now in full retreat.
Faced with the power of Plunder-Right, the XV. Gebirgs-Armee-Korps retreats in order not to be completely cut in two. The 117. Jäger (Karl von Le Suire) and the 264. ID (Albin Nake), companions of misfortune against the Australians of the ANZAC, try to stall westward before being cornered with their backs to the Sava and destroyed. But it was a bit late! Certainly, the 264. ID manages to extract itself from Laćarak-Martinci and moves towards Bosut, but it is to be immediately caught up in the plain by the 1st Australian Armored (Horace Stevenson). This one inflicts a real beating to the mediocre garrison unit, which routs towards the Višnjićevo woods to avoid being completely annihilated. At the same time, Le Suire and his Jäger cross the Sava River in Sremska Mitrovica, in appalling conditions, rudely pressed by the soldiers of Jack Stevens - even if the latter encounter some difficulties because of the semi-urban terrain. The affair is not less consumed in the evening: the Huns are either towards Višnjićevo or towards Salaš Noćajski and the bridges are jumping.
Lavarack can thus announce to the 8th Army that after three days of hard fighting, the flank of the ANZAC is finally secured.
On the other hand, Robert Freyberg's 2nd New Zealand has not quite closed its case. Still confronted on the left with the 277. ID of Albert Praun and on the right with the 114.
Jäger - two units fortunately also in retreat - the Kiwis advance painfully towards Novi Sad, still delayed by a drawer defense as controlled as efficient, and leaving the I Yugoslavian Corps of Brasic to occupy the left bank of the Danube. In the evening, the Fruška Gora massif and Sremska Kamenica are reached- opposite Novi Sad, where an evacuation is obviously underway. The Heer abandoned Hungarian Újvidék, populated by a small majority of Magyars, visibly very worried about the arrival of the Yugoslav allies...
At the same time, in the center, the 6th Armoured also advances. Vyvyan Evelegh and his men reach the Danube again at Bačka Palanka. In this sector of the river, all the bridges have unfortunately been blown up, and the Australians immediately give up their pontoon men. Those can work without too much opposition, it is true - but they are also at the end of a particularly complex logistic chain, passing through Egypt, Greece, Bulgaria before ending up in Serbia!The material, already scarce, is thus especially long to arrive on line and all the more precious - it will take some time to get through. Fortunately, the city is not really defended for the moment, except by a few German marching battalions reinforced (in theory) by garrisons of a disintegrating Honvèd. From that night, some reconnaissance squadrons will manage to cross, and then to clear the way for the installation of a bridge of boats. Not a Bailey alas - 400 meters to cross, it would be much for this kind of small prefab!
On the Plunder-Left side, the Axis also retreats sharply - just in time, in fact. It did not take much for the LXVIII. Armee-Korps to suffer the fate of its neighbor! The 162. ID (Johann Fortner) withdraws towards Lipolist, while the 100. Jäger (Willibald Utz) and the 914. StuG Abt (Major Friedrich Domeyer) evacuate towards Štitar under the pressure of the 4th Indian (Arthur Holworthy). It is not the most direct way, it is true - but it is necessary to play with the comrades retreating further north. And anyway, Hellmuth Felmy can't make a more complex maneuver - he is already busy transferring his headquarters from Prnjavor to Bijeljina, probably before Brčko... So in the afternoon the Indians enter Šabac, the Mecca of the first Serbian uprising against the Ottomans, led by Karađorđe - a revolutionary who started from nothing and whose descendant now rules in Belgrade*... The city, already literally massacred by the Austro-Hungarians during the first world conflict (half of the population had been executed !), has not forgotten either the ferocious repression of the insurrections triggered by the Titists in 41-42 (8,000 dead, 22,000 deported) - it will not really take part in the battle. Especially since the Indians of the Commonwealth are neither Croats, nor Muslims (in part...), nor Communists! So many reasons for the Serbs to wall themselves in a studied indifference, while waiting for the return of the royal authorities.
A little south, nothing stops the 10th Armoured! Horace L. Birks slips between the 162. ID and the 173. ID (Heinrich von Behr). The latter, supported by the 907. StuG - which had a lot to do with the 32nd Army Tank Brigade - was in full retreat towards Loznica, via Zavlaka (which was reached at the end of the morning). Taking advantage of the chaos in the German lines, Birks follows the road to the ruins of the Trajan** fortress, enters the Leśnica valley, leaving Mount Cer on his right, and finally arrives at full speed in the evening to Donji Dobrić and Lipnički Šor - thus in sight of the Drina, between Loznica and Prnjavor! The British now plan to move north - the threat of at least partial encirclement of the LXVIII. Armee-Korps becomes clear...
