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Berlin pao Odžak nije..last World War II battle in Europe
It is May 1945. Germany capitulated and the Third Reich is no more. The war is over everywhere in Europe. The fight is nowhere to be found.
Well, that's not quite true, and it would sound better to say that the war is almost over.
Because, what you are going to read now is one very controversial and amazing story.
Namely, at that time, the vast majority of the Croatian army withdrew more and more to the west at the end of April and the beginning of May, hoping to surrender to the Western Allies. But a small part of that same army remains and prepares to fight to the death.
While there are almost no more battles in the whole of Croatia and the countries of the former Yugoslavia, in the small area of the confluence of the Bosna and Sava rivers, the war is just beginning!
The battle for Odžak begins.
The battles for Odžak and its surroundings began on April 18, 1945. I (Yugoslav Army), more precisely the 25th Serbian Division, the 27th Division and the 53rd Division, set out to occupy and clear the area, convinced that it would be an easy and quick task.
But their conviction quickly faded when they came into first contact with the defenders.
What happened?
The defense of Odžak and its surroundings was led by Petar Rajkovačić, Ivan Čalušić and Ivo Rajkovačić, Petar's brother. Having prepared their defenses with numerous trenches, bunkers, and barbed wire barriers, they were ready to welcome the attack.
Odžak itself was intertwined with trenches and strongholds until, so to speak, indefinitely. Each point was designed to be able to cover and defend an adjacent point, and the trenches were made so that they could be quickly pulled out of them in the event of a penetration, as well as being able to move quickly with them, in the event of a necessary counterattack. And an even bigger tactical advantage of the defenders was - mowing!
Namely, not wanting to give shelter to the attackers, the defenders cut all the grass around and in front of the defensive points to the ground, with the aim of forcing the attackers to, whether they wanted to or not, have to move through the cleared space. And the advantage was in something else…
But before we continue with the story, one small digression.
The first battle was fought near the village of Vlaška Mala. There, the attackers suffered heavy losses of over 800 dead and wounded on the first day. The resistance had such a moral effect on the partisans that the fighting schedule, simply put, fell apart. The partisan units, accustomed in the last few weeks only to victories, received a bitter sobriety when it became known who was giving them so much resistance.
There were no Germans, no Black Legion, no Ustashas, no members of the Waffen SS, no hardened mercenaries, terrorists or whatever. These were all local people. Farmers, cattle breeders, ordinary people. People grew up in that area. They were not interested in Germany, or Pavelic, or Hitler, or any fascism or National Socialism, or any politics at all. They just wanted to stay on their native Croat breast and live a normal life as before.
They also defended their families and their homes. That is why the resistance was so fierce. They remained determined to defend their own.
After a week of hardened fighting, in which the attackers, to the surprise of both themselves and the defenders, suffered defeat after defeat,they attacked even fiercer. But they did not fare any better than before. Surviving participants from both sides said after the war that the partisans fled in a particularly panicked way when the defenders of Odžak counterattacked and shouted "Catch them alive"!
These were such fierce battles that, if we could go back in time, we as observers would really have the impression that the war had just begun!
Partisans storm the trenches of the defenders and fall into them! But the defenders organize a counterattack even faster and throw the attackers out, inflicting heavy losses on them! And here the decision to mow the grass proved to be very smart and effective. After being thrown out of the trenches, the partisans would retreat across the open space and become a very easy target.
And now that the great losses are enumerated, one wonders how many people took part in these struggles. Well, although the numbers vary by 200 people more or less, it can be said with confidence that this 37-day battle was really big.
Over 23,000 partisans attacked Odžak and its surroundings, and the defense had around 1,800 people at most. And it’s interesting to say that of those 1,800 veterans, only a small fraction were in the professional squad. Several local Ustashas, about twenty home guards and several dozen members of the local village guard. The rest were the most ordinary people who grabbed their weapons. And that's it from the defense. Plus that they had only personal weapons, no artillery and no major fire support.
And the Yugoslavia forces had both artillery and air force. As well as 23,000 hardened fighters.
Because, even after two weeks of fighting, it was still not clear to them why these were defending themselves so much! Everyone else would have already gone and tried to break through. But these are not leaving, they are defending themselves even more fiercely. Unheard of!
That evening the defenders receive reinforcements of about a hundred men. It is a group of home guards commanded by Colonels Ibrahim Vitez Pjanic and Avdaga Hasic. They came across the Sava from Slavonia. Without any discussion, they decide to stay and help Rajkovačić. And those hundred or so people needed a much-needed "injection" of defense.
And the very next day I realized that it would be even harder now, after they were once again, for who knows how many times, rejected.
