Royal Yugoslavian Riflemen Body

On March 25 1941, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact, sealing their countries membership into the Axis. This pact was seen as intolerable by the majority of the Yugoslav people, and two days later, the Cvetkovic government was overthrown by a unified front of peasants, the church, unions and the military. A new government under Air Force Gen. Dusan Simovic immediately renounced Yugoslavia's position in the Tripartite Pact. Hitler had seen Yugoslavia as a bulwark against allied encroachment in that area, but also served a route for an invasion force to Greece. Now that Yugoslavia had renounced its position within the Axis, Hitler and his allies planned to invade the country. On April 6th 1941, Germany, Hungary, and Italy had begun their invasion of Yugoslavia. Royal Yugoslav soldiers were ill equipped, poorly lead, and lacked proper training, making them an easy adversary for the battle hardened German soldiers. Luftwaffe sorties destroyed any hope for the Royal Yugoslav Air Force, grounding their air units quickly and allowing the Axis to bomb major Yugoslav cities into capitulation. Italian and Hungarian force practically met no resistance for their part of the invasion, Yugoslav counterattacks for the Albanian front were attempted, but due to the army's collapse, they quickly failed. On April 18th, the Royal Yugoslavian government had capitulated and fled to Britain, where they would set up a "Government in Exile". Even after the partitioning of Yugoslavia into pro-Axis puppet governments, the partisan's efforts would divert an overwhelming amount of Axis forces that would be direly needed to reinforce other major fronts across Hitler's fronts.

 

 

WIP