Why Yugoslavia Joined the Axis... And Then Didn't!

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joined the Axis (the Tripartite Pact) in March 1941. Yugoslavia was under the rule of Regent Prince Paul but after the Yugoslav coup d'état he had to make way for King Peter II. When he heard about it Hitler flew into a rage and issued Operation Retribution (German: Unternehmen Strafgericht). On 6 April 1941 the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia started.
History Hustle presents: Why Yugoslavia Joined the Axis... And Then Didn't!
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SOURCES
- The Second World War (Antony Beevor).
- Death of the Wehrmacht. The German Campaigns of 1942 (Robert M. Citino).
- Hitler's New Disorder. The Second World War in Yugoslavia (Stevan K. Pavlowitch).
- War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945. Occupation and Collaboration (Jozo Tomasevich).
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VIDEO
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• Belgrade 1932 [HD] COL...
Belgrade 1932 [HD] COLOR - Beograd, Prestonica Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1932 [HD]
• Yugoslav royal army on...
Yugoslav royal army on the Sava-1940/Југословенска краљевска војска на Сави(Чукарица)-1940
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[@HistoryHustle]

Axis Invasion of Yugoslavia: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hni6g5yEbr5nrMk Croatia during WW2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqHSpmZpnZJ-qLc Italian Occupation of Yugoslavia: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpyVd6BupL57mKM

[@marcoskehl]

Obrigado, Stefan! ヽ(͡◕ ͜ʖ ͡◕)ﾉ 🍀 🇧🇷

[@Sleepery22]

5:37 Lapsus Linguae: Little Entante was Czechoslovakia, Romania and YUGOSLAVIA (originally SHS).. not Croatia.

[@Dystopia1111]

The Balkans - making history 'interesting' in sudden, inexplicable ways since forever.

[@mammuchan8923]

When the invasion of your country is called Operation Punishment, you know you are in trouble 🫣. Thanks for another excellent video Stephan. The quality of your channel is great, I see you are up to 150k subscribers, well done!👋👋👋

[@tsar389]

Its a miracle Yugoslavia lasted until 1941. When it was beginning to fall apart after creation. Also props for another good video Stephen! I need to catch up on them

[@Touchedbynature304]

Off course, Britts created the kingdom of SHS as well as Yugoslavia. It was an artificial creation, the Serbs did not wanted it.

[@Touchedbynature304]

Both Yugoslavias only served for the purpose to create states than never existed before in history- Croatia and Slovenia.

[@coling3957]

thanks for making these great videos. the very complicated issues in Europe with the smaller nations is usually not understood. especially by us Britons .. Old Adolph threw a fit when the Yugoslavians rejected the Axis.. a bit of an over-reaction perhaps...

[@recoil53]

To be fair, dude threw a fit about everything.

[@stephmaccormick3195]

Great info. Thanks.

[@battragon]

Great analysis, as ever. 👍

[@justanapple8510]

Quality content as always!

[@jsbae2]

Keep making these videos, they are absolute amazing!❤

[@HistoryHustle]

🥉👍

[@CARL_093]

a very good topic bro

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks Carl!

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

Another wonderful historical coverage video shared by an excellent (History Hustle) channel ... introduced by Sir( Stefan)....it was an informative historical coverage video about those desperate, destabilizing political circumstances of Yugoslavia

[@SH-jg5zq]

Thank you! ❤

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for watching!

[@xvsj5833]

Great update Stefan, have a great weekend 👍

[@HistoryHustle]

👍👍👍

[@peterhughes8699]

Thanks again Stefan - great summary :)

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for your reply.

[@rjames3981]

Excellent 👌

[@HistoryHustle]

👍

[@xvsj5833]

Thanks!

[@HistoryHustle]

Many thanks for your generous support!!

[@Hillbilly001]

Excellent video again Stefan. Kudos to you for the shout out for TiK. Well done. Cheers from Tennessee

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for your reply.

