The Balkans Campaign 1941 – The Nazi Invasion of Yugoslavia

The Führer and the Duce in München on June 18 1940

Waffen-SS officers of the Reich Division in April 1941

Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy had signed the Axis Treaty in 1936, and the Rome–Berlin Axis became a military alliance in 1939 under the so-called Pact of Steel. Officially, the Pact of Steel obliged Germany and Italy to aid the other country militarily and economically in the event of war, and to collaborate in wartime production. The Balkans Campaign was the invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia in 1941. It began with Benito Mussolini's ill-fated invasion of Greece on October 28 1940. Mussolini surprised everyone with this move against Greece; even his ally, Adolf Hitler, was caught off-guard. Hitler denounced the move as a major strategic blunder and it proved to be a disastrous military campaign for the Duce's forces. To make matters worse, virtually half the Italian fleet at Taranto had been crippled by a British carrier-based attack. Germany intervened on April 6 1941 and invaded Greece after a successful invasion of Yugoslavia. Hitler had already begun planning to invade Greece in November 1940, after the British occupied Crete and Lemnos. The aim of the operation was to prevent the British from getting air bases within striking range of the Romanian oilfields. Breaking through the Yugoslav lines in southern Yugoslavia allowed Germany to send reinforcements to the battlefields of northern Greece. Credit: History. Top image: the two dictators Hitler and Mussolini in München about four months before Italy's surprise attack against Greece. National Archives. Bottom image: according to British military historian Gordon Williamson the photo shows officers of the elite SS-Division Reich during the invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

ϟϟ-Division „Reich“ and the Capture of Belgrade

Serbian officer surrendering to Reich officer 

SS-Feldgendarmerie in the Balkans

Reich officer SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritz Klingenberg

Fritz Klingenberg interrupted his university studies of science and history at the University of Rostock in 1934 and joined the SS-Verfügungstruppe. He became one of the first ever graduates of the new SS-Junkerschule at Bad Tölz in 1935. Klingenberg served with SS-Division Reich during the Invasion of Yugoslavia in March 1941. He was best known for his unorthodox and audacious capture of the Yugoslavian capital Belgrade for which he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. On the morning of April 12 1941, SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritz Klingenberg disobeyed orders, and decided to reconnoiter Belgrade. Klingenberg and members of his motorcycle assault company crossed the Danube river and approached the city with only six men. They encountered some Yugoslav troops, who had captured a drunk German tourist, whom they in turn captured. Receiving some reinforcements the Reich detachment unfurled a large swastika and raised it over the embassy to declare the capture of the city. Two hours later, the mayor of Belgrade arrived at the embassy and surrendered the city to Klingenberg. It was not until the next day that a sizeable German force arrived to secure the city. On December 21 1944, the front veteran Fritz Klingenberg was promoted to SS-Standartenführer and ordered to take command of the German-Latin 17.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Götz von Berlichingen southeast of Saarbrücken against the XV Corps of the U.S. 7th Army. When resistance finally collapsed on March 22 1945, Klingenberg was among the casualties. He was killed in action aged 32 by a tank shell during a firefight on the western edge of Herxheim and is buried at the German War Cemetery in Andilly in France, Block 35 Row 10 Grave 731. Credit: Helmut Günther, Hot Motors, Cold Feet. Top image: Serbian officer hand over the barracks to the Reich in April 1941. Oorlogsbronnen. Fair use. Middle image: Waffen-SS military police examining a Soviet SVT-40 rifle seized from a Yugoslavian partisan during the Balkans Campaign in 1941. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: Knight's Cross holder Fritz Klingenberg as SS-Hauptsturmführer in Soviet Union during Op. Barbarossa in July 1941. c. Bundesarchiv.

The Balkans Campaign 1941 – the Battle of Greece

Knight's Cross holder Fritz Witt as SS-Stubaf. in Greece

Pz Commander Hermann Balck of 2.Pz.Division during Marita

The German plan of attack was influenced by their army's experiences during the Battle of France. Their strategy was to create a diversion through the campaign in Albania, thus stripping the Hellenic Army of manpower for the defence of their Yugoslavian and Bulgarian borders. The Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS out-flanked the Greek Metaxas Line fortifications and, despite the assistance provided by a British expeditionary corps, set out to capture the southern Greek cities. The SS-Division Leibstandarte SS, commanded by Josef Sepp Dietrich, captured Vevi on April 10 1941 and SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Witt was tasked with clearing the Klidi Pass just south of Vevi, which was strongly defended by Australian, British and New Zealand troops. Witt's brother, a member of the same unit, was killed during the fighting. The Wehrmacht followed behind the Leibstandarte SS and attacked to the west, to widen the front of the German breakthrough. The Battle of Greece ended with the German entry into Athens and the capture of the Peloponnese on April 27 1941. Left image: SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Witt in Greece in 1941. Photo taken by the prominent war correspondent SS-Kriegsberichter Gunter d'Alquen. Fritz Witt became a member of SS-Stabswache Berlin in March 1933, a bodyguard unit protecting Adolf Hitler. This unit was the nucleus of the later SS-Division Leibstandarte SS. FU. Right image: the Danzig-born Oberst Hermann Balck in the cupola of his Panzer III Panzerbefehlswagen of the Panzer-Regiment 3 near Panteleimonas in Greece on April 16 1941. Note the captured New Zealander seated at the rear of the tank. Credit: Royston Leonard. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

