April 11, 2019

In 1941 Italy and Hungary joined Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War.

On February 5, 1941, the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop expressed a demand via a Yugoslav secret envoy to Berlin for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to join the Tripartite Pact. The Yugoslavian leadership assessed the situation and figured it would be best for Yugoslavia to follow this order. On March 25, the Pact was signed, which triggered mass protests across the country. The chaos was seized by a group of pro-British military servicemen, who carried out a coup on March 27 and put young King Peter to the throne. All of this offended Hitler personally, so he decided to postpone his plans for the invasion of the Soviet Union and strike Yugoslavia first.

Without any formal declaration of war, the attack began on Sunday, April 6th, with an air raid on Yugoslav military airports and the open, undefended city of Belgrade after that.

On today’s date, April 11th, 1941, the kingdom was also attacked by Italy and Hungary, to whom the Germans had promised parts of Yugoslav land for their collaboration in the invasion. Yugoslavia capitulated on April 17th, 1941, and the Germans took the northern part of Slovenia with Styria and Upper Carniola, Hungary occupied Prekmurje, and Italy occupied the south of Slovenia, with Ljubljana becoming the capital of their newly established Province of Ljubljana.

The video below shows the ltalian occupation of Ljubljana, repairs on the viaduct in Borovnica (Vienna-Ljubljana-Trieste Railway), which was partially blown up by the retreating Yugoslav Army, and the first military parade in Ljubljana.

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