– Arso Jovanović –
The army of the old Yugoslavia did not recognize any war doctrine. That army existed exclusively to keep our peoples in subjugation. It was built on national chauvinism, poorly organized and internally disunited. Such an army had to experience the April catastrophe and complete collapse.
The liberation and patriotic forces of our peoples, led by the Communist Party, launched the war of liberation in 1941 and thus directly joined the great anti-fascist bloc of democratic peoples. Our peoples entered that struggle bare-handed, but their faith in victory was unshakable, because they knew they were fighting for a just cause. That struggle brought our peoples major results on the military front, as well as on the internal and international fronts.
Numerous offensives by superior enemy forces, supported by all the traitors of our country, could not shake or break the ranks of our fighters. From clash to clash the army was tempered and continuously grew, until it finally turned into one great army, in which not only fraternal solidarity and the fighting unity of our peoples were expressed, but many great fighting traditions were revived as well — heroism, self-sacrifice and love of freedom and independence.
It was a long, difficult, but also glorious path of development for our army. It began with small partisan detachments. This military form allowed broad participation of the masses in the struggle, which was crowned at the very beginning by the liberation of a good part of Serbia, Montenegro and the creation of solid fighting strongholds in Bosnia and the mountainous regions of southwestern Croatia. The enemy was taken by surprise by partisan actions and popular uprisings. Feeling threatened, it began to regroup, gather reinforcements and mobilize traitors in the fight against us. The form of partisan detachments as the basic type of army could no longer suffice. New, important tasks were set before our army. It was necessary to withstand large enemy forces and domestic traitors who wanted to smother the popular uprising. The struggle had to be carried into distant areas and the uprising kindled where it was only in its initial stage. It was necessary to attack important enemy bases and communications in order to wrest the initiative from the enemy. It was necessary to seek weak points in the occupier’s deployment. Therefore Comrade Tito, already at the end of 1941 and the beginning of 1942, carried out the first reorganization of the main body of our army and formed shock brigades as a higher level of military organization. With those shock brigades the centre of the struggle was transferred to the western part of our country. In this way we took control of the very strong terrain of the Dinaric ridge. Leaning on this powerful backbone, our forces, as if from a springboard, set out towards the Sava basin and the Adriatic coast. From that time the Dinaric ridge became a strategic lever, which on one side linked the forces of Slovenia with our forces in the eastern regions of Montenegro and Serbia. That lever seemed to serve as a measure for weighing forces and directing them in accordance with the development of the military-political situation in our country.
In the western part of our country our army rapidly increased, so that at the end of 1942 it moved to a higher level of military organization and the formation of divisions and corps was carried out. Thus the Supreme Commander received strong operational groups that were capable of manoeuvring over great distances and transferring operations across the entire Yugoslav theatre of war. With these strong shock groups important operational tasks were resolved, significant territories of our country were liberated and conditions were created for the development of national liberation authority and the creation of a new state community. These combat formations won the famous Battle of the Neretva in the winter of 1943, smashed the traitorous bands of Draža Mihailović in Herzegovina and Montenegro, withstood encirclement during the summer enemy offensive in Montenegro, took advantage of Italy’s capitulation and broke two strong enemy offensives in the winter and spring of 1944. Finally, in the summer of 1944 our forces appeared on the second arm of the strategic pincers that liberated Belgrade — the capital of our fatherland. The Belgrade operation therefore represents an expression of the joint actions of the Red Army and our National Liberation Army, which were crowned by the greatest victory in our national liberation warfare. The results of this victory were of enormous importance for the further conduct of our liberation struggle. It not only opened great operational perspectives, but also changed the previous tactics of our warfare. Relying on the fraternal Red Army, we received great material assistance. The results of this were the rapid liberation of all of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Dalmatia and large parts of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatia. In this way we formed a joint Red Army strategic front and for the first time in this war obtained a strategic foundation that enabled us to utilize all sources for the further conduct of the war.
After this operation the final stage of reorganization of our army was carried out by grouping units into armies and by giving the force the name of the Yugoslav Army. That army forms a link between the forces of the Red Army in the Danube basin and the Anglo-American forces in Italy, that is, it has a strategic role within the framework of the overall plan of the Allied coalition. Our army was given the task of attacking the southern German defensive rampart, which the Germans are desperately defending.
