Battistelli, Pier Paolo/Shumate, Johnny (Illustr.) Yugoslavia 1941-44. Anti-Partisan Operations

After the invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers in April 1941, a brutal uprising (based on both ethnic and political affiliations) broke out in the territories occupied by Germany and Italy. The result was a protracted struggle between several parties. The main forces resisting the Axis occupation were Tito's communist partisans and, initially, Draza Mihailovic's royalist Chetniks. Further complications arose from the shifting alliances of Allied support and the brutal ethnic cleansing and ideological warfare waged by the occupying forces and their internal allies under the guise of "anti-partisans". In 1942, the Axis powers carried out the first of seven major counterinsurgency operations. These took place in all parts of the country and were aimed at destroying the core of the resistance. With artwork, detailed maps and contemporary images, this book reveals the military material culture of the many opposing forces. It also covers the planning and execution of each operation, from the autumn 1941 offensive against the Republic of Uzice to the final assault in western Bosnia in the spring of 1944, resulting in a unique visual exploration of one of the most complex and least researched offensives of the Second World War.