Baština (Jan 2015)
Kosovo-mitrovački county in April war
Abstract
The basic characteristics of the events of the Invasion of Yugoslavia (the so-called April War) in the area of the County of Kosovska Mitrovica coincide with those related to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during those 12 days - a general chaos and military defeat. The local Serbian population was against the pact with Hitler, while the Albanian population stood aloof. Manifestations were organized with a goal of opposing the signing of the Tripartite Pact, which occurred after the military coup and the ousting of the Cvetković-Maček Government, as well as the celebration in the name of this act. The first two days of war in this area had passed quietly, without any particular events, to the third day when the shattered and demoralized Yugoslav troops entered Kosovska Mitrovica. They had failed to defend the Gorge of Kačanik, an extraordinarily important strategic point. With an apparent superiority in equipment, military technique and armament, the main reasons of the quick and relatively easy breakthrough of the German Wehrmacht was related to the bad conditions within the Yugoslav army. These conditions were the result of the poisoned interethnic relations between its members. A rather massive amount of betrayals on behalf of the officers and soldiers of Croatian ethnicity, 'the bad blood' among soldiers of different ethnic, religious and political backgrounds, desertions and mutinies, with bad tactics, have made the Army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia suffer defeat after defeat in all battlefields, thus in this area as well. The Ibarska Division, mainly consisted out of personnel from the area of the County of Kosovska Mitrovica, had unsuccessfully terminated its warfare and just after two days of war its soldiers were captured. Unlike the Ibarska Division, the Kosovska-Mitrovica Detachment, formed directly on the order of general Milan Nedić, has quite successfully implemented its war tasks. It has liberated Vučitrn and advanced enough to be four kilometres from Pristina, but the order for the taking of the Gorge of Kačanik could not be executed. What is characteristic of the area this paper is dealing with is the fact that parallel to the wartime events - diversions took place, as well as attacks and crimes towards Serbian civilians on behalf of armed Albanian groups. Many of these groups were liquidated or repressed on behalf of the Yugoslav army, but their key organizers remained at their posts and during the occupation they had represented the Quisling authorities. Kosovska Mitrovica had fallen on April 16th - which is the date when the occupation started. The brief so-called April War in this area ended at that point.
