The 1st Proletarian Brigade, later the 1st Proletarian Division, was the first brigade-size
formation raised by the
Yugoslav Partisans during
World War II. The unit was one of the elite formations of the
National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. Its combat value was respected by the enemy.
Artur Phleps
Artur Gustav Martin Phleps (29 November 1881 – 21 September 1944) was an Austro-Hungarian, Romanian and German army officer who held the rank of '' SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS'' (lieutenant general) in the Waffen-SS d ...
,
V SS Mountain Corps commander, in his war journal in 1944 assessed as a serious opponent, very well managed and well trained, who fights like a regular troop.
Chronicle
It was formed by
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
and the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia
The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
on 22 December 1941 in the village of
Rudo in
Republika Srpska. Initially comprising 1,200 of the best
Serb and
Montenegrin Partisans under the command of the
Spanish Civil War veteran
Koča Popović, it began to take on a more multi-ethnic character from March 1942 when 15
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry ...
from
Sarajevo joined the brigade. The formation of the brigade represented a significant change for the Partisans, as it gave the Partisan Supreme Command a politically reliable and mobile force that was not tied to a particular geographic area. This innovation allowed the Partisans to more easily concentrate fighting power at a particular point to achieve a decision, and permitted withdrawal when faced by a superior enemy force. The brigade fought its first battle on the day following its creation, when it encountered Italian troops and the
Chetniks
The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
as it marched out of Rudo.
During
Operation Southeast Croatia the brigade crossed Mount
Igman
Igman ( sr-cyrl, Игман, ) is a mountain plateau in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. Geologically, Igman is part of the Dinaric Alps and formed largely of secondary and tertiary sedimentary rock, mostly Limestone. It is located southwest of Sa ...
in freezing temperatures. After
Operation Trio, it participated in the
Partisan Long March from
Zelengora in eastern Bosnia to the west. The withdrawal of the brigade from eastern Bosnia to
Foča caused a number of problems, including recriminations between Tito and
Svetozar Vukmanović.
From its formation until June 1942 this was as an independent brigade, after which the brigade formed part of the
Strike Group of Proletarian Brigades. From November 1942 the brigade became the 1st Proletarian Division. In 1971, the
Museum of the First Proletarian Brigade was established in the village of Rudo to commemorate the unit.
At the time of formation, the Brigade numbered 1,186 soldiers, NCOs and officers, 71 of which were women. The brigade then fought in many battles against the Italians, Germans, and their Chetnik auxiliaries, as well as the forces of the
Axis puppet
Independent State of Croatia from its creation until the end of the war. It fought in six of the
Seven Enemy Offensives
The Seven Enemy Offensives ( sh-Latn, Sedam neprijateljskih ofanziva) is a group name used in Yugoslav historiography to refer to seven major Axis military operations undertaken during World War II in Yugoslavia against the Yugoslav Partisans.
The ...
described in Yugoslav historiography. During 41 months of battle engagement, in the unit fought 13,443 men and 651 women, and 4,818 of them died in battle.
Battles
For the most part of its war time, the Brigade relayed mostly on manoeuvrability and initiative. In frequent marches it covered some 20,000 km. The change in tactics occurred after
Belgrade Offensive, when it was engaged in frontal battles on
Sremski front.
Footnotes
References
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{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017
Brigades of the Yugoslav Partisans
Divisions of the Yugoslav Partisans
Military units and formations established in 1941