But after two more weeks of fighting, the situation was slowly becoming difficult for the defenders. Ammunition is slowly running out, and there is a lack of food and medicine for the wounded. However, the defenders are still not giving up! The Partisans even sent them a message several times to surrender and to end it all. But in vain. The defenders are still not giving up even a meter!
On May 9, after three hours of heavy and uncertain fighting, the partisans expelled the defenders from Odžak and marched on Vlaška Mala. But, there they encounter fierce resistance and lose over 700 soldiers in less than two hours! The commander of the 14th Brigade, Brigadier Stevan Kovacevic, sent a message to the headquarters of the 3rd Army stating that the resistance was too strong and that he simply could not do anything. In particular, he states that the strength of the resistance is so great that even the old fighters have never seen anything like it.
The next day up and heaven and earth. Partisan mortars beat every meter of land. After half an hour-an hour of such hurricane fire, the partisans would again launch a wild assault. But, Rajkovačić sent an even fiercer counterattack on them, and they drove the partisans out of the approach of Vlaška Mala, as well as from the whole of Odžak! A huge victory after all day of fighting! The Partisans now number over 2,000 dead and as many wounded. Easy not to believe!
The day after that, Commander Rajkovačić's brother Ivo was killed, and Ivan Čalušić was wounded, and Rajkovačić took full command of all points of defense. The day after, the fighting stops. Only here and there did a few rifles fire. Rajkovačić goes around the positions and encourages the defenders. He tells them to be careful, because as soon as they don't attack, they are safely preparing something.
And he wasn't wrong at all.
The next day, just before dawn, a general attack on the entire defense area begins.
The fighting in the villages was especially bloody. Machine guns, pistols, hand grenades and bayonets were the most common weapons in such massacres. Fights are fought for literally every step.
The partisans break into one part of the trench, and the defenders immediately throw them out with hand grenades. Then they would fire short bursts into that trench and then continue like that.
There were no prisoners on either side.
Such battles lasted until the 23rd and especially until the 24th of May. The defense, as incredible as it is, just doesn’t give up. But nowhere.They have not progressed anywhere, and the partisans no longer knew what to do.
Yet on May 24, the partisans finally used the air force.
Bombs were falling all over the area. From dawn to dusk. All day and all night bombs fall all over the area, and the Yugoslavia artillery fires grenade after grenade. The deadly artillery fire lasted all night from 24 to 25 May. All night, then from the morning again.
This time, nothing wants to be left to chance.
On May 25, 1945, after 37 days of indescribably difficult and uncertain fighting, Yugoslavia units finally entered Vlaška Mala and broke the last resistance of the remaining defenders. It was the Air Force that decided the battle.
But that last clash was especially difficult. The fight was for every trench, for every house and every room. In the attics and stables.Suffice it to say that it took a little over 4 hours for the partisans to establish full control.
And when the supervision was established, what was feared started - revenge.
And the retaliation was terrible.
All the wounded were immediately killed without mercy. All those over the age of 16, whether or not they took part in the fighting, were also killed.
The communist rage was so fierce that until the break-up of Yugoslavia, more than 45 years after the battle, no one was allowed to call or be nicknamed Baja in the area of Odžak and its surroundings. Because Baja was the nickname of Petar Rajkovačić!
But, although Vlaška Mala, as the last stronghold of the defenders, fell, it was not the end of the battle. And the end of the battle it was embarrassing for the Attackers.
Namely, a part of approximately 170 defenders found themselves in Vlaška Mala just before the fall. And, seeing what was coming, they decided to make a breakthrough. Colonels Hasic and Pjanic were also in that group.
They struck with all their might and ran into the 14th Partisan Brigade, the so-called an elite partisan unit. Seeing that the "Ustashas" were rushing towards them, the partisans fled in panic and lost over 300 people! The commander of the brigade himself, Stevan Kovačević, almost ended up in a military court because of that, and for years he was criticized for that, and he should have received the rank of general immediately after the battle.
He received the rank almost 30 years later before retiring. The reason was a shameful escape and the unsuccessful capture of Hasić and Pjanić, as well as cowardice in front of the enemy!
Just before the breakthrough, Defense Commander Petar Rajkovačić was seriously wounded for the second time during a plane attack. The Defenders wanted to take their commander with them to the breakthrough on a stretcher, but he refused the offer. He and his wife fought and resisted from a house in Prud, and when they finally realized that they would be captured, Rajkovačić first shot his wife and children, and eventually committed suicide by shooting himself in the temple. The "liberators" desecrated the bodies of his wife, children, and especially inflicted on his body.
Thanks for reading. and Berlin pao Odžak nije.
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Originally Posted by Moje ime
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