7.5.1 The Balkans
Righty-O, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
As explained before, the Balkans update was so long that I decided to separate it from the Iraq War, which I'm sure you're all dying to read. Enjoy (if you can)!
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THE BALKANS
THE BALKANS
Figure 42: Map of the former Yugoslavia, divided by the victorious Axis powers along ethnic lines. Note the emergence of the Principality of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Free State of Banat-Vojvodina.
In many ways, the Balkans situation arising from the carving up of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a microcosm of the general situation in Europe, and Africa to some extent, following the militaristic expansions of the Axis Powers, particularly Germany and Italy. The partisan situation in particular would prove eerily prescient of not just Ukraine, but of the territories of Russia occupied by the Axis forces and its co-belligerents in the next war.
However, the partisans and other militant groups active in the Balkans did not share the advantages of an essentially infinite heartland into which it could retreat – much on the contrary, the partisans were surrounded on all sides by hostile governments and the Adriatic.
Their fighting power was even further diminished by their internal divisions, along royalist, republican and communist lines as well as those of ethnicity, allowing the Axis Powers to easily play them off each other. Nonetheless, although militant disturbances reduced over time, they still remained a perennial issue for the German and Italian administrations, all the way until the collapse of Reich authority in Slovenia and Serbia.
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SLOVENIA
Figure 43: Flag of the Protectorate of Carniola and Styria. [1]
Although most of the constituent provinces of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, reorganised into oblasts in 1922 and banates in 1929, would be “restored” along ethnic lines upon the Axis conquest of the kingdom, Slovenia stands out for being so neatly and directly bisected by Germany and Italy, besides Vojovodina, divided between Hungary and Germany-occupied Serbia; and Vardar Macedonia, between Bulgaria and Italy-occupied Albania.
The German half, termed the “Protectorate of Carniola and Styria” (the name chosen in the usual National-socialist revisionist fashion) was governed along similar lines as its protectorates in Austria and Czechia, with the levels of repression comparable to the latter given the dominance of non-German speakers in the governed territory; Gothica remained unique in its unending reign of terror.
Nonetheless, there was no set Reichsprotektor for the area, only the Gauleiter Richard Arnauer, a member of the Freikorps Oberland considered as a reliable functionary. It is debated why Slovenia was neither considered a full protectorate; reasons vary from desires for its full incorporation as a Gau to Weber’s hesitance to “promote” it to a full protectorate alongside the apparent “three realms” (Germany, Austria and Czechia) of the Weberreich.
At any rate, the ethnic Slovenes initially enjoyed a relatively relaxed policy similar to the bilingualism of Czechia and small emphasis on Aryanisation before the partisan movements began to cause trouble for both the German and Italian authorities. The Slovene partisans were among the most well-organised and least fractious of the resistance movements, primarily due to the lack of ethnic strife and concentration within their territory.
When Weber demanded a population exchange of ethnic Germans (Gottscheers) resident in the Italian partition of Slovenia for troublesome ethnic Slovenes, Balbo instead offered permission for the Wehrmacht to convey the Slovenes through the Kingdom of Croatia (now ruled in personal union with the Kingdom of Italy, see below) to the German-occupied Serbian Autonomous Republic. Weber was taken aback by what was essentially this blunt refusal by his new ally, but raised no complaint as he considered the Balkans to be a sideshow. This so-called “Rescript of Balbo” was a sign of the changes to come in the Rome-Berlin Axis. [2]
While no independent or autonomous Slovene government was ever convened, a collaborationist auxiliary police called the Slovene Home Guard was set up to deal with partisan activity, as their assistance was deemed crucial in understanding the missives and clandestine meetings of the Slovenian resistance. They were allowed to publish newspapers and pamphlets in Slovenian as part of a continuing psychological war initiative.
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SERBIA AND BANAT-VOJVODINA
Figure 44: Flag of the Serbian Autonomous Republic, under German control.
Figure 44: Flag of the Serbian Autonomous Republic, under German control.
Serbia had been the origin of the anti-Axis protests and putsch which had kicked off the Third Balkans War, and this intransigence was not easily forgiven by Weber or the Reich. Although pragmatism had forestalled a full programme of Aryanisation or Auswanderung as seen in Gothica or Slovenia (with the exception of the initial influx from the Grand Duchy of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and the “internal” population transfers between the Serbian Autonomous Republic and Banat-Vojvodina) the Reich was already governing in an overbearing fashion in Serbia long before its puppetisation of Ukraine.
If the collaborationist governments could be placed on a scale from most autonomous to least, the Serbian government led by Milan Aćimović, head of the fascist-aligned Yugoslav National Movement prior to the Axis invasion and subsequently by Milan Nedić, the former chief of staff of the Royal Yugoslav Army, would almost certainly be placed below than those of Alsace-Lorraine, Denmark and the Baltic States, but above that of the Free State of Narvik and whatever shambles remained of the Ukrainian state apparatus.
Autonomy was allowed for the puppet Serbian National Government and the Serbian Free Corps insofar as it was convenient for it to suppress partisan violence. The puppet government was forced to accept shipping and troop movements of the Wehrmacht through the territory and also to sign unfavourable economic “deals” which were essentially extortion of its natural resources; the only thing resembling a diplomatic victory for Nedić was the gradual withdrawal of Bulgarian occupation forces except for the areas which it had directly annexed, although this was as much a product of his petitions to the German government as it was the cooling of relations between Bulgaria and the Reich.
