Terror in the BalkansMain description: Germany's 1941 seizure of Yugoslavia led to an insurgency as bloody as any in World War II. The Wehrmacht waged a brutal counter-insurgency campaign in response, and by 1943 German troops in Yugoslavia were engaged in operations that ranked among the largest of the entire European war. Their actions encompassed massive reprisal shootings, the destruction of entire villages, and huge mobile operations unleashed not just against insurgents but also against the civilian population believed to be aiding them. Terror in the Balkans explores the reasons behind the Wehrmacht's extreme security measures in southern and eastern Europe. Ben Shepherd focuses his study not on the high-ranking generals who oversaw the campaign but on lower-level units and their officers, a disproportionate number of whom were of Austrian origin. He uses Austro-Hungarian army records to consider how the personal experiences of many Austrian officers during the Great War played a role in brutalizing their behavior in Yugoslavia. A comparison of Wehrmacht counter-insurgency divisions allows Shepherd to analyze how a range of midlevel commanders and their units conducted themselves in different parts of Yugoslavia, and why. Shepherd concludes that the Wehrmacht campaign's violence was driven not just by National Socialist ideology but also by experience of the fratricidal infighting of Yugoslavia's ethnic groups, by conditions on the ground, and by doctrines that had shaped the military mindsets of both Germany and Austria since the late nineteenth century. He also considers why different Wehrmacht units exhibited different degrees of ruthlessness and restraint during the campaign. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Changes in the Officer Corps | 12 |
The Impact of World War I | 28 |
The 1920s and 1930s | 57 |
Yugoslavia 1941 | 72 |
The 704th Infantry Division in Serbia | 83 |
The 342d Infantry Division in Serbia | 119 |
The Independent State of Croatia 1942 | 148 |
The 369th Infantry Division in Bosnia 1943 | 215 |
Conclusion | 236 |
Source References for Featured Officers | 259 |
Note on the Primary Sources | 263 |
Abbreviations | 267 |
Notes | 269 |
Acknowledgments | 331 |
| 333 | |
The 718th Infantry Division in Bosnia | 161 |
Attitudes Harden in the 718th Infantry Division | 190 |
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Common terms and phrases
342d Infantry Division 718th Infantry Division ally anti-Semitic army’s artillery attack Austria-Hungary Austrian Austro-Hungarian army Axis Bader Balkan battalion Ben Shepherd Bericht Betr Boehme brutal chap Chetniks civilians combat Communists counterinsurgency Croats Deutsche deutschen Oberbefehlshaber divisional commanders Divisionsbefehl eastern Bosnia eastern front enemy ethnic fighting forces Fortner gendarmerie Genocide and Resistance German army Habsburg Habsburg Serbia harsh Hinghofer Hitler's Bosnia Hitlers Heerführer Hoare hunter groups Hürter Ibid increasingly Inf.-Div Infantry Division’s Infantry Regiment insurgents Italian Jajce Jews judenfrei KG Serbien Krupanj Lagebericht London LXV Corps Manoschek Mihailović Muslim Nazi numbers Oberbefehlshaber im Krieg Occupation and Collaboration operations Oxford particularly Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien Partisans political population Prijedor regime region Reich Reichswehr reprisal Resistance in Hitler's Revolution in Yugoslavia Rogatica ruthless Šabac Schmider Serbien ist judenfrei Serbs social Soviet Partisans terror tion Tito Tomasevich Ukraine University Press uprising Ustasha Užice Valjevo Vienna warfare Wehrmacht World Yugoslav Yugoslavia