The Impact of the WWI on the Officers’ Mind-set in the Balkan Affairs: Interwar, WW II and after (Humanitarian Aspect)

Abstract

Author of this survey article tries to indicate multiply legacies of the First World War on the army officers’ mind-set in the interwar years and especially during the Second World War at the Balkan war theatre. The experience of Austro-Hungarian officers on the South and Eastern Front 1914–1918 no doubt influenced the once middle ranked or junior officers at the same theatres of war in the period after 1941. It was not only combat experience and frustration but attitudes stirred up by propaganda as well.

Keywords

• war crimes
• Balkan
• Wermacht
• Austro-Hungarian officers
• ISC
• Salonika Front
• Serbia
• Uprising in Toplica
• Chetniks