[@HistoryMadeSimple90]

Love the channel! You are a huge inspiration for my channel ❤😃

[@HistoryHustle]

Awesome 👍

[@moumouhigi5837]

they switched sides even faster than Italy

[@coling3957]

Italy was only country in ww2 to be on the winning side from beginning to end :)

[@AlanHodovic]

@@coling3957 Ever heard of Bulgaria? They were the close 🥈

[@FilipPetrovic999]

There is a difference between changing sides and overthrowing a government that changed its policy overnight and decided to side with the Axis powers. Even before, and especially after the First World War, the Germans were seen as the main enemies of the South Slavs and Yugoslavia, and they were the main obstacle to the unification of all South Slavs. And then from once Yugoslavia should become an ally of Nazi Germany. There is no change of sides here, but an attempt by the Yugoslav leadership to side with Germany despite the will of the people. Two days later it turned out that the attempt was unsuccessful.

[@HistoryHustle]

🥈nd reply.

[@michaelignite8598]

Yugoslavian collaboration is mostly a communist myth. Yugoslavia, even if you only take Chetniks, who were more efficient at fighting against the Axis, into account, had one of the strongest anti-Axis resistance movement(s) in the whole war.

[@gibraltersteamboatco888]

Excellent. BZ. 12:09 Yikes, even mitten za Stirnader.

[@dreamcast3607]

You should do a video on Finland throughout the war I always hear about the winter war and at the end the lapland war but nothing in-between!

[@Heike--]

In between was when Finland fought on the side of the Nazis and put Russians into their own concentration camps. Obviously nobody wants to talk about that.

[@nerozero8266]

👍

[@HistoryHustle]

🥇👍

[@gumdeo]

An Axis Yugoslavia would have played little part in the war, much like Bulgaria.

[@user-nm3nb4oj5d]

Yes and no. All Balkan countries are rather non-important. Combined, the Balkan is absolutely vital on who controls Europe since it’s the crossroads of Russia, Germany/Austria, Italy, Turkey/Ottoman and the Mediterranean with British/French naval bases. And since the Balkan family are so easy to ignite over non-important things in regards to world history (who cares if some village is Bosnian, Serbian or if the Macedonians are Bulgarians with a dialect or if they are actuallyGreeks who lost they native language or if there’sa Romanian minority cooking čevabčiči using Pavel’s recipe and not Ivan’s from the next village in the Banat)? These stupid fights are used and intensified by the great powers, especially Russia and Britain and Italy, so that Germany/Austria or Turkey doesn’t gain dominance in the region. And since this is the SouthEastern flank of the White people in Europe, it was understood that it had to be German, so that the Turks or Western colonists don’t use the Balkan route to destroy the European peoples with masses of Arabs, Asians and Africans as they now do to overrun the continent.

[@thebigm7558]

We have Indy Neidell at home

[@HistoryHustle]

😎👍

[@aidankitson7877]

Excellent work once again Stefan. Yugoslavia would always be a troubled country due to the mix of ethnicities and reliigions. I understand this very well as I love in the North of Ireland

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for your reply.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

Barbarossa wasn't delayed by the invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece, the conditions under foot did that. But the men (wound, killed or stuck on garrison duties in these countries and the other occupied countries), materiel and fuel used up didn't help the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

[@ntonisa6636]

It's funny how at first Mussolini vehemently wanted to keep the Germans out of his "sphere of influence"/"living space", including the Balkans, while Hitler was similarly trying to restrain his partner from messing around with Yugoslavia and Greece... Until the Duce in his anxiety to not be outshone by Hitler's glory as a conqueror decided to start a couple wars he couldn't finish and ended up forcing his ally to get involved in both Africa and the Balkans which wasn't in the plans originally.

[@KraljStefan-ey3bo]

In the book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Book by William L. Shirer" autor said that Hitler lost time because invasion of Yugoslavia. Barbarossa delayed about 4-5 weeks.

