Axis Eastern Front allies in World War II
Strength and Organisation of the Armed Forces of Slovakia, Croatia and Spanish Volunteers

Slovak Army

In March 1939 Hitler summoned the leaders of the Slovak populist party to Berlin and told them that unless they broke away from Czechoslovakia, he would allow the Hungarians to invade their country. Slovakia declared itself independent on the next day, 14 March 1939.

Slovakia was allowed to maintain its own army (6 divisions), and inherited the Czechoslovakian equipment stored within its borders. Since the Slovak officers were all ex-Czechoslovakian army too, the new force bore a strong resemblance to that highly professional body, though the units had to be re-organised from scratch. One unusual feature was that the Volksdeutsche (German origin) served in their own 'closed' formations, which at one point amounted to one artillery, one engineer and two infantry regiments.

Picture: Soldiers of the Slovak Mobile Division on the Eastern Front. The men in the front is equipped with a captured Russian PPSh sub-machine gun, the men behind is ready to throw a German Stielhandgranate.

The Slovak army had three infantry divisions by the time World War II broke out. It helped the Germans in their attack on Poland, and two divisions (the 1st and 3rd) occupied territory which the Slovaks claimed was theirs. This co-operation did much to establish Slovakia's status as a loyal German ally and to avert the threat of a Hungarian take-over.

For the German invasion of the Soviet Union the Slovaks placed at the disposal of the Germans a light brigade of 3,500 men which was partially motorised and included a battalion of Czech light tanks (= PzKpfw 38(t) ), and an army corps of two infantry divisions and divisional troops. The total strength of the Slovak commitment in July 1941 was 40,393 men and 1,346 officers.

During August 1941 it was decided to send the infantry divisions back to Slovakia and to form a 10,000-strong Mobile Division and a 6,000-strong Security Division. These were placed under German operational control, though the administration remained wholly Slovak. The elite Mobile Division fought at Lemberg, at Kiev and on the Mius during the winter of 1941-42, where one German officer found the men to be 'brave soldiers with very good discipline'. The Mobile Division was well thought of by the Germans and was used by them in a front-line role.

The Slovak units fighting on the Eastern Front suffered heavy casualties and in 1943 were whitdrawn to carry out security duties. Morale slumped, and both divisions began to lose men through desertion. In 1944 they were put into reserve, disarmed and converted into Construction Brigades. Meanwhile, the Slovaks had organised two new divisions (1st and 2nd Infantry) to defend the Carpathians. A third was forming in central Slovakia when the Partisan movement initiated a rising in late August 1944. This was premature from the army's point of view, and the Germans were able to disarm the two field divisions.

The Slovak army used mainly Czechoslovakian equipment, though the Germans supplied some mortars and anti-tank, field and AA guns. The Slovak policy was one of rapid rotation between the Home Army and the divisions in Russia, and they even went so far as to discharge conscripts when their period of service was over throughout the war.

Picture: Ex-Czech LT vz.38 tanks (= PzKpfw 38(t) ) of the Slovak Army with the post-1942 shield markings. The crew wear Czech overalls.

Slovak Air Force

In the autumn of 1939 a German Luftwaffe mission arrived in Slovakia to undertake the modernisation and re-organisation of the Slovak Air Force. The Mobile Division was accompanied by a small air detachment consisting of two fighter squadrons equipped with Czech Avia B-534s and a reconnaissance group with Letov S328s.

Picture: Avia B-534s of the Slovak No 12 Sqn are dispersed among wrecked Tupolev SB-2bis and SB-3 bombers abandoned by the retreating Soviets at an airfield in the Ukraine in the summer of 1941.

In the summer of 1942 twenty combat-weary Bf109Es used by the Luftwaffe in Western Europe and North Africa were the first modern fighters issued to the Slovakian Air Force. Beginning in March 1943, new Bf109G were supplied as replacements by Germany.