Figures 45a and 45b: Powerless and deposed: Milan Nedić, hamstrung Minister-President of the Serbian Autonomous Republic after Milan Aćimović’s resignation, and Ante Pavelić, Croatian “Poglavnik” (“Leader”, analogous to Führer ), removed by Balbo in 1942. [3]
One major issue with which the underequipped and hamstrung puppet regime was confronted was that of the waves of Serbian and Bosniak refugees fleeing the Grand Duchy of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, nominally ruled by the king’s cousin, Prince Amadeo of Savoy, as “Louis III” but in fact dominated by the clerical-fascist regime of Ante Pavelić. The Ustashe wasted no time in persecuting Serbians and Bosniaks unfortunate to be resident in Croatia at the time, and even set up their own internment camps for these purposes. When the atrocities became unpalatable for Weber and especially for Balbo during the peace hewn out during the Treaty of Sofia, the Italian government took decisive action.
In a manner reminiscent of no less than Tiberius himself, Balbo dispatched Count Gyula Cseszneky, Amadeo’s aide-de-camp apparently to confer upon Pavelić nothing less than the Order of the Crown of Italy in March of 1942. Upon Pavelić’s meeting with the Italian delegation, he found himself under arrest, and denounced on national radio as being excessively cruel and deliberately exploiting ethnic strife as a means of distraction from his lining of his pockets through robberies of Serbian and Bosniak private properties, and that unless the Ustashe joined Italy in denouncing his ways, the Regio Esercito would have to “expand its field of operations” – essentially a threat to supplant him or else. [4]
The matter had been executed with great care by Balbo, given that the Italian occupying forces were unpopular for a number of reasons, which encompassed the encroachment of national autonomy to the Kingdom’s annexation of the Dalmatian islands, a problem which Prince Aimone, Amadeo’s younger brother, claimed represented a permanent obstacle to Italian-Croatian relations. [5]
Figure 46: The installation of Vittorio Emmuanelle III (centre crowd, right) as King of Croatia and Prince Amadeo (centre crowd, second from right) as Grand Duke of Bosnia-Herzegovina. April, 1942.
As such, Balbo had nominally left it up to the Croatian people, who had also grown weary of the barbarous nature of the Ustashe regime and who feared the Italian forces as much as they hated them. The remaining members of the cabinet wasted no time in also denouncing Pavelić, with the recently-appointed Interior Minister Ante Nikšić seen as a compromise candidate amongst the squabbling factions of the Ustashe. The Grand Duchy of Croatia was subsequently raised to the Kingdom of Croatia now ruled by Vittorio Emmuanelle III himself, but also saw the Grand Duchy of Bosnia-Herzegovina (ruled by Prince Amadeo, who jokingly bemoaned the loss of his “kingdom”) split from it and designated as a homeland for the Bosniaks.
These administrative shuffles saw relatively few ground-level changes and were generally ignored by the populace. The Serbs which had been expelled from Croatia had no desire to return to the state which had persecuted them, and instead took up residence in the Serbian Autonomous Republic, adding to Nedić’s administrative headaches. Balbo’s audacity in this internal coup did not go unnoticed by Weber, who had only received a missive after the fact, along with guarantees that the coup would not substantially change the relationships between Germany and Italy, nor Serbia and Croatia.
The ethnic Germans in Vojvodina were somewhat of a historical curiosity, but the fact remained that they were not geographically contiguous with the Reich, like the Gottsherd in Slovenia nor could their concerns be ignored by Weber if he did not wish to appear to a hypocrite to his most important source of support – the German lower and middle classes.
As such, he requested (read: ordered) for the “Banat”, as the ethnic Germans termed their homeland to be split off into the “Free State of Banat-Vojvodina”, and for population exchanges to occur between the two polities to make them more ethnically homogenous. Josef Sepp-Lapp was chosen to be its Minister-President and the Selbstschutz auxiliary and police forces were set up in the state, notably different from the Volkssturm in that the Selbstschutz was comprised entirely of ethnic Germans. The Free State would in due course be reabsorbed, along with the territories of Vojvodina annexed by Hungary, into the reconstituted Serbian state following the end of the wars. [6]
Figure 44: Flag of the Free State of Banat-Vojvodina. Note the 1919 Reichsadler deprecated in the Reich proper but hastily adapted for the Free State, likely from pre-NSDAP surpluses. [7]
[1] Based off the insignia of the OTL Slovene Home Guard.
[2] In OTL they were all shoved into the NDH, a policy which Balbo would prefer not to continue as it means the Ustashe just has more victims to pick on, and further cause resentment.
[3] Mostly as per OTL as I couldn't find other good candidates.
[4] Yes, I finished I, Claudius pretty recently, why do you ask? The removal of Pavelic was mentioned as far back as Part 5, I believe.
[5] Prince Amadeo doesn't die as per OTL (much like Balbo) due to the entire avoidance of the North African Campaign.
[6] An OTL concept.
[7] Compare with the flag of the Hapsburg Vojvodina.
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Next update: The Iraq War proper, otherwise known as "that clusterfuck in the Middle East"; in short, the more things change, the more they stay the same...
