Bleiburg Repatriations - Axis Retreat

Axis Retreat

By the end of March 1945, it was obvious to the HOS command that, although the front remained intact, they would eventually be defeated by sheer lack of ammunition. For this reason, the decision was made to start a retreat. They would retreat into Austria in order to surrender to the British forces advancing north from Italy. A large-scale exodus of people was planned and organized by the authorities of the NDH despite the fact there was no strategic benefit to it: there simply was no viable destination for all the population to move to.

Among the remnants of the HOS were numerous Ustaše dignitaries along with the ruling fascist elite, but also a number of civilians, inextricably mixed with the others in the confusion of the retreat. To the pursuing Partisans, the appearance was that the civilians within the retreating column were for the most part collaborationists, as they abandoned their homes and businesses to flee with Ustaše leaders. While the NDH leadership may have organized a civilian retreat in order to bolster their claim of how the Yugoslav Communists were after innocent civilian victims, the sheer number of civilians slowed down the retreat, made the surrender unfeasible to the Allies, and ultimately led to the belief that they were nothing more than a human shield to the Ustashe.

Retreating alongside the HOS forces were some Chetniks and the remaining units of the Slovene Home Guard (a Slovenian collaborationist militia).

On 6 May 1945, the collaborationist government of the Independent State of Croatia fled Zagreb, and arrived to a location near Klagenfurt, Austria on 7 May. Ante Pavelić, the Poglavnik of the NDH, and the military leadership left Zaprešić on the evening of 7 May, intending to join the rest of his regime in Austria.

On 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allied powers, marking the formal end of World War II in Europe. The German Instrument of Surrender applied to German Wehrmacht forces in Yugoslavia as well as those armed forces under German command such as the armed forces of the puppet Independent State of Croatia. This would ordinarily have meant that they too had to cease their activities on 8 May and stay where they found themselves. The Ustaše military, however, came under the command of Ante Pavelić, because as they were about to surrender, General Alexander Löhr, Commander-in-Chief of Army Group E handed command of the Croatian forces to Pavelić on 8 May.

Pavelić issued an order from Rogaška Slatina for his troops not to surrender to the Partisans, but to escape to Austria, in order to implement the Croatian government's decision of 3 May to flee to Austria.

On 8 May, Zagreb was liberated by the Partisan 1st and 2nd Army, with relatively few skirmishes and casualties: the 1st Army reported to the General Staff how they killed 10,901 enemy soldiers and captured 15,892 in the taking of Zagreb. The same day, the headquarters of the 51st Vojvodina Division of the Yugoslav 3rd Army issued a dispatch ordering its units to treat all enemy officers and soldiers who continue resistance after midnight that day, and who are not part of units who had an organized surrender, as persons who do not have the status of prisoners of war, and should be treated as bandits.

The German surrender obstructed the progress of the columns fleeing Croatia northwards. In addition, as soon as 9 May, Partisan forces had moved into Maribor which eliminated that escape route. They also took control of Celje on 10 May, but with a force insufficient to halt the columns that were escaping towards Dravograd.

On 11–12 May, generals Vjekoslav Servatzy and Vladimir Metikoš entered discussions with Bulgarian generals to allow the Croatian column to pass into Austria. The discussions were inconclusive, but the Bulgarians suggested they head in the direction of Prevalje and Bleiburg, which the column did. Bleiburg was located some four kilometres northwest of the border of Nazi Germany and Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, today the border of Austria and Slovenia. Parts of the columns were captured by the Partisans - on 12 May, Politika carried Yugoslav Army reports of 15,700 prisoners of war in the areas of Maribor, Zidani Most, Bled, Jesenice and elsewhere. On 13 May, they reported over 40,000 prisoners taken near Rogaška Slatina, Celje, Velenje, Šoštanj, Dravograd, and elsewhere.

The 38th British Infantry Brigade headquarters were set up in Bleiburg, having occupied the town on 12 May, while the rest of the V Corps was stationed in Klagenfurt.

The Russian Cossacks of XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps, stationed in Yugoslavia since 1943, were also part of the column, and they are estimated to have numbered in thousands. Tolstoy quotes a General Alexander telegram, sent to the Combined Chiefs of Staff, noting "50,000 Cossacks including 11,000 women, children and old men".

Shortly after midnight on 13 May 1945 the British V Corps Headquarters in Austria estimated that there were "approximately 30,000 POWs, surrendered personnel, and refugees in the Corps area. A further 60,000 reported moving north to Austria from Yugoslavia".

As late as 14 May 1945, a week after the war in Europe had ended, military conflicts between the Partisans and the retreating collaborationist forces continued across Slovenia and in their time in Austria. Of these, the biggest confrontation was the Battle of Poljana on 14 May, which ended in a Partisan victory and caused the retreating column to change direction, at a cost of several hundred casualties.