On 17th April 1941, in Belgrade
was signed the capitulation of the Kingdom Yugoslavia. Macedonia, the
Vardarpart was still under the Serbian rule,
Aegeanunder Greek,
Pirinunder Bulgarian rule, verified from the Versailles peace treaty. Yugoslavia
was soon divided between Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary. Macedonia was
occupied between Germany (later replaced by Bulgaria) and Albania (controlled by
Italy). The biggest advantage from the occupation of Macedonia had Albania and
Bulgaria, which divided again the already divided Macedonia. Besides the already
taken by the Balkan wars (1912-1913) Pirin part of Macedonia, by the agreement
from 23rd April, 1941 in Vienna, Bulgaria was awarded with the
largest part of Vardar part of Macedonia, including the eastern part of the
AegeanMacedonia (with Demir Hisar, Serez, Drama, Kavala). Fascist Italy as an
occupator, settled in the western part of the Vardar part of Macedonia
(including
Tetovo,
Gostivar,
Debar,
Kičevo,
Struga
and the villages in Prespa region) and in the western part of Aegean Macedonia
(Kostur, Šatista). In July 1941, all of this Italian occupated areas were given
to control of Albania, leaded by a pro-fascist government. The Aegean part which
before the war was under Greek occupation now was under triple occupation:
Albanian, Nazi German and Bulgarian.
"The Occupation of Macedonia during
the Second World War:
Red - Albanian; Brown - Bulgarian; Blue -
Germans"
The fascist Albanians in July 1941 in the
regions of Tetovo, Gostivar and Kicevo spread terror on the Christian
population. Around 53 villages with 40,000 peasants were
depopulated, their citizens escaped in neutral countries such a Switzerland. Soon the
villages were colonized by the occupator and new Albanian (Šiptar) settled here
(they spread terror on the Macedonians, ethnic cleaning, what they do even today
in Macedonia and Serbia). And that is how exactly Albanians approached to become
a minority in Macedonia. The Macedonian language was forbidden by the Albanians
and also in the Macedonian surnames -vski and -ov. The idea for Great Albania
flourished during the second world war and included parts of Vardar Macedonia,
Western part of Aegean Macedonia, Kosovo (Serbian province), parts of Montenegro
and Epirus region.
Besides
the many problems at the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Macedonia, the
regional committees were forming headquarters and commissions, collecting
weapons, collecting money and other. On August 2nd 1941, in
Bitola,
were organized demonstration of Ilinden. The diversants group of
Skopje,
in August committed, several successful actions at the mine Radusha, the airport
Petrovec, the railway... On August 22nd 1941, they formed the
Partizan Detachment of Skopje (Macedonians, Serbians, Turks, Croats and other).
The National Hero Boro Petrusevski on September 9th, in a blockade
killed a Bulgarian soldier. 3 days later the Communists of
Prilep,
created the Partizan Detachment of Prilep. On September 6th, they
killed 2 Bulgarian soldiers at the tunnel at Bogomila.
On October 11th 1941, in the region of Crveni
Steni (Red Rocks), near Prilep, the National Liberation Partizan Detachment of
Prilep, called "Goce Delcev" was formed. The Partizans were divided on
several columns, that committed organized attack on the Bulgarian police
station, the prison and the post office and other vital objects. The day of the
attack, October 11th was proclaimed as "The Day of the Rebellion
(Uprising of the Macedonian People". The next day, October 12th
1941, near
Kumanovo,
in Studena Voda (Cold Water), was formed "The Kozjak National Liberation
Partizan Detachment" and in Menkova Koliba was formed the "Karadak
National Liberation Detachment".
The spring 1942, new Partizan Detachments
were formed, Skopje Partizan Detachment (April 17th), Bitola Partizan
Detachment - Pelister (April 12th), Partizan Detachment of Prilep
(May 15th), and the Veles Partizan Detachment - "Pere
Tošev". At the beginning of July, 1942, the provincial military
headquarters was renamed in Main Headquarters of The National Liberation
Partizan Detachments, lead by Mihajlo Apostolski. The summer and the autumn 4
new detachments were formed: Bitola - Prespa partizan detachment (July 6th),
KruševoPartizan Detachment - "Pitu Guli" (August 19th),
Mavrovo-Gostivar Partizan Detachment (September 30th) and the
Partizan Detachment of Šar Planina (November 3rd). On March 19th
1943 in Tetovo, the Communist Party of Macedonia was formed by Lazar Koliševski
(secretary general), Kuzman Josifovski - Pitu, Cvetko Uzunovski, Strahil Gigov,
Mara Naceva and Bane Andreev.
On
August 18th 1943, on the Mountain Slavej, after a meeting in Prespa
was formed the first bigger military unit of the National Liberation Army in
Macedonia - the "Mirče Acev" battalion, from the fighters of the
Damjan Gruev detachment and new, that approached at the units as a volunteers.
After this the process of creation of bigger military units started of the
Macedonian regular army.
