Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Serbisches Freilligen Korps, armored car battalion


Details the complete history of the Serbian Volunteer Corps, a force of some 12,000+ nationalist Serbians who fought alongside the Germans against the Communist Yugoslav guerrillas in World War II. The unit was considered by the Germans as the BEST indigenous pro-Axis formation which fought alongside the Germans in the Balkans. Contains 105 photos, plus several maps and tables, and a long list of documents in photo format completely translated into the English language from the German language.

Formed on 15 September 1941, by Dimitrije Ljotiæ from Chetniks and his Zbor Movement activists. It had twelve 120-150 strong detachments. In January 1943, it become Serbian Volunteer Corps (Srpski Dobrovoljaèki Korpus - SDK) with five 500 man battalions - four volunteer and one Chetnik Assault battalion and from 4 January 1943 it also had armored car battalion, cavalry squadron and 6 aircraft - strength is around 3,000 men. Formation was fully equipped by Germans who where impressed by its performance.

The armored car battalion (bornih kola) had some 20 different vehicles - some ex-YU which Germans considered obsolete, few French Renault tanks, some Czech, and maximum of three German half-tracks in very bad shape. This too disappears after the defense of Belgrade.

24 November 1944 in Waffen SS included Srpski Dobrovoljacki Korpus / Serbisches Freiwilligen Korps. Corpus (in shortening SDK) came into being 15 September 1941 as Srpska Dobrovoljacka Komanda / Serbisches Freiwilligen Abteilung (incl. 12 units). 20 November 1942 reformed in five batallions and change name - Srpski Dobrovoljacki Korpus. In 1944 batallions expanded in five regiments. CO - Gen. Maj. Konstantin Musicki (germ.: Muschitzki)

Regiment 1. Serbisches SS-Korps from Regiment 1. SDK (tree batallions) - CO major Ilja Micasevic (germ.: Mitzaschewitz)
Regiment 2. Serbisches SS-Korps from Regiment 2. SDK (tree batallions) - CO major Marisav Petrovic
Regiment 3. Serbisches SS-Korps from Regiment 3. SDK (tree batallions) - CO major Vojislav Dimitrijevic and later captain I. class Miodrag Markovic
Regiment 4. Serbisches SS-Korps from Regiment 4. SDK (tree batallions) - CO major Vuk Vlahovic and later major Vojislav Dimitrijevic (from Rgt. 3)
Regiment 5. Serbisches SS-Korps from SS Regiment 5. SDK (tree batallions) - CO
major Milorad Mojic and later ltn. col. Mirko Stankovic.
Artillerie Abteilung Serbisches SS-Korps from Artilerijski divizion SDK (1. Pz. Jg. Bttr., 2. Haubitzen. Bttr., 3. Geb. Kanone Bttr.) - CO major Momcilo Borcevic (germ.: Momtschilo Bortschewitz)


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