It would be wrong to think that the strategic role of our army within the Allied coalition dates only from the formation of armies and the acceptance of frontal warfare. It dates from 1941, when the Germans could not achieve and carry out a “lightning war” against the Red Army. Already from that time the entire occupying and quisling apparatus in Yugoslavia was threatened, important communications were cut. The economic exploitation of resources and the deportation of manpower for penal labour in Germany were prevented. The flame of uprising from Yugoslavia was gradually transferred to the other Balkan peoples as well. In other words, the German order and conquests in Yugoslavia and the Balkans were endangered. This was very dangerous for the Germans, because this area secured the flank of their forces on the Soviet front and protected the southern approaches to the German Reich. However, we know that the Germans considered the occupation of the Balkans a prerequisite for conquest ventures both towards the Soviet Union and towards the Middle East. That was the path of their world domination. In Yugoslavia and the Balkans they supported and created anti-popular regimes that were the support for their imperialist advances. Therefore our army threatened all those strategic, economic and political advantages that the Germans had previously secured in the Balkans. That is why they sent significant forces to Yugoslavia against our National Liberation Army, which dangerously threatened that “living space” of Nazi Germany. In this way we were a living battlefield that tied down significant enemy forces. Until capitulation fascist Italy and fascist Bulgaria fought against our army with two armies each, and the Hungarians with three divisions. In the autumn of 1941 the Germans introduced ten divisions into the fight against our forces, and then continuously increased that number. In the winter of 1943, in the fourth offensive against our army, the Germans introduced thirteen divisions, and after Italy’s capitulation in the autumn of 1943, thirty divisions. Today in our country the Germans have twenty five divisions. To this should be added, as constant comrades throughout the entire period of occupation, all the quisling troops of Nedić, Ljotić, Draža Mihailović, Pavelić, Rupnik and others, whose number at one time exceeded 300,000, while today it barely amounts to 150,000. In the fighting so far we have destroyed more than 750,000 fascist soldiers and destroyed or captured from the enemy large amounts of war equipment. Thus the fascist hordes — which with fire and sword enslaved the peoples of Europe — found no peace in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia became a graveyard for fascist conquerors.
Thanks to the heroic struggle of our army, the peoples of Yugoslavia overcame the most difficult period in their history, the period of fascist occupation. In those battles the inexhaustible forces of our people, which had been buried for centuries, came to the fore, and the military qualities that adorn our people were revived. The virtue of our army is the virtue of our people, which is why that army fought so selflessly, shed blood and gave lives for the salvation of its peoples. Through hard and bloody battles the fighters of our army carried the banner of freedom, brotherhood and unity throughout our country. Brotherhood and unity were first realized in our army. Each people began to fight for its own freedom and to create its own national combat formations, which merged into a single national liberation army, to which Marshal Tito gave its genuine name: the Yugoslav Army.
Our unified, monolithic army, which grew out of national units, represents a guarantee of a unified federal democratic Yugoslavia, which our peoples achieved through struggle and the spilt blood of their best sons. It is a firm pledge of our new homeland and the guardian of the achievements of this magnificent struggle, from which our peoples emerged having passed through a sea of blood and having given up many of their possessions.
It is very significant that our army appears as a unified Yugoslav army in a period of general turbulence for fascist Germany, when fascism stands on the brink of catastrophe. It is assigned the role of liberating its own country and participating, together with the other Allied armies, in the liberation of mankind from fascist tyranny. It is an equal factor in that great struggle of democratic peoples. It fulfils its role just like all the other armies of the Allied countries. By that very fact it secures for this people all international positions as well. Marshal Tito’s decree on the new name clearly and definitively perceives the role of our army and its importance for our country. And the visit of Field Marshal Alexander and the agreement on joint coordination of our armies clearly confirm how much the Allies rely on our army in this final phase of the war. Our army, as before, will honourably fulfil its obligations.
