Col. MARKO Mesić was last person on the last plane from Stalingrad. He told pilot to hold the plane while he went back to take the regiment fight schedule book. That is a story for itself.
Croatian legionnaires fought together side by side with the Italian Bersaljes, and both fought very bravely, side by side, and had a high opinion and mutual respect for each other, like brothers in arms.
marko mesić je prije službe kraljevine jugoslavije bio u austro-ugarskoj vojsci Marko Mesić was in the Austro-Hungarian army before serving the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
I added Croatian subtitles.My great great grandfather was a part of the unit.He was in the artillery,and I guess what better way to show him respect than by making possible that more people understnad his story?Thanks for making such a wonderfull video!
@Van Tazz First you used the same joke that I used on you,kinda pathetic.And second no.No he wasn't,but since I had my expirience with you I won't even try to argue.I'm just gonna say that he fought to death for his belifes and that he was under influence of Pavelić's propaganda,but it's not like this is gonna make any difference in your small brain is it?
My Grandfather from father side was Engineer in Croatian Legion and my Grandfather from mom's side was Gestapo officer, later he was killed by partisans when he was hiding in Croatian village at end of war.
Fantastic video! Looking forward to the in depth video on the battle of Stalingrad and specifics about the 369th Croatian, particularly what ever detailed information is available about sergeant Dragutin Podobnik and his 18 man group taking a part of the Red October Factory.
Maybe you should do a story on their last commander, Col. Marko Mesić? He's literally unique, having participated in WWII in no less than FIVE armies: Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Croatia, Germany, Soviet Union and Tito's Yugoslavia.
I am Croat, and I thank you for making this! I shared your video on my 14k fans page about world war 2. I hope you dont mind it. Keep making great content! :)
The handschaar division was not a great fight force, many surrendered during battle as for the Croat legions that left for Stalingrad, they were remarkable soldiers who punched way above their weight, if only they returned earlier from the eastern front to fight the Partizans, I think things would have been a lot different
Great video. As a Croat (not one that overwhelmingly supports the regime of Independent State of Croatia), i appreciate your video on this little-known topic.
Have you seen my more recent (and still ongoing) Battlestorm Stalingrad series? The Croatian Legion plays a role right from the beginning, so you might be interested ruclips.net/video/YAfo5mse-ag/видео.html
@@Nikola-mg8teYes i read about that. I feel an affinity and sympathise with both countries. They are in my opinion on the front line of civilisation and democracy.
Hello Tik. I ignored that the 369th Reinforced (Croatian) Infantry Regiment fought on the Eastern Front. But I am not surprised that they were sent there either. Thanks for giving this info, keep going. Cheers and take care
Great video! Thanks very much for this. I remember a veteran who fought in this unit from my hometown. He escaped the Russians and returned home from Russia by foot!
He did not escape. It's a well known fact that Stalin gave them Red Army uniforms and sent them to Serbia under the command of Marko Mesic. They went house to house and plundered everything. They ran into aged Petar Bojovic, a Feald Marshal from WW1 who was respected even by the Nazi Germans and beat him to death. Also, Marko Mesic was the "partisan" who shot at the fresco of Jesus in the Church of Saint Andrew i Belgrade.
@@blindtherapper2470 I'm afraid so. Mesic was an evil bastard, so much that even the Communists denounced him later. They had no problem recruiting ex Nazis but that fucker was too much.
It is so nice to see and hear an objective evaluation of the legion and their fighting capabilities. Not burdend by 60 yeary of communist history and brainwashing. Thank you for this.
Thanks for your comment Mikistjep. I try to remain neutral in all these videos, although there will always be some bias or other. In this case, I know next to nothing about Balkan politics, and am not burdened by an ideology (like you mentioned) so it makes for a neutral video :)
TIK You kept it about the military aspect, not ideological. I would not have supported it if it was an appologetic on nazis or communist. Unfortunately when you are talking about anything regarding WW2 and Croatia, or any of our eastern neighbours you will probably get a shitstorm in the comments. So much is not reserched yet by real historians, so much of the yugoslav regime mythology lives on, and people who don't like eachother or have a more notorious agenda will try to use it as a lever or an argument to justify their belived leader, or nation or whatever. Best not to read the comments, or better yet to deny them. I know it is a hard desicion for any truth loving, open minded western person, but thats my advice on these topics regarding former yugoslavia. Please don't let that discourage you in your work. I love it, and hope to see something new soon. Cheers.
I would love it if you could continue to make videos highlighting specific units, TIK! Sorry that I'm years too late to be commenting but I literally just found this video and am loving it!
The 369th reinforced was the embodiment of Croatian warrior spirit. A legend says that the last days of the fighting when everyone was retreating you could only hear the gunshots and Croatians singing as they made one last stand.
Croatia did great in the war. Three divisions, one reinforced regiment, a naval legion, an air force legion, plus tens of thousands of collaborators as police back in Yugoslavia.
Cool video! Obscure units, battles, and wars are a lot of fun to explore. These battlestorm lite videos are always a pleasant surprise. A pleasant appetizer before the rich main course. ;)
aha interesting. the non-german units that fought on the eastern front on the German side have something of a complex history. I know that in western and northern Europe the Germans made special divisions part of the Waffen-SS, for volunteers for those the occupied regions. I know that in Denmark, we had Free Corps Denmark (Danish: Frikorps Danmark) where around 6000 volunteered to fight. Free Corps Denmark mostly fought on the eastern front like The Croatian Legion. mind you until August 1943, the Danish government cooperated with the germans. Its formation was subsequently sanctioned by the democratically elected Danish government which authorised officers of the Danish Army to join the unit. ps glad to see my name in the ending credits as a patron :-)
Rex there wasn’t 6000 Danes fighting in Frikorps Danmark as Frikorps Danmark where only of infantry Bataillon size. But it’s correct that around 6000 Danes did fought for the Germans, but is where also in Waffen SS Division Wiking, Regiment 24 Dänemark, Regiment Nordland.
Yeah there was quite a few volounteer units in the Balkans.Like SS "Prinz Eugen" which was made out of so called "folksdeutchers",Germans that inhabited Croatia during Habsburg Momarchy and so on.There was also SS "Handschar",it was mostly made out of Croats and some muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina.They are all pretty interesting but I unfortunately didn't have time to further explore them but if you have some free time I totally recommend taking a look at these units.
@davidcapan5920 Prince Eugen unit have as.well serbs from Vojvodina, and they committed biggest crimes in Dalmatia villages, where they executed whole families included women and children!!!!! After any Partisan activities, Princ Eugen unit go in villages and they revenge, they go in villages and execute all inhabitants. Women and children include. All i repeat!
Great and objective video! Always a pleasure to see something not comming from the croatian or anti-croatian side. As for all of the anti-croatian commenters, I can only say that as a Croatian I am deeply ashamed about the crimes against humanity commited by the Croatian regime during this period. But these soldiers had nothing or little to do with this. They have served honorably and completed their missions in the teather of war they were part of. About the political reasons, and to find out why ideologically they were against communism and Serbs, feel free to check out other objective material. As a summary, Croatians were always interested only in freedom and self determination. And had a positive attitude about Serbs and other South Slavs...until seeing first hand serbian dominated dictatorship of Yugoslavian King. Makes you understand a bit how Croatians found the Nazis “great”, after that experiance.
@Nikola Dlaka: Interesting comments. My wife is an American of Croatian and Slovak heritage. We grew up in the 1950's-1960's outside of Chicago in an area of very mixed immigrants from various European countries. Many of my best friends to this day are Serbs (sons of Chetniks) and I have two nieces whose father is a Serb. My wife's grandfather was born in Selo Priboj (then Austria) in1892 which I believe is actually part of Serbia and immigrated to the USA at age 16. Unfortunately he died young in 1918 during that flu pandemic. My father-in-law fought the Germans in France, was captured and held in a POW camp until the end of WWII. He too had some very good Serbian friends here in the states. For some time I was deeply disturbed by the Croatian and Slovak connection to the Nazi's. Then I learned about my partial Prussian/German roots dating back to the early 1600's. What a mess. My friendship with my Serb friends is intact. However, I can never forgive the atrocities committed by their previous countrymen during the war in Bosnia/Sarajevo any more than I can my own Prussian/German ancestors for their atrocities during WWII. We live in ominous times again like 1930's Germany. May God help us.
@@godfreyzilla8608 very interesting comment. I’m on the other hand much more positive about the present and the future. The past is there and cannot be changed, we can and must only learn from it. And it should be looked at in an objective manner. Even Germany and it’s reasons to go to war had some background. The way Germany was treated after WWI was a disgrace. Many of the motivation for the WWII can be found there. History books tend to undermine that aspect. They mostly focus on the madness and attrocities of the Nazis in the later stages. Germans and Prussians are proud people, they did not deserve to be treated like that. Also a lot of the motivation for the 90’s war in Yugoslavia can be attributed to poor handling of the after war situation and treatment of the “losers”. One should not forget that 90% of the people cought in any war, on any side, are there because they have little other choice or option. Only a small portion commited crimes, or created mad ideologies.
