The 1st Proletarian Corps (Serbo-Croatian Latin : Prvi proleterski korpus) was a Yugoslav Partisan corps that fought against the Germans, Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Chetniks in occupied Democratic Federal Yugoslavia during World War II.
It was created on 5 October 1943 from the 1st Proletarian and 6th "Nikola Tesla" Divisions. On 15 September 1944 the "Operational Group of divisions" (5th, 17th and 21st Divisions) became also part of the 1st Corps. Its first commander was Koča Popović, succeeded in July 1944 by Peko Dapčević.
Until the middle of June 1944, the 1st (Proletarian) Corps operated in Western and Central Bosnia and Lika, where it fought heavy battles with units of the German 15th Mountain, 5th SS Mountain and 69th Corps. In 1943–1944, it participated in the Banja Luka Operation and Drvar Operation. In May 1944 it withstood the German Operation Rösselsprung (1944).
In August 1944 it made an attack over Zlatibor into Serbia and defeated the Chetniks at Maljen and Suvobor.
In autumn 1944, it fought in the Belgrade operation and then on the Syrmian Front.
On 1 January 1945 the 1st Corps was reformed into the 1st Army.
Case White, also known as the Fourth Enemy Offensive, was a combined Axis strategic offensive launched against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. It was one of the most significant confrontations of World War II in Yugoslavia. The offensive took place in early 1943, between 20 January and mid-to-late March. The Axis operation prompted the Partisan Supreme Command to enact its plans to drive toward eastern Herzegovina, Sandžak and Montenegro.
Case Black, also known as the Fifth Enemy Offensive in Yugoslav historiography and often identified with its final phase, the Battle of the Sutjeska was a joint attack by the Axis taking place from 15 May to 16 June 1943, which aimed to destroy the main Yugoslav Partisan force, near the Sutjeska river in south-eastern Bosnia. The failure of the offensive marked a turning point for Yugoslavia during World War II. It was also the last major German-Italian joint operation against the partisans.
Operation Rösselsprung was a combined airborne and ground assault by the German XV Mountain Corps and collaborationist forces on the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Partisans in the Bosnian town of Drvar in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. It was launched 25 May 1944, with the goal of capturing or killing Partisan leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito and destroying the headquarters, support facilities and co-located Allied military missions. It is associated with the Seventh Enemy Offensive in Yugoslav history, forming part of the Seven Enemy Offensives historiographical framework. The airborne assault itself is also known as the Raid on Drvar.
The 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen", initially named the SS-Volunteer Division Prinz Eugen, was a mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, an armed branch of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. From 1942 to 1945, the division fought a counter-insurgency campaign against communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance forces in occupied Yugoslavia. It was formed in 1941 from both Reich Germans and Volksdeutsche – ethnic German volunteers and conscripts from the Banat, Independent State of Croatia, Hungary and Romania. The division surrendered on 11 May 1945 to Yugoslav partisan forces.
The Serbian Volunteer Corps, also known as Ljotićevci, was the paramilitary branch of the fascist political organisation Zbor, and collaborated with the forces of Nazi Germany in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II.
Operation Southeast Croatia was a large-scale German-led counter-insurgency operation conducted in the southeastern parts of the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. It was the first of two German-led operations targeting mainly Yugoslav Partisans in eastern Bosnia between 15 January and 4 February 1942. Several days after the conclusion of Operation Southeast Croatia, a follow-up operation known as Operation Ozren was carried out between the Bosna and Spreča rivers. Both operations also involved Croatian Home Guard and Italian troops and are associated with what is known as the Second Enemy Offensive in post-war Yugoslav historiography. The Second Enemy Offensive forms part of the Seven Enemy Offensives framework in Yugoslav historiography.
World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was invaded and swiftly conquered by Axis forces and partitioned among Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and their client regimes. Shortly after Germany attacked the USSR on 22 June 1941, the communist-led republican Yugoslav Partisans, on orders from Moscow, launched a guerrilla liberation war fighting against the Axis forces and their locally established puppet regimes, including the Axis-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and the Government of National Salvation in the German-occupied territory of Serbia. This was dubbed the National Liberation War and Socialist Revolution in post-war Yugoslav communist historiography. Simultaneously, a multi-side civil war was waged between the Yugoslav communist Partisans, the Serbian royalist Chetniks, the Axis-allied Croatian Ustaše and Home Guard, Serbian Volunteer Corps and State Guard, Slovene Home Guard, as well as Nazi-allied Russian Protective Corps troops.
