Croatian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII

On April 6th, 1941, Germany launched a massive assault on Yugoslavia. Within 12 days of the assault Yugoslavia was crushed. Four days after the German assault, on April 10th, 1941, Slavko Kvaternik came forward from the region of Croatia and proclaimed "a free and independent State of Croatia" under the direction of Ante Pavelic. At the time of the German assault and later during Kvaternik's declaration, Pavelic was in Italy. He arrived in Croatia on April 14th and took up control of the newly formed independent State of Croatia. On April 17th, Croatia declared war on the British, thus making Croatia a formal Axis partner.

Over the course of the Second World War many Croatians choose not to serve in the various branches of the Armed Forces of the Independant State of Croatia, but instead volunteered for service in one of the military forces of Croatia's Axis allies, namely with Germany, or to a lesser degree, with Italy. Croatians served in all branches of the German Wehrmacht the Waffen SS and the SS Police. The following listings is of the units and formations known to have been made up of Croatian volunteers in the service of the German Armed Forces: (Many Croatians served within other units on an inpidual basis, but their numbers and exact stories are not known to history due to the nature of their inpidual service.) The 369th Reinforced Infantry Regiment, 369th "Devil's" Division, 373rd "Tiger" Division, 392nd "Blue" Division, the Croatian Airforce Legion, The Croatian Naval Legion, the 13th Waffen SS Mountain Division "Handschar", the 23rd Waffen SS Mountain Division "Kama", "Croatia" Police Regiments 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, Police Anti-Tank Company "Croatia", and Gendarmerie Division "Croatia". As well, the Light Transport Brigade and Croatian Legion both served under Italy during WWII.

The Croatian 369th Reinforced Regiment

On the day of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941, the "Poglavnik" (Leader) of the Independant State of Croatia, Ante Pavelic, met with the military and civilian leadership of Croatia to decide how best to support their German ally. All present were strongly in favour of the German attack, seeing the invasion as a battle between the progressive forces of Europe against the Communist forces in the East. All present agreed that Croatia should participate in the invasion alongside Germany. To this end the representative of the German military in Croatia, Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, was contacted.

Von Horstenau suggested that Pavelic prepare a letter to Adolf Hitler, offering the service of Croatian troops on the Eastern Front. Pavelic prepared this letter the following day, on June 23rd, 1941. In his letter, Pavelic explained to Hitler the wishes of the Croatian people to join the battle of "all freedom loving nations against Communism". Pavelic offered ground, sea and air forces, to be committed "as soon as possible" to fight alongside Germany. Hitler responded to Pavelic's letter on July 1st 1941, accepting the Croatian offer and thanking them for their service. Hitler was of the opinion that ground forces could be sent quickly, while air and sea forces would need a longer time to be properly trained and equiped. On July 2nd, 1941, Pavelic ordered that volunteers be called for from all branches of the Armed Forces of Croatia to join the struggle in the East.

The ground contingent of the planned Croatian formations was the first to be formed. The Croatians hoped for a total of 3,900 volunteers in order to form a regimental sized unit, but by the 15th of July 1941, 9,000 men had already stepped forward and volunteered for service! In light of such high numbers the criteria for acceptance was raised considerably.

When finally organized on July 16th 1941, the Regiment was given the title Verstarken Kroatischen Infanterie-Regiment 369, or 369th Reinforced Croatian Infantry Regiment. The Regiment had 3,895 officers, NCO's and men. As part of the Wehrmacht the men of the unit were to wear German uniforms and use German rank insignia. A Croatian armshield consisting of 24 red and white checkers with the title Hrvatska (Croatia) above it was to be worn on the left arm and on the left side of the helmet.

The Regiment consisted of a regimental staff, 3 infantry battalions and an artillery staff company. Each infantry battalion had a battalion staff, 3 infantry companies, a machine-gun company, an anti-tank company, a supply company, and an artillery battery. The Regiment was termed "reinforced" because of the attached artillery which was not normally organic in a unit of regimental size. The commander of the Regiment was Colonel Ivan Markulj. A training battalion for the Regiment was also organized at this time. It was based in the town of Stokerau in Austria shortly after its formation. Its main function was to process replacements for the Regiment fighting on the front.