[@radomirratkovic9014]

Ive read general Guderians book translated to Croatian while in national service and it was ckear to me back in 1980s that Werchnacht used propaganda tool to persuade the Croat and Slovene troops not to fight .The majority of those two nations soldiers subsequently deserted Yugoslav Army North and German panzers were able to push towards interior ...With them just outside Zagreb Vladko Macek ( yeah Croat Peasants Party leader and still acting minister in King Peters government) together with Slavko Kvaternik who was the former professional army officer in K and K and Royal SHS arny jointly proclaimed Indeoendent State of Ctoatia over the radio waves in Zagreb ...That was what caused the break up of the countey and Instant blood shed and civil war which did not stop till the end ...Those units up the northern border were not mixed and they had very small number of Serbs serving in them which was a crucial mistake ...Once inside the country the further rebellion was incited by Axis troops and their agents which in turn have made possible for Criatia to go independent according to the plan while Slovenes ( who by the way have seen national formation only in SHS previously they were subdivided in K and K ) were cheated of their own national asoirations and were designed to exodus by Third Reich cos Hitler after visit to Maribor expressed the wish to have Slovenia germanised.Trackloads were sent to Croatia and Serbia to become croatised or to melt or perish with Serbs in Reichscommandature operated occupied Serbia Proper ...By trusting Guderians propaganda Slovenians digged their own graves ..

[@nemiw4429]

We'r too proud. Hard to explain. I only lived through the war in Croatia, 97 moved to Switzerland. Im half Serb half Cro. Im the soft version of a Yugoslav. My great uncle, uncle have a chatacter of steel.

[@papertoyss]

IF you would present the wider map here 2:10 you would see that the region of nowadays North Macedonia was actually the Vardar Banovina. Also the so-called "Macedonian revolutionary organization" *consisted by ethnic Bulgarians* who advertised their Bulgarian ethnic identity. The history of the Balkans (ie above Greece), and in particular the regions of the former Yugoslavia, is a total mess.

[@royale7620]

I don't blame Prince Paul, same reason Romania joined, dishonor before death, but sadly Yugo chose the most wrong time to do the coup, they couldnt have waited till 1943-1944 couldn't they have? that would have saved the monarchy too and not give power to Tito.

[@HistoryHustle]

I understand Paul too. He had no other option.

[@tomabbott5259]

History Hustle ,My question is what eventually happened to Prince Paul?did he go to Switzerland or something else?did he survive the war?

[@Bosnitch1]

Our cousin Prince Pavle was kidnapped by the English who locked him up unlawfully in Kenya until the war ended. As he was also a cousin of the English King, they dared not kill him. He was allowed to leave for exile in Switzerland, where my late father met with him several times.

[@mark_sugar42]

@@Bosnitch1why would the British kill Paul?

[@Bosnitch1]

@@mark_sugar42 they did not kill him, they deposed him to stop Serbia from staying neutral like Sweden and Switzerland, so that the English could get their lackeys in Serbia to suicidally fight invincible Nazi Germany to divert the Germans from their war against England. The English are always ready to fight any war to the very last Serb! ;-) PS: Prince Pavle's side neutralist of the story is told in his diaries and in the book "Ni Rat, Ni Pakt" (Neither war, nor joining the Axis). PS: As the English already had picked Tito to be their future puppet ruler of Yugoslavia, the pro-Russian pro-neutrality Prince Regent Pavle was their primary target for a putsch.

[@Bosnitch1]

@@mark_sugar42 The British accused him of being pro-Axis (which he was not). Regent Prince Pavle was for neutrality in view of the extreme losses of life among Serbs in WWI. He saw the examples of Sweden and Switzerland and sought the same status. The deal he signed with Germany was that no Serbian soldiers would ever leave their own national territory, and that no German troops would ever enter or traverse Yugoslav territory. The deal would maintain Yugoslavia's de facto neutrality. But the English wanted to divert German attention from themselves and knowing that Serbs are excellent soldiers, they organized a coup d'état to overthrow Prince Pavle and drive the Serbs into war against the Germans. It was a no-brainer for the English as they hated both the Germans and the traditionally pro-Russian Serbs... An annex to the pact allowed Yugoslavia to stay totally out of the war, and thus the English acted. The result was a massive loss of millions of lives, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in the Jasenovac death camps in Nazi Croatia, the foreign imposition of the English-backed non-Serb agent Tito, who, despite spending the rest of his life in power in royal palaces, claimed to be a communist, but split with Stalin (with England's support). It took our nation until the 1980s to recover and to prepare for the introduction of multiparty democracy again by President Milošević.