ϟϟ-Sturmbannführer der Waffen-SS Meyer Crossing the Gulf of Patras

SS-Stubaf. Kurt Meyer; Schwere Artillerie nach vorn!

Original SS-Division Leibstandarte SS Cuff Title

SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Meyer's detachment was tasked with clearing resistance from the Kleisoura Pass south-west of Vevi and driving through to the Kastoria area to cut off retreating Greek and British Commonwealth forces. The Greek 20th Division was well entrenched in the heights bordering the pass itself. Meyer organised his battalion into three assault groups, led by himself, company commander Hugo Kraas and platoon commander Max Wünsche. On the morning of April 12 1941 the Leibstandarte SS launched a frontal assault, and by late afternoon the pass was cleared. According to some accounts, the Waffen-SS were inspired to capture the Kleisoura Pass only after Meyer threw a live grenade at the feet of some of his Grenadiers. By midafternoon the heights had been cleared and the road to Kastoria was open. On April 16 1941, Meyer's battalion penetrated behind the Greek lines and assaulted Kastoria from the south, capturing a further 1,100 prisoners. Meyer ordered his men to cross the Gulf and secure the town of Patras in the Peloponnesos. Since no transport vessels were available, the Waffen-SS commandeered fishing boats and successfully completed the crossing. By April 30 1941 the last British Commonwealth troops had either been captured or escaped. Meyer was awarded the Knight's Cross on May 18 1941. He was a notable representative of the type of commander who rose from within the Waffen-SS itself: aggressive and charismatic in equal measure. Known for his bold leadership, Meyer was one of the most highly decorated German soldiers of World War II. He saw intense combat across Europe: the invasion of Poland, the fall of France, the sweep through the Balkans and Greece, the bitter fighting on the Eastern Front and the 1944 campaign for Normandy. Over the course of his career, Meyer was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords. Upon promotion he became the youngest divisional commander during World War II in 1944. Source: Grenadiers. Top image: an original Nazi era postcard of Kurt Meyer in Greece. This photo by SS-KB Franz Roth, appeared on the cover of the Magazine Illustrierter Beobachter on May 8 1941 with the heading Schwere Artillerie nach vorn! and must be considered one of the most famous photos from the Balkans Campaign, a perfect shot of the elite Esprit de Corps so commonly found in the Waffen-SS. Credit: Mike Gepp. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: Officer's, machine woven, black rayon Leibstandarte SS cufftitle with hand embroidered Sütterlin style script, in bright silver/aluminum threads. Fair use.

Greek Army Surrendering to the Leibstandarte ϟϟ and Battle of Crete

Sepp Dietrich during the capitulation of the Greek Army in Thessaly

Messerschmitt Bf 109s of JG 27 escorting a Heinkel He 111 over Crete

Fallschirmjägers of the 7.Flieger-Division in Crete

On April 20 1941, the commander of the Greek First Army surrendered the entire Hellenic Army to the Leibstandarte SS commander SS-Obergruppenführer Josef Sepp Dietrich. British Commonwealth troops were now the only Allied forces remaining in Greece, and they were falling back across the Corinth Canal to the Peloponnesos. By April 26 1941 the Leibsatandarte SS had reached the Gulf of Patras. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler remained concerned about attacks on his Romanian fuel supply. British bombers based on the island of Crete were within range of the Ploiești oil fields in Romania. On April 25 1941, he ordering the invasion of the island by air. About 43,000 Greek and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island against 22,000 German paratroopers and mountain troops. It was the first time German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population. The Cretan Resistance was particularly savage, torturing and mutilating any German who fell into their hands. Nevertheless, the fierce battle of Crete continued until May 29 1941 when the evacuation of Crete began by British forces from the small port of Sphakia. Immediately after Crete fell, a series of collective punishments against civilians began. Top image: Sepp Dietrich and General Franz Böhme with Greek officers during the surrender conference of the Greek Army at Larissa airport in Thessaly on April 21 1941. Credit: Christos Kaplanis. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Middle image: Luftwaffe fighter ace Staffelkapitän Emil Josef Clade and Unteroffizier Rudolf Moycis of Jagdgeschwader 27 escorting a Heinkel He 111 bomber transporting Luftwaffe Generals Alexander Holle and Martin Fiebig to Crete. Photo taken on a later occasion. Credit: Richard James Molloy. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: a group of elite Fallschirmjägers of the 7.Flieger-Division after landing on Crete in May 1941. In September 1941 during Operation Barbarossa, the division was transferred to the Eastern Front. The division would later became known as the 1.Fallschirmjäger-Division. Picture Alliance. Fair use.

