Development of Yugoslav Partisans

Development

of People's Liberation Army and Partisans detachments of Yugoslavia

History

Early partisans formations companies, battalion and detachments had very few soldiers with company having sometimes as few as dozen men, battalions at around 50 and detachments from less then hundred to over a thousand. Virtually all these formations where made of local volunteers reluctant to fight to far from their home, need for stronger more mobile formations to fight effective guerrilla war was more then obvious.

Companies were merged to form battalions which in turn were used either to form detachments or even brigades. Battle harden and large partisans detachments were also merged to form effective mobile brigades which could be sent far from its original base while original Partisan detachment was usually left behind with single battalion to maintain its presence in the region.

Early attempt to form numerous large formation was disastrous, Volunteer Army of Yugoslavia (DVJ) was formed in eastern Bosnia in early 1942 after Tito was forced to retreat from Serbia. Mass mobilization created an army which simply disintegrated in front of Axis offensive combined by Chetnik coups which eliminated most of communist commanders of the new army forcing Tito with his core of Proletarian brigades to again move westwards.

Like detachments strength of the brigades greatly varied depending on how much local support it had, enemy action from few hundred to over a thousand with very few non-combatants. As number of brigades increased these were merged into divisions which in turn become part of corps and finally armies.

Foreign aid

Crucial part in development of Yugoslav Partisans and their transformation into conventional army was aid from Western Allies and Soviet Union. First significant amounts of aid began to arrive during operation AUDREY.

Most of the aid from Western Allies arrived by sea through Vis island, from 15 October 1943 to 1 May 1945:

353 artillery pieces of various caliber

30803 machine-guns

19121 submachine-guns

921 mortars

58112 rifles

1150 pistols

65 signal pistols

137 926 artillery shells

36 963 398 rounds of ammo for rifles, machine-guns and pistols

1896 signal rounds

121 906 mortar mines

82 000 anti-tank mines

156 673 hand grandees

56 950 kg of explosives

283 000 kg of mines and shells of various calibers

516 000 kg of various armament, military and technical equipment

111 194 overcoat

106 162 military shirts

102 483 trousers

187 312 pairs of underwear

91 129 pairs of hand gloves

349 697 pairs of socks

249 712 pairs of shoes

120 000 sweater

14 635 blankets

32 676 backpacks

46 806 (slamarica)

30 040 pieces of cutlery

212,56 tons of other material

Also delivered as part of aid with units formed in Italy:

2014 trucks

712 artillery pieces

1817 mortars

61 aircraft

74 tanks