Montenegro during World War II (1941 – 1944)

What about Montenegro during WW2? This country was part of the larger Kingdom. of Yugoslavia which got overrun by the Axis Powers in April 1941. Did you know that some historians argue that the very first LARGE uprising against the Axis Powers occured here in Montenegro? This here is another countries in WW2 episode: Montenegro during the Second World War. Good to have you back on the channel. If you are new, I am Stefan. I am a Dutch history teacher. I like to cover history on location. Like right now. I am on a hill overlooking the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica and having a beautiful view. If you find these on location videos interesting, consider subscribing and also hit that notification bell. If you want to support me so I can make more trips like this, feel free to support me via Patreon or PayPal. See links blow. During WW1 Montenegro sided with Serbia and, was swiftly overran by the Austro-Hungarians early 1916. In 1918 the country was liberated by the Entente. The in 1917 signed Corfu Declaration foreshadowed the unification of Montenegro with Serbia which happened in December 1918. The new state would become part of the new, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia). This led to the Christmas Uprising the following. year where the Montenegrin Whites fought against the Montenegrin Greens. The Whites were unionists who advocated. a centralist Yugoslavia. The Greens supported the House of Petrović-Njegoš. of Montenegro over the House of Karađorđević of Serbia. They weren't necessarily against a Yugoslav, state but wanted Montenegro to maintain its over identity and not to be ruled by Serbs. However the rebellion was crushed insurrection, occured till 1929. On 25 March 1941 Yugoslavia signed the Triparte Pact to join the Axis Powers. Hitler wanted to use the country's rail network to capture Greece. Then on 27 March Serbian military leaders seized. power in a military coup in Belgrade, denounced Regent Paul and put 17-year old Peter on the. throne. Hitler then vowed to destroy Yugoslavia. In April 1941 the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia took place. The kingdom was taken down in 12 days. Yugoslavia was then partitioned. Let's look at what happened to Montenegro. It came almost fully under Italian control, but the type of control varied. Parts of Eastern Montenegro were annexed into Italian-held Albania. This was due to the many Albanians that populated. this region. In the north an area was added from Serbia. The area around of the naval base of Kotor and Split was added to Zadar (which was already in Italian hands) and formed three discontinuous. provinces of Cattaro, Spalato and Zara (all under the Governorate of Dalmatia, part of the Kingdom of Italy). “Montenegro, along with Albania and the annexed part of Dalmatia, was a steppingstone into the central Balkans, and the adjacent Bay of Kotor was to serve as a base for the Italian navy guarding the southern Adriatic. From an economic point of view, however, Montenegro. was a burden from the start.” Occupied Montenegro relied on food import and the exploitation of minerals was yet to be developped. When the Italians marched in they were greeted,

by seperatists who formed: the Committee for the Liberation of Montenegro. The Italians were assisted by collaborator. Sekula Drljević. As we saw in other Italian-administrated regions:. initially the Italians were friendly and lenient. However soon there was dissatisfaction. There was an influx of 25,000 refugees (mostly. from the NDH) and Montenegro lost territory to other occupiers. Then there were economic problems. The Italians had reason to worry: many Yugoslav Army officers came from the region and the communist party was pretty big. The Italians were shocked when in July 1941 a major revolt occured. Reason for this uprising that collaborator, Sekula Drljević wanted to create an Axis-aligned puppet state: “Drljević had organized his Montenegrin, separatists, known as the “Greens” (Želenasi), against Montenegrin Chetniks as well as Partisans,, later served the Croatian Ustaše, and administered the Axis - run Belgrade concentration camp, at Sajmište. A day after the new state’s inauguration. (July 13, 1941), both Montenegrin Chetniks and Montenegrin Partisans led a massive uprising. against the new state —a demonstration that would catch the attention of both London and Washington.” The revolt was crushed, but rebels recovered, and resumed their activities near the end of the year. “An order of the military governor of January. 12, 1942, specified the reprisals: for every Italian officer killed or wounded, 50 civilians. would be shot, and for every noncommissioned officer or private killed or wounded, 10 civilians, would be shot.” This led to a split in the Yugoslav resistance: the nationalist, Serbian-oriented forces—the Chetniks—who were led by Draza Mihailovic and the Communist-oriented forces—the Partisans who were led by Josip Broz Tito. Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic came to the. conclusion that the main enemy were the communist partisans and not the Axis forces. And what we see then it that Chetniks forces started to collaborate with the Italian occupiers to destroy the partisans. The Italians wanted to use the Chetniks for, law and order. The Chetniks wanted to use the Italians to. crush the Partisans. This was successfull, also due to several, military faillures of the Partisans. The Partisans conducted a reign of terror, against the population in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro known as the Leftist Errors or Red Terror. That is perhaps something to cover in a standalone, episode. There were different military factions: the Greens (seperatists), muslims and Albanians (who united themselves in the Balli Kombëtar). The challenge of discussing Yugoslav countries during WW2 is not only that its borders were messed up (like I said what is now Montenegro.

was back then either occupied by Italy, annexed by Italy or incorporated into Italian-held, Albania), but also that events like the operations of the Partisans, the Chetniks, collaboration. was going on in other Yugoslav countries as well or started in one country and continued, in the other. So its hard to get the full picture of everything. when I talk about a specific Yugoslav country in WW2. And also the topic of the Chetniks is immensely. complicated. And if it's not complicated enough, even among. Italians there was tension, as Pavlowitch wrote: “Rivalry between the Cetinje Italians, and the Tirana Italians was almost as bad as between chetniks and communists.” When Italy surrendered in September 1943 most. Italians were relieved and hope to go home. What happened with the Italian soldiers outside. Italy at that point deserves an episode of its own. Main reason is that unified Italian command had cease to exist and therefore every unit was left to its own devices. Most Italians were POWed by the Germans. Most of their weaponry went to Tito's soldiers. By 20 September the Germans were in control, of the coast of Cetinje. They left one division there to maintain order. Since food wasn't coming in from Italy any, longer the Montenegrin population soon faced starvation. “To facilitate their rule in Montenegro, the Germans followed the Italian practice of securing the cooperation of the separatists, of those Chetniks who were well disposed toward Nedic but not toward Mihailovic in Serbia, and even of representatives of the Sandzak Muslims. The Germans tried to use the local gendarmerie, and militia and the remainder of some Chetnik units to help control Montenegro.” From what I understood Montenegro had a small, Jewish population (330 if I include the northern Sandžak region which was largely included, in Axis-controlled Montenegro) which increased due to refugees from the NDH and Serbia to over 800 (including Kosovo). When the Germans took over these Jews were deported to Croatian or German death camps to meet their fate. German rule in Montenegro lasted until early December 1944, when the last occupation forces departed in the general German withdrawal. from the Balkans through Bosnia toward the Austrian border. After the war this city Podgorica was renamed, to Titograd and in 2006 after a referendum Montenegro and Serbia seperated. Ever since Montenegro has become an independent state.