The Year of Aggression
Part 9: Operation Anicius Gallus V, September 11 – September 22, 1939
This period of eleven days represented the final moments of the Yugoslav campaign. With Belgrade effectively under siege, there was little the Yugoslav army could do to save the situation, even temporarily, other than relieve Belgrade. This they had not the available units for: they were all caught up in the convulsed frontages of central Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav army managed to gain tactical victories on the defensive, and managed to stall Italian units for the entire period, but their center of gravity had passed beyond the reach and defenses of the army. These eleven days witnessed much carnage, as much as any other comparable period during the war, but more than ever it served no real purpose except when it occurred in the streets of Belgrade.
As mentioned previously, Slavonski Brod had become one of the great battles of the Yugoslavian campaign. Three Italian divisions, one of them in reserve, ranged themselves up against elements of two Yugoslav divisions and two Yugoslav headquarters units. By the 12th of September it had already been ongoing for a week or more, and would last until the 14th, at which point the stubborn Yugoslav defense finally collapsed. Nearly three hundred and fifty Italians lost their lives crushing that pocket, as did nearly 1,150 Yugoslav soldiers fighting against them. A substantial portion of the remainder of the Yugoslav army was removed from the map with this victory. Simultaneously with this battle, however, Giorgis and Scattini were fighting a difficult battle for Bosanski Petrovac, where their two divisions were striving to defeat three Yugoslav divisions and a headquarters unit. This battle was to continue for the next eleven days, until Yugoslavia officially surrendered. 1,500 Italian and Yugoslav soldiers fell around this town, in what was perhaps a futile battle.
The battle of Slavonski Brod on the 12th of September.
By the 13th, Messe had reached the deep rear areas of Mancinelli’s and Caracciolo di Feroleto’s assault on Belgrade, thus again cutting Yugoslavia in two. He began the second portion of his march at this point, which was anticipated to take him around Caracciolo di Feroleto’s right flank and allow him to take part in the battle for Belgrade from yet another direction. Elsewhere, one upstart Yugoslav division had begun an attempt to encircle not only Frattini’s division, which was in the very middle of Yugoslavia and nearly surrounded by Yugoslav divisions, but also Pintor’s army headquarters, which were in the area as well. Fortunately both commanders recognized the peril they were in and Frattini marched to open another avenue of supply, while at the same time encircling the would-be encirclers.
The Yugoslavian situation on the 13th of September.
After the 13th, there was little real progression in terms of either maneuvers or battles on a grand scale. Hundreds of Italians and thousands of Yugoslav soldiers lost their lives to remain in exactly the positions they were occupying as the climactic battle unfolded in the streets of Belgrade, where two Italian divisions were striving to break through the obstinate Yugoslav defenses. The battle, which by the 13th has already lasted for over a week, raged for the next eight days. In the end, however, Italian persistence and the inevitably of Yugoslav defeat caused the defenders to cave in and withdraw. Messe was not yet near the city but his approach, combined with the hemorrhage of Yugoslav lives, proved the turning point. A full sixth of the Yugoslav defenders were killed, though under a twelfth of the Italian attackers lost their lives. Over the corpses of three thousand dead young men in its streets, Belgrade was conquered.
Victory in Belgrade!
The fall of Belgrade proved too much for the Yugoslav people to cope with. The day after its fall, elements of the Yugoslav government fled the country and traveled first through Bulgaria to Turkey, then through Iraq to Egypt and then sailed to Britain, where it ensconced itself in a plush hotel in the center of London and loudly began calling for war with Italy. Those ministers and bureaucrats that stayed quickly surrendered the country to the Italians. Mussolini, faced with the choice of creating a client state or annexing Yugoslavia, opted for the latter. Yugoslavia would become the new province of Illyria in the burgeoning Italian Empire.
The surrender of Yugoslavia.
With the surrender of Yugoslavia, Mussolini released dramatic news about the Turks. On the 17th they had occupied the Dodecanese Islands, which fell under Italian suzerainty. Bastico’s 2a Armata was to march south and guard the enlarged Greco-Italian border with his four divisions. Pintor’s 7a Armata would not, however, receive any rest. Without allowing any sort of respite, Mussolini announced that Operation Ariarathes had begun. The invasion of Turkey was about to commence. Pintor’s 7a Armata was to be the force to wage land war against the Turks. The naval aspect of the new campaign had already begun.
Those scheming Turks, conquering the Dodecanese!
