This week, seventy years ago, the Kingdom of Croatia was created (or recreated) when, on May 18, 1941, Italian King, Victor Emmanuel III, named his cousin, Admiral Prince Aimone of Savoy-Aosta, Duke of Spoleto, as the King of Croatia.  The Prince was the younger brother of Prince Amedeo, Duc d’Aosta, Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of Italian East Africa, who would be, on the same day surrendering to Commonwealth forces. Assuming the crown, the Prince took the Croatian name of Tomaslav II.  Tomaslav I was the first Croatian King.  The newly crowned king’s full title was “King of Croatia, Prince of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Voivode of Dalmatia, Tusla and Knin.”  
    When he first learned that he had been named King of Croatia he thought his nomination was a bad joke by his cousin, King Victor Emmanuel III.  The new King told Italian Foreign Minister, Conte Galeazzo Ciano, that he was, “...proud of having been chosen King of Croatia but had no idea what he was supposed to do and was vaguely uneasy about it.”
    The Italians also attempted to establish (or reestablish) a monarchy in Montenegro, but it had even less success than in Croatia. The wife of  King Victor Emmanuel III, Queen Elena, was the daughter of the only king of Montenegro, Nikola I, so she implored the King to establish (or reestablish) a Montenegrin monarchy. But all who were offered the crown declined it.
    On April 10, 1942, soldiers of the Wehrmacht began entering the city of Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Zagreb was the capital of the Yugoslavian province of Croatia. This was part of the Axis invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In addition to the German Wehrmacht, the Regio Esercito Italia, the Royal Hungarian Army, and the Bulgarian Army were also invading Yugoslavia.
      Croatia hadn’t been independent for more than 700 years.  Since 1102, the King of Hungary had worn the crown of Croatia.  After King Louis II of Hungary was killed in the Battle of Mohács, with the Turks in 1526, the crown of Hungary (and with it the crown of Croatia) passed to the Habsburgs of Austria. This laid the foundation for what became known as the “Dual Monarchy,” with the Emperor of Austria also being the King of Hungary (who was also the King of Croatia).
    With the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Kingdom was dismembered, and the Imperial and Royal family dethroned and exiled. The State of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, was created in 1918, and soon became a part of the Kingdom of Serbia, which had also just absorbed Montenegro, as a reward for Serbia’s participation, with the Allies, in the defeat of the Central Powers. Instead of being a separate state, within the Kingdom, with full equality with the Serbs, Croatia, and the whole country, was run by the Serbs. For example, on the eve of the Axis invasion, all but four of the 165 generals of the Royal Yugoslav Army were Serbs. In January 1929, King Aleksandar I renamed the country Yugoslavia (“Land of the South Slavs”). The Croats now had less autonomy than they did under the Habsburgs. The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia had had its own parliament since 1868 and the official language in the kingdom had been Croatian.
    It was about this time that a lawyer, Ante Pavelic, founded the Insurgent Croat Revolutionary Organization (Ustaska Hrvatska Revolucionera Organizacija)  The Ustachi was a militant organization advocating Croatian independence. In 1934, the Ustashi assassinated the King while he was visiting France. Dr. Pavelic went on the lam to Italy, where he was living, when the Axis invasion began.
    The heir to the Yugoslavian throne was only twelve years old at the time of the King’s death. The King’s cousin, Prince Paul, was named regent.
     Hitler originally had no interest in the Balkans, other than to keep them neutral.  But after the Italians’ ill-advised attack against Greece, he had no choice but to intercede on his ally’s behalf, because the Romanian oilfields at Ploiesti - which supplied a significant portion of the Reich’s oil needs - were within British bomber range.  But to do so effectively, the Germans needed a land route to Greece. The Rumanians, Hungarians, and Bulgarians all agreed.  Finally, on March 25, 1941, Prince Paul, on behalf of Yugoslavia, agreed.
    The Serbs were incensed. Within two days, a coup d’etat, led by Air Force General Dusan Simovic, had sent Prince Paul into exile and placed the 17-year-old king, Peter, on the throne. When Hitler learned of this, he flew into a rage, and in a meeting on March 27, 1941, attended by Field Marshals Walther von Brauchitsch and Wilhelm Keitel, Reichsmarshal Hermann Göring, General Alfred Jodl and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, announced that he had decided to, “...destroy Yugoslavia as a military power and sovereign state.” Plans for the invasion were drafted immediately. On April 6, 1941, the Lüftwaffe began the invasion by bombing Belgrade, the Capitol of Serbia and Yugoslavia.
    Not only was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia being assaulted from all sides and from the air, but from within, as well, as the Croats, seeing an opportunity for independence, turned on their fellow Slavs. From Italy, Dr. Pavelic urged the Croatian soldiers in the Yugoslav army to mutiny, saying, “Use your weapons against the Serbian soldiers and officers. We are fighting shoulder to shoulder with our German and Italian allies!”   
    When the Wehrmacht entered the Croatian capital of Zagreb, Colonel Slavko Kvaternik declared the existence of the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Drzava Krvatska - NDH)  under the leadership of Dr. Ante Pavelic - who, at the time, was in hiding, in Italy, and who was taken by surprise, when he heard the news! The establishment of the “Independent State” was opposed by Italy, which wanted an Italian controlled monarchy. Colonel Kvaternik’s declaration was accompanied by the playing of “Deutschland über Alles” - the German national anthem!
    On April 15, 1941, Dr. Pavelic arrived in Zagreb from Italy. He took the title “Poglavnik,” which means “Leader” in Croatian. He joined the Italian Duce, the German Führer, the Spanish Caudillo and the Romanian Conducator. They would soon be joined by the Slovakian Vodca and later by the Hungarian Nemzetvezetö. The NDH was recognized  by the Axis countries and Spain, China and Portugal.  
