Volksfront Kroatien

Happy Easter!

Hungarian soldiers show off a captured Serb Chetnik flag, 1941

A magyar katonák egy elfogott szerb csetnik zászlót mutatnak be, 1941

Members of the 369th reinforced infantry regiment return to Zagreb from the Eastern front for a short break on New Year's Day, edited and sent to us by a friend of the channel

Croatian Colonel Adolf Sabljak (left) and German Oberst Klaus Uebe (right), chief of staff from VIII Fliegerkorps visiting the Croatian part of the German frontline opposite Soviet held Northern Industrial Stalingrad on Height 107.5.

They are watching the bombardment preceding the offensive which was supposed to take the industrial centre but which would eventually grind to a firm halt a month later.

Date: 14 October 1942.

A Luftwaffe officer teaches a legionary from the aviation legion how to operate a MG 34

Sretan vam 10. travanj!

Happy April 10th!

The Liberation of Zagreb and the proclamation of the NDH, Down with the Serbian eagle...

Viktor Pavičić awards members of the 369th Reinforced Infantry regiment on the Eastern front

Radio Zagreb, Marshall Slavko Kvaternik proclaims the NDH After 839 years under foreign rule, the Croatian people taste freedom once more in its fully autonomous and Independent State of Croatia, whose establishment is solely due to God's Providence, the Poglavnik, Ustaše and the German liberators!

Bog i Hrvati i Za Dom spremni!

The Croatian nation, ever since its early beginning in the seventh century, has had to fight to preserve freedom and independence, and in the pursuit of democratic processes created, more than a thousand years ago, one of the oldest elected parlia mentary bodies, the Sabor; and Croatia is presently subjected to force and terror exerted by Yugoslavia which has prevented the election of representatives to the Sabor and has deprived Croatians of the basic human rights of self-determination, free elections, economy, culture, religion, and even language; and More than 150,000 Americans of Croatian descent live in California, participating in economic, cultural, and political developments of the Golden State and always maintaining their vigilance against Communist aggression by sharing their knowledge and experience; NOW THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA, do hereby proclaim April 10th as CROATIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY to honor these Californians and invite all citizens to give renewed devotion to the just aspirations of all people for national independence and human liberty.“

Today, In 1941 the Invasion of Yugoslavia also known as the April war (Travanjski rat) started, and with it one of the most destructive bombing campaign Serbia had ever seen before, Operation Punishment or the Bombing of Belgrade perpetrated by the Luftwaffe completely paralysed the communication between the Yugoslav army headquarters and the Yugoslav army making the army rapidly collapse due to it, during the bombing campaign Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Vojvodina were completely spared instead on these areas propaganda leaflets were dropped telling them to betray their serbian overseers and join the axis and so they did, Slovenes, Macedonians, Croats and Albanians conscripted to a army that wanted to genocide them deserted In droves. And this all was possible because of Vladimir Kren a Croatian major general who had defected to the Third Reich and told the locations of military assets and divulged the Yugoslav Air force codes.
Footage of the bombing

Klingenberg was with his SS men from Das Reich taking part in the invasion of Yugoslavia. Klingenberg disobeyed orders, and decided to reconnoiter Belgrade, with his units far ahead of the main German army. Finding a boat, he crossed the river, with the intention of ferrying a sizable force across; however, the boat sank, and he was left with just six men. Klingenberg then encountered some Yugoslav troops who had captured a drunken German tourist, and captured them after a number of firefights the six Germans, having sustained no casualties he made it to the centre of Belgrade with the tourist and their prisoners. There they raised a German flag. The Mayor of Belgrade, came out to meet them, after Klingenberg bluffed, telling him there was an incoming artillery barrage and an impending Luftwaffe attack. The mayor and some garrison troops surrendered the city to them on 12 April. At this point a few more of Klingenberg's men arrived the same way he had, and made a show of their presence, pretending that there was more of them than there were. The Wehrmacht eventually arrived, dumbfounded at the situation, having made a complex plan to take the city that was no longer needed, and was expected to cost thousands of lives. Klingenberg was awarded the Knight’s Cross for capturing the city, in effect capturing Belgrade with just himself, his six soldiers and the tourist.

Members of the 369th Reinforced Croatian Infantry Regiment inspect a destroyed armoured vehicle on the ruins of Stalingrad