Croatian Home Guard (Croatian: Hrvatsko domobranstvo, often abbr. to Domobrani) was the name used for the regular armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia which existed during World War II. The Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) was the name of the state that encompassed most of Croatia during the World War II. It was set up in April 1941 on parts of the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after its occupation by the forces of... Jump to: navigation, search World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that...

Formation

The Croatian Home Guard was founded in April 1941, a few days after the founding of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) itself, following the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was done with the authorisation of German occupation authorities. A Home Guard is a part-time civilian reserve military force similar to a militia. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a Balkan state which existed from December 1, 1918 to mid-April 1941. ... Occupation may refer to: the principal activity (job or calling) that earns money for a person (see profession, business) the periods of time following a nations territory invasion by controlling enemy troops (see belligerent occupation) any activity that occupies an important portion of a persons attention (see fan... In politics, authority generally refers to the ability to make laws, independent of the power to enforce them, or the ability to permit something. ...

Its name was taken from the old Royal Croatian-Hungarian Home Guard - the Croatian section of the Honved component of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Honvéd was a specifically Hungarian army within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, distinct from the Austrian Landwehr. ... The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. ...

Croatian Home Guard was originally limited to 16 infantry battalions and 2 cavalry squadrons - 16,000 men in total. Soon, due to the inability of the NDH to extend its authority throughout its entire territory, notably in the Serb-populated areas, the Germans allowed Croatian Home Guard to be expanded. The Home Guard reached its maximum size at the end of 1943, when it had 130,000 men. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... In military terminology, a battalion consists of two to six companies typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel. ... Italian cavalry officers practice their horsemanship in 1904 outside Rome. ... A Squadron is a grouping of aircraft, naval vessels, armoured fighting vehicles or soldiers. ... Serbs (in the Serbian language Срби, Srbi) are a south Slavic people living chiefly in Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ...

Croatian Home Guard also included a small air force, and an even smaller navy, limited by a special treaty with fascist Italy. The navy comprised a few boats. An air force is a military organization that primarily operates in air-based war. ... U.S. Navy supercarrier USS Nimitz on November 3, 2003. ... Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the right-wing authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Lobster boat A boat is a watercraft, usually smaller than most ships. ...

Weaknesses

Despite being best-armed, best-supplied and having the best logistics and infrastructure of all domestic military formations in World War II Yugoslavia, the Croatian Home Guard failed to become efficient fighting force for a variety of reasons. Inside Nexus Distribution, a United States logistics provider. ... Jump to: navigation, search World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that...

The most immediate reason was the lack of professional officers. Although initially significant numbers of ethnic Croat officers from the old Yugoslav army joined the Croatian Home Guard, they were mistrusted by new Ustasha regime. Instead, the higher ranks were filled by presumably more reliable former Austro-Hungarian officers. Those men were old, retired and generally had little knowledge of modern warfare. NDH authorities tried to remedy this by forming officer schools and having junior staff trained in Italy and Germany, but effects of this policy came too late to affect the outcome of the war. Any holder of an office or of a post may bear the title officer. ... Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a south Slavic people mostly living in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (where theyre one of the constitutive nations). ... The Ustaše (often spelled Ustashe in English; singular Ustaša or Ustasha) was a Croatian right-wing organisation put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers in 1941. ... Military rank, or simply rank, is a system of grading seniority and command within military organizations. ... Retirement is the status of a worker who has stopped working. ...

The other, more practical, reason was the rivarly between the Croatian Home Guard and the Ustasha Militia (Croatian Ustaška vojnica), the less numerous but yet more reliable military formation. Those two formations never properly integrated their activiteis and Militia was gradually taking more and more dwindling resources from Home Guard.

Third and, arguably, the most important reason was gradually declining support for Ustasha regime among ethnic Croats, first fueled by the abandonment of Dalmatia to Italy, then by the prospect of the Home Guard being used by Germans as cannon fodder on the Eastern Front - a repeat of generally traumatic experience from the First World War. This process intensified with more certain prospect of Axis powers, and NDH with them, losing the Second World War. Dalmatia (Croatian Dalmacija, Italian Dalmazia, Serbian Далмација) is a region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, mostly in modern Croatia, spreading between the island of Pag in the northwest and the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. ... Cannon Fodder is an expression used to denote the treatment of armed forces as a worthless commodity to be expended. ... The Eastern Front of World War II was the theatre of war covering the conflict in eastern Europe. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Defections

Even in 1941 this began to reflect in Croatian Home Guards being infiltrated by resistance groups. Partisans, who were based on non-sectarian ideology and had Croatian statehood as part of their platform, were more successful in making inroads into the Home Guard than Serb-dominated Chetniks. A year later, this manifested in Croatian Partisan commanders refering to Home Guard as their "supply depot", due to Home Guard personnel being reliable source of arms, ammunition, supplies and intelligence, or the fact that Home Guard units preferred surrender or retreat to any serious combat in anything less than completely favourable situatuon. On the other hand, among the more loyal and more pro-Axis elements of NDH, Home Guards developed reputation of cowards and traitors, although this reputation was not always justified, especially among units recruited from Bosnia or among the Bosnian Muslims. Resistance can mean one of: electrical resistance inner resistance antibiotic resistance resistance to a disease (see related subject immunology) a political or military resistance movement against foreign occupation, or more rarely, against ones own government geological resistance fluid resistance thermal resistance Resistance Records Air resistance This is a disambiguation... The Column The Yugoslav Partisans were the main resistance movement engaged in the fight against the Axis forces in the Balkans during World War II. // Origins The Rebellion The Yugoslav Partisans went under the official name of Peoples Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (Narodno-oslobodilačka vojska... An ideology is a collection of ideas. ... , Chetnik officer The Chetniks (Serbian ÄŒetnici, Четници) were a Serbian nationalist and royalist organization with origins in the 19th century Serbian movement opposing Ottoman rule. ... The word arms may refer to: The arm is anatomically the part of the body extending from the shoulder to the elbow. ... Boxes of ammunition clog a warehouse in Baghdad Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. ... The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). ... Intelligence has two different common meanings : Intelligence (trait) Animal intelligence Artificial intelligence Intelligence (information gathering) Business intelligence Military espionage This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Surrender is when soldiers give up fighting and become prisoners of war, either as individuals or when ordered to by their officers. ... The term retreat has several related meanings, all of which have in common the notion of safety or temporarily removing oneself from ones usual environment. ... Combat, or fighting, is purposeful conflict between one or more persons, often involving violence and intended to establish dominance over the opposition. ... Cowardice is a vice. ... In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ... Bosnia and Herzegovina (officially Bosna i Hercegovina, shortened to BiH, also in English variously written Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bosnia-Hercegovina) is a mountainous country in the western Balkans. ... Bosniaks (natively: Bošnjaci) are South Slavs descended from those who converted to Islam during the Ottoman period (15th-19th century). ...