Finally, on the right wing of LXVIII. AK, the 181. ID (Hermann Fischer) continues to withdraw from Osečina to Zavlaka, followed by the 51st Infantry Highland (Charles Bullen-Smith), between Kamenica and Beomužević, and by the 6th Greek Mountain Brigade (Col. Pafsanias Katsotas). The latter begins to turn southwest from Pecka towards Bratunac, where the 164. ID (Karl-Heinz Lungerhausen) digs in as far as possible. Fischer can believe he is out of the woods, sheltered by the mountains and running towards the Drina... In fact, he runs towards the 10th Armoured, with whom he risks to fall nose-to-nose at the bend of a grove!
Operation Veritable - The one nobody wanted
Eastern Bosnia - The 3rd Mountain Brigade of colonel Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos finishes following the Lim. It arrived at the small village of Ušće Lima, at the confluence of the Lim and Drima rivers - a place still marked by the recent clashes between SS and Partisans during Morgenstern.
Leaving to the 192e DIA of Léon Jouffrault, who followed him, the task of holding this crossroads at the level of Međeđa (this is necessary: further up the valley, in Goražde is the SS-Prinz Eugen!), Tsakalotos now sets out to go up through the mountains to Rogatica via Krvojevići, in order to give himself room in territory more suitable for his troops. In the mind of the Greek - and according to the conception of Veritable - it is a question here of linking up soon with the 1st ID of Vasileios Vrachnos, supposed to come down from Vlasenica once Bratunac has fallen. And, beyond that, to threaten Sarajevo with a kind of envelopment without running into enemy traffic.
This is the conception of a good part of Veritable. With this kind of maneuver, the staff of the 2nd French Army - and therefore of the 18th AAG - would like to imagine playing a gigantic game of chess between the mountains, forcing the Germans and Croats to withdraw little by little without too many clashes. This is an obvious strategy, as the game in question is not a priority for anyone... In addition, the allied numerical superiority is really too marginal to expect to do anything else in such a difficult terrain.
By the way, and even if they pretend not to realize it, the Allies have also just saved Višegrad from the risk of a possible Nazi action - freeing in fact three AVNOJ corps in charge of defending Marshal Tito against any attempt on his person... The news, very little broadcast (and yet!) will obviously not please everyone - even if the Franco-Greeks defend themselves, it is well the contours of a collaboration between them and the Partisans which are drawn, in the complicit shade of the mountains of the Balkans...
In any case, on the side of the 2nd Greek Corps, the Allied tactics begin to bear fruit - after some hard clashes, however, and taking advantage of the failure of some.
The 13th ID passed Boljanići, on the Pljevlja plateau, and starts to descend northwards towards Goražde. This is obviously a long task - we are talking about a difference in altitude of 5 to 600 meters! All this by a small mountain road - in the evening, the evzones are still marching in the lost village of Metaljka, despite the help of the Partisans of the 12th Corps "of Vojvodina" of Danilo Lekic "Spaniard", whose presence is recognized by all the Allies as very useful...
In the valley of the Lim, the situation is a little bit better for the 1st Greek Armored Brigade - as a tool would give way to an old rusty lock by dint of solicitations. The Ist Ustasha Corps is in full retreat: the 2nd and 3rd ID are only trying to gain time by withdrawing to Bijelo Polje, under the cover of the 1st Mountain Division (Matija Čanić) - which faces on its right the 2nd "Shock" Corps of Peko Dapcevic in the area of Kovren and Babaići. As a result, the armor of Col. Socrates Demaratos is moving fast - too fast even for some, who are somewhat burned by the events of the last few days. They arrived in sight of Bijelo Polje in the evening.
Further south, the situation of Ivan Markuli's III Ustasha Corps remains catastrophic: its front is now pierced like a skimmer and its formations in full debacle - without even having fought much! The 5th ID of Georgios Stanotas seizes Berane definitively, completing to reject towards the north a 2nd Mountain Division (Antun Prohask) above all preoccupied to make its way towards Kruševo (south of Bijelo Polje) and towards salvation, before it was too late. Moreover, its commander, Markuli, does not think of anything else! In a real atmosphere of defeat, which is further aggravated by the raids of the Bucephalus of the 335th and 336th (Hellenic) Squadrons, the Croatian soldiery runs along the Lim and passes Zaton in the middle of the night. It is only 6 kilometers from its objective.
