March 27, 1941 - One more day of the Serbian glory...
QUOTES from different books and Encyclopediae:

Encyclopedia Britannica, edition 1943, Volume 23, page 923, entry: Yugoslavia.
Author: Dr. Hans Kohn, Jr. Professor of History, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.

Quote:

...Hitler's demands and offers were reported to be Yugoslavia's adherence to the Axis, the prohibition of all anti-Axis agitation in Yugoslavia (which of course amounted to a suppression of democratic freedom), the opening up of Yugoslavia's railroads for the transport of German war materials, a guarantee of the inviolability of Yugoslav territory and finally the promise of territorial expansion at the expense of Greece. Some of the ministers, including Lazar Markovic, resigned in protest against any agreement with Germany which would definitely bind Yugoslavia to the Axis and the so-called "NEW WORLD ORDER." The negotiations lasted for the whole month of March, with conflicting reports as to the strength of the two opposed factions in Yugoslavia. Finally yielding to a GERMAN ULTIMATUM, the Yugoslav government on March 22 decided to sign, and on March 25 the Yugoslav prime minister and foreign minister affixed their signatures in Vienna to the Axis pact.

But TWO DAYS later, on March 27 in the early morning hours, the SERB PEOPLE and parts of the army who remonstrated against the surrender to the FASCIST PRESSURE, OVERTHREW THE GOVERNMENT, under the leadership of the chief of Yugoslav aviation, Gen. Dusan Simovic, who became prime minister. King Peter II assumed the government amid UNPRECEDENTED SCENES OF PUBLIC REJOICING ON THE PART OF SERB PEOPLE, WHO SAW THEIR LIBERTY AND THEIR HONOUR SAVED. Under Gen. Simovic, Dr. Vladimir Macek continued as vice-premier. Regent Paul fled to Greece, and the former premier and foreign minister were arrested. THERE WAS NO DOUBT THAT THE COUP WAS A RESULT OF AN OVERWHELMING POPULAR DETERMINATION AMONG THE SERBS, A REAL POPULAR UPRISING backed by a large majority of the army. BUT THE ENTHUSIASM AMONG THE CROATS WAS MUCH LESS. THEY HAD NEITHER THE FIERY TRADITION OF LIBERTY NOR THAT OF MILITARY PROWESS WHICH THE SERBS POSSESSED, and the Croatian lowlands were the first to be exposed to any German invasion.

THE HEROIC MOVE ON THE PART OF THE SERBS HAD COME IN A CERTAIN WAY TOO LATE. THEY HAD DECIDED TO MAKE A LAST STAND FOR THEIR LIBERTIES RATHER THAN SUBMIT TO THE AXIS, but they did it at time when they were practically SURROUNDED ON ALL SIDES BY GERMAN TROOPS, which had by then occupied Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, as well as Austria, so that the Yugoslav army had to defend almost all the long frontier...

...In the case of Yugoslavia, Hitler was prepared to accept limited adherence to the Axis, for all he required was the use of the Belgrade (Beograd)-Nis-Salonika railroad. (Rail connections through Bulgaria were poor.) The Yugoslav government resisted the overtures, but in mid-March, after having refused several earlier invitations, it suddenly changed its policy and offered to sign the Tripartite Pact. The ceremony was held in Vienna on March 25. A day and a half later, on the night of March 26-27, a military coup d'etat forced Prince Regent Paul into exile... a new government... refused to ratify Yugoslavia's signature.

On March 27, HITLER DECLAIRED THAT HE WAS DETERMINED "TO DESTROY YUGOSLAVIA AS A MILITARY POWER AND A SOVEREIGN STATE," and he ordered the Wermacht staff to complete military preparation at the greatest possible speed...

In the early morning of April 6, German planes bombed Belgrade. They came in at rooftop level, and in an hour and a half killed more than 17,000 of the city's inhabitants...

Quote:

...Finally on April 10, 1941, the German army struck from several directions, especially from Bulgaria, and was supported in its efforts by the Italian army, and even by the Hungarian army (in spite the treaty of everlasting peace and friendship which had been concluded only a few weeks before) and the Bulgarian army. Against the immense superiority in men and materials, the Yugoslav army, in spite of courageous resistance, succumbed within two weeks.