Following the capitulation of Italy in September 1943 and the first aid shipments from the Western Allies, military situation in Yugoslavia began to even more dramatically shift in favour of the Partisans. By mid-1944, many Home Guard personnel and units began to openly side with Partisans, leading to mass defections that included battalion-size formations and officers in the rank of general. By November 1944 the defections and desertions reduced the size of the Croatian Home Guard to 70,000 men. The Western Allies were the democracies and their colonial peoples, within the broader coalition of Allies during World War II. The term is generally understood to refer to the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations (from 1939), exiled forces from Occupied Europe (from 1940), the United States (from 1941), and... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... A defector is generally a person who gives up allegiance to a certain country in exchange for allegiance to another. ... General is a military rank used by nearly every country in the world. ... Desertion is the act of abandoning or withdrawing support from an entity to which one has given an oath, or has claimed to owe allegiance, responsibility or loyalty. ...

NDH government, under heavy German pressure, reacted to this by formally integrating Croatian Home Guard and Ustasha Militia. New and more reliable officers were appointed, and draconian measures introduced to increase discipline and prevent further defections. As a result, by May 1945, the NDH armed forces in total numbered 130,000 men. Draco is an Athenian law scribe, whose laws were described as Draconian. Draconian (D&D) refers to creatures unique to the Dragonlance fantasy world. ...

In May 1945, following the final Partisan offensive and collapse of the NDH, remaining Home Guard units joined other Axis forces and civilian refugees in the last desperate attempt to seek shelter among Western allies. This resulted in many Home Guards becoming victims of Bleiburg massacre that followed and during which the victorious Partisans showed little mercy or even tendency to treat captured Home Guards separately from captured Ustashas. Those Home Guards who survived the ordeal, as well as members of their families, were mostly treated as second-class citizens in Tito's Yugoslavia, although there were some exceptions, most notably with the legendary sportscaster Mladen Delić. Offensive may relate to In sports or combat, the team which is attacking, pitching or moving forwards In language or morals, terms and concepts which are unacceptable to some people, such as swearing and profanity. ... The Bleiburg massacre was a war-related incident that happened near the end of World War II, during May 1945. ... The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a Balkan state that existed from 1945 to 1992. ...

Home Guard in modern Croatia

As Croatia gained independence during the Yugoslav wars, the new nationalist government of Franjo Tuđman began the process of historical revision of Home Guards and their role in World War II, in many ways similar to the process currently applied to the Chetniks in Serbia. The Yugoslav wars were a series of violent conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia that took place between 1991-2001. ... Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ... Franjo TuÄ‘man (May 14, 1922 - December 10, 1999) was the first president of Croatia in the 1990s. ... Jump to: navigation, search Serbia and Montenegro  â€“ Serbia    â€“ Kosovo and Metohia        (UN administration)    â€“ Vojvodina  â€“ Montenegro Official language Serbian1 Capital Belgrade Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % water  88,361 km²  n/a Population  â€“ Total (2002)     (without Kosovo)  â€“ Density  7. ...

Instead of treacherous quisling, or at best, ridiculously inefficient formation as they have been in previous regime, they are hailed as symbol of Croatian statehood and military virtue. The very name "Home Guard" is taken as a symbol of true Croatian soldier not being involved in any aggresive war or attacking someone else's country - although involvement of the Home Guards in Battle of Stalingrad or in the German offensive in 1941 Serbia points otherwise. For many modern Croatian nationalists, a more positive appraisal of Home Guards is good way to point towards positive aspects of NDH without justifying Ustasha atrocities, in which Home Guards presumably didn't participate (in a same way many try to separate Wehrmacht from Nazism). Look up Quisling in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Quisling is the surname of Vidkun Quisling the leader of the Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling (NS) and a staunch ally of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was executed by firing squad for his crimes. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Battle of Stalingrad was a major turning point in World War II, and is considered the bloodiest and largest battle in human history. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... An atrocity (from the Latin atrox, atrocious, from Latin ater = matte black (as distinct from niger = shiny black)) is a term used to describe crimes ranging from an act committed against a single person to one committed against a population or ethnic group. ... Wehrmacht   listen? was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ... The term National Socialism has been used in self-description by a number of different political groups and ideologies, some of which have no connection with the Nazis; see National socialism (disambiguation). ...

Rehabilitation of Home Guards officially reflected in surviving Home Guards receiving pensions and other state benefits. A pension (also known as superannuation) is a retirement plan intended to provide a person with a secure income for life. ...

The local-based Croatian ground army regiments are named the Home Guard Regiments (Domobranska pukovnija).