Europa Woche Nr, 79 - 29.08.1944 - Nosecone View from a V-1 Missile

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Episode 327

Europa Woche 79/1944 (29 August)

- Use of civilians in the construction of defensive fortifications in East Prussia

- Use of the V-1 flying bomb in France

The Serbian Volunteer Corps (German: Serbisches Freiwilligenkorps), was the paramilitary branch of the fascist political organization Zbor, which collaborated with the forces of Nazi Germany in the German-occupied territory of Serbia,[c] while loyal to the King of Yugoslavia Peter II, during World War II.

In July 1941, a paramilitary militia called the Serbian Volunteer Detachments was formed, the unit, never formally part of the German armed forces, numbered about 3,500 men, mostly Serbian but also included some Croats and Slovenes. It was reorganized as the Serbian Volunteer Corps, at the end of 1942, and placed under the command of Colonel Kosta Mušicki. By 1944, the majority of the Serbian Volunteer Corps recruits were draftees as opposed to volunteers and reached a peak strength of 9,886 men.

By 15 February 1942, the Corps had a strength of 172 officers and 3,513 men, which was very close to the planned strength for the five battalions. During 1942 SDK clashed with Partisans in southern Serbia. Although they inflicted considerable losses on the Partisans they didn't manage to crush them completely in southern Serbia. In western Serbia, SDK with gendarmerie, Germans and Chetniks attacked the Kosmaj, Valjevo and Suvobor Partisan battalions who had returned from Bosnia. They managed to defeat all except the Valjevo unit which escaped through enemy lines. At the end of 1942 there were 12 companies in 5 battalions and Germans granted them formal recognition on 1 January 1943, by officially changing its designation to the Serbian Volunteer Corps. In 1943, the SDK clashed with the Partisans near Požarevac, Kruševac, Aranđelovac and in Mačva. They also clashed with Mihailović's Chetniks. On 28 September, Chetniks killed Dušan Marković, commander of the 4th volunteer battalion with 20 of his volunteers and soon after Miloš Vojnović Lautner, commander of the 3rd volunteer battalion. On 15 May the Wehrmacht captured 4000 Chetniks under Major Pavle Đurišić in Montenegro. Đurišić was to be sent to Strij camp in Poland but managed to escape and was in Belgrade in November that year. Đurišić was soon captured by the Gestapo but under guarantees of Nedić and Ljotić was released on the condition that he put his troops under SDK command. Đurišić accepted the offer, formed three SDK regiments and became Mušicki's second in command.

Soldiers of the Fifth Regiment of the Serbian Volunteer Corps on the left, Pavle Đurišić's Chetniks and a Muslim in Priboj, occupied Montenegro, February 1944.

The Partisans had meanwhile grown to an army of considerable strength, and by the summer of 1943 were once again active throughout Serbia. This renewed activity greatly worried the responsible German commanders, since the strength of the occupation forces had declined considerably during the relatively peaceful months of 1942. Nedić was also aware of this problem, and went to see Adolf Hitler at Obersalzberg in the hope of finding a solution. The meeting was on 15 September 1943, and Nedić managed to secure an agreement for the reinforcement of the SDK by five additional battalions, with a further five to follow as circumstances permitted. These measures were immediately carried out, and by 20 October each of the five independent battalions had become a regiment with a strength of two battalions. Training for the five new battalions took place at the respective regimental garrison locations in Belgrade.

From March to May 1944, the 2nd and 5th Partisan divisions were pushed back from Western Serbia by a large heterogeneous force. On June 21 Milan Nedić ordered the formation of the Iron Regiment in Leskovac but during its formation most troops escaped to the Chetniks. By 21 August 1944 the five-regiment SDK had reached a strength of 9,886 officers and men, and from its inception to September 1944 had suffered 700 killed and 1,800 wounded in action.