WI: Yugoslavia resists

What if the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had offered much more resistance against invading Axis forces and inflicted heavier casualties against the Axis?

What POD would this require?
 
I think the biggest reason Yugoslavia suffered militarily was because of politics. Sure, Banovina of Croatia was there, but too little too late.

If you somehow federalize the country in the early 1920s along ethnic lines (no oblasts or banovinas), either by significantly weakening the Serbian radicals under Pašić or by somehow flipping King Aleksandar's personality and making him sympathetic to the plight of the Croats, then I think there is a good chance Yugoslavia will put up quite a fight, seeing as Aleksandar was already buddy-buddy with the French who financially supported the formation of the Little Entente alliance (Yugoslavia+Romania+Czechoslovakia encircling Hungary).

That way, with a mellower Aleksandar, the chances of his assassination happening drop significantly, and add to that just a tiny bit of clairvoyance regarding the Nazi/Fascist threat, and I think modernization of the Royal Yugoslav Army will happen faster, and more importantly, more efficiently than in our timeline.
 
What if the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had offered much more resistance against invading Axis forces and inflicted heavier casualties against the Axis?

What POD would this require?
That's tough, I mean not only did they have a WWI vintage army, but they were invaded from all sides by 4 countries, each of which had a far more capable army. Additionally in order to set up an actually defensive line the Kingdom has to openly hand the Slovenes out to dry (OTL their defences were extended north into the relatively flat Ljubljana Gap).

What they need more than anything is allies, or at least neutral neighbours to shorten the frontier.
 
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