When the Soviets met at Kalach, the first thing the encircled troops did was fly out all the female nurses. The 369th Motorised disguised their girlfriends/wives as nurses and had them flown out as well. (The Fortress Without a Roof. Sorry I can't remember the author...)
Wow very interesting! I knew about the independant state of croatia but never heard about the legion who fought in the eastern front. Greetings from argentina B i H
In the balkans, something that happened a hundred years ago holds the same importance as something that happened five minutes ago. We don't forget or forgive.
@Van Tazz Your sentence should be a definition for a word "chetnik".It's also funny how you explained yourself.I will never understand you arrogant people that don't know anything about histroy of yourself,but procced to spit on someone else and tell them about their history.
Just like to say thanks to TIK for making these interesting vids and also the phenomenal Stalingrad series. One of the best studies of that battle ever made and destined to be a classic. I would love to read the Croatian Legion Book. Hear that Santa?
a small digression, related to this topic, namely, when the Ukrainian Maidan began and when the Ukrainians banned the Russian language, they also banned Hungarian, so they announced that they would also ban Romanian, to which the Romanians replied - just try, but first remember how we leveled Odesa with artillery in World War II, so that it wouldn't happen again after that the Ukrainians gave up banning the Romanian language in public and were content to kill Russians and mistreat the Hungarians who had lived there for centuries
Hermann Balck in his memoirs "Order in Chaos" said that the best foreigners to serve in the Wehrmacht were as follows: Finns then Croatians and then Slovakians.
You dserve so many more subscribers. Your videos are just so good and informative. Your Market Garden video was the first I saw and I loved it! Also, could you talk about the Estonian 20th Waffengrenadier Division? I could help you.
I'm glad you think so! Be sure to tell people about my videos :) and if you could recommend me a good English book or two on the Estonian division, I'll do it. I actually want to cover obscure units like the 100th Jäger Division, as well as others, but can't find English books on them
There is tons of books on it in Estonian, but I'm not quite sure if they have been translated. But I can suggest an Estonian war movie "1944". It gives a pretty good look at Estonia in WW2 and all the problems with Estonians on both sides and thus fighting each other.
I can't really make a history video just using a film. I might be better doing a general history of Estonia in WW2 until an English book on the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division is found. There's a book by Prit Buttar called "Between Giants" about the Baltic states in WW2. I haven't read it, but it's on a wish list of mine. Perhaps that's something to look into
my grandfathers brothers were in this unit. One of them returned home 1945. on foot. Then hiding from Secret police for a year. They finally got him 1946. He got 4 yeras in prison at Goli Otok, small prison island at the adriatic. He then returned home 1950. and died natural dead in 1983. But he never spoke to anyone about hell in Staljingrad or what happened to other brother. He just said that he was killed in action in city.
A member of the 369." Devil's Division", his name was Anton Colnar, he lived in the village of Brod Moravice near Delnice. He returned home on foot with two other war friends. I forgot the names and surnames of those people, but they were somewhere near Zagreb, I think one was from Zelina, the other from Koprivnica, but I'm not sure. but I have a photo, maybe your grandfather is on it.
I beg to differ. His source is only one book. Proper way of researching this subject would be going through Croat military records. Daily commands and duties etc...
My uncle told me of these stories about this, along with the Bleiburg massacre in which he escaped. I met many professors in my life in which we (my family) saved through amnesty international.
My uncle too was a survivor of Bleiburg - was spared being shot because someone recognized him. He didn't return home until 1947 and spent the time after the war in work camps in Serbia.
Thank you for this I,m croatian and i never could find anything to learn about this unit until now,thanks a lot!!!I heard storys before, of this unit and never know is it truly or just a mit,so again thank you...
Good to hear you found it useful :) I'd highly recommend the book "Croatian Legion" that I mentioned in the video (link in description) if you want to learn more. It goes into a lot more detail. And as I said, I'll be covering this unit's actions at Stalingrad during my documentary on the battle, so stick around for that
@@Sandro-ym8sf A zašto ne?Umrli su boreći se za ono što su smatrali pravilnim.Moraš no to gledati objektivno.To su bila drukčija vremena.A i na kraju krajeva oni su pokazali da su se Hrvati spremni boriti do smrti za svoje ideale.Bili su pravi ratnici i junaci,a ne kao neke druge formacije koje su se smucale po Balkanu.
@@davidcapan5920 Ali boriti se gdje?? Na Volgi i na Donu? Jesu li to hrvatska ognjišta? Je li to hrvatska zemlja? Priznajmo, nikad ne bi išli tamo, niti poginuli da nije bilo Hitlera; Hrvatski interesi se ne brane u Rusiji već u Hrvatskoj, gdje im je bilo i mjesto. Umrli su za Veliku Njemačku, Nacističku Njemačku. To je bio propali projekt, i uzalud bačeni životi. U međuvremenu, front kod kuće je bio oslabljen jer su oni bili tamo... Ne može se to nikako okarakterizirati nego kao velika glupost i velika katastrofa. Zamisli da je Hrvatska u Domovinskom ratu slala vojsku u Swaziland. Van pameti.
A little trivia the last battle of WW2 in Europe took place in Croatia the battle of Odžak there is a saying in my country "Berlin fell Odžak did not" xD
zadnja bitka je bila u austriji,naucite malo oboje. Amerikanci,austrijanci i njemci su se zajednicki borili protiv SS-a. Ne sjecam se imena tog mjesta al definitivo nije bilo na balkanu.
@@TheImperatorKnight I've seen all your work and you put such great effort and detail into these videos! As a Croation myself as well, I very much enjoyed this video! Keep up the awesome work my friend!
Thanks a lot for this documentary and I will most certainly be ordering this book, as my uncle, who is still alive today was part of this legion. Have you made the documentary movie yet?
Was he really? I wonder if his name is in it? An it's not out yet, I'm currently at 242,552 words of research for Stalingrad, although had to take a few days off writing this to concentrate on the next video about the Eastern Front which should be up later today.
You do a great job, a lot of people don't realise that Croats fought at Red October Factory. The movie made about this battle only refers to Germans, not Croats, which is a little unfair to the Croats who fought there. My uncle is a trooper, a real fighter, 96 years old a still kicking.
No, they were there to help the Russian peasants to collect the harvest, feed the poor /sarcasm I have little doubts that the 369th did their share of SS crimes and atrocities in the Soviet Union, and proly more than that. Anyway I have no proof, but that's where I would put my money. Yet it's no wonder he's proud of his loser uncle, when he shares hundreds of miles of border with a country which suffers from delusions of grandeur and which tried to invade just about every neighbor. In the middle of the Europe, at the end of 20th century no less.
Croatian legion. Only non-German unit to fought in the city of Stalingrad. Wow, we are part of the history ! Our soldiers fought on north part of Stalingrad ? Greetings from Croatia, town of Slavonski Brod.
@@sotir_known_as_bastard Neda mi se sad raspravljati sa tobom,ali ukratko:oni koji su se pridružili partizanima su bili pod povećalom,bili su iskorištavani od strane partizana i maltretirani.Puno ih je pobijeno i pozatvarano,a oni koji su preživjeli to sve su opet bili pod povećalom zbog raznih sumnji.Nisu imali potporu na bokovima u bitci kod Čačka i došli su u okruženje u kojem bi i jadne postrojbe poput četnika imale prednost.Ubiti evo da tvoj zatucani mozak može shvatiti:partizani su ih namjerno ostavili u okruženju da ih se riješe na lak način jer su ih mrzili.Toliko od mene.
Another good suggested read from you. I still haven't gotten around to reading Death of the Leaping Horsemen: The 24th Panzer Division at Stalingrad, another great Jason D. Mark's book which I've had for a couple years. Right now I'm reading The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939 by Robert Doughty. After that I got a book on the Maginot Line I want to read and book about the mechanization of Italy's army.
Thanks for the suggestion of "Seeds of Disaster", I've added it to a wish-list I've got on the Western Front of 1940. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to cover the Battle of France at some point and will get to use it. Probably after Stalingrad. What was the name of the book on the Italian Army?? I've got (and started but not finished) "the Death of the Leaping Horsemen: 24th Panzer Division at Stalingrad" and it's similar to the Croatian Legion book. Again, a very good book
My grandfather was a soldier in the 369th !!!! He survived the war, captured (at least thats what he sad to me, that he didsnt surrendered) than he was in jails in Russia, gulags, he came home in 1948!!! He sad that his commander (forgot the name) also survived, that he afterwards was a commander in Yugoslav partisan unit (wtf?=!?) but that he had huge troubles for fighting on German side and that he was thrown under the train by OZNA (secret communist police that during and immediately after the war killed in HUNDERDS OF TOUSANDS ppl in Yugoslavia, ex soldiers who fought against Tito's partisans, ustashe, chetniks, and countless others, and along them they killed all intelligence, artists, professors, writers, and all wealthy people) but that that commander survived the train crushing him, however, he lost both legs. And he told me that this commander died in Zagreb in early 80s. My grandfather died in 1990. and I would wish more than anything that he could survived one year more, just one, to see his hated Yugoslavia and communism fell appart, and to see croatian people being awoken once more, and indipendent Croatia being born again!!! Too bad he didnt saw that. He left the house to me, lol, coz he sad Im the only Croat in family, and that my father was a Yugoslav lol. Coz he loved Tito. He tought me since I was kid national history, songs, etc. Loved him sooooo much. I knew the lyrics to "Ustani Bane" when I was 2 years old lol. He never spoke to his father, my grand-grandfather and brothers since they all were soldiers in communist partisans (they were from Dalmatia) PS. He had a lot of problems in Yugoslavia his whole life. While he was lucky he came from Russia in 1948. (thats why he survived in the first place) he couldnt find a job, nothing, because he was croatian nationalist. He worked the hardest jobs, 30+ years in mine!!! REST IN PEACE my hero, ZA DOM SPREMNI!
