MACEDONIA IN WORLD WAR II

THE APRIL WAR

After the entry of the German forces into Macedonia on the 6th of April 1941 in the regions of Stracin and Strumica fierce battles were led in which the Yugoslav Army tried to stop the fast breakthrough of the German forces. The Yugoslav Air Forces, stationed in Skopje and Kumanovo, attempted to oppose the German Air Force but they failed and were destroyed.

On the 10th of April, the German forces occupied Macedonia.

On the 17th of April 1941, the Yugoslav Army signed the unconditional surrender in Belgrade.

After the capitulation, in accordance with the decision for the annihilation of Yugoslavia as a state, its territory was divided among Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria.

MACEDONIA WAS DIVIDED BETWEEN:BULGARIA, ITALY (LATTER ALBANIA) AND GERMANY

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE OCCUPYING AUTHORITY IN MACEDONIA

The Bulgarian Army entered on the territory of Macedonia on April 18, 1941 and immediately started establishing their own authority on the occupied area within the military defined borders by the Germans.

The process of establishing the occupying system was implemented in three phases:

The first phase started with the entry of the military forces and with the establishment of the military regime. It was simultaneously established with the forward entering of the troops, initially in the cities sand smaller populated places and then in the major communication points.

During the second phase the police authority was established by the use of different measures such as: imposing curfews, movement limitations and severe movement control, issuing new identification documents, displacement of the population, arrests, severe censorship and terror and spiteful acts were applied in case of disobedience.

During the third phase, which could be called the phase of establishing civil or administrative authority, the economical activities and different social sectors were revitalized such as education, health, church, culture, information, finances and other segments of the social life.

On the Italian occupying area the military and police authority lasted up to July 1941

In July1941, with the Decree issued by the Royal Representative of Italy in Albania, Francesco Jacomini, the occupied part of Macedonia by the Italian forces was annexed to Albania and “Great Albania” was created in accordance with the League of Prizren.

ARMS STRUGGLE IN MACEDONIA FROM 1941 TO 1945

In February 1940 in Skopje, Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (RC CPY) had a conference in Macedonia in which the current and insufficiently active Regional Committee (RC) was adjourned and a new temporary, regional presidency was elected, constituted of Metodija Shatorov-Sharlo as a Secretary.

The new Regional Committee was a link for all other party organizations and provided the necessary leadership unity. After the accomplishment of the situation analysis, the Regional Committee took measures to reinforce its activity. The leadership affirmed the struggle for national and social liberation and started issuing declarations, publishing flyers and newspapers that were mainly distributed among the Macedonian intelligence as well as among workers.

On the Fifth Regional Conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, held in the period from 19 to 23 October, 1940, in Dubrava, near Zagreb, Shatorov represented the political standpoints regarding the national liberation and unification of the Macedonian people. Because of these political views Shatorov was a subject of severe critics and as his views had seemed “to veer away from the national issue concept and the issue regarding the colonists.”

Taking into consideration the general conditions as well as the situation in the whole Macedonia, Metodij Shatorov, as a Secretary of the Communist Party, tried to transform the part of Vardar Macedonia into Piedmont for integration and creation of an autonomous Macedonian state. Shatorov was accused for “antiparty and contra revolutionary acting” and dismissed of his duty.

THE BEGINNING OF THE MACEDONIAN ANTI-FASCIST UPRISING

The uprising begun on 11 October 1941 when a Prilep’s partisan unit attacked the police station and the prison building. At the same time the Kumanovo’s partisan unit took other actions

At the beginning of 1942 the Regional Military Headquarters brought several conclusions of strategic character and that influenced the further development of the armed struggle.

The Regional Military Headquarters, at the meeting held in Skopje in the middle of March in 1942, analyzed the actions of the first partisan units and concluded that it was necessary to make some changes as far as the organization and armed struggle tactic were concerned. Beside that some other inferences were drawn at that meeting too, such as:

The partisan units to be put under direct command of the Regional Military Headquarters;

The newly formed partisan units to be composed of 2-3 troops;

The supply of food, clothes, weapons and equipment to be completed by carrying out the actions directed against the enemy or directly from the villages;

As far as the territorial maneuvers of the military units were concerned it was said that they were not supposed to be strictly related to the local places but should have had a wider territorial range. The units that were supposed to act on the territory under Bulgarian occupation were being recommended to move on the territory under Italian occupation in case they met hard situations.

DURING 1942 THE NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT IN MACEDONIAWAS DEVELOPING THROUGH SEVERAL PHASES:

The first phase initiated with the April’s formation of the new military units and lasted to July 1942. In that period the political agitation was increasing and the military organization was going on, but in the areas of Skopje, Veles, Prilep, Bitola, Krushevo and Resen the Military Units went on the field and carried out armed actions

The second phase lasted from July to the autumn 1942. In this period The Supreme Headquarters strengthened and some members of the Regional Committee Headquarters went to the field in order to transmit the directive for the intensification of the armed struggle as well as to give support to the Local Military Headquarters and other political organizations.

The third phase started in the autumn 1942, when the Supreme Headquarters took measures for reorganization and more autonomy of the Partisan Units. During this phase the military units were supposed to carry out some military action on the railway and travel communication lines, to interrupt the telephone lines, to make diversions in the mines used by the occupiers. For these purposes the military units expanded the range of movement behind that of strictly native or local character. In that way the Partisan Units covered the major part of the territory, the armed struggle intensified in almost all parts of the country and all basic prerequirements for the foundation of the regular Macedonian Army were provided.

At the meeting in Prespa, held on the 2nd of August 1943, it was agreed to organize a larger military unit, capable to act on wider territorial areas in Macedonia.

The war successes and the increased number of new warriors created beneficial conditions for the approach to the implementation of the idea for the formation of the National Liberation Army. On the 18th of August 1943, on Slavej Mountain, the first regular Military Unit was formed, named the battalion “Mirche Acev”.