| Operation Beta | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II in Yugoslavia | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Italy  Independent State of Croatia |  Yugoslav partisans | ||||||
The Battle of Livno is the name of several battles fought over the town of Livno during World War II, which changed hands between the Independent State of Croatia and Partisan forces several times.
Operation Beta followed on the heels of Operation Alfa in which Italian forces retook Prozor from the Partisans. Ten Italian battalions and two Ustaše battalions took the city from the Partisans with neither side suffering many casualties. [1]
| Battle of Livno | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II in Yugoslavia | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Independent State of Croatia 5th Ustaše Brigade | Yugoslav partisans 2nd Proletarian Division | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Rafael Boban | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1,200 soldiers | 3,000 soldiers | ||||||
The defence of the city was led by Rafael Boban and elements of his Black Legion. The battle resulted in Boban's forces retreating from Livno. Approximately 100 Croatian soldiers and 74 Partisan soldiers were killed in the battle. [2]
| Operation Ziethen | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II in Yugoslavia | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Nazi Germany Independent State of Croatia | Yugoslav partisans | ||||||
Operation Ziethen was a German-Croatian military operation which sought to reestablish control over the Livno–Šuica–Duvno area. [3] The entire operation was a great success for the Axis forces. A mass grave containing over 1,000 bodies of people executed by the Partisans was subsequently discovered near Livno. The success of the operation resulted in over 1,000 volunteers from the area to join the Croatian forces. [3]
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.
The Yugoslav Partisans, or the National Liberation Army, officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia, was the communist-led anti-fascist resistance to the Axis powers in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. Led by Josip Broz Tito, the Partisans are considered to be Europe's most effective anti-Axis resistance movement during World War II.
Livno is a city and the administrative center of Canton 10 of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the river Bistrica in the southeastern edge of the Livno Field at the foot of Kruzi plateau which are located beneath the Cincar mountain and rocky hill Crvenice. Livno is the centre of the Canton 10 which mainly covers an area of the historical and geographical region of Tropolje. As of 2013, it has a population of 37,487 inhabitants. The town, with its historic ruins and old town from the 9th century, was first mentioned in 892, developing at the crossroads between the Adriatic coast and inland, i.e., regions of Bosnia, Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Krajina.
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 Black Legion, officially the 1st Standing Active Brigade, was an Ustaše genocidal militia infantry unit active during World War II in Independent State of Croatia. The legion was formed in September 1941 as the 1st Ustaša Regiment. It consisted largely of Bosnian Muslim and Croat refugees from eastern Bosnia, where large massacres were carried out by Chetniks and to a small degree by the Yugoslav Partisans. It became known for its fierce fighting against the Chetniks and the Partisans and massacres against Serb civilians. The legion's commanders were Colonel Jure Francetić and Major Rafael Boban. It consisted of between 1,000 and 1,500 trained mechanized infantrymen.
Operation Alfa was an offensive carried out in early October 1942 by the military forces of Italy and the Axis puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), supported by Chetnik forces under the control of vojvoda Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin. The offensive was directed against the communist-led Partisans in the Prozor region, then a part of the NDH. The operation was militarily inconclusive, and in the aftermath, Chetnik forces conducted mass killings of civilians in the area.
Franjo Šimić was a Croatian colonel, and later general, in the Croatian Home Guard.
The Bihać Republic was a short-lived republic that existed between November 1942 and January 1943 in a liberated area of Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. It was established by the Partisan resistance movement following the liberation of Bihać. Bihać became its administrative center and the first session of the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) was held there on 26 November 1942.
The Ustaše Militia was the military branch of the Ustaše, established by the fascist and genocidal regime of Ante Pavelić in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), an Axis puppet state established from a large part of occupied Yugoslavia during World War II.
The Battle of Kupres was a battle fought in 1942 during World War 2 in Independent State of Croatia between the forces of the Independent State of Croatia and the Yugoslav Partisans, in and around the town of Kupres in western Bosnia. The Partisans launched three concentrated attacks against the garrison of 1,500 men during the nights of 11/12 August, 14 August and 19 August. Although outnumbered, the Black Legion, Croatian Home Guard and local militia units successfully defended the town against several Partisan brigades.
Bajo Stanišić was a Montenegrin Serb officer of the Royal Yugoslav Army, who was one of the participants of the Uprising in Montenegro against the Italian occupation forces in 1941. After the suppression of the uprising, he became one of the commanders of the Chetnik units in Montenegro and openly collaborated with Fascist Italy until his death in 1943.
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.
When World War II started, Zagreb was the capital of the newly formed autonomous Banovina of Croatia within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which remained neutral in the first years of the war. After the Invasion of Yugoslavia by Germany and Italy on 6 April 1941, German troops entered Zagreb on 10 April. On the same day, Slavko Kvaternik, a prominent member of the Ustaše movement, proclaimed the creation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), an Axis puppet state, with Zagreb as its capital. Ante Pavelić was proclaimed Poglavnik of the NDH and Zagreb became the center of the Main Ustaša Headquarters, the Government of the NDH, and other political and military institutions, as well as the police and intelligence services.
The siege of Rogatica was a joint attack of Partisan and Chetnik rebel forces on Rogatica, then held by the Independent State of Croatia. The siege continued between 13 and 24 October 1941.
The Voćin massacre was the killing of 350 Serb civilians in Voćin, Independent State of Croatia, by the Ustaše Croatian fascist organization on 14 January 1942, during World War II. The massacre was carried out as retaliation against the partisans' action in Papuk.
The Kulen Vakuf massacre was committed during World War II by Communist-led Yugoslav Partisans and groups of non-communist Serb rebels, killing 1,000 to 3,000 Ustaše prisoners as well as Muslim, and a smaller number of Croat, civilians in early September 1941 in Kulen Vakuf, part of the Independent State of Croatia. The local Ustaše had previously massacred Serbs in Kulen Vakuf and surrounding villages.
The attack on Šabac was attack of the united rebel forces of the Chetniks, forces of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and Pećanac Chetniks against German forces garrisoned in Šabac in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia in period between 21 and 26 September 1941, during the Uprising in Serbia.
The Mačva operation or Cleaning Up the Sava Crescent was a German military operation during the uprising in the German-occupied territory of Serbia. This operation was in some contemporary German documents and in some works was referred to as operation Cleansing of Mačva.
The Einsatzstaffel der Deutschen Mannschaft (EDM) was a military unit of the Axis puppet state the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), whose members were ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) who lived in Slavonia and Syrmia. The EDM was part of the Ustaše Militia.
The Bihać operation was a military operation conducted by Yugoslav partisans against the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Nazi Germany during World War II. The aim of the operation was to capture Bihać and the surrounding towns to connect Partisan held areas in Bosanska Krajina, and Knisnka Krajina. The battle for the city of Bihać lasted from 2 November to 4 November 1942. After capturing the city, the partisans continued to fight in surrounding areas until 15 November. The operation resulted in a major Partisan victory, with Bihać and the surrounding areas being captured, and the NDH suffering significant casualties.
43°50′N17°04′E / 43.833°N 17.067°E
