World War II battles after VE Day — The Battle of PoljanaOn May 8th, 1945 Germany officially surrend

World War II battles after VE Day — The Battle of PoljanaOn May 8th, 1945 Germany officially surrendered to the Allies, thus ending World War II in Europe.  Despite the fact that most German and Axis forces in Europe were surrendering en masse, not everyone was quite ready to give up, and their were a few more battles to be fought before World War II could come to a close. On May 14th, 1945, nearly a week after VE Day, a column of 30,000 Axis troops were on the march in modern day Slovenia, heading northwest for the Austrian border.  Some of the men were soldiers left over from the German Wehrmacht, however most were various collaborationist paramilitary forces from the Balkans, such as pro-Nazi Croatian NDH troops, Serbian Chetