Balkans

1941–1945: The partisan war in Yugoslavia

July 1941 – May 1945 · 2 battles

After the partition of Yugoslavia in April 1941 a partisan war, which was also a civil war, broke out on its territory. Josip Broz Tito’s communist Partisans and Dragoljub Mihailović’s royalist Chetniks fought, first together and then against each other, against the German, Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian occupiers and against the Ustaša Independent State of Croatia. Germany and its allies mounted a series of great offensives against the Partisans – on the Neretva and the Sutjeska in 1943 Tito barely escaped destruction – and the civilian population paid for every act of resistance with mass reprisals. From 1943 the Western Allies backed Tito, and after Italy’s surrender his army grew to hundreds of thousands of men; the war ended in May 1945 with the liberation of the country and the communists’ seizure of power.

15 May – 16 June 1943Key battleBattle of the SutjeskaIn May–June 1943 Axis forces trapped Tito's main force in the Montenegrin mountains. The Partisans broke out across the Sutjeska, losing one man in three.
28 September – 20 October 1944Belgrade offensive28 September – 20 October 1944. The Red Army, Tito's partisans and the Bulgarian army drove the Germans out of eastern Serbia and liberated Belgrade.