Independent State of Croatia

During World War II, in April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded. The forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy set up the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Dr?ava Hrvatska, NDH), encompassing most of Croatia.

Initial period

The Usta?e initially did not have a capable army or administration necessary to control all of this territory: the movement had fewer than 12,000 members when the war broke out, and not nearly all of them were deployed during the invasion. Therefore the territory was controlled by the Germans and the Italians:

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• the northeastern half of NDH territory was under the so-called German zone of influence, with the Wehrmacht making its presence
• the southwestern half was controlled by the Italian Fascist army. After the capitulation of Italy in 1943, NDH acquired northern Dalmatia (Split and ?ibenik)

The State would eventually build up its own army, divided into two main groups:

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• Usta?e proper constituted the elite
• Home Guard or Domobrani was the much larger regular army

Together they mustered about 110,000 troops by the end of 1942, and about 130,000 in 1943. On the other hand, the NDH had no navy, owing to the terms of the Rome Agreement with Italy, and the air force was modest as well, consisting of about thirty small commercial aircraft.

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