Our new Yugoslav Army, led through uninterrupted and hard fighting, has drawn lessons from them. On its bloody battlefield it created its own military doctrine, reflected in an offensive spirit, which was not the case with the old Yugoslav army. In the most difficult moments our army preserved freedom of action and of striking. We were encircled by superior enemy forces both in numbers and in technology, but we always attacked the enemy. And that offensive spirit and momentum carried our army from victory to victory. Manoeuvre, rapid movements and sudden strikes at the enemy’s flanks, sides and rear always gave us major military results and spread panic and disorganization in enemy ranks. War experience is born in battles and no military academies can replace it. This is very significant for our army and our young officers, because they passed through the school of modern warfare. In those hard battles a conscious, new self-discipline was born, which forever eliminated the brutal method of training that had been characteristic of the old Yugoslav army. That self-discipline is one of the greatest moral achievements of our army. Our fighters and officers, who were often assigned on their own to separate sectors of our battlefield, always subordinated themselves with self-discipline to the general plan of operations.
The creation of the Yugoslav Army is the work of the Supreme Commander — Marshal Tito. In the history of wars he was the first to succeed in creating a modern army from bare-handed peoples, mutually divided and oppressed by fascist terror. He established unity of action, organization and military discipline among the partisan detachments scattered throughout our country. With the gradual development of the army he achieved operational unity across all sectors, without which there could have been no success. Tito ensured command over the entire Yugoslav theatre of war and finally created one powerful unified army. He constantly watched over his army and strengthened and reinforced its internal stability. The opening of military schools and the formation of an officer corps is one of the most significant moments in the development of discipline and the strengthening of our army. In the most difficult moments our army drew strength and energy from its commander. He instilled faith in final victory. The historical path of our army is the path of Comrade Tito, who shared both good and evil with it. He constantly led that shock group which, in various sectors of Yugoslavia, ignited popular uprisings and resolved major strategic problems within our country. The enemy itself clearly recognized the sharpness of that shock group and its marshal, and he was continuously exposed to the heaviest enemy attacks, whose culmination was the summer offensive in the sector of Montenegro and the airborne landing at Drvar.
The authority and firm leadership of Marshal Tito raised the prestige of our army, which made it possible to obtain ever greater assistance from the Allies for our force. He based his entire strategy on a correct understanding of the foreign-political relations of our allies — the USSR, Great Britain and America — and fully utilized this to strengthen our army. Such a policy raised the standing of our army abroad as never before. At the head of our army he won for Yugoslavia a worthy place in the international community of nations, for whose freedom we too made a significant contribution.
The formation of the Yugoslav Army is a glorious historical epoch in the military development of our army. But we must not stop at the successes achieved. Heavy and major tasks still stand before our army. The enemy still clings desperately to our country, which demands uninterrupted fighting against it. For our army to defeat that enemy, it must also master the art of modern warfare, which is characterized by the use of enormous masses, the application of war technology, aviation, manoeuvre and the speed of deep strikes. With bare hands our fighters wrested every rifle and every machine gun from the enemy in order to continue the fight successfully. After so many hard battles we now dispose of the most advanced weapons, whose effectiveness must be utilized. We must become masters of those weapons.
A modern military organism requires close cooperation of all branches of the armed forces and technical means, and our officers must coordinate this when taking on tasks. This demands developed staff preparation, organizational strengthening of units and the development of combat discipline. Today self-discipline is no longer sufficient, but firm combat discipline, which alone can enable unity of action in the difficult conditions of modern battle. Moral-political consciousness and the courage of the officer have always played an important role in war. But today, when the enemy is armed to the teeth, that alone is not enough. Alongside determination one must also master war technology and the art of command. Without that there is no path to victory. An officer of our army who does not study modern command of troops errs against his own people. Loyalty to military duty and honour must be the highest law of every soldier.
The discipline, military skill and combat experience of the Red Army are the sources from which our command cadre and fighters must draw theory and practice for the further development of our young army.
Our reorganized army, armed with modern technology, will overcome all difficulties and succeed not only in liberating our fatherland, but also in fulfilling its Allied duty in the final liquidation of Hitlerism. After the victory achieved, it will be entrusted with the duty of protecting the achievements of this struggle won with blood and of ensuring the peaceful development and construction of our country on the basis of the principles that were born in the National Liberation War.
Lieutenant-General
Arso R. JOVANOVIĆ
(Translated from the Serbo-Croatian original: “Istorijski put naše armije,” Borba, March 3, 1945, p. 1)