As for the 5th ID Bosanka of Colonel Roman Domanic, it is simple: it must flee to Kolašin, through a pass at 1,564 meters, under the bayonets of the 4th RST - which means that not everyone will make it... Colonel Roux does not feel at all in danger - so much so, in fact, that he completely neglects the valley of Plav (leading to the sector of Hani i Hotit, where the 3rd Polish ID confronts the legionnaires) to launch himself in pursuit of the enemy. Obviously, for him, the NDH army is not a serious adversary.
Operation Veritable - The Eagle and the Checkerboard
Montenegro - Artillery blasts, aerial bombardments and unsuccessful assaults follow one another on the Isthmus of Bar. However, in spite of the Beaumonts of the 235th Wing and the shells of the allied monitors - which fire without interruption and without opposition from the Adriatic on the positions of the 392. ID - the Blue Division clings to its rocks like its distant Spanish namesakes and allies against the Bolshevik wave. And since the infantrymen of the 5th ID of General Bolesław Bronisław-Duch always put in very little energy, the line finally moves only a little: Bojke falls, Kunje remains in Croatian hands, and the Poles are still 12 kilometers from Bar. They had only advanced ten kilometers in three days. And even then, thanks to the support of General Maczek's tanks, which are increasingly coming up to the line!
As for the 3rd ID of Zygmunt Piotr Bohusz-Szyszko, it has - finally! - seized Hani i Hotit and begins to descend along the coast towards Drume, always effectively contained by the Devil's Division - the 369. ID of Marko Mesić is still gaining time and again.
This painful situation, which has already been going on for three days, has various consequences.
In Pogdorica, Ivo Herenčić is decidedly not worried. Troops coming up from Albania! From the second line! Their efforts, obviously costly, will probably die out on their own. On the other hand, the collapse of the III Corps in the Berane sector opened a breach on its flank. In agreement (for once!) with Johann Mickl, he sends his only reserve, the 373rd ID Tigar divizija of Nikolaus Boicetta to blockade the Kolašin area. This solution found, the opinions diverge, however. In the mind of the Croat, it is a construction destined to last. In the mind of the German, in view of the overall development of the situation throughout Bosnia, it is a patch, before a more global overhaul of the Croat-German system! And since there is no one to arbitrate...
In Athens, on the other hand, despite the desperate efforts of the French hierarchy to hide the facts - or simply to present them favorably by highlighting the real difficulties encountered! - one is not at all satisfied with Gen. Władysław Albert Anders' army corps. Obviously, these Poles are really putting a lot of unwillingness to play their role in Veritable, an unwillingness close to insubordination. The visit of this general Kazimierz was a disaster - a real disaster, having done nothing but ruin the morale of the troops and encourage sedition. However, Monty is not one of those butchers of the Other War, quick to throw infantrymen forward under the machine guns with disciplinary threats. No - even if he remains indifferent to the moods felt in the Polish ranks, the British wants to remain positive and encourage his Slavs - at least at the beginning. First of all, he sends Anders a personal message: "You are the ass of the bottle - hold on while we fill it up!" - a somewhat obscure metaphor that won't help! And above all by sending a mission to help the exiles to organize their assaults...
Montenegrins - Opportunism
Veruša region (northern Montenegro) - Sekula Drljević, commander of a Montenegrin national armyvisibly as unreliable to his allies as to his competitors - it is not the late Pavle Đurišić who will say otherwise - gave up serving the NDH and the Axis. Now holed up in the mountains west of Vermosh, watching from a respectful distance his ex-friend Krsto Popović (whose "Greens" are not so far away), the former lawyer turned warlord and fascist politician in order to achieve his fiercely anti-Serbian goals, wonders if he has reached a dead end. For the time being and for lack of anything better, he therefore undertakes to move his forces westwards, towards the Morakovo Mountains (east of Nikšić), taking advantage of the fact that the Ustasha lines are still loose. It is that the Croats could be angry with him!
Operation Grenade - Explosive diversion
Vojvodina - Mihailovich's 2nd Yugoslav ID enters Čenta - under the protection of the FARY and with much less difficulty than expected. In fact, its opponent, the XXI. GAK, is now being redeployed on a line Zabalj - Zrenjanin, in order to parry the current envelopment attempt from the east and west, while shortening its lines to maintain the junction with the 20. Armee from Rendulic. It is moreover foreseen that the XXII. GAK to move as much... The Yugoslavs thus gained a foothold north of the canals linking Timiș and Danube, in an area obviously unsuitable for pursuit.