So basically he was an Ustasha baby killer who never paid for all his sins. But at least he never got to see the new NDH and is burning in hell as we speak. Oh well...
Hi TIK, I saw a preview on the book and I think it may of had a photo of my great grandfather or one of his brothers who was on a motorbike with the surname Teklić. I also realised there was a list with names of casualties and deaths. My uncles may have died in this unit and is it ok if you can look for the surnames Teklić and Višević in the lists of the book? Keep up the great videos.
I must ask. What was the german view on slavs? It seems they accepted croats, bosnians, serbs, bulgarians and ukrainians (ukraine has a unique ethnic make-up). But hate russians. One could say they hated poles too, but lots of generals (manstein & falkenhorst for example) were of polish ancestry.. im confused
TIK: Weren't the ukrainians considered somewhat germanic? being descended from swedish "vikings" and all. Nationalist ukrainians today, atleast, utilize the same runic symbolics as the germans used to. BTW. Thanks for the quick and informative response. You're rapidly becoming one of my favorite channels on this platform.
They just needed fresh meat for troops. So better if the Slavs were used as soldiers against other Slavs than Germans. Slavs were expendable. Germany was not so big country to face whole word. So Allies were needed even amongst Slavs.
Is there a direct link between 369 Croatian regiment and the later 369 Infantry division (369 & 370 Grenadier regiments, 369 art reg, 369 aufkl abt, 369 pz jäg abt, 369 pioneer abt and finaly 369 nachrichten abt). In Teodor Hartmans book "German divisional signs 1938-45, it states that this division was formed by expansion of 369 regiment... or is this division a compleatly other unit with only the number as a link to Croatian legion? Thx for all your nice vids btw... greatings from Sweden
Just a small tip TIK. If my memory is correct I think this particular unit was regiment and not a division. But otherwise this video is very well made :)
That's true, you have right. In the Stalingrad's battle was only participate the 369. Kroatische regiment, while the majority of 369. Kroatische Infanterie division at same time was stationed in Austria. 369. Kroatische Infanterie-Regiment was originally part of 369. Kroatische division, but on Stalingrad front, these regiment joined the austrian 100th Jäger division.
and now, 80 years later, we yet again hear of these places like Izyum, Kharkiv, Aleksandrovka, etc. and read and hear of fighting, offensives and counteroffensives. Only this time it is the Russians invading and committing numerous war crimes, while Germans, Croatians and other world nations help Ukrainians defend themselves.
The video is to the point and exact like all of your other material.Enjoy watching it and folowing you, and ty for remembering the 369 Pojacana Pjesacka Pukovnija witch is Croatian for Reinforced Infantry Regiment.
Interestingly, I did a vote on a video asking if people would prefer the Bulge or Stalingrad. People chose Stalingrad so that's why I'm doing that now. I do intend to do the Bulge at some point after Stalingrad though
Thanks for a balanced and unbiased commentary, I’m surprised you didn’t mention the 2nd Hungarian Army who were also involved at Stalingrad as were the Italians and Romanians.
NDH sent units from all 3 components of armed forces, there was air, and marine components on eastern front besides 369 regiment, there was also an italian legion unit, that was trained by Musolini and also sent on eastern front and was destroyed on mius front in 42.
Nice video! On a sidenote, Russians often say: "Of all the european peoples, only Greeks and Serbs didn't come to invade us." Gives an interesting Russian point of view towards Europeans.
Not in the city, they fought to hold the flanks, many miles away. Technically, 4th Romanian Army was never formed. They are important to the Caucasus and Stalingrad Campaign though.
Absolutely! I'm not just doing the city fight, I'm covering most of the Stalingrad Campaign in detail from 24th of July 1942 to 2nd February 1943, including the situation on the flanks
He also said “You wish to sail a ship up stream by lighting a fire under its decks, I have no time for such nonsense.” (thank you Civ IV for such an awesome quote)
TIK Partizan = i don't know how to translate this i will say on Croatian=komunistički pokret otpora na Balkanu koji su bili u Hrvatskoj,Srbiji,Bosni i Hercegovini , Sloveniji pa i u Italiji
"It is paradox to fight at Mirnaya Dolina literally means THE PEACEFUL WALLY. " My grand grandpa said that and in the beginning of the letter and I will try to translate as best as I can but let out the few names he mentioned, "It looked like a paradise in the spring but instead of flowers, you could only smell the melting bodies of the Bolsheviks. It made it look like an entrance to Hell as the snow melted and bodies were everywhere. We buried a few of our dead long ago under a beautiful old oak tree but later, after few days of conteplation I personally ordered and led by example that crosses should be buried too since the red forest bandits were known for the disgusting grave desecration. So I decided that regular Bolshevik soldiers, who I saw later were usually just conscripted peasants minding their own business but were forced to fight by the rabid demons with blue-red hats who would shoot them in the back if they retreated, they would be buried with an orthodox cross and identifications if possible. I gave our best marksman only scoped rifle I could find that our friends had and came to the same conclusion to shoot the demons first, if you kill those Blue-Red hat demons ("Politkomesars") whole unit would either surrender or we would let them go home. Blue-Red hat demons were left to rot where they were, beaten by sticks by peasants and one old man who cursed a lot dragged one demon and throw it in the outhouse toilets! Or septic holes as we call them. We learned he killed his son for taking cover! Horrible, horrible, horrible... but there is some poetic justice in it! Also my Dearest, those Bandits I wrote You about.... 5 of them who tried to raid the supplies at night and kill those sleeping were mowed down by a soldier who was promoted for his persistence in hunting them and decorated accordingly as that was 7th all together, this time for setting the concealed MG as a trap in the lorry, patiently waiting for them to approach the back and destroying 5 of them that night and wounding a few more. We learned that those creatures are local rapists, poachers, and a similar "company". A fellowship that was ordinarily as hairy as the beasts and heavy alcoholics. They were let loose by the same demons (Politcomesar) and armed to harras us and local populace, they lived in the woods and behaved accordingly, to rob the dead and harras living until the day they were shot dead are left where they belong, in the woods to be drawn by the wolves and dogs. After ugly schenes were out of sight, it really was Peaceful Wally and we enjoyed a brief moment there before We ..." This is the end of the parchment, it got wet or something and just fell off... or it got "redacted" since it seems he was an intelligence NCO and later officer, but for being an intelligent, gentle and self-educated man who could talk to allmost anyone, knowing as many as 8 languages and thus valuable he was transferred many times...and with many armies!
From him who knew MANY SECRETS, I just confirmed what we all know here... WW2 was a CIVIL WAR in "Croatia, Yugoslavia" fueled by the Italians. After Hitler learned they are still doing that after saying they won't and retreating that fast and surrendering in, own country he personally ordered to hunt them down as traitors. My grandfather, his son, witnessed that and always said how Germans fought Italians and that house was full of refugees my family took as Germans treated us as citizens of the Reich, equal to the civilians in Germany before the indiscriminate bombing. For example Island of Brač! Every single civilian was evacuated before the whole Island was bombed wave after wave. (IDK why they stayed for Christ sake! Instead of salvaging what they could and later return! Not..die like that!) As for Ukraine, he put the wrong person in charge that abused, shot and robbed civilians and the whole country fell into chaos with at least 5 different armies and guerillas fighting each other! Instead of putting a normal man in charge symbolically like in Croatia. where the Germans got most loyal friends and good soldiers, but on other hand let them be molested by cowardly backstabbing Italians in their zone who armed partisans and chetniks! This is pretty much the reason Axis lost the war! Along with a treaty with the Japan and tryin to stay neutral with USA.
It is not what you mean, it is because they stil worship their nazi history and that is a problem. Google it about that a bit. N.D.H. and Nazism today in Croatia. Denying warr camps like Jasenovac etc. And making them less important. But the truth is that only Croats had war camps for children. Just read about it. Old ww2 material.
@DjBalkoni Shame is powerful thing. Reject that ideology and you are fine. Germans did that so Croats can do the same. But it is hard when that is big part of history and identity. Sorry for that 1/3 Croats who died fighting agains fascists because they have all most nazi country. Others 2/3 were Hitler's army.
Good video. I always knew that Croatia was allied with Germany and Austria and that some served. This is a god video on some Croatians that served. It is especially interesting to me because my family is Croatian.
Maybe you have information on this or other Croatian regiment fighting in the east with regards to war crimes, especially toward civilian populations under their control?