Axis Control of Yugoslavia and the Triple Occupation of Greece

MG Gunner of the Waffen-SS 1941

SS-Kradschützen of the Leibstandarte SS 1941

It was during the Greek campaign where the Waffen-SS first was to display a chivalry that stood out against the general atmosphere of World War II. The Waffen-SS occupied a position of honor in the victory parade through Athens. The role of the SS-Division Leibstandarte-SS at the end of the Greek campaign was effectively one of protecting the retreating Greek Army from the cowardly and vengeful Italian Army. The Bulgarian Army occupied most of Western Thrace and the Greek province of Eastern Macedonia, which had been already conquered by Germany. Bulgarian troops also occupied much of eastern Serbia, where the so-called Vardar Banovina was divided between Bulgaria and the Italians. During the summer and fall of 1941, in reprisal for guerrilla attacks, the Austrian Wehrmacht general Franz Friedrich Böhme rigorously enforced the rule that for every German killed, 100 Serbs or Jews would be shot. Throughout the remainder of the war, active Yugoslav, Greek, and Albanian resistance movements forced Germany and its allies to garrison hundreds of thousands of soldiers permanently in the three countries, denying them to the other fronts. The Balkans campaign resulted in the Barbarossa campaign being delayed by five weeks, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. A campaign justified by Adolf Hitler on the basis that the Soviets was about to attack Germany from the rear. The importance of the delay is still debated. Left image: a Balkans veteran of the Waffen-SS pictured after the outbreak of the Barbarossa in 1941. Photo by Hitler's official photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. Credit: Karl Mensburg. The Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive. Fair use. Right image: Leibstandarte SS Kradschützen turns eastwards in the summer of 1941. Credit: Cassowary. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

The first non-Germanic SS formations made up of Slavs

Obermullah Waffen-Hauptsturmführer der SS Nureddin Namangani

Volksdeutsche of 7.SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division Prinz Eugen

Bosnian Muslims of Kroatische SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division

Bosnian Muslims of 13.Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Handschar

Following the Balkan campaign many Slavic units were set up under direct control of SS to restore order in occupied Yugoslavia. These units marked the expansion of the SS into a multi-ethnic military force. The new formations were made up of Albanians, Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs with mostly Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) officers from Romania and Serbia. The Balkan SS formations were involved in internal security operations and anti-partisan warfare during the war. Poorly equipped and poorly trained their performance was of minor military value and the formations were heavily involved in war crimes and atrocities. Murder, rape and mass executions were all too common in Yugoslavia during World War II. The resistance groups divided into two main movements - the Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist Chetniks and the Communist Partisans. Also operating in the Balkan was the Russisches Schutzkorps Serbien composed of anti-communist White Russian émigrés who plundered peasants in the areas within which they operated, and the 1.Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division composed of eastern Cossacks who committed a number of atrocities against the civilian population including several mass rapes and routine summary executions. Other divisions designated to the Balkans as anti-partisan mountain divisions were the Volksdeutsche division SS-Freiwilligen-Division Prinz Eugen, redesignated as the 7.SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division Prinz Eugen in Oct. 1943, and the Kroatische SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division, redesignated as the 13.Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Handschar in May 1944. Prinz Eugen was made up of Volksdeutsche from Croatia, Serbia, Hungary and Romania, and famed for its cruelty and accused of a number of war crimes in their anti-partisan operations. The Handschar was composed of Bosnian Muslims or ethnic Bosniaks. It earned a reputation for brutality and savagery, not only during combat operations, but also through atrocities committed against Serb and Jewish civilians. Top clip: members of the SS could be of any religion except Judaism. This clip shows the Uzbek Imam Waffen-Hauptsturmführer der SS Nureddin Namangani leading a prayer with Central Asian and Caucasian Muslim SS volunteers. Deutsche Wochenschau. Second image: an SS-Untersturmführer of SS-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 14 Skanderbeg of the 7.SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division Prinz Eugen in Montenegro or Serbia in late 1944. Photo probably taken by Austrian explorer and photographer Ernst A. Zwilling. Credit: Karl Mensburg. c. Bundesarchiv. Third image: ethnic Bosniaks of the Kroatische SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division in 1943. Being non-Germanic, its members were not entitled to wear the SS runes collar patch. Headgear was the SS M43 fez: a field gray model to be worn in combat and a red model while off duty. Photo by SS-KB Werner Mielke. Credit: Richard White. U.S. National Archives. Bottom image: ethnic Bosniaks of the 13.Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Handschar in the Balkan Mountains of Bosnia 1944. Credit: Julius Backman. Fair use.