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by Antonio J. Munoz.
Hardback (6.8×9.7 inches). 128 pages. 2025.
Subtitle: The Croatian Army and the Battle for Yugoslavia 1941-1945
The Yugoslavian guerillas, especially under Tito, caused the Germans and Italians significant problems in trying to control Yugoslavia and its lines of communications to Greece and elsewhere. With German attention riveted on the Eastern Front in the USSR, only minimal German forces were sent to Yugoslavia, and mostly not first-rate divisions at that. That meant raising local forces, including Croatian units that eventually became division sized.
Croatian units were equipped largely as German units, albeit with less heavy equipment such as artillery and vehicles. The text does a commendable job at explaining the changing TO&Es and OOBs throughout the war. Appendices cover Croatian Navy and Air Force.
Guerrilla sweeps are covered at the operational level, with the focus on operations using Croatian units. Of note is the lackadaisical Italian approach to coordinating with the Germans. Many times the Italians were slow to close gaps and the guerrillas often slipped away.
Couple typos: “Edit of Milan” (p5) is likely Edict, and, “. the” (p23) needs the T capitalized. One odd statement: “Hitler’s plans for Europe called for Italy to remain neutral in the war” (p36). Mussolini’s comments from other books indicate he was told the war would start in 1944 or so, not that Italy was to remain neutral.
The book contains 32 black and white photo, 24 black and white illustrations, 22 black and white maps, and four black and white graphical TO&Es.
I had only an inkling that Croatian units were raised by the Germans in WWII. Now I have a thorough examination of the process, organization, and use of these troops against Tito’s partisans in Yugoslavia during the war.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
