Editing Yugoslav Partisans (section)

==Operations==
{{Main|World War II in Yugoslavia}}
[[File:Jugoslavija i Evropa maj 1943.jpg|thumb|Territory under control of the Communist Party in Yugoslavia (''Liberated Territory''), May 1943]]
{{Quote|source=|By the middle of 1943 partisan resistance to the Germans and their allies had grown from the dimensions of a mere nuisance to those of a major factor in the general situation. In many parts of occupied Europe the enemy was suffering losses at the hands of partisans that he could ill afford. Nowhere were these losses heavier than in Yugoslavia.{{sfn|Davidson|1946|loc=[https://znaci.org/00001/3_1_0.htm 1.0 Introduction]}}|[[Basil Davidson]]}}

===Resistance and retaliation===
{{See also|Seven anti-Partisan offensives}}
[[File:March of Time - Yugoslav Partisans.ogv|thumb|Yugoslav Partisans engaging in various activities]]
The Partisans staged a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] campaign which enjoyed gradually increased levels of success and support of the general populace, and succeeded in controlling large chunks of Yugoslav territory. These were managed via the "People's committees", organized to act as civilian governments in areas of the country controlled by the communists, even limited arms industries were set up. At the very beginning, Partisan forces were relatively small, poorly armed and without any infrastructure. They had two major advantages over other military and paramilitary formations in former Yugoslavia:
#A small but valuable cadre of [[Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War]] who, unlike anyone else at the time, had experience with modern war fought in circumstances quite similar to those of World War II Yugoslavia
#They were founded on ideology rather than [[ethnicity]], which meant the Partisans could expect at least some levels of support in any corner of the country, unlike other paramilitary formations whose support was limited to territories with Croat or Serb majorities. This allowed their units to be more mobile and fill their ranks with a larger pool of potential recruits.

Occupying and [[quisling]] forces, however, were quite aware of the Partisan threat, and attempted to destroy the resistance in what Yugoslav historiographers defined as seven major enemy offensives. These are:
*The [[First Enemy Offensive]], the attack conducted by the Axis in autumn of 1941 against the "[[Republic of Užice]]", a liberated territory the Partisans established in western [[Serbia]]. In November 1941, [[Nazi Germany|German]] troops attacked and reoccupied this territory, with the majority of Partisan forces escaping towards [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]].{{sfn|Roberts|1973|p=37}} It was during this offensive that tenuous collaboration between the Partisans and the royalist [[Chetnik]] movement broke down and turned into open hostility.{{sfn|Tomasevich|1975|pp=151–155}}
*The [[Second Enemy Offensive]], the coordinated Axis attack conducted in January 1942 against Partisan forces in eastern [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]]. The Partisan troops once again avoided encirclement and were forced to retreat over [[Igman]] mountain near [[Sarajevo]].{{sfn|Roberts|1973|p=55}}
*The [[Operation Trio|Third Enemy Offensive]], an offensive against Partisan forces in eastern Bosnia, [[Montenegro]], [[Sandžak]] and [[Herzegovina]] which took place in the spring of 1942. It was known as ''Operation TRIO'' by the Germans, and again ended with a timely Partisan escape.{{sfn|Roberts|1973|pp=56–57}} This attack is mistakenly identified by some sources as the [[Battle of Kozara]], which took place in the summer of 1942.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}
*The [[Fourth Enemy Offensive]], against "[[Republic of Bihać]]", also known as the Battle of the Neretva or ''Fall Weiss'' (Case White), a conflict spanning the area between western [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]] and northern [[Herzegovina]], and culminating in the Partisan retreat over the [[Neretva]] river. It took place from January to April 1943.{{sfn|Roberts|1973|pp=100–103}}
*The [[Fifth Enemy Offensive]], also known as the Battle of the Sutjeska or ''Fall Schwarz'' (''Case Black''). The operation immediately followed the Fourth Offensive and included a complete encirclement of Partisan forces in southeastern Bosnia and northern Montenegro in May and June 1943.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}
*The [[Sixth Enemy Offensive]], a series of operations undertaken by the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' and the ''[[Ustaše]]'' after the [[capitulation of Italy]] in an attempt to secure the [[Adriatic]] coast. It took place in late 1943 and early 1944.
*The [[Seventh Enemy Offensive]], the final attack in western Bosnia in the second quarter of 1944, which included ''Operation Rösselsprung'' (Knight's Leap), an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]] and annihilate the leadership of the Partisan movement.