@Ivica - Nations and races don't exist. There are only individuals in this world, cooperating together individually. Therefore you cannot have a "nation of pathological liars" because not all people of a nation are the same. They're unique individuals with individual personalities.
You've made a small mistake TIK, the village of Dangeni is not in Hungary, but in Romania. And no, it wasn't part of the Northern Transylvania, which was annexed by Hungary from Romania in 1940. By the way, as you mentioned the mistrust between Italy and Croatia, can you go a bit deeper into these rivalries inside the Nazi block. Germans have never allowed romanian and hungarian armies to be put on the same section of the front, because of the hate between these two nations. It explains why Romania has switches sides so easy in 1944. Also, it would be interesting to cover the topic of anti-semitism and a comparation between the anti-semitic measures in different pro-Axis and Axis states. Were there extermination camps for Jews in Italy, Hungary, Romania, Spain, Croatia? And if yes, were they guarded by locals? Were locals involved in mistreatments and inhumane acts? If you were an ethnic Jew in a Nazi-block country which one would you choose to live in and why? Which one was the easiest and the most difficult to escape from?
My late grandfather fought in 369 unit he saurvived stalingrad and escaped in Argentina i still have his letter that he sended to grandmother its insane what they were going trough at stalingrad + 369 captured factory that Germans tried to capture for weeks since then they were equal in wermacht...
great video, but unfortunatly the comment section is full of shit as always in this type of videos. also i like croats more than other balkans countries, cheers from chile :)
Agreed. Think it doesn't help that I originally accidentally titled it the "Division" rather than "Regiment", so some people are coming from other areas of the internet where they're linked to this as the "Division" rather than the "Regiment"
Had three family memebers that were "volunteered" (forced) into the legion. One was injured during a soviet artillery barrage hitting the position he was at and literally ended up buried alive and would have died had it not been for his childhood friends lower half not had his feet sticking out right next to him. He was sent home for medical leave due to literal shellshock and deserted and hid in our families farm for the rest of the war and according to my grandfather he was never really there afterwords . One was killed by an anti tank rifle or another high caliber round during city fighting and the last one defected early on along with his squad and would end up being treated well by the soviets , became an officers in the soviet yugoslav unit mentioned above and would return home but not before being sent as an observer with soviets. He ended up seeing the camps and that only ignited a lifelong hatred of germans tho not an irrational one as he also really disliked russians as he thought that some of the reprisals against civilian population went too far which he was vocal about which ended with him being removed and getting trouble as he kept being vocal even after coming home end ended up in prison for a few year until the hardcore communist were purged from yugoslavia around 1949. He had a lifelong claim that "germans should never be allowed to have an arms industry or any armed forces" and that " we should have killed all the facist, not just the worst of the worst and officers"
We Croatians fought in Russia as part of Napoleon Grand Armee too, than against Ottomans with Hungarians, Austrians, Poles and others for 400 years, than with Normans against Arabs and so on...it is a time for peace..
I think it's crazy to walk 1000 km to fight Russians in Russia. They are nuts. I did my military service and would defend my country , but to go 1000's of km away from home and attack some other people is insanity. Not to mentioned Slavic brothers. Although US military is doing exactly the same almost every day.
The fight againstbst Bolsheviks was never far below the surface. Read up on Soviet Bolshevik attacks into Poland and Hungary during 1920's as well as Bolshevik putsch in Bavaria. People in Central Europe during intra-war years were well aware of the eastern menace
Col. MARKO Mesić was last person on the last plane from Stalingrad. He told pilot to hold the plane while he went back to take the regiment fight schedule book. That is a story for itself.
Croatian legionnaires fought together side by side with the Italian Bersaljes, and both fought very bravely, side by side, and had a high opinion and mutual respect for each other, like brothers in arms.
marko mesić je prije službe kraljevine jugoslavije bio u austro-ugarskoj vojsci
Marko Mesić was in the Austro-Hungarian army before serving the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
I added Croatian subtitles.My great great grandfather was a part of the unit.He was in the artillery,and I guess what better way to show him respect than by making possible that more people understnad his story?Thanks for making such a wonderfull video!
Thank you very much! I've just accepted them so they should start displaying now
@Van Tazz First you used the same joke that I used on you,kinda pathetic.And second no.No he wasn't,but since I had my expirience with you I won't even try to argue.I'm just gonna say that he fought to death for his belifes and that he was under influence of Pavelić's propaganda,but it's not like this is gonna make any difference in your small brain is it?
@odinn62 Sorry for your loss...
@Van Tazz Ustashe were not cowards, they were Heroes and last Crusaders of Europe. Cowards was partisans and chetnicks.
My Grandfather from father side was Engineer in Croatian Legion and my Grandfather from mom's side was Gestapo officer, later he was killed by partisans when he was hiding in Croatian village at end of war.
Fantastic video! Looking forward to the in depth video on the battle of Stalingrad and specifics about the 369th Croatian, particularly what ever detailed information is available about sergeant Dragutin Podobnik and his 18 man group taking a part of the Red October Factory.
Maybe you should do a story on their last commander, Col. Marko Mesić? He's literally unique, having participated in WWII in no less than FIVE armies: Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Croatia, Germany, Soviet Union and Tito's Yugoslavia.
Like Mato Dukovac who at end flying for syrian af.
Classic Croat
Bro was that guy
I believe he was also KuK soldier too.
I am Croat, and I thank you for making this! I shared your video on my 14k fans page about world war 2. I hope you dont mind it. Keep making great content! :)
Did you even watch video? He literally said these guys later joined Yugoslav army. Something you probably never even heared about.
The handschaar division was not a great fight force, many surrendered during battle as for the Croat legions that left for Stalingrad, they were remarkable soldiers who punched way above their weight, if only they returned earlier from the eastern front to fight the Partizans, I think things would have been a lot different
noob099 Exactly
Bili dao link od tvoje stranice?
D kaze momak da ima neku stranicu o ww2
Awesome video my man,can't wait for more!!
Great video. As a Croat (not one that overwhelmingly supports the regime of Independent State of Croatia), i appreciate your video on this little-known topic.
Have you seen my more recent (and still ongoing) Battlestorm Stalingrad series? The Croatian Legion plays a role right from the beginning, so you might be interested ruclips.net/video/YAfo5mse-ag/видео.html
@@TheImperatorKnight I am going to check this out.
@@Pajdas610 You wont regret it!
@@zulubeatz1 There was also a few Ukrainians in Croatian legion, God bless them Slava Ukraini
@@Nikola-mg8teYes i read about that. I feel an affinity and sympathise with both countries. They are in my opinion on the front line of civilisation and democracy.
Added Spanish subtitles
Wow thank you! Think this is the first time anyone has contributed subtitles to any of my videos
I was astounded when he said the story about the asian prisoners thinking they were on german territory. Insane!
Poor guys I feel sorry for them
Wow. It's 2017 and people still read books! I'm so happy.
Hello Tik. I ignored that the 369th Reinforced (Croatian) Infantry Regiment fought on the Eastern Front. But I am not surprised that they were sent there either. Thanks for giving this info, keep going. Cheers and take care
Great video! Thanks very much for this.
I remember a veteran who fought in this unit from my hometown. He escaped the Russians and returned home from Russia by foot!
Thank you for watching! Wow, he did well to survive
He did not escape. It's a well known fact that Stalin gave them Red Army uniforms and sent them to Serbia under the command of Marko Mesic. They went house to house and plundered everything. They ran into aged Petar Bojovic, a Feald Marshal from WW1 who was respected even by the Nazi Germans and beat him to death. Also, Marko Mesic was the "partisan" who shot at the fresco of Jesus in the Church of Saint Andrew i Belgrade.
@@sotir_known_as_bastard no
@@blindtherapper2470 I'm afraid so. Mesic was an evil bastard, so much that even the Communists denounced him later. They had no problem recruiting ex Nazis but that fucker was too much.
No it s not.
It is so nice to see and hear an objective evaluation of the legion and their fighting capabilities. Not burdend by 60 yeary of communist history and brainwashing. Thank you for this.
You don't need Communist propaganda to realize that Nazis were pretty evil.
Croatsky I am talking about Croatian division fighting in USSR for the Axis powers. What are you talking about?
Thanks for your comment Mikistjep. I try to remain neutral in all these videos, although there will always be some bias or other. In this case, I know next to nothing about Balkan politics, and am not burdened by an ideology (like you mentioned) so it makes for a neutral video :)
TIK You kept it about the military aspect, not ideological. I would not have supported it if it was an appologetic on nazis or communist. Unfortunately when you are talking about anything regarding WW2 and Croatia, or any of our eastern neighbours you will probably get a shitstorm in the comments. So much is not reserched yet by real historians, so much of the yugoslav regime mythology lives on, and people who don't like eachother or have a more notorious agenda will try to use it as a lever or an argument to justify their belived leader, or nation or whatever. Best not to read the comments, or better yet to deny them. I know it is a hard desicion for any truth loving, open minded western person, but thats my advice on these topics regarding former yugoslavia.
Please don't let that discourage you in your work. I love it, and hope to see something new soon.
Cheers.
Mark, how does that servian Kool-Aid taste like?