Once fully organized, the Regiment was transported to Dollersheim in Germany where it was equipped and the men gave their oath to the Fuhrer, the Poglavnik, and to Germany and Croatia. This was followed by three weeks of training after which the Regiment was sent by train through Hungary to Dongena in Bessarabia. From there the Regiment set off on a 750km forced march through the Ukraine to reach the front lines. The march lasted 35 days with only one day of rest. After the 35 day march, the destination of Budniskaja in the Ukraine was reached and the Regiment received one week of respite. During the forced march, 187 members of the Regiment were sent back to Croatia for various health related reasons and two soldiers were executed for leaving their sentry positions. In Budniskaja, a group of experienced German NCO's joined the Regiment to assist in its final training and aclimatizing in the front lines.

On October 9th 1941, the 369th Regiment was assigned to the 100.Jäger-Division. On the 13th of October the Regiment participated in its first battle east of the Dnjeper River. From here on in battles were fought around the villages and towns of Petrusani, Kremencuga, Poltava, Saroki, Balti, Pervomajsk, Kirovgrad, Petropavlovsk, Taranovka, Grisin, Stalino, Vasiljevka, Aleksandrovka, Ivanovka, and Garbatovo. One particular aspect of the fighting during these battles that shocked the Croatians was the sheer numbers of surrendering Soviet troops. Literally thousands surrendered to the Croatians. It actually came to the point where the Regiment was so swamped they considered releasing some of their PoWs! Many of the Soviet soldiers, and especially the Russians and Ukrainians, prefered to surrender to the Croatians feeling that they would get better treatment from fellow Slavs.

After nearly a year in existance, In July of 1942, the Regiment fought towards the northeast, and then turned to the southeast along the Don River. Heavy losses were sustained by the Croats on the 25th, 26th and 27th of July in battles around the Collective Farm (Kolhoz) known as "Proljet Kultura" near the town of Selivanova. 46 Croatian soldiers were killed and 176 wounded. Much of the fighting was fierce hand to hand combat. A Croatian military cemetary was built next to the Kolhoz and the soldiers killed in action were buried there. On August 26th 1942, the first reinforcements arrived from the training battalion in Stokerau and the Regiment was sent to Glaskov for rest and refitting.

Between the end of August and the end of September 1942 the Regiment took part in various training and refitting duties behind the lines. On September 22nd 1942, Colonel Viktor Pavicic, until that time commander of the Croatian Military Academy, replaced Colonel Markulj as the CO of the Regiment. On September 24th 1942, Ante Pavelic made a visit to the Regiment to bestowe decorations upon various men of the unit and to lunch with General von Paulus of 6.Armee. Finally, on September 26th 1942, the Regiment received orders to move out. A forced march to the south-east through Gomcar and Gumnik followed. After a 14 hour march, the Regiment arrived in the fateful suburbs of Stalingrad. At 11:30pm of that same day, the 1st Battalion of the Regiment entered the front lines in Stalingrad itself. Early the next morning, the remaining portions of the Regiment also entered the front lines around Stalingrad. The 369th Regiment thus became the only unit of non-Germans to participate in the attack on Stalingrad. This was actually viewed as a great honor - a reward for its hard fought battles and excellent successes to this point. Some talk was even heard about re-naming the 100.Jäger-Division as the 100th German-Croatian Jager Division! None of this was to come to fruition though, as the streets of Stalingrad were to be the final resting place for the Regiment.

The Regiment's men participated in some of the hardest battles in the attempt to take Stalingrad. A typical day of fighting in Stalingrad for the men of the Regiment was described by the Commander of a platoon of the 3rd Company, Lt. Bucar:

"...When we entered Stalingrad, it was ruined and in flames. We took cover in trenches and bunkers, as the enemy was hitting us with artilley, Katusha rockets, and with aircraft. I was lucky not to lose any men, but the Second Platoon lost one man dead and 5 wounded, and the Third Platoon 13 dead and wounded. Around 6:00am, German Stuka aircraft bombed the area ahead of us, and an attack was ordered towards the northern part of the city. My platoon's mission was to, in conjuction with a German unit, clear the Freight Station, and then the railroad dike, and reach the Volga River. Night fell under constant bombardment. I didn't lose any men, but our transport unit was hit badly, and lost 10 men, 40 horses, and an equipment truck with ammunition..."