    Colonel Kvaternik was rewarded by the Poglavnik (Leader) with the post of Commander - in - Chief of Croatia’s Armed Forces. He was also promoted from Colonel to General, and then to Marshal of Croatia (Hrvatska Vojskovodja). His Marshal’s baton was a hatchet. Since there were no Croatian Armed Forces, he immediately set about organizing the Croatian Home Defense Army (Hrvatsko Domobranstvo). He didn’t have any time to waste, because on April 17, 1941, Croatia declared war on the United Kingdom. He also assumed the post of Minister of Home Defense and Traffic in the first government of NDH. This ministry included the Army, Navy, Air Force, Gendarmie, and Labor Service. The Marshal’s efforts at raising an army were hampered by several factors. The first was that many able-bodied, patriotic Croatian males opted for service in the Ustachi, a paramilitary, SS - type organization.  In addition, the Poglavnik, on July 2, 1941, called for volunteers to serve with their German comrades against the U.S.S.R.
    The following month, the Kingdom of Croatia joined the German Reich, the Japanese Empire, the Kingdoms of Italy, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria and the Slovak Republic in the Tripartite Pact. In an attempt to show its appreciation to its German patron, Croatia sent a fighter and a bomber squadron to serve in the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front. During its service, the fighter squadron tallied 283 victories for a loss of two planes and five pilots. Captain Mato Dukovac was the top Croatian ace, before he deserted to the Soviet Union, with 44 victories, followed by Captain Cvitan Galic with 38. For perspective, the top U.S. ace, Major Richard Bong, had 40.
     In October 1941, the 4000 man Croatian Legion was incorporated into the German Wehrmacht as the 369th Reinforced Croatian Infantry Regiment, commanded by Ivan Markul. He was replaced by Viktor Percevic on September 22. Four days later the unit arrived at Stalingrad where it was destroyed. Three divisions were raised and devoted to anti-partisan activity in Yugoslavia.
    A 1200 man Brigade also served with the Italian Principe Amadeo Duc d’Aosta Division, commanded by General Mario Marazzini, on the Eastern Front. It was also destroyed, on the Don River, in the Soviet Stalingrad offensive.
    On December 14, 1941, Croatia declared war on the United States. After the Kingdom of Italy switched sides, on September 11, 1943, Croatia’s borders expanded to incorporate some of the territory that Italy had claimed for itself. By now its armed forces had also expanded and were mostly concerned with anti-partisan combat. At the time of its surrender, on May 14, 1945, to British forces in Austria, it numbered 200,000. After the surrender, the British repatriated them to Marshal Tito’s forces where most were executed.
    Unlike the German Führer, the Croatian Poglavnik was more concerned with eliminating Orthodoxy than Judaism, especially since his wife, María was part Jewish. On June 6, 1941, while visiting Berlin, the Poglavnik was told by the Führer that, “If the Croatian state is to be really stable, a nationally intolerant policy should be pursued for 50 years.”  The Poglavnik declared a policy of “purification” and announced that “alien elements” would be eliminated from the country.
    The Croats were Catholics, while the Serbs were Orthodox. Of the 7,000,000 people living in the country, 1,850,000 were Serbs. On May 2, 1941, one of the new government’s ministers, Miroslav Zanic, said, “This country can only be a Croatian country, and there is no method we would hesitate to use in order to make it truly Croatian and cleanse it of Serbs, who have, for centuries, endangered us, and who will endanger us again if they are given the opportunity.” To that end, at least, 330,000 Serbs were murdered, with an equal number deported, and 200,000 “converted.” To demonstrate their solidarity with their German patron, 30,000 Jews and an equal number of Gypsies were also murdered.
    King Tomaslav II resigned from his position on July 31, 1943, on orders from his cousin, the Italian King, and renounced all claims to the Croatian throne on October 12, 1943. In 1947, he went to South America and died in a hotel room in Buenos Aires on January 29, 1948. He had never stepped foot in his “kingdom!” With his resignation, Dr. Pavelic became head of state, while Nikola Mandic became Prime Minister. After the war, Mandic was executed by the Tito government.
    Marshal Kvaternik had been forced out of the government because of disagreements with the Poglavnik. He “retired” to Austria on December 29, 1942, where he was captured by American forces and on September 9, 1945 extradited to Yugoslavia. He was tried in Zagreb, beginning May 29, 1946, convicted, and on June 7, 1946, sentenced to death. The sentence was executed by hanging.
    The Poglavnik fled, on May 6, 1945, first to Austria and then to Rome, where he was shielded by the Vatican, which then assisted him in following the Prince to Argentina, in 1948. American intelligence reported that his, “...contacts are so high, and his present position is so compromising to the Vatican, that any extradition of Subject would deal a staggering blow to the Roman Catholic Church.”
     After his arrival in Argentina, he became security advisor to El Presidente Juan Perón, under the name “Pablo Aranyos.” On the 16th anniversary of the founding of the Independent State of Croatia - April 10, 1957 - he was shot in the back and seriously wounded by a, then unknown, assailant, as he was alighting from a bus. In 1999, a former partisan, Blagoje Jovovic, from Montenegro, admitted that he was the shooter.
    By this time, El Presidente Perón had been overthrown and Argentina agreed to Yugoslavia’s extradition request. But the aging Croatian Poglavnik went on the lam again, surfacing in Madrid, where he died on December 28, 1959 of the wounds sustained in the assassination attempt in Buenos Aires. He is buried in the San Isidro Cemetery in Madrid.

NEXT WEEK: “SINK THE BISMARCK!”
    
Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.