Peter II of Yugoslavia - World War II

World War II

Although King Peter and his advisers were opposed to Nazi Germany, Regent Prince Paul declared that the Kingdom of Yugoslavia would join the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941. On 27 March, King Peter, then 17, was proclaimed of age, and participated in a British-supported coup d'état opposing the Tripartite Pact.

Postponing Operation Barbarossa, Germany simultaneously attacked Yugoslavia and Greece. From 6 April the Luftwaffe pounded Belgrade for three days and three nights in Operation Punishment. Within a week, Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary and Italy invaded Yugoslavia and the government was forced to surrender on 17 April. Yugoslavia was divided to satisfy Italian, Bulgarian, Hungarian and German demands and puppet Croat, Montenegrin and Serb states proclaimed.

Peter was forced to leave the country with the Yugoslav Government following the Axis invasion; initially the King went with his government to Greece, and Jerusalem, then to the British Mandate of Palestine and Cairo. He went to England in June 1941, where he joined numerous other governments in exile from Nazi-occupied Europe. The King completed his education at Cambridge University and joined the Royal Air Force.

Despite the collapse of the Yugoslav Army, two rival resistance groups to the occupying forces formed. The first were the Partisans, a Communist-led left-wing movement encompassing republican elements in Yugoslav politics, led by Josip Broz Tito. The other were the "Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland", commonly known as Chetniks, a predominantly Serbian movement led by royalist General Draža Mihailović, soon proclaimed the Minister of Defence in the government-in-exile. Starting in November 1941, Mihailović began attacking the Partisan strongholds, the liberated territories. A Chetnik splinter group, under the leadership of Kosta Pečanac soon ceased operations against the occupation altogether, and focused on defeating the Partisans. In this they found a common cause with the enemy and occasional and opportunistic collaboration between them and the Axis troops began, aiming to stamp out the Partisans.

There was absolutely no shift of allegiance from Ultra intercepts to be learned in any which way, however, the Allies, with Churchill's insistence, decided to switch their support to the Partisans by November 1943, as their sources came to indicate that by supporting Joseph Stalin and the Comintern the war could end earlier than expected. That is how Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia were allowed to pass into the Eastern sphere of communist influence. The Partisans soon gained recognition in Tehran as the Allied Yugoslav forces on the ground. In 1944 the Partisan commander, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, was recognized as the Commander-in-Chief of all Yugoslav forces, and was appointed Prime Minister of a joint government.