The 369th (Croatian) Infantry Division was a legionary division of the German Army (Wehrmacht) during World War II.
The 373rd (Croatian) Infantry Division was a division of the German Army during World War II. It was formed in June 1943 using a brigade from the Home Guard of the Independent State of Croatia with the addition of a German cadre. The division was commanded by Germans down to battalion and even company level in nearly all cases, and was commonly referred to as a "legionnaire division". Originally formed with the intention of service on the Eastern Front, it was used instead for anti-Partisan operations in the territory of the NDH until the end of the war. It fought mainly in the western areas of the NDH, and was involved in the attempt to kill or capture the leader of the Partisans, Josip Broz Tito, in May 1944. Severely depleted by desertion, the division withdrew towards the Reich border in the early months of 1945, eventually surrendering to the Partisans on 10 May 1945 near Brežice in modern-day Slovenia.
The 1st Proletarian Brigade, later the 1st Proletarian Division, was the first brigade-size formation raised by the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. The unit was one of the elite formations of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. Its combat value was respected by the enemy. Artur Phleps, V SS Mountain Corps commander, in his war journal in 1944 assessed as a serious opponent, very well managed and well trained, who fights like a regular troop.
The 3rd Corps was a Yugoslav Partisan corps that fought against the Germans, Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Chetniks in occupied Democratic Federal Yugoslavia during World War II. It was created in November 1942 as the 1st Bosnian Corps, and underwent a name change in 1943. It grew in size until 1 January 1945 when it was subordinated to the Partisan 2nd Army. The 3rd Corps spent most of 1944 engaged in hard fighting against the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar in eastern Bosnia.
The 27th East Bosnia Division was a Yugoslav Partisan division that fought against the Germans, Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Chetniks in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II.
The 12th Corps was a corps of the Yugoslav Partisans that fought against the Germans, Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Chetniks in occupied Democratic Federal Yugoslavia during World War II.
The battle of Knin was a major Yugoslav Partisan operation during World War II in Yugoslavia launched by the 8th Dalmatian Corps from 7 November to 9 December 1944 with the purpose of destroying German, Ustaše and Chetnik formations in North Dalmatia and the city of Knin, then part of the Independent State of Croatia. It was the final part of the 8th Corps offensive for the liberation of Dalmatia which began on 12 September 1944. The Knin operation had three phases: Initial battles on approaches to Knin from 7 November to 25 November, main battle and liberation of Knin from 26 November to 4 December, and final battles and pursuit of retreating Axis forces to Otrić in Lika from 5 December to 9 December.
The Partisan Long March was the redeployment of Josip Broz Tito's Partisan Supreme Headquarters and the major fighting elements of the Yugoslav Partisans across the Independent State of Croatia, from south-eastern to north-western Bosnia that commenced in late June 1942. The march followed the first large-scale joint German-Italian counter-insurgency operation in the NDH, Operation Trio, and the combined Italian-Montenegrin Chetnik offensive in Montenegro and eastern Herzegovina.
The 2nd Assault Corps was a Yugoslav Partisan corps that fought against the Germans, Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Chetniks in occupied Democratic Federal Yugoslavia during World War II.
The 5th Bosnian Corps was a Yugoslav Partisan corps that fought against the Germans, Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Chetniks in occupied Democratic Federal Yugoslavia during World War II.
The First Proletarian Division of the NOVJ was formed on November 1, 1942 from the First Proletarian Brigade, the Third Proletarian Brigade and the Third Krajina Brigade in Bosanski Petrovac, under command of Koča Popović. It was considered one of the elite units of the NOVJ.
The 6th Proletarian Assault Lika Division "Nikola Tesla" was a Yugoslav Partisan division formed on 22 November 1942. It was formed from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Lika Brigades. On 11 November 1943, it became part of the 4th Corps and later a part of the 1st Corps. It operated in Dalmatia until November 1943 when it crossed into Bosnia, later it fought in Serbia and on the Syrmian Front. From October 1944, the 22nd Serbian Kosmaj Brigade also fought as part of the division, and in December 1944 an Artillery Brigade was formed within the division.
The 5th Krajina Division was a Yugoslav Partisan division formed in Glamočko polje on 9 November 1942.