I would love it if you could continue to make videos highlighting specific units, TIK! Sorry that I'm years too late to be commenting but I literally just found this video and am loving it!
Respected Hrvatsku from UkraЇne.
Slava Ukraini, my brother
❤
Same nazi like you. So you are brothers.
Živila Ukraine brate
@@macak557 Problem serboid?
I gotta say, I like those smaller episodes just as much as the bigger ones, it also gives you more room to experiment and go for "smaller" subjects.
The 369th reinforced was the embodiment of Croatian warrior spirit.
A legend says that the last days of the fighting when everyone was retreating you could only hear the gunshots and Croatians singing as they made one last stand.
MrCSRT8. Are you so anti Croatian
@@terjestream He's just salty.
Croatia did great in the war. Three divisions, one reinforced regiment, a naval legion, an air force legion, plus tens of thousands of collaborators as police back in Yugoslavia.
@@matro2 Well Croatians always do good in wars it's a shame we don't do good in politics.
@@zidov8624 No one does good in politics.
Cool video! Obscure units, battles, and wars are a lot of fun to explore. These battlestorm lite videos are always a pleasant surprise.
A pleasant appetizer before the rich main course. ;)
They also don't take me anywhere near the amount of time to make compared to Battlestorm, so I'm happy to make them. Any suggestions?
TIK cossack units fighting for the german army
TIK russian paratroopers in ww2
TIK Dutch waffen ss units one of which I think was at arnhem and at the battle of Berlin
TIK Spanish division fighting on eastern front ww2
aha interesting.
the non-german units that fought on the eastern front on the German side have something of a complex history.
I know that in western and northern Europe the Germans made special divisions part of the Waffen-SS, for volunteers for those the occupied regions.
I know that in Denmark, we had Free Corps Denmark (Danish: Frikorps Danmark) where around 6000 volunteered to fight. Free Corps Denmark mostly fought on the eastern front like The Croatian Legion.
mind you until August 1943, the Danish government cooperated with the germans. Its formation was subsequently sanctioned by the democratically elected Danish government which authorised officers of the Danish Army to join the unit.
ps glad to see my name in the ending credits as a patron :-)
Rex1987 is
Rex there wasn’t 6000 Danes fighting in Frikorps Danmark as Frikorps Danmark where only of infantry Bataillon size.
But it’s correct that around 6000 Danes did fought for the Germans, but is where also in Waffen SS Division Wiking, Regiment 24 Dänemark, Regiment Nordland.
Yeah there was quite a few volounteer units in the Balkans.Like SS "Prinz Eugen" which was made out of so called "folksdeutchers",Germans that inhabited Croatia during Habsburg Momarchy and so on.There was also SS "Handschar",it was mostly made out of Croats and some muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina.They are all pretty interesting but I unfortunately didn't have time to further explore them but if you have some free time I totally recommend taking a look at these units.
@davidcapan5920 Prince Eugen unit have as.well serbs from Vojvodina, and they committed biggest crimes in Dalmatia villages, where they executed whole families included women and children!!!!! After any Partisan activities, Princ Eugen unit go in villages and they revenge, they go in villages and execute all inhabitants. Women and children include. All i repeat!
Great and objective video! Always a pleasure to see something not comming from the croatian or anti-croatian side. As for all of the anti-croatian commenters, I can only say that as a Croatian I am deeply ashamed about the crimes against humanity commited by the Croatian regime during this period. But these soldiers had nothing or little to do with this. They have served honorably and completed their missions in the teather of war they were part of. About the political reasons, and to find out why ideologically they were against communism and Serbs, feel free to check out other objective material. As a summary, Croatians were always interested only in freedom and self determination. And had a positive attitude about Serbs and other South Slavs...until seeing first hand serbian dominated dictatorship of Yugoslavian King. Makes you understand a bit how Croatians found the Nazis “great”, after that experiance.
@Nikola Dlaka: Interesting comments. My wife is an American of Croatian and Slovak heritage. We grew up in the 1950's-1960's outside of Chicago in an area of very mixed immigrants from various European countries. Many of my best friends to this day are Serbs (sons of Chetniks) and I have two nieces whose father is a Serb. My wife's grandfather was born in Selo Priboj (then Austria) in1892 which I believe is actually part of Serbia and immigrated to the USA at age 16. Unfortunately he died young in 1918 during that flu pandemic. My father-in-law fought the Germans in France, was captured and held in a POW camp until the end of WWII. He too had some very good Serbian friends here in the states. For some time I was deeply disturbed by the Croatian and Slovak connection to the Nazi's. Then I learned about my partial Prussian/German roots dating back to the early 1600's. What a mess. My friendship with my Serb friends is intact. However, I can never forgive the atrocities committed by their previous countrymen during the war in Bosnia/Sarajevo any more than I can my own Prussian/German ancestors for their atrocities during WWII. We live in ominous times again like 1930's Germany. May God help us.
@@godfreyzilla8608 very interesting comment. I’m on the other hand much more positive about the present and the future. The past is there and cannot be changed, we can and must only learn from it. And it should be looked at in an objective manner. Even Germany and it’s reasons to go to war had some background. The way Germany was treated after WWI was a disgrace. Many of the motivation for the WWII can be found there. History books tend to undermine that aspect. They mostly focus on the madness and attrocities of the Nazis in the later stages. Germans and Prussians are proud people, they did not deserve to be treated like that. Also a lot of the motivation for the 90’s war in Yugoslavia can be attributed to poor handling of the after war situation and treatment of the “losers”. One should not forget that 90% of the people cought in any war, on any side, are there because they have little other choice or option. Only a small portion commited crimes, or created mad ideologies.
Im Croatian thank you for this video!
When the Soviets met at Kalach, the first thing the encircled troops did was fly out all the female nurses. The 369th Motorised disguised their girlfriends/wives as nurses and had them flown out as well. (The Fortress Without a Roof. Sorry I can't remember the author...)
Ιn Kalach Grman crews training in the captured T 34
Wow very interesting! I knew about the independant state of croatia but never heard about the legion who fought in the eastern front. Greetings from argentina
B i H
@odinn62 me too, mu granma and granpa are from hvar island, brusje. They are now in argentina, still alive both
@@LeandroJelicic yeah the vatican aided a lot of ustasa war criminals to south america after ww2
Come back to Croatia guys 🙂
@@happydays2190 what kind od drugs you use ?
@@maky2258 its called history you uneducated pleb, read a book or something
Good video!
It's sad that people are duking out this 70 year old conflict in the comments section though. History is history.
Yeah, I haven't responded to them because it degenerated into a "he said, she said" and "I believe" argument right from the very first comment.
In the balkans, something that happened a hundred years ago holds the same importance as something that happened five minutes ago. We don't forget or forgive.
Hundred years ago! Serbs are still obsessed over their defeat at the Battle of Kosovo!
@Van Tazz says "history repeats here again and again"
Proceedes to repeat history...
@Van Tazz Your sentence should be a definition for a word "chetnik".It's also funny how you explained yourself.I will never understand you arrogant people that don't know anything about histroy of yourself,but procced to spit on someone else and tell them about their history.
Just like to say thanks to TIK for making these interesting vids and also the phenomenal Stalingrad series. One of the best studies of that battle ever made and destined to be a classic. I would love to read the Croatian Legion Book. Hear that Santa?
a small digression, related to this topic, namely, when the Ukrainian Maidan began and when the Ukrainians banned the Russian language, they also banned Hungarian, so they announced that they would also ban Romanian, to which the Romanians replied - just try, but first remember how we leveled Odesa with artillery in World War II, so that it wouldn't happen again
after that the Ukrainians gave up banning the Romanian language in public and were content to kill Russians and mistreat the Hungarians who had lived there for centuries
@@mrmohodA small digression but do you realise that Ukrainians were the largest ethnic group in the Soviet Red army ?
I know, most of them died in the Battle of Batin in Baranja in Croatia and they were also the most numerous in the winter war in Finland
I saw an interview with a german soldier who was in Stalingrad and he said that he saw rumanians in the city after the encirclement
Hermann Balck in his memoirs "Order in Chaos" said that the best foreigners to serve in the Wehrmacht were as follows: Finns then Croatians and then Slovakians.
@@perperuna6773 And it got killed in return.
Tik does a great job, we'll done brother. Thanks
You dserve so many more subscribers. Your videos are just so good and informative. Your Market Garden video was the first I saw and I loved it! Also, could you talk about the Estonian 20th Waffengrenadier Division? I could help you.
I'm glad you think so! Be sure to tell people about my videos :) and if you could recommend me a good English book or two on the Estonian division, I'll do it. I actually want to cover obscure units like the 100th Jäger Division, as well as others, but can't find English books on them
There is tons of books on it in Estonian, but I'm not quite sure if they have been translated. But I can suggest an Estonian war movie "1944". It gives a pretty good look at Estonia in WW2 and all the problems with Estonians on both sides and thus fighting each other.
I can't really make a history video just using a film. I might be better doing a general history of Estonia in WW2 until an English book on the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division is found. There's a book by Prit Buttar called "Between Giants" about the Baltic states in WW2. I haven't read it, but it's on a wish list of mine. Perhaps that's something to look into
I just said you might want to see it, ot use it as a source :)
I'll try to find some english books, but it's kinda late here.