{{Quote|It was the nature of partisan resistance that operations against it must either eliminate it altogether or leave it potentially stronger than before. This had been shown by the sequel to each of the previous five offensives from which, one after another, the partisan brigades and divisions had emerged stronger in experience and armament than they had been before, with the backing of a population which had come to see no alternative to resistance but death, imprisonment, or starvation. There could be no half-measures; the Germans left nothing behind them but a trail of ruin. What in other circumstances might possibly have remained the purely ideological war that reactionaries abroad said it was (and German propaganda did their utmost to support them) became a war for national preservation. So clear was this that no room was left for provincialism; Serbs and Croats and Slovenes, Macedonians, Bosnians, Christian and Moslem, Orthodox and Catholic, sank their differences in the sheer desperation of striving to remain alive.{{sfn|Davidson|1946|loc=[https://znaci.org/00001/3_2_8.htm 2.8 The Sixth Offensive]}}|[[Basil Davidson]]}}

Partisans operated as a regular army that remained highly mobile across occupied Yugoslavia. Partisan units engaged in overt acts of resistance which led to significant reprisals against civilians by Axis forces.{{sfn|Martin|1946|p=174}} The killing of civilians discouraged the Chetniks from carrying out overt resistance, however the Partisans were not fazed and continued overt resistance which disrupted Axis forces, but led to significant civilian casualties.{{sfn|Martin|1946|p=175}}

===Allied support===
{{See also|Yugoslavia and the Allies}}
[[File:148 Squadron Halifax Italy WWII IWM CNA 3231.jpg|thumb|A Royal Air Force [[Halifax bomber]] of [[No. 148 Squadron RAF|148 Squadron]], loaded with parachute canisters containing supplies for the Yugoslav Partisans (1944–1945)]]
Later in the conflict the Partisans were able to win the moral, as well as limited material support of the western [[Allies of World War II|Allies]], who until then had supported General [[Draža Mihailović]]'s Chetnik Forces, but were finally convinced of their collaboration fighting by many military missions dispatched to both sides during the course of the war.<ref>{{cite book|title=Tito|last=Barnett|first=Neil|author-link=Neil Barnett|year=2006|publisher=Haus Publishing|location=London|isbn=978-1-904950-31-8|pages=65–66}}</ref>

To gather [[military intelligence|intelligence]], agents of the western Allies were infiltrated into both the Partisans and the Chetniks. The intelligence gathered by liaisons to the resistance groups was crucial to the success of supply missions and was the primary influence on Allied strategy in [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. The search for intelligence ultimately resulted in the demise of the [[Chetniks]] and their eclipse by Tito's Partisans. In 1942, although supplies were limited, token support was sent equally to each. The new year would bring a change. The Germans were executing [[Operation Schwarz]] (the Fifth anti-Partisan offensive), one of a series of offensives aimed at the resistance fighters, when [[William Deakin|F.W.D. Deakin]] was sent by the British to gather information.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}} On April 13, 1941, Winston Churchill sent his greetings to the Yugoslav people. In his greeting he stated:

{{Quote| You are making a heroic resistance against formidable odds and in doing so you are proving true to your great traditions. Serbs, we know you. You were our allies in the last war and your armies are covered with glory. Croats and Slovenes, we know your military history. For centuries you were the bulwark of Christianity. Your fame as warriors spread far and wide on the Continent. One of the finest incidents in the history of Croatia is the one when, in the 16th Century, long before the French Revolution, the peasants rose to defend the rights of man, and fought for those principles which centuries later gave the world democracy. Yugoslavs, you are fighting for those principles today. The British Empire is fighting with you, and behind us is the great democracy of the U.S.A., with its vast and ever-increasing resources. However hard the fight, our victory is assured.{{sfn|Davidson|1946|loc=[https://znaci.org/00001/3_2_8.htm 2.8 The Sixth Offensive]}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gilbert |first1=Martin |title=The Churchill War Papers: The ever-widening war, 1941 |date=1993 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |page=490}}</ref>|[[Winston Churchill]]}}