Fascist Italy signed it's capitulation on
September 8th, 1943. The largest part of the regions occupied by
Italy, were re-occupied by Nazi Germany and the Macedonian partisans imprisoned
many Italian soldiers in western part of Vardar Macedonia and used their weapons
and ammunition for themselves. Soon there were new battalions formed and in
September 1943, there were 9 battalions and several Partizan Detachments. As
more and more volunteers approached to the detachments and the battalions in the
villages of Slivovo, Debarca region was formed the First Macedonian-Kosovo
brigade, with 800 partizans, divided in 4 battalions and 1 artillery column.
Later several other brigades were formed and even bigger military units
(corpuses and divisions) of the Macedonian army.
To
get more volunteers for National Liberation war, the Main Headquarters of the
National Liberation Army planed it's soldiers, to penetrate through the Kozuf
Mountain from Aegean Macedonia, where they were settled in the winter 1943-1944.
The target of this expedition was with one brigade to enter the Vardar part of
Macedonia in each of 2 ways of direction, by the valley of the river Vardar to
enter in central and eastern Macedonia. The expedition started on January 31st,
1944 and the members of the Macedonian-Kosovo brigade, from the Bahovo village,
penetrated in Azot and Bogomila, the region of
Veles.
After a walking 300km and several difficult battles, with the Bulgarian well
armed soldiers at Bogomila, they went back to Aegean Macedonia. On their way
back they hit the Bulgarians while the crossing of the river Crna.
The second Macedonian brigade, after several
battles on the way Kožuf - Demir Kapija, destroyed the organs of the Bulgarian
authority and closed it's schools. The group of battalions lead by the General
Headquarters of the National Liberation Army crossed 400 km, through the
mountain of Belasica, Plačkovica and Osogovo, reached their target the Kozjak
mountain, where they hit the Četnics of the Četnic Corpus of Vardar and other
enemy forces.
Just after the expedition of February, the
Bulgarian army, started several offensive battles in Macedonia, in order to cut
the line of the communications between Albania and Greece, that lead through
Macedonia. On the other side, the general headquarters of the National
Liberation Army in Macedonia planned offensive in order to liberate Macedonia.
All of the Macedonian military units took part to realize this master-plan. The
First Macedonian-Kosovo Brigade got the assignment to liberate the western part
of Vardar Macedonia, what the brigade did successfully. The Second Macedonian
brigade played battle in the region of the river Vardar (Povardarie), Prilep and
Bitola and the Third in Kumanovo, Kozjak and southeastern Serbia. During this
battles that lasted 2 months, the Macedonian army had losses, but bigger were
those of the Bulgarian occupator. So the Spring Offensive was rated as a
successful phrase of the final liberation of the Vardar part of Macedonia.
During the spring offensive, many new volunteers approached at the lines of the
Macedonian army. In order to the final liberation of Macedonia, the army was
re-organized. And finally on September 9th, 1944, the fascist
Bulgaria signed it's capitulation. With the weapons and ammunition discovered
from it's 5th Division, the new soldiers were armed.
The intensive operations in order of the
final liberation of Macedonia were played during the entire 1944. In the autumn
there were new military units formed, like new division and corpuses. At the
final operations of liberation, at the lines of the Macedonian army there were
100,000 soldiers. The Macedonian army established a great cooperation with the
units of Serbia and later with the units of Bulgaria, that after the fall of
their fascist government, announced war on the fascism. The last military
operations for liberation of Macedonia were at the end of 1944, at Tetovo and
Gostivar, held by the Albanian fascists (Balists). The Nazi German occupator was
caused several great losses. After the liberation of the Vardar part of
Macedonia, the Macedonian soldiers took part in the liberation war of
Yugoslavia, at the front of Srem, and for liberation of Croatia and Slovenia.
Later there were ideas, for liberation of the other parts of Macedonia, the
Aegean and the Pirin one, but in because of the hard terms in that time, those
plans were unsuccessfully. Just after the Second World War finally after several
centuries of trying, the Macedonians got their own state, the new and modern
Macedonian state was
establishedat the Yugoslav south, covering an area of 25,713 sq km.
The spring 1942, new Partizan Detachments
were formed, Skopje Partizan Detachment (April 17th), Bitola Partizan
Detachment - Pelister (April 12th), Partizan Detachment of Prilep
(May 15th), and the Veles Partizan Detachment - "Pere
Tošev". At the beginning of July, 1942, the provincial military
headquarters was renamed in Main Headquarters of The National Liberation
Partizan Detachments, lead by Mihajlo Apostolski. The summer and the autumn 4
new detachments were formed: Bitola - Prespa partizan detachment (July 6th),
On
August 18th 1943, on the Mountain Slavej, after a meeting in Prespa
was formed the first bigger military unit of the National Liberation Army in
Macedonia - the "Mirče Acev" battalion, from the fighters of the
Damjan Gruev detachment and new, that approached at the units as a volunteers.
After this the process of creation of bigger military units started of the
Macedonian regular army.