My grand grandpa was a member of the 369th Division, so called Devil Division, his name was Grga and I just got to know he existed!
Svaka čast tvome djedu.
Auch mein Großvater diente in der 369 und fiel 02/1945 auf dem Rückzug in der Nähe von Mostar
369 devils divition was the reformed 369 kroatische legion division, most of the original soldiers didnt survive
Grand respected Croatians brothers!!!!!
Thank you Ukrainian brother ❤
@@dontsearchdocumentingreali9621 svaka čast za ime, "brate"
You are bastard like Ustasa
In 2021, the last fighter of this division died. He returned home on foot with several of his warcomrades... Survived Stalingrad, killed by COVID
my grandfathers brothers were in this unit. One of them returned home 1945. on foot. Then hiding from Secret police for a year. They finally got him 1946. He got 4 yeras in prison at Goli Otok, small prison island at the adriatic. He then returned home 1950. and died natural dead in 1983. But he never spoke to anyone about hell in Staljingrad or what happened to other brother. He just said that he was killed in action in city.
A member of the 369." Devil's Division", his name was Anton Colnar, he lived in the village of Brod Moravice near Delnice. He returned home on foot with two other war friends. I forgot the names and surnames of those people, but they were somewhere near Zagreb, I think one was from Zelina, the other from Koprivnica, but I'm not sure. but I have a photo, maybe your grandfather is on it.
great videos and well researched many thanks keep the coming
I beg to differ. His source is only one book. Proper way of researching this subject would be going through Croat military records. Daily commands and duties etc...
Nice video bro 👌🏻
Thanks sis!
My uncle told me of these stories about this, along with the Bleiburg massacre in which he escaped. I met many professors in my life in which we (my family) saved through amnesty international.
My uncle too was a survivor of Bleiburg - was spared being shot because someone recognized him. He didn't return home until 1947 and spent the time after the war in work camps in Serbia.
Thank you for this I,m croatian and i never could find anything to learn about this unit until now,thanks a lot!!!I heard storys before, of this unit and never know is it truly or just a mit,so again thank you...
Good to hear you found it useful :) I'd highly recommend the book "Croatian Legion" that I mentioned in the video (link in description) if you want to learn more. It goes into a lot more detail. And as I said, I'll be covering this unit's actions at Stalingrad during my documentary on the battle, so stick around for that
Ova jedinica je bas za ponos..hrvatski junaci
@@Sandro-ym8sf Naravno , najveci ponos ! =U=
@@Sandro-ym8sf A zašto ne?Umrli su boreći se za ono što su smatrali pravilnim.Moraš no to gledati objektivno.To su bila drukčija vremena.A i na kraju krajeva oni su pokazali da su se Hrvati spremni boriti do smrti za svoje ideale.Bili su pravi ratnici i junaci,a ne kao neke druge formacije koje su se smucale po Balkanu.
@@davidcapan5920 Ali boriti se gdje?? Na Volgi i na Donu? Jesu li to hrvatska ognjišta? Je li to hrvatska zemlja? Priznajmo, nikad ne bi išli tamo, niti poginuli da nije bilo Hitlera; Hrvatski interesi se ne brane u Rusiji već u Hrvatskoj, gdje im je bilo i mjesto.
Umrli su za Veliku Njemačku, Nacističku Njemačku. To je bio propali projekt, i uzalud bačeni životi. U međuvremenu, front kod kuće je bio oslabljen jer su oni bili tamo... Ne može se to nikako okarakterizirati nego kao velika glupost i velika katastrofa. Zamisli da je Hrvatska u Domovinskom ratu slala vojsku u Swaziland. Van pameti.
A little trivia the last battle of WW2 in Europe took place in Croatia the battle of Odžak there is a saying in my country "Berlin fell Odžak did not" xD
zadnja bitka je bila u austriji,naucite malo oboje. Amerikanci,austrijanci i njemci su se zajednicki borili protiv SS-a. Ne sjecam se imena tog mjesta al definitivo nije bilo na balkanu.
Ajde i ti nauci kad je ta bitka zavrsila 5.Svibnja i jedan dan je trajala, bitka kod Odzaka je zavrsila 25. Svibnja trajala od 19.Travnja
You have a book , from soldier who fight ......
Could you please make a video about Slovak fast motorized division on Eastern front? They went with Geermans to capture oil fields.
Very good presentation. I like the way you cited your sources. Keep up the good work. We need young burgeoning historians. ;-)
Great video as always. Thank you for it. Greetings from Croatia.
You've very welcome, Tomislav :) you may like next week's video too (it'll give some context to how this unit fit in with Sixth Army)
Jebi ga uvijek smo na pogrešnoj strani.😤
@@yukeenkape2540 a sto je prava strana? Komunjare i glad ili zapad i kolonijalizam?
great and objective video
Thanks!
Can you do a video on the Spanish Blue Division? I would greatly appreciate that.
Yes, I'm planning to do a video or two on them in the near future.
Awesome! Thank you!
TIK thank you!
Nice to see an objective coverage of Croatian WW2 troops.
Any plans to discuss the Slovak legion on the eastern front? My great uncle mentioned fighting In Russia when he was still alive.
Not right now, but eventually. I am a little reluctant after the reaction I got from this video though...
It's not just them, it's the Marxists and the Nazis too. Basically everyone who's an extreme economic socialist.
@@TheImperatorKnight I've seen all your work and you put such great effort and detail into these videos! As a Croation myself as well, I very much enjoyed this video! Keep up the awesome work my friend!
Thanks Seto!
your uncle was a Slavic traitor, nothing to be proud of, best you tell your kids that he was a chicken thief.
Hey TIK, looking forward to your video on Operation Halyard. How's that coming along?
Thanks a lot for this documentary and I will most certainly be ordering this book, as my uncle, who is still alive today was part of this legion. Have you made the documentary movie yet?
Was he really? I wonder if his name is in it? An it's not out yet, I'm currently at 242,552 words of research for Stalingrad, although had to take a few days off writing this to concentrate on the next video about the Eastern Front which should be up later today.
You do a great job, a lot of people don't realise that Croats fought at Red October Factory. The movie made about this battle only refers to Germans, not Croats, which is a little unfair to the Croats who fought there.
My uncle is a trooper, a real fighter, 96 years old a still kicking.
No, they were there to help the Russian peasants to collect the harvest, feed the poor /sarcasm
I have little doubts that the 369th did their share of SS crimes and atrocities in the Soviet Union, and proly more than that. Anyway I have no proof, but that's where I would put my money.
Yet it's no wonder he's proud of his loser uncle, when he shares hundreds of miles of border with a country which suffers from delusions of grandeur and which tried to invade just about every neighbor. In the middle of the Europe, at the end of 20th century no less.
@Serbian ask Nedić who killed Serbian in Serbia. He was one of you and you should know that.
Powder Skier neče ni djavo govna.
Any chance you can do an episode on the Flemish Legion? :D
Croatian legion. Only non-German unit to fought in the city of Stalingrad. Wow, we are part of the history !
Our soldiers fought on north part of Stalingrad ?
Greetings from Croatia, town of Slavonski Brod.
za dom usrani do vrata
@Fabian Kirchgessner Your small brain will never understand what he say .
@Fabian Kirchgessner OK I dont want explain to you.
Yes, we were agressors along side with Germans, but still, can't believe that Croatian regiment fought in the city.
Excellent videos! Anything on BRESLAU in the works?
it's Čačak ( "č" is read like "ch" in word chair)
Yeah. And there were no "shady circumstances" regarding their loss. They had attacked Chetnik forces and got their asses handed to them.
@@sotir_known_as_bastard Neda mi se sad raspravljati sa tobom,ali ukratko:oni koji su se pridružili partizanima su bili pod povećalom,bili su iskorištavani od strane partizana i maltretirani.Puno ih je pobijeno i pozatvarano,a oni koji su preživjeli to sve su opet bili pod povećalom zbog raznih sumnji.Nisu imali potporu na bokovima u bitci kod Čačka i došli su u okruženje u kojem bi i jadne postrojbe poput četnika imale prednost.Ubiti evo da tvoj zatucani mozak može shvatiti:partizani su ih namjerno ostavili u okruženju da ih se riješe na lak način jer su ih mrzili.Toliko od mene.
A delve into that unit's grandsons career's would be equally interesting.
Creation of the croatian formation, try saying that 10 times fast.
Hahaha
Is this book available in german ? Greetings
What do you know about the Hungarian arrow cross party? I love documentaries about the small forces and party's like THIS
Another good suggested read from you. I still haven't gotten around to reading Death of the Leaping Horsemen: The 24th Panzer Division at Stalingrad, another great Jason D. Mark's book which I've had for a couple years. Right now I'm reading The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939 by Robert Doughty. After that I got a book on the Maginot Line I want to read and book about the mechanization of Italy's army.
