1943?1944 Nazi occupation of Italian Montenegro
Part of Yugoslavia occupied by Germany
German?occupied territory of Montenegro
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![Occupation and partition of Yugoslavia after the Italian surrender in September 1943. The German occupation of the former Italian governorate of Montenegro is shown in grey in the southern coastal region.](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Axis_occupation_of_Yugoslavia_1943-44.png/250px-Axis_occupation_of_Yugoslavia_1943-44.png) Occupation and partition of Yugoslavia after the Italian surrender in September 1943. The German occupation of the former Italian governorate of Montenegro is shown in grey in the southern coastal region.
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Country
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Yugoslavia
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Occupied by Germany
| 12 September 1943
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German withdrawal
| 15 December 1944
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During
World War II
, an area of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
previously occupied as the
Italian governorate of Montenegro
was occupied by
German
forces after the September 1943
Armistice of Cassibile
, in which the
Kingdom of Italy
capitulated and joined the
Allies
. Italian forces retreated from the governorate, and from neighbouring
Albania
. German forces occupied Montenegro immediately, along with
Albania
, and the territory remained under German occupation until they and many of their
local collaborators
withdrew in December 1944.
Immediately after the Italian surrender, German forces occupied most of the former governorate, excepting some areas controlled by the
Yugoslav Partisans
. The territory was administered as an occupied territory under German
Feldkommandtur
(area command) No. 1040, commanded by
Generalmajor
Wilhelm Keiper
. Until the spring of 1944, Keiper's area command was subordinated to a succession of higher headquarters; first the German General in Albania, then the
V SS Mountain Corps
, and then
2nd Panzer Army
. Thereafter it was raised to an independent command and Keiper reported directly to the Commander-in-Chief in Southeast Europe
Alexander Lohr
.
Keiper followed a similar practice to his Italian predecessor, and attempted to secure the assistance of the Montenegrin separatists known as the
Greens
,
Chetniks
who were aligned with the leader of the
puppet government
in the
Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia
,
Milan Nedi?
, but not with the supreme Chetnik leader
Dra?a Mihailovi?
, and even
Sand?ak Muslims
. From a group of representatives of these groups, in October he formed a National Administrative Council to help him administer the territory, chaired by
Ljubomir Vuksanovi?
. The council quickly overreached in attempting to bargain with Keiper regarding their powers, and were sharply reprimanded and advised that they were only an instrument of his occupation regime. The council's major concern was to secure food imports with German assistance. Nedi? was willing to provide 900 t (890 long tons; 990 short tons) of food on a monthly basis, but the council needed German assistance with transportation. Ultimately, only 250?300 t (250?300 long tons; 280?330 short tons) was imported per month, a mere twenty percent of the amount the Italians had imported during their occupation. The result was that the population in large areas of the occupied territory were close to starvation for the duration of the German administration.
The Germans enlisted the assistance of the local
gendarmerie
, militia and some Chetniks attempt to control the occupied territory, but they proved inadequate to the challenge posed by the Partisans. Keiper then reluctantly co-opted the Montenegrin Chetnik leader
Pavle đuri?i?
, who had been captured by the Germans in May 1943 and interned, but then escaped to
Belgrade
and was accepted as an ally by the Germans and Nedi?. With German approval, Nedi? appointed đuri?i? to command the
Montenegrin Volunteer Corps
and sent him and the corps to assist Keiper. The German reticence was due to đuri?i?'s split allegiances; he relied on the Germans for logistical support but also owed allegiance to Nedi? and Mihailovi?.
The Germans evacuated their troops from the occupied territory as part of their general withdrawal from the
Balkans
and towards the borders of the
Third Reich
. đuri?i? accompanied the Germans as far as northeast
Bosnia
before leaving them to join Mihailovi?. After realising that Mihailovi? had no plan to save the remaining Chetnik forces, he left him and attempted to reach some other collaborationist forces gathering in western Yugoslavia. He and his corps were intercepted by superior forces of the
fascist
Independent State of Croatia
in northwest Bosnia, and đuri?i? was captured and executed. Many of his troops were also killed by NDH or Partisan forces.
After the Germans withdrew from the occupied territory and evacuated towards Austria, the fascist leader
Sekula Drljevi?
attempted to create a government-in-exile in the neighbouring
Independent State of Croatia
(NDH), which was a German quasi-protectorate. Drljevi? also created the
Montenegrin National Army
, a military force set up by him and the Croatian fascist leader
Ante Paveli?
. However, his government-in-exile, known as the "Montenegrin State Council", was dissolved after the fall of the NDH government.
The territory was taken over by the
Yugoslav Partisans
of
Josip Broz Tito
, and became part of
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia
.
References
[
edit
]
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Puppet regimes
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Political
organizations
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People
| Croatian &
Bosniak
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Serbian
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Slovene
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Montenegrin
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Albanian
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Bulgarian
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Military
organizations
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Allies
| Kingdom of Yugoslavia
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Partisans
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Others
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Chetniks
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Axis
| Croatia
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Serbia
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Montenegro
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Slovenia
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Others
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