[@stanbasov42]

It would be amazing to find out your thoughts on the hot topic "Hitler was a socialist". Since many Americans refer to modern Netherlands as a socialist country and third Reich not 😮

[@Heike--]

Holland isn't socialist, but Germany sure was. TIK has a great video on the subject. PS why are you obsessed with what Americans are doing? Why don't you mind your own business?

[@rjames3981]

Hitler was I believe originally employed by German military intelligence to infiltrate and inform on both socialist and nationalist groups. He just used ‘fake left’ rhetoric to ‘market’ and sell his adopted organisation.

[@Bosnitch1]

Hitler was a nationalist and a socialist, hence the name of his party: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, which internationalist communists and socialists refuse to recognize and thus refer to by a name they created “nazi” to hide the socialist link. He introduced unemployment insurance, baby bonuses, free education, the people’s car VOLKS WAGEN (the VW “bug” that other leftists adopted again in the 1960s), free medical welfare etc.

[@Bosnitch1]

As for Holland, they are historically known as a Germanic nation that had a higher per capita rate of volunteers to Hitler’s SS than even Germany itself. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! ;-)

[@Bosnitch1]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJbEg319f5hjmpY

[@mladenmatosevic4591]

Basically, Belgrade elite, unable to agree on cause of action caused destruction of country. It would have been complete tragedy if they were allowedto return on power after war.

[@HistoryHustle]

Times of Yugoslavia are over.

[@KraljStefan-ey3bo]

​@@HistoryHustle Since beginning (1918.) Yugoslavia was mess. That was country divided : Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Albanians, orthodox, muslims, catolics, Germans , Magyars ... Nobody hasn't even 50% of population. Ethnic and religious hate . When war startted 1941. half of Yugoslav army ( Croats, muslims etc.) attacking other in Yugoslav army (Serbs )... Croatian Zagreb welcomed Wermacht like Wien ( you can see that on You Tube)

[@albertmisic3876]

Princ Pavle did what was the best in that moment. He was pro British, educated there, have friends, but he had no choice. Yugoslavia was arounded with all side with Axis countries. But soon Hitler attacked Yugoslavia after the coup of March 27th. Hitler mistakenly thought that the British were behind the coup, which was not true. That coup was the spontaneous instigation of the Air Force General and various other organizations. The coup plotters had nothing to do after that. They had contacts with the English only on a formal and official level. If the English had carried it out, it would have been much more serious and the coup plotters would have linked up with General Netaxas, the dictator of Greece. If we were in Pact, we will avoid destruction in WW2 like Bulgaria did it.

[@HistoryHustle]

Thanks for sharing your insights.

[@Bosnitch1]

In fact the English did plan the coup and supported it. They tricked Pavle, whom they secretly hated for his marriage to a Russian imperial princess, and for his dedication to Serbia’s best interests rather than theirs. At the time, there was a common saying that the British, (who sat out the Polish war, and who did nothing but retreat from France, and ordered their English citizens on the Nazi occupied channel islands NOT to resist) were prepared to fight the Nazis “to the very last Serb”. We Serbs know of their WWI perfidy, when they betrayed our King and army and refused to evacuate them from the Adriatic coast until the Tsar told them he would sign a separate peace with the Central Powers immediately if they and the French failed to send their fleets to evacuate our forces to Africa.

[@Bosnitch1]

The English then double-crossed the Serbs again in WWII, when they supported non-Serb dictator Tito in deposing our King and Parliament.

[@user-nm3nb4oj5d]

Italy was so shortsighted. Mussolini wanted the old Roman Empire back too fast.

[@HistoryHustle]

Pretty much yes.