Thanks for the suggestion of "Seeds of Disaster", I've added it to a wish-list I've got on the Western Front of 1940. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to cover the Battle of France at some point and will get to use it. Probably after Stalingrad. What was the name of the book on the Italian Army?? I've got (and started but not finished) "the Death of the Leaping Horsemen: 24th Panzer Division at Stalingrad" and it's similar to the Croatian Legion book. Again, a very good book
Iron Arm: The Mechanization of Mussolini's Army, 1920-1940 by John Joseph Timothy Sweet
Excellent thanks! Also added to a wishlist :)
My grandfather was a soldier in the 369th !!!!
He survived the war, captured (at least thats what he sad to me, that he didsnt surrendered) than he was in jails in Russia, gulags, he came home in 1948!!!
He sad that his commander (forgot the name) also survived, that he afterwards was a commander in Yugoslav partisan unit (wtf?=!?) but that he had huge troubles for fighting on German side and that he was thrown under the train by OZNA (secret communist police that during and immediately after the war killed in HUNDERDS OF TOUSANDS ppl in Yugoslavia, ex soldiers who fought against Tito's partisans, ustashe, chetniks, and countless others, and along them they killed all intelligence, artists, professors, writers, and all wealthy people) but that that commander survived the train crushing him, however, he lost both legs.
And he told me that this commander died in Zagreb in early 80s.
My grandfather died in 1990. and I would wish more than anything that he could survived one year more, just one, to see his hated Yugoslavia and communism fell appart, and to see croatian people being awoken once more, and indipendent Croatia being born again!!! Too bad he didnt saw that. He left the house to me, lol, coz he sad Im the only Croat in family, and that my father was a Yugoslav lol. Coz he loved Tito. He tought me since I was kid national history, songs, etc. Loved him sooooo much. I knew the lyrics to "Ustani Bane" when I was 2 years old lol.
He never spoke to his father, my grand-grandfather and brothers since they all were soldiers in communist partisans (they were from Dalmatia)
PS. He had a lot of problems in Yugoslavia his whole life. While he was lucky he came from Russia in 1948. (thats why he survived in the first place) he couldnt find a job, nothing, because he was croatian nationalist. He worked the hardest jobs, 30+ years in mine!!!
REST IN PEACE my hero, ZA DOM SPREMNI!
So basically he was an Ustasha baby killer who never paid for all his sins. But at least he never got to see the new NDH and is burning in hell as we speak. Oh well...
igor svakurac At least, he watched all good things happened to Croatia in heaven. May he rest in peace.
Kako se zvao tvoj djed? Pišem diplomski rad na temu 369. p.p. pukovnije.
Za Dom spremni? Please don't use this words. They are fascist.
No, they are not. also, you should learn what faschism is.
Hi TIK, I saw a preview on the book and I think it may of had a photo of my great grandfather or one of his brothers who was on a motorbike with the surname Teklić. I also realised there was a list with names of casualties and deaths. My uncles may have died in this unit and is it ok if you can look for the surnames Teklić and Višević in the lists of the book? Keep up the great videos.
I must ask. What was the german view on slavs?
It seems they accepted croats, bosnians, serbs, bulgarians and ukrainians (ukraine has a unique ethnic make-up). But hate russians. One could say they hated poles too, but lots of generals (manstein & falkenhorst for example) were of polish ancestry.. im confused
TIK:
Weren't the ukrainians considered somewhat germanic? being descended from swedish "vikings" and all. Nationalist ukrainians today, atleast, utilize the same runic symbolics as the germans used to.
BTW.
Thanks for the quick and informative response. You're rapidly becoming one of my favorite channels on this platform.
Then again, scandinavians populated areas of France and the UK too. No need to linger on this.
- Half norwegian, half swede
the Germans didn't accept the Serbs. they were much hated in Serbia as well.
@@armada854 both Ukrainians and Russians share the same history in relevance to the Rus Vikings. There's no real connection there.
They just needed fresh meat for troops. So better if the Slavs were used as soldiers against other Slavs than Germans. Slavs were expendable. Germany was not so big country to face whole word. So Allies were needed even amongst Slavs.
Could you make a video about norwegian volunteers ? Regiment Norge for example?
what a great video. bravo for author.
Thank you :)
Great documentary!
0:20 sounds familiar
You made my day! Hehe
Is there a direct link between 369 Croatian regiment and the later 369 Infantry division (369 & 370 Grenadier regiments, 369 art reg, 369 aufkl abt, 369 pz jäg abt, 369 pioneer abt and finaly 369 nachrichten abt). In Teodor Hartmans book "German divisional signs 1938-45, it states that this division was formed by expansion of 369 regiment... or is this division a compleatly other unit with only the number as a link to Croatian legion? Thx for all your nice vids btw... greatings from Sweden
Just a small tip TIK. If my memory is correct I think this particular unit was regiment and not a division. But otherwise this video is very well made :)
That's true, you have right.
In the Stalingrad's battle was only participate the 369. Kroatische regiment, while the majority of 369. Kroatische Infanterie division at same time was stationed in Austria.
369. Kroatische Infanterie-Regiment was originally part of 369. Kroatische division, but on Stalingrad front, these regiment joined the austrian 100th Jäger division.
Did I say it was a division? I thought I said it was part of 100th Jäger Division, but that it was a regiment?
I am talking about video name. I myself didn't really notice this until one of my fans on my page mentioned it.
Doh! I've just fixed it :) thanks very much, I wouldn't have noticed that lol
TIK No problem. Keep making great videos like this :)
How many troops were in The Croatian Legion?
According to Croatian Legion, it started off with 3,865 men. That's everyone in the entire regiment, including the commander.
Lost 2 of my grendads in stalingrad 1 of them was in this devision
Vječnamu slava.
Hrabar covik
2 of your grendada? How many granddadasss did you have?
@@jeegupopli1871 i meant my grate grandads but my english is not that good
What did Croatians loose in Russia?
and now, 80 years later, we yet again hear of these places like Izyum, Kharkiv, Aleksandrovka, etc. and read and hear of fighting, offensives and counteroffensives. Only this time it is the Russians invading and committing numerous war crimes, while Germans, Croatians and other world nations help Ukrainians defend themselves.
Okay and?
Oh, I see the irony is lost on you. Don't worry, just study hard and one day you'll get it.@@vuk.505srb
NATO wanted to enter Ukraine, and things didn't go smoothly from there.
F*king serbs allways bei our komments hahah
2:40 Dangeni was definitely not in Hungary, like ever. :) It is east of the Carpathians.
Does anyone have any info on the order of battle of the 100 Jaeger/LID Division?
I remember watching a documentary about a man who was in that legion. It was really good
mention the name of the documentary pls
The video is to the point and exact like all of your other material.Enjoy watching it and folowing you, and ty for remembering the 369 Pojacana Pjesacka Pukovnija witch is Croatian for Reinforced Infantry Regiment.
Will you be doing a video on the Battle of the Bulge
Interestingly, I did a vote on a video asking if people would prefer the Bulge or Stalingrad. People chose Stalingrad so that's why I'm doing that now. I do intend to do the Bulge at some point after Stalingrad though
Ok thank you
Thanks for a balanced and unbiased commentary, I’m surprised you didn’t mention the 2nd Hungarian Army who were also involved at Stalingrad as were the Italians and Romanians.
theay was on the left and right flanks not in the city
NDH sent units from all 3 components of armed forces, there was air, and marine components on eastern front besides 369 regiment, there was also an italian legion unit, that was trained by Musolini and also sent on eastern front and was destroyed on mius front in 42.
Ty for this video, cheers.
pls more stalingrad, i cant wait for more
Nice video! On a sidenote, Russians often say: "Of all the european peoples, only Greeks and Serbs didn't come to invade us." Gives an interesting Russian point of view towards Europeans.
I suppose that the saying is a bit older than Slovenia
Its a stupid statement because there are many countries from Europe who didnt fight against Russia(Porugal,Ireland,Slovenia,Denmark,England)
england? xD
Even the US tried it after WW1 gave them blue balls and they decided a good way to alleviate that would be kicking the Bolsheviks out of Siberia.
I assume you never heard of the Crimean War?
Didn't the Romanian 3rd and 4th army fight at Stalingrad as well?
Not in the city, they fought to hold the flanks, many miles away. Technically, 4th Romanian Army was never formed. They are important to the Caucasus and Stalingrad Campaign though.
Oh ok. Will you be talking more about Romanian forces in the Stalingrad documentary?
Absolutely! I'm not just doing the city fight, I'm covering most of the Stalingrad Campaign in detail from 24th of July 1942 to 2nd February 1943, including the situation on the flanks
Great I can't wait for it to come out!!
romanians were on flanks not in actual city itself
Napoleon said, if i had 100 000 croats i will conquer world
He also said “You wish to sail a ship up stream by lighting a fire under its decks, I have no time for such nonsense.”
(thank you Civ IV for such an awesome quote)
A i ti Davore svašta vjeruješ. Srbski mitomani bi se posramili ove napoleonsko-hrvatske gluposti.
TIK croatian army=domobrani
TIK and that Croatians what was in German army,domobrani i ustaše was same with germans
TIK Partizan = i don't know how to translate this i will say on Croatian=komunistički pokret otpora na Balkanu koji su bili u Hrvatskoj,Srbiji,Bosni i Hercegovini , Sloveniji pa i u Italiji
----> Very well done
Sve je receno nema dalje.. Za Dom!!!!
