YUGOSLAVIA IN WW II - ARMED FORCES
ARMY
The Yugoslav Army's war establishment was 1.2 million, with a further half-million in the reserves. At the end of March 1941, when both a 'general activation' (not mobilization) and a new plan were promulgated, the army's strength stood at 700,000. At least half of its 110 light tanks were obsolescent.
Despite relatively lavish expenditure on defence in recent years, this was an army which still moved at the pace of a bullock cart and was led by men whose conceptions had advanced little since 1918.
The army's only possible advantage over the Wehrmacht lay in the use it might make of its rugged native terrain, but that was vitiated by demoralization, disaffection, and paralysis in the face of German might. At less than half-strength and with its dispositions in flux on account of the new war plan, the Yugoslav Army was no match for its
enemies in April 1941.A Yugoslav battalion composed largely of ex-Italian prisoners-of-war of Slovene nationality was later formed in Egypt.
NAVY
The Yugoslav Navy had an old German training cruiser, four modern destroyers -a fifth was under construction- four submarines, sixteen old torpedo boats, and a number of miscellaneous craft including a seaplane tender.
Non was lost to enemy action but the cruiser, seaplane tender, and three of the destroyers were captured. The fourth destroyer was scuttled by its crew.
A submarine, two torpedo boats, and eleven seaplanes of the Yugoslav Fleet Air Arm escaped to Alexandria where they were used for local patrol duties. Later a number of small British warships were manned by Yugoslav crews based on Malta.
Their return, along with vessels seized by the Italians in 1941, were sought by Tito in 1944.
AIR FORCE
With a total of 419 aircraft the airforce comprised one fighter and one bomber air brigade, each with two wings; two mixed air brigades, each with one wing of fighters ad one of bombers; and a bomber air brigade of two wings. There were also seven squadrons of obsolete army aviation aircraft.
The aircraft were of mixed British, French, and German types, some modern, some not. The fighter air brigade which protected Belgrade was equipped mostly with Hurricanes and Me109s, and these inflicted some losses on the Germans when the Luftwaffe raided the capital on 6 April 1941.
Altogether, 49 Yugoslav aircraft were lost in the air and 85 on the ground
before the armistice. About 50 escaped to Greece, some of which eventually reached Egypt.The bulk of the several hundred air force personnel who reached Egypt mutinied against the Jovanovic
government-in-exile early in 1942. The mutineers were eventually enrolled in the RAF Volunteer Reserve. Most returned to Yugoslav colours in 1944 when the UK began to train fighter squadrons for Tito.
M.Wheeler,
Oxford Companion to the Second World War (1995), pp.1297,1298