[@user-nm3nb4oj5d]

@@HistoryHustle Italy forgot that the actual war was on a global, and spiritual level, it was a battle of world views and who’d rule the world. Christians or Jews. Before dominating the Adria or Mediterranean, Italy had to defeat Britain (Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, Palestine) Russia and the US (who bankrolled USSR and were basically UK.2) Italy thought they were in a vacuum and all they had to accomplish was get as much from the dissected Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Italy did not really see the hatred of the Bolshevik-Capitalist twin sisters coming. They just saw themselves vs Croatia or themselves vs Greece etc and one on one they were the superior power. Italy did not expect the rest of the world to care. But this war was an existential threat to the Global Jew. The Jews don’t care what system is used by whatever country, as long as they control this system or at least have significant influence. With Germany cutting off the Jew in their country, the entire world buddied up as they all were controlled by the international jews. And Italy didn’t really understand this as fascism is not anti-semitic per se. It’s policies are indirectly anti-semitic for they are nationalistic and that’s bad for the international jew, but fascism doesn’t explicitly address the Jewish Question. Mussolini did not anticipate the wrath of the capitalist and communist empires, both in the hands of the Jews.

[@deniskoscak1735]

Well, as the local saying goes, it was because Yugoslavia was "surrounded by PROBLEMS or WORRIES ("okružena BRIGAMA" CRO) Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Greece, Austria, Mađarska(Hungary in Croatian) = BRIGAMA

[@eerokutale277]

Not really related to your video. Yugoslavia was a prime example why different ethnic groups should not be mixed, but now stupid European leaders are doing it on purpose. Kingdom of Yugoslavia's ethnic structure, 1918 Ethnic group Number Percent Serbs (including Montenegrins and some Macedonian Slavs) 4,665,851 38.8% Croats 2,856,551 23.8% Slovenes 1,024,761 8.5% South Slavic Muslims 727,650 6.1% Bulgarians[1] (including some Macedonian Slavs[2]) 585,558 4.9% Other Slavs 174,466 1.5% Germans 513,472 4.3% Hungarians 472,409 3.9% Albanians 441,740 3.7% Romanians, Vlachs, Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians 229,398 1.9% Turks 168,404 1.4% Jews 64,159 0.5% Italians 12,825 0.1% Others 80,079 0.7% Total 12,017,323 100%

[@daveanderson3805]

That's because our stupid leaders probably won't be around when ethnic strife turns violent and Europe disintegrates

[@sirdarklust]

A five hour lecture by Hitler begs the question of how much aspirin Prince Paul went through during that meeting. It's ironic how this situation and Mussolini's ego basically cost the Germans the Eastern Front, and saved the world, possibly. Anyway, I wonder if the Germans struck at the ding dong at 13:52. Take care.

[@HawkThunder907]

Typical balkan thing: overthrowing bad regiems for even worse ones.

[@martamilutinovic6172]

YU=prototype of EU

[@Touchedbynature304]

Cincar Markovic was actually not a Cincar. Cincars like to put this in front of important Serbs in order to mark any important Serb as their own. Real Cincars would never put that in front of their name. They originate from Albania.

[@HistoryHustle]

Ok.

[@zillsburyy1]

the ustase were worse than Direlwanger/Kaminski

[@HistoryHustle]

Think they both were very evil.

[@Touchedbynature304]

This is a lame video as always and a lame anti- Serbia propaganda. Nothing was ever spontaneous , the logistics were prepared and payed from London. Russia too was eager to postpone the Barbarossa operation.

[@HistoryHustle]

I refer to my sources. What are yours?

[@Touchedbynature304]

​​@@HistoryHustleI refer to my sources. What are yours?

[@mark_sugar42]

@@Touchedbynature304authors sources are in the video description

[@Touchedbynature304]

​@@mark_sugar42No, he is just acts as a guy who actually knows history but avoids the truth as a true jesuit scholar or he is totally ignorant and just reads what the " sources" write him to speak. All the videos are totally superficial with no real insite into the core of the matter. In fact , in each and every video there are at least two sentences who have already been dismissed by serious historians as lies or forgeries. The guy is just doing his job and gets payed for it.

[@mark_sugar42]

@@Touchedbynature304your comment was “you are wrong”. Why don’t you rather say what was wrong and Stefan can investigate and engage on a specific item. We all have different views of history depending on which side we are (even if neutral). And some points are simply due to new / additional information that was not previously available. And the purpose of the videos is to give a 10 minute insight about various topics (I learned about Peru in WW2 from Stefan) and not an ultimate guide to all you have to know about a topic.

[@ilijapilipovic]

Talking about Yugoslavia and always say Serb? Where is rest of ....

[@HistoryHustle]

Please explain?