Battle of Poljana

Battle of Poljana
Part of World War II in Yugoslavia
Captured Germans, Ustaše, Chetnik, Slovene soldiers and civilians in Maribor after the battle
Date May 14–15, 1945 Location Poljana, near the village of Prevalje, Yugoslavia Result Allied victory Axis forces surrender Beginning of the Bleiburg repatriations
Belligerents
Axis and collaborationist forces:  Germany  Independent State of Croatia Chetniks Slovenia Cossacks	Allies: Partisans  United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Alexander Löhr  August Schmidhuber  Helmuth von Pannwitz  Erwin Rösener  Desiderius Hampel  Ante Pavelić Vjekoslav Luburić Rafael Boban (MIA) Kosta Mušicki  Sekula Drljević † Leon Rupnik	Kosta Nađ Petar Drapšin
Units involved
Army Group E 104th Jäger Division 369th (Croatian) Infantry Division 373rd (Croatian) Infantry Division 392nd (Croatian) Infantry Division 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps Croatian Armed Forces Ustaše Militia Domobrans Chetniks Serbian Volunteer Corps Montenegrin National Army Slovenia SD	Yugoslav Army 3rd Army 4th Army
Strength
Mixed column of 30,000 Axis soldiers and civilians	Unknown
Casualties and losses
350 killed, wounded or missing	100 killed and wounded
Approximately 70,000 to 80,000 German, NDH, Chetnik, Slovene Home Guard soldiers and civilians massacred around Maribor
class=notpageimage| Location of Poljana in Slovenia

The Battle of Poljana took place outside of Poljana, near the village of Prevalje in Yugoslavia (modern-day Slovenia) between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, which consisted of the German Wehrmacht, the Croatian Armed Forces (which consisted of Home Guard and Ustaše soldiers), the Montenegrin People's Army (which was of former Chetniks and survivors of the Battle of Lijevče Field), the Serbian Volunteer Corps, the Slovene Home Guard, the 15th Waffen SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and other collaborationist forces who where on their way to surrender to the British in Austria. The battle was one of the last confrontations of World War II in Europe taking place on 14 and 15 May 1945, 6 days after Germany unconditionally capitualated.

Background[edit]

By May 1945, the European Axis powers had been defeated. When word of the war's end spread, a mixed column of 30,000 Wehrmacht, Waffen SS, Ustaše, Domobrans, Chetnik, Cossack soldiers and their families began staging a massive retreat north towards Austria to surrender to the British, who they saw would help them seek sanctuary. German General Alexander Löhr and Croatian dictator Ante Pavelić both gave orders to continue fighting in the direction of Cilli in Germany (modern-day Celje in Slovenia) and to Klagenfurt in Austria.

Despite assurances from the Partisan leader Tito that all Axis prisoners would be treated accordingly, rogue Partisans began summarily executing ethnic Germans, Hungarians, as well as suspected Croat, Serb and Slovene collaborators. Tito gave orders to the 3rd and 4th Armies in Carinthia to cut off the escape route into Austria. What remained of German Army Group E (7 German, 9 Croat, and 2 Cossack divisions of the Waffen SS), as well as other collaborators and civilians continued their way to the British.

Battle[edit]

On May 14 shortly before 9:00 am, the 30,000 strong column of German, Croat, Chetnik, and Slovene soldiers smashed through the defense of Poljana, which was a small town close to the Austrian border. The dire situation rapidly deteriorated into a bloodbath with artillery being exchanged by both sides which went on into the night. Large number of skirmishes took place around the field surronding Poljana, with individuals and small groups fleeing to the hills to make their own way towards Austria while others fell to complete confusion and chaos.

Finally on the morning of May 15, around 20 British tanks arrived and both sides made negotiations. The white flag of surrender was finally raised at 4pm.^[1] The Axis suffered 350 dead, while the Yugoslav Army only suffered 100 losses. It was one of the last battles of World War II in Europe and would be the culmination of the Axis retreat out of Yugoslavia.

Much to the horror of the column of Axis soldiers, the British made it harshly clear that they would not accept their surrender and instead they unconditionally surrendered to the Yugoslav Army. Britain, which at this point had tens of thousands of German, Ustaše, Chetnik, Cossack, Slovene soldiers and civilians in custody, handed the rest of their prisoners at gunpoint to the Yugoslav forces who began massacring the column in what became known as the Bleiburg repatriations.^[2]

See also[edit]

• Bleiburg massacre

References[edit]

Notes

Bibliography

• Thomas, N., Mikulan, K. and Pavelic, D. Axis Forces in Yugoslavia 1941-45, Osprey, London, 1995. ISBN 1-85532-473-3

External links[edit]

• Franci Strle: Veliki Finale na Koroškem (Grand Finale in Carinthia) (2nd edition, 1977) (in Slovene)
• extract from Franci Strle: Veliki Finale na Koroškem (Grand Finale in Carinthia) (2nd edition, 1977) (in Slovene)