"It is paradox to fight at Mirnaya Dolina literally means THE PEACEFUL WALLY. "
My grand grandpa said that and in the beginning of the letter and I will try to translate as best as I can but let out the few names he mentioned,
"It looked like a paradise in the spring but instead of flowers, you could only smell the melting bodies of the Bolsheviks. It made it look like an entrance to Hell as the snow melted and bodies were everywhere. We buried a few of our dead long ago under a beautiful old oak tree but later, after few days of conteplation I personally ordered and led by example that crosses should be buried too since the red forest bandits were known for the disgusting grave desecration. So I decided that regular Bolshevik soldiers, who I saw later were usually just conscripted peasants minding their own business but were forced to fight by the rabid demons with blue-red hats who would shoot them in the back if they retreated, they would be buried with an orthodox cross and identifications if possible. I gave our best marksman only scoped rifle I could find that our friends had and came to the same conclusion to shoot the demons first, if you kill those Blue-Red hat demons ("Politkomesars") whole unit would either surrender or we would let them go home. Blue-Red hat demons were left to rot where they were, beaten by sticks by peasants and one old man who cursed a lot dragged one demon and throw it in the outhouse toilets! Or septic holes as we call them. We learned he killed his son for taking cover! Horrible, horrible, horrible... but there is some poetic justice in it! Also my Dearest, those Bandits I wrote You about.... 5 of them who tried to raid the supplies at night and kill those sleeping were mowed down by a soldier who was promoted for his persistence in hunting them and decorated accordingly as that was 7th all together, this time for setting the concealed MG as a trap in the lorry, patiently waiting for them to approach the back and destroying 5 of them that night and wounding a few more. We learned that those creatures are local rapists, poachers, and a similar "company". A fellowship that was ordinarily as hairy as the beasts and heavy alcoholics.
They were let loose by the same demons (Politcomesar) and armed to harras us and local populace, they lived in the woods and behaved accordingly, to rob the dead and harras living until the day they were shot dead are left where they belong, in the woods to be drawn by the wolves and dogs. After ugly schenes were out of sight, it really was Peaceful Wally and we enjoyed a brief moment there before We ..."
This is the end of the parchment, it got wet or something and just fell off... or it got "redacted" since it seems he was an intelligence NCO and later officer, but for being an intelligent, gentle and self-educated man who could talk to allmost anyone, knowing as many as 8 languages and thus valuable he was transferred many times...and with many armies!
From him who knew MANY SECRETS, I just confirmed what we all know here...
WW2 was a CIVIL WAR in "Croatia, Yugoslavia" fueled by the Italians.
After Hitler learned they are still doing that after saying they won't and retreating that fast and surrendering in, own country he personally ordered to hunt them down as traitors. My grandfather, his son, witnessed that and always said how Germans fought Italians and that house was full of refugees my family took as Germans treated us as citizens of the Reich, equal to the civilians in Germany before the indiscriminate bombing. For example Island of Brač! Every single civilian was evacuated before the whole Island was bombed
wave after wave. (IDK why they stayed for Christ sake! Instead of salvaging what they could and later return! Not..die like that!)
As for Ukraine, he put the wrong person in charge that abused, shot and robbed civilians and the whole country fell into chaos with at least 5 different armies
and guerillas fighting each other!
Instead of putting a normal man in charge symbolically like in Croatia.
where the Germans got most loyal friends and good soldiers, but on other hand let them be molested by cowardly backstabbing Italians in their zone who armed partisans and chetniks!
This is pretty much the reason Axis lost the war! Along with a treaty with the Japan and tryin to stay neutral with USA.
Perfect documentary
I love Balkan history, but the nationalism in comment sections reliably makes me wanna die.
It is not what you mean, it is because they stil worship their nazi history and that is a problem. Google it about that a bit. N.D.H. and Nazism today in Croatia. Denying warr camps like Jasenovac etc. And making them less important. But the truth is that only Croats had war camps for children. Just read about it. Old ww2 material.
@DjBalkoni Shame is powerful thing. Reject that ideology and you are fine. Germans did that so Croats can do the same. But it is hard when that is big part of history and identity. Sorry for that 1/3 Croats who died fighting agains fascists because they have all most nazi country. Others 2/3 were Hitler's army.
Indeed! majority of comments are left here by Hitler supporters
It s because of forbidden history and never will change till the truth will find it s way...
informative video, it would be nice to have the book, thanks for the information
Good video. I always knew that Croatia was allied with Germany and Austria and that some served. This is a god video on some Croatians that served. It is especially interesting to me because my family is Croatian.
@Panter Panta he is not talking about ustasas but croatians its 2 difrent thinghs
❤
If you want to know about a the all time funkiest legion, you should check the "North African Legion" active in France in 1944.
Moskva 1812, Galicija 1916, Staljingrad 1943 🇭🇷
Sve izgubili
Excellent video.
Maybe you have information on this or other Croatian regiment fighting in the east with regards to war crimes, especially toward civilian populations under their control?
@Ivica - Nations and races don't exist. There are only individuals in this world, cooperating together individually. Therefore you cannot have a "nation of pathological liars" because not all people of a nation are the same. They're unique individuals with individual personalities.
@@TheImperatorKnight Well said!
You've made a small mistake TIK, the village of Dangeni is not in Hungary, but in Romania. And no, it wasn't part of the Northern Transylvania, which was annexed by Hungary from Romania in 1940. By the way, as you mentioned the mistrust between Italy and Croatia, can you go a bit deeper into these rivalries inside the Nazi block. Germans have never allowed romanian and hungarian armies to be put on the same section of the front, because of the hate between these two nations. It explains why Romania has switches sides so easy in 1944. Also, it would be interesting to cover the topic of anti-semitism and a comparation between the anti-semitic measures in different pro-Axis and Axis states. Were there extermination camps for Jews in Italy, Hungary, Romania, Spain, Croatia? And if yes, were they guarded by locals? Were locals involved in mistreatments and inhumane acts? If you were an ethnic Jew in a Nazi-block country which one would you choose to live in and why? Which one was the easiest and the most difficult to escape from?
I love croatia!
❤
My late grandfather fought in 369 unit he saurvived stalingrad and escaped in Argentina i still have his letter that he sended to grandmother its insane what they were going trough at stalingrad + 369 captured factory that Germans tried to capture for weeks since then they were equal in wermacht...
Croats are proud on this. Germans are ashamed. Stupid are proud as much as smart are ashamed.
There is no clean Croat in ww2. All nazi ustasha, they should repeat Bleiburg.
@@chikavugla I guess u are communist.Dont forget that Stalin killed more of his own people than Hitler did all.together
great video, but unfortunatly the comment section is full of shit as always in this type of videos. also i like croats more than other balkans countries, cheers from chile :)
Agreed. Think it doesn't help that I originally accidentally titled it the "Division" rather than "Regiment", so some people are coming from other areas of the internet where they're linked to this as the "Division" rather than the "Regiment"
Interesting.
Had three family memebers that were "volunteered" (forced) into the legion. One was injured during a soviet artillery barrage hitting the position he was at and literally ended up buried alive and would have died had it not been for his childhood friends lower half not had his feet sticking out right next to him. He was sent home for medical leave due to literal shellshock and deserted and hid in our families farm for the rest of the war and according to my grandfather he was never really there afterwords . One was killed by an anti tank rifle or another high caliber round during city fighting and the last one defected early on along with his squad and would end up being treated well by the soviets , became an officers in the soviet yugoslav unit mentioned above and would return home but not before being sent as an observer with soviets. He ended up seeing the camps and that only ignited a lifelong hatred of germans tho not an irrational one as he also really disliked russians as he thought that some of the reprisals against civilian population went too far which he was vocal about which ended with him being removed and getting trouble as he kept being vocal even after coming home end ended up in prison for a few year until the hardcore communist were purged from yugoslavia around 1949. He had a lifelong claim that "germans should never be allowed to have an arms industry or any armed forces" and that " we should have killed all the facist, not just the worst of the worst and officers"
Yea my grandfather was in a calvary division idk what division i think the 365th i know the last fight of therys is in bosna' bosnia'
We Croatians fought in Russia as part of Napoleon Grand Armee too, than against Ottomans with Hungarians, Austrians, Poles and others for 400 years, than with Normans against Arabs and so on...it is a time for peace..
I think it's crazy to walk 1000 km to fight Russians in Russia. They are nuts.
I did my military service and would defend my country , but to go 1000's of km away from home and attack some other people is insanity.
Not to mentioned Slavic brothers.
Although US military is doing exactly the same almost every day.
The fight againstbst Bolsheviks was never far below the surface. Read up on Soviet Bolshevik attacks into Poland and Hungary during 1920's as well as Bolshevik putsch in Bavaria. People in Central Europe during intra-war years were well aware of the eastern menace
They fought Bolsheviks not Russians
Za dom!
Za Narod.
spremni
more like Za RUclips
СРБСКИ,....А НАЦИ НАТО ИСИС ТАЛМУДИСТИ ЗА БЛАЈБУРГ СПРЕМНИ ПОЗДРАВ
Za dom