His reports contained two important observations. The first was that the Partisans were courageous and aggressive in battling the German [[1st Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)|1st Mountain]] and 104th Light Division, had suffered significant casualties, and required support. The second observation was that the entire German 1st Mountain Division had traveled from Russia by railway through Chetnik-controlled territory. British intercepts (ULTRA) of German message traffic confirmed Chetnik timidity. All in all, intelligence reports resulted in increased Allied interest in Yugoslavia air operations and shifted policy. In September 1943, at Churchill's request, Brigadier General [[Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet|Fitzroy Maclean]] was parachuted to Tito's headquarters near Drvar to serve as a permanent, formal liaison to the Partisans. While the Chetniks were still occasionally supplied, the Partisans received the bulk of all future support.{{sfn|Martin|1946|p=34}}

Thus, after the [[Tehran Conference]] the Partisans received official recognition as the legitimate national liberation force by the Allies, who subsequently set up the [[RAF]] [[Balkan Air Force]] (under the influence and suggestion of Brigadier-General Fitzroy Maclean) with the aim to provide increased supplies and tactical air support for Marshal Tito's Partisan forces. During a meeting with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[Combined Chiefs of Staff]] of 24 November 1943, [[Winston Churchill]] pointed out that:{{quote|It was a lamentable fact that virtually no supplies had been conveyed by sea to the 222,000 followers of Tito.&nbsp;... These stalwarts were holding as many Germans in Yugoslavia as the combined Anglo-American forces were holding in Italy south of Rome. The Germans had been thrown into some confusion after the collapse of Italy and the Patriots had gained control of large stretches of the coast. We had not, however, seized the opportunity. The Germans had recovered and were driving the Partisans out bit by bit. The main reason for this was the artificial line of responsibility which ran through the Balkans. (...&nbsp;) Considering that the Partisans had given us such a generous measure of assistance at almost no cost to ourselves, it was of high importance to ensure that their resistance was maintained and not allowed to flag. |Winston Churchill, 24 November 1943<ref>Walter R. Roberts, ''Tito, Mihailović, and the Allies'' Duke University Press, 1987; {{ISBN|0-8223-0773-1}}, p. 165</ref>}}

===Activities increase (1943–1945)===
[[File:Mlada partizanka.jpg|thumb|A Partisan woman fighter in occupied Yugoslavia]]
[[File:Partisans in liberated Novi Sad 1944.jpg|thumb|7th Vojvodina Brigade entering liberated [[Novi Sad]], 1944]]
{{Quote|The partisan army had long since grown into a regular fighting formation comparable to the armies of other small States, and infinitely superior to most of them, and especially to the pre-war Jugoslav army, in tactical skill, fieldcraft, leadership, fighting spirit and fire-power.{{sfn|Davidson|1946|loc=[https://znaci.org/00001/3_4_2.htm 4.2 Course of the War]}}|[[Basil Davidson]]}} With Allied air support (''Operation Flotsam'') and assistance from the [[Red Army]], in the second half of 1944 the Partisans turned their attention to Serbia, which had seen relatively little fighting since the fall of the Republic of Užice in 1941. On 20 October, the Red Army and the Partisans liberated [[Belgrade]] in a joint operation known as the [[Belgrade Offensive]]. At the onset of winter, the Partisans effectively controlled the entire eastern half of Yugoslavia – Serbia, [[Vardar Macedonia]] and [[Montenegro]], as well as the [[Dalmatia]]n coast.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}

In 1945, the Partisans, numbering over 800,000 strong<ref name=perica/> defeated the [[Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia]] and the [[Wehrmacht]], achieving a hard-fought breakthrough in the [[Syrmia]]n front in late winter, taking [[Sarajevo]] in early April, and the rest of the NDH and Slovenia through mid-May. After taking [[Rijeka]] and [[Istria]], which were part of Italy before the war, they beat the Allies to [[Trieste]] by two days.{{sfn|Roberts|1973|p=319}} The "last battle of World War II in Europe", the [[Battle of Poljana]], was fought between the Partisans and retreating [[Wehrmacht]] and [[quisling]] forces at Poljana, near [[Prevalje]] in [[Slovenian Carinthia|Carinthia]], on 14–15 May 1945.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}