In the early 1942., before the expected Italian occupation of the areas under Chetnik control in eastern Bosnia, major Boško Todović sent a directive to his officers on 9.1.1942. in which he explained the strategy of legalization as follows: “Situation is such that at any moment the German – Italian invasion of our liberated part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia can begin, and force relations do not allow hope for successful resistance. In such a situation, and resistance would be extremely harmful for the Serbian population in this area, and also useless. Because of these factors, we will carry o ..read more

From the very start, Italians were acting as enemies of the Croatian people in spite of the supposed alliance. Only 18 days after the capitulation of Yugoslavia, between 6th and 8th May, rebel Serbs from villages of Kijevo and Tramošanj raised what they called the “Đurđevdan Uprising”. Serbs opened fire against the Ustashi officials near Sanski Most, and soon the Serbs from nearby villages also joined the fight. Ustashi received reinforcements from Prijedor, and on 7th May one German detachment from 1st Battalion of the 132nd Regiment stationed in Prijedor also joined the fighting. In Venetia ..read more

Kingdom of Yugoslavia was an artificial creation resulting from Serb occupation of southern areas of Austria-Hungary. Croatian parts of Austria-Hungary were mostly given to Serbia, and in smaller part to Italy and Hungary. Serb imperialists led by Nikola Pašić had already in 1916. accepted the “right” of Italy to Croatian coast, as long as Serbia itself gained access to Adriatic Sea. This was based on the London Agreement in 1915. where Britain gave Italy Croatian coast in order to entice it into joining the Entente. At the end of the war in 1918. Italy gained parts of the Croatian coast, but ..read more

World Wars view has been featured on the Feedspot’s list of 15 best blogs about the world wars, available below: https://blog.feedspot.com/world_war_blogs ..read more

Japan’s Underground ..read more

Graf Zeppelin. Flugzeugträger. Stapell.: 8.12.1938. Stapellauf C 637 (R IX E 6058) Graf Zeppelin. Flugzeugträger. Stapell.: 8.12.1938 B 676 (R IX E 7845) Flugzeugträger “Graf Zeppelin” Stapellauf 8.12.1938 Deutsche Werke Kiel Platte Nr. 17395 As the Second World War neared, major naval powers had already realized that aircraft carriers will become the key component of naval warfare. Far weaker German Navy also realized this. One of main goals of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy, literally “War Marine”) was construction of a balanced fleet of oceanic warships capable of operation ..read more

Bomb Testing on the Home Front Nice post by Pacific Paratrooper on US nuclear weapons development ..read more

Archived from: https://web.archive.org/web/20120402083408/https://uni.edu/~licari/citadel.htm The Battle of Kursk is one of the most familiar battles of the Eastern Front.  Those casually acquainted with the Second World War usually know of only two battles between the Soviets and the Germans: Stalingrad and Kursk.  Unfortunately, knowledge of the Battle of Kursk is only just now being improved.  Despite a growing number of good analyses available to the public, the myths of Kursk are hard to put to rest.  This essay will hopefully help this cause. Backg ..read more

American pressure was slowly growing. Japanese command was feeling this fact quite clearly, but Admiral Yamamoto did not want to let up. He sought energetic defense and pushed his subordinates to quickly complete all measures. Yamamoto wanted to inflict such strong blows against the enemy that the enemy would be unable to attack. For this reason, he pushed his commands strongly – especially those defending the Solomones. This was now the most important area, and so he wanted to use everything he could to defend it. To this end, Yamamoto decided to personally inspect Japanese island bases so he ..read more

Heavy fighting for southern Pacific continued. Japanese Navy was still strong and could offer stiff resistance, while the American industry was still only warming up and was their forces did not have  a decisive advantage. Americans were increasingly on the offensive, but these offensives came at a high cost: islands were many and well fortified, so advance was slow and costly. Nevertheless, the Japanese were feeling the pressure. Wherever they went, they were followed by heavy blows. On 28th February convoy left Rabaul carrying reinforcements to Lae. Eight transport ships with 7 000 sold ..read more