Meantime the Ustashi under the leadership of Dr. Ante Pavelic had seized power in Croatia and proclaimed it an independent state... The new state was quickly organized according to strictly fascist pattern... The new flag of Croatia consists of three broad stripes, red, white and blue, and superimposed upon them a shield of checkered red and white squares...

Quote:

...April 10. On that day, the Croat troops in the Yugoslav Fourth and Seventh armies, stationed on the northern frontier, mutinied, and by nightfall both armies had been dissolved. On the afternoon of April 10, Second [German] Army troops entered Zagreb, where a newly created CROAT government WELCOMED THEM AS LIBERATORS...(!!!!!)

...In some places fighting had broken out between Croat and Serb units... (End Quote )

Quote:

...The victors carved up the country. Germany and Italy divided Slovenia between them. Italy took part of Dalmatia on its own behalf and the Kosovo district and western Macedonia on behalf of Albania and set up a protectorate over Montenegro. Bulgaria annexed most of Macedonia, Hungary annexed the western half of Vojvodina (Backa) and some small districts on the Croatian border. Pavelic' was presented by his patrons with the control of an INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA; this INCLUDED ALL BOSNIA but not all Dalmatia and was nominally a kingdom, with Aimone, duke of Spoleto, second son of the duke of Aosta, as its absentee sovereign. The rump of Serbia was placed under German military occupation and was allowed from August 1941 to have a puppet government of its own under Gen. Milan Nedic. The eastern half of Vojvodina (Banat) had a separate German military administration, in which members of the local German minority played the chief part.

ARMED RESISTANCE TO THE OCCUPATION BEGAN IN BOSNIA, AND THERE THE CROATIAN FASCISTS BEGAN A MASSACRE OF SERBS WHICH, IN THE WHOLE ANNALS OF WORLD WAR II, WAS SURPASSED FOR SAVAGERY ONLY BY THE MASS EXTERMINATION OF POLISH JEWS. THE SERBS TOOK TO THE HILLS AND FORESTS TO DEFEND THEMSELVES. In Serbia itself a force led by the regular army colonel, Dragoijub (Draza) Mihajlovic (q.v.), fought Germans in the early summer. After Hitler attacked the U.S.S.R., the Yugoslav Communists, who had already made military preparations, took the field in SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO. By September [1941] A LARGE PART of both these lands was LIBERATED by these two forces, which at first helped each other but then came to blows. In November the Germans drove all reistance forces out of Serbia and massacred thousands of people in reprisal.

Other literature:

Dr. Nora Lavin "The Holocaust" (New York, 1973).
"The streets of Belgrade were thronged with Serbs chanting "Rather war than the pact [with Hitler]", "Rather death than slavery." There was dancing in the squares and English and French flags were draped everywhere... The Serbs had flung their defiance at Hitler at the moment of his greatest power. The gallant little country that dared to defy Hitler was pitilessly smashed... Hitler achieved his revenge, but at a very high price. The German diversion against Yugoslavia... forced the postponement of the attack against Russia by five full weeks, a delay that would prove crucial.

William L. Shirer "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (New York, 1960).
American foreign correspondent, Mr. Shirer was in Berlin and have witnessed Hitler's outrage. "In his fury," Shirer says "Hitler made sudden decisions which would prove utterly disastrous to the fortunes of the Third Reich."

Variety of sources on the reaction of the world leaders
What did Churchill, Roosevelt, Hitler say about the Serbian bravery? The reaction of the Serbian spiritual leader - Patriarch Gavrilo.

MS. Ruth Mitchell "The Serbs chose war" (New York, 1943).
"In a war aimed just as much at America as at Europe, The Serbs gave us without price the three most vital months in the annals of civilization. Serbia at the end would present no bill - that I knew - because the Serbs are like that..."

THE MORAL OF THE LECTURE IN HISTORY: The proud Serbian people proved, in more than thirteen hundred years of its history, to be READY TO PAY ANY PRICE FOR ITS FREEDOM. Freedom has no price.

There is no way Croatian fascists would fly the same Nazi flag, they used to fly during World War II, above the heads of the surviving Serbs - in lands that was for last four centuries - majority Serbian!

No one can sell to the Serbs the resurrected fascism as democracy and - (brand) "New World Order".

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Last revised: March 25, 1997