To the north, the 297. ID (Otto Gullmann) also fall behind the 1st Armored Brigade (Milutin D.Stefanović) and the 1st ID (Krstic) in the Farkaždin sector. Without panic, and with the support of the 1. Gebirgs (Hubert Lanz), which makes the interval. The Heer thus retreats by ten kilometers to the north, and some units prepare to cross the Bega at Perlez. On the other hand, in the evening, the 19. PanzerGrenadier Brandenburg leaves its positions in Jarkovac and moves forward to Kovačica, in a raid designed to gain time. It hoped to take advantage of the night to avoid being spotted immediately by the air force...
Operation Perun - Interdiction
Balkans - Today, in addition to ground support operations or interdiction of enemy communication routes, Air Marshal Tedder sends the A-20s of the 19th EB Gascogne to bomb the Nasice train station. Once again, the Luftwaffe did not show up - as for the ZNDH, it has other worries than a lost railway installation in Slavonia, in an area that is in any case contested by the Partisans. The NA-89 of the 9th EC (Czechoslovak) do not meet any adversary. One Havoc had an engine damaged by flak. It will return to its base without further trouble.
Waffen-SS of HG E - Requests for help
Sarajevo - For Obergruppenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger, the day is more difficult than usual. He has to deal with the consequences of the Allied advance towards Sarajevo (not yet really in contact with his troops, but that will come), the latest Croatian failure and (above all!) the renewed terrorist activity in his rear. Cursed the inadequacy of all his predecessors, those incompetents who are forcing him to make up for years of mistakes in one fell swoop!
In their current state, his forces obviously cannot do everything: confront the enemy in front and the terrorists behind, while holding the NDH at arm's length. It simply doesn't have the manpower to do it! Without wanting to see that he is in fact acting exactly like the "incompetents" who had occupied his position before him, Krüger asks for reinforcements.
First, he telephones Obergruppenführer Friedrich Rainer, the Reich Commissioner for the northeast Adriatic coast: the Oberbefehlshaber of his region was to help him solve the situation south of Rijeka, by mobilizing at least one regiment of his 173. ID (Franz Fehn) on this side. Fehn has nothing to fear: in case of problems on the shores of the Adriatic, the 292. ID would be there to deal with it. And in case of unrest in the interior, the Slovenian SS, and especially Gruppenführer Odilo Globocnik, are known for their efficiency...
After this, Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger obviously calls on Wewelsburg. Since Phelps' death, the interest of the ReichsFührer-SS in the region is well known...
AVNOJ
The final struggle
Slovenia - The AVNOJ forces in this region began their campaign of harassment and cutting of communication lines with a zeal and professionalism that is truly pleasing to the eye. In fact, Edvard Kardelj "Bevc" is not like some other comrades, a little soft in nature, or fearful of the opposite retaliation. The two army corps under his authority do not take long to make their presence felt... even if they remain at a good distance from the cities for the time being! On the other side, the collaborating forces are mainly represented by the Domobranci of Obergruppenführer Erwin Rösener, in the absence of an SS-Freiwilligen Gebirgs-Brigade Karstjäger. The man in black knew that he was outnumbered, with a slight tactical advantage: his troops also know the terrain and even benefit from the complicity of a part of the local population! And then they are a little better armed.
The confrontations do not take long to follow one another: in the forests south of Kočevje for Rajko Tanasković's 7th Corps, and to the east of Celje, at the level of Šentjur and Dramlje in particular, for Lado Ambrožič's 9th "Slovenian" Corps. Nothing decisive came out of it yet.
.........
Croatia, between Glina and Majur - The activation of the 10th "Zagreb" Corps in this sector poses a real problem for Ante Pavelic's forces. First, because the action of the AVNOJ, in the heart of an already fragile state, constitutes an umpteenth problem for a regime that already has bled between Bosnia, Montenegro and the events in the Požega region.
Then because the heart of the Ustasha army, which was supposed to confront the collectivist scum... is on the firing line, facing the Allied troops! One measures here how much the landing of the forces of the United Nations in Greece, then their rise towards the Danube, does harm to the NDH. Without this unpleasant occurrence, it would undoubtedly have been able, behind the German umbrella, to continue its crimes and schemes, perhaps until the last days of the conflict! Dark nightmare...