Croatian Army

Even before the German victory over Yugoslavia was complete, the country was already in the process of dismemberment and on 10 April 1941 the Independent State of Croatia was proclaimed.
The new Croat State began raising its own armed forces by conscription. This new army was known as the Hrvatsko Domobranstvo (which literally means Home Army), and by the end of 1941 it comprised four army corps, six divisions and 46 battalions. Two types of Croat formation came into existence; these were the rifle brigades (Jagerbrigaden) and the mountain rifle brigades (Gebirgsjagerbrigaden). The mountain rifle brigades were composed of two rifle regiments and two battalions of artillery. In 1944 the personnel strength of the four rifle brigades was 35,000 men.

A Italian-Croat Legion was organised as a two-battalion Blackshirt Legion with an artillery battalion attached. It fought well with the Italian 3rd Mobile Division, but was destroyed during the Don retreat.
The German-Croat Legion was organised as a three-battalion infantry regiment with an attached artillery battalion, and was known as the '369th Reinforced Croat Infantry Regiment'. It was lost at Stalingrad.

Picture: Croatian Ustashi soldiers.

The Croat para-military organisation which fought against both the partisans and the Chetniks was the Ustashi which had both a military and police role. In addition to some of the better organised and disciplined units, there were a number of 'wild' bands - mere bandits.
By the end of 1941 there were 15 Ustashi battalions, which were combined with Army units to form 16 combined Domobranen-Ustachi divisions and another 30 brigades with a total strength of some 114,000 men with another 38,000 in territorial units. At the end of the war the remnants of these units were gathered together to form one battle-worthy division, the 1st Croatian Storm Division.

Croatian Air Force

Initially the Croatian Air Force was equipped with aircraft from the former Yugoslav Air Force or machines supplied by Italy. In October 1941 a Croatian Air Force Legion was formed consisting of one fighter squadron (Messerschmitt Bf109s) and one bomber squadron (Dornier Do17).

Pro-Axis Serbian Troops

Under the premiership of General Milan Nedic, the Serbian area of Yugoslavia was treated as an occupied country but allowed to raise a limited number of armed troops for internal security duties.
Gendarmerie-type units which existed during the war were the Serbian City Guard with a total strength of 15,000, the Serbian State Guard (Srpska Drzavna Straza), successor to the Royal Yugoslav Gendarmerie with Danube and Dvina regiments, and the Serbian Frontier Guard (Srpska Granicna Straza).
The most overtly collaborationist was the Serbian Volunteer Corps (Srpska Dobrovoljacki Korpus) formed in the spring of 1943. At the end of 1944 the Corps and its German liaison staff were transferred to the Waffen-SS as the Serbian SS Corps and comprised a staff, four regiments each with three battalions and a training battalion.

Spanish Volunteer Units

In return for German help in the Spanish Civil War, Franco agreed to the formation of a Spanish Volunteer Division of 18,000 men, most of whom were regular soldiers, to participate in the 'crusade' against Bolshevism on the Eastern Front.
On 25 July 1941 the Spanish 'Blue' (Azul) Division became the 250th Infantry Division of the German Army.
The usual four infantry regiments in a Spanish division were reduced to three (262nd, 263rd, and 269th) with the 250th Artillery Battalion and divisional units. Personnel strength was 641 officers, 2,272 non-commissioned officers and 15,780 men.
After sustaining 12,776 casualties, the Division was withdrawn from the front in October 1943.
From November 1943 a Spanish 'Blue' Legion with two infantry banderas (battalions) and a mixed bandera with artillery, anti-tank and combined companies was engaged in fighting partisans in the northern sector of the Eastern Front. Following the general retreat into Estonia the Legion began to leave for Spain in April 1944.

Picture: Spanish soldiers of the Blue Division on the Eastern Front.

Spanish Volunteer Air Force

Five Spanish Air Force squadrons, trained and equipped by the Germans served with Army Group Centre. Only one squadron at a time served at the front. The squadrons served mainly as bomber escorts and accounted for 156 Soviet aircraft on the Eastern Front.