For the Croatian general staff, in view of the previous events, in particular those that occurred in March, to ask again for support from Berlin would obviously be a real humiliation, coupled with a cancellation of the poor remnant of Ustasha credibility. For want of better, and in the absence of this famous "assault division" still in formation and the ones that the Poglavnik seems to want to keep under his belt, we are thus reduced to soliciting the National Guard - the Hrvatsko Domobranstvo of Krilnik Ante Vokić. The poor relation of the NDH army, by dint of levies and transfers. It is therefore to be expected that it behave poorly.
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Croatia (north), Sava valley - On the Petar Drapšin side, the 5th Ustasha Corps continues to try to secure communications between Zagreb and the front - without really succeeding, due to a lack of manpower. Faced with raids by more mobile and (above all) more aggressive AVNOJ forces, the NDH army does not make any significant progress and does not attempt for the moment to attack the massifs surrounding Požega. The Germans did not fail to (discreetly) mock: "At the rate things are going, it is the front that will join them before they are done!" In reality, the Ustasha army - poorly equipped, understaffed and plagued by serious problems of desertion in its less supervised formations - is reduced to the defensive in the context of anti-Partisan operations on its own territory.
.........
Zagreb - Faced with this situation, General Slavko Štancer scratches his head to find troops to send to the Sava. Especially since, if the German ally is retreating (and it seems to be back!), we would then be dangerously close to the camp of Jasenovac. The latter is only 40 kilometers as the crow flies from Nova Gradiška, which had been retaken the day before.
The Ustasha is therefore scraping the bottom of the drawer, looking for a battalion, a group of conscripts, an irregular detachment that might have been forgotten... In fact, anything at all.
This is how the Croatian army will send to the front, in the middle of a jumble of pseudo-units, a section of three Polish Samochód Pancerny WZ. 34 Polish guns, captured in 1939 and transferred from service to service, until they ended up in some Nazi closet from which the local manager generously extracted them to offer them to the Croats: Berlin knows how to take care of its allies! The small vehicles, barely armored and equipped with a French 37 mm Puteaux SA 18 gun, not necessarily even supplied, set off for the battle. A sad end seems inevitable - but it must be said that the ZNDH is already flying Italian or French aircraft that have been out of date for years, so...
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Croatia (west), between Gospić and Knin - Andrija Hebrang continues to secure carefully the outskirts of his vast liberated area on the shores of the Adriatic. The 4th and 11th "Croatian" Corps of the AVNOJ sweep the Lapačko and Plitvice sectors without encountering much opposition. They still have a few days to secure villages and roads in the area. On the other hand, in the south, the 13th Division "from Primorje-Gorski Kotar" (commander Veljko Kovacevic, Commissar Josip Skočilić) advanced from Otočac in the direction of Brinje, pushing back the few sections deployed in the area by the 173. ID and supposedly reinforced by Slovenes from the Domobranci - who are obviously not numerous enough, or not motivated enough for the exercise. The AVNOJ thus seizes a number of villages and soon contests the crossroads of Žuta Lokva. A little more, and it will be in position to descend in force towards the Adriatic to threaten Rijeka... or else to go up north and Karlovac.
.......
Bosnia-Herzegovina - After a night of gathering ammunition, vehicles and light casualties, the 5th "Bosnian" Corps leaves the Doboj area to take the road north, towards the Sava Valley. Slavko Rodić, still wounded himself, still leaves the bulk of his command to his commissar Velimir Stojnic - who is significantly less experienced but quite popular with the troops and, moreover, knows the region well (he is originally from the Bosnian Krajina). The two officers of the AVNOJ had the ambition to march on Slavonski Brod, not so much to take it (they do not have the means!) as to threaten the V Ustasha Corps and thus reduce the pressure on the 6th "Slavon" Corps on the Požega side. In the worst case, it will always be possible, afterwards, to rally Petar Drapšin or to entrench in the marshes of Jelaš.
A helping hand from the French
Tirana - At the same time, General Sylvestre Audet - who had seen the efforts of the AVNOJ to facilitate the progression of its forces - officially asks Athens to engage a new campaign of massive parachuting to the AVNOJ. This is true, this will not necessarily be well received by all on the political level, but Alexandros Othonaios and Audet agree that any help is welcome to get out of this quagmire as soon as possible!
The response of the 18th AAG did not live up to expectations: all energies are concentrated on supplying the 8th Army, Veritable is only a diversion and... the affairs of Belgrade are still too much pending at this time to engage (London will obviously not specify its plans concerning the Serbs).
Fortunately for the 2nd French Army, Marseille - which received a copy of the message and the reply - will be more receptive. The Special Operational Transport Detachment in the Eastern Mediterranean had a large quantity of material destined for Warsaw in stock... and which had never been used.
Great ambitions
A cave north of Višegrad - Marshal Tito is happy: first, because the Allied offensive in Bosnia finally frees him from any risk of complete defeat by Krüger's SS - and when we talk about this, we are also talking about the risks that concern his own person. Secondly, and above all, because this same offensive naturally extends the territory from which he could draw new forces. The royal administration in Belgrade is clearly not in good standing with the West. And in any case, it does not have the human resources that could have allowed it to quickly regain control of the liberated areas. Otherwise, the French would not have invented the famous General Delegation for the administration of the liberated Yugoslav territories, a perfectly obvious sham of a control by their obliged parties of the zones of immediate use to them.
The field is thus free for the AVNOJ to strengthen itself and extend its order of battle, by recruiting and mobilizing as the Allies advanced - even if it meant collaborating at least temporarily with the Greek royalists, the French republicans, and even the Polish Catholic reactionaries. And Josip Broz had an appetite! His deputy Milovan Đilas, skilfully manoeuvring - but without distorting reality - estimates that it is possible to return within two months to the numbers before the February offensive, or even to exceed them if, by chance, the Allied progress was better than expected. In his words, it would be a question of doubling them!
It is true that in central Yugoslavia, that is to say especially in Bosnia, the AVNOJ seems to be carried by a popular enthusiasm more and more sincere, thanks to its victorious fights against assassins of all kinds, as well as its tendency to be concerned at least a little bit with the fate of the Bosnian citizen. A subject that Zagreb as well as Belgrade have probably lost sight of, if it ever had any importance in their eyes. And the consequences are visible today: for a large number of Bosnian Muslims who are tired of being the collateral victims of the confrontations between other fractions of the Yugoslav people, as well as for some Bosnian Croats worried about the disastrous fate promised to them by the pan-Serbian zealots of Peter II, Tito appeared more and more as a lesser evil. And many therefore now seem ready to support him openly, or even to defend him with arms in hand if necessary!
But for that, it is necessary to find the necessary material... Not completely trusting the Westerners, and moved by a sort of family reflex, Tito has, at first, aturally turns to Moscow in order to complete his arsenal, through the Korneev mission. The Fatherland of the Workers is now so powerful that it brought to its knees the Germans in Poland! Can it not help its brothers of the Balkans?
Undoubtedly Stalin is willing to consent to some donations by parachute... But his bases are still far, while his attention remains focused elsewhere, in particular on Hungary or (perhaps soon) on Slovakia. Yugoslavia is thus, once again, asked to wait. The same goes for the troops still being trained in the USSR, whose return to Bosnia would be very useful! As for the support of the VVS, we won't even talk about it.
So much for the grandiose internationalist projects of Tito... It will thus be necessary to improvise, as usual, begging the capitalists for the rope that will hang them tomorrow.
Finally... If the AVNOJ still has no air force, it has on the other hand a first armored platoon, including four FT-17s from royal stocks (and forgotten by the Germans), one R-35 of the same origin and two Somua S-35 used by the SS, damaged then abandoned before being more or less patched up.
At present, however, the Titist forces are planning to form at least three new divisions - the 41st and 42nd "Macedonian" Divisions, composed of rallies of ASNOM (about 8,000 men had fled the arrival of the royalist forces in November 1943, with their families - that's quite enough, by AVNOJ standards) and the 43rd "Istrian" Division (once the operations in the Adriatic have reached their inevitable positive conclusion, thanks to the energy of dear Hebrang). In the end, Tito and his commanders are under no illusions - these units will probably not have an operational existence for some time. But as is often the case in politics, the important thing is also in the symbol: by arming Macedonians, the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia proves that it cares about all the components of the homeland of the South Slavs - and, above all, that it did not favor any of them. United in the effort for the anti-fascist struggle! That is why it has not yet been decided to reform the 23rd and 24th Divisions. These are supposed to be composed of Serbs, who will have to be free one day from the royalist conscription...
In any case, the new egalitarian and federal Yugoslavia is being built from now on, with difficulty and with arms.
* The Karađorđević imposed themselves after a long struggle against the Obrenović, brought to power by the second anti-Turkish uprising. The latter were reputedly close to the Habsburgs, whereas the Karađorđević were supported by the Russian tsars.
** The mythical Slavic emperor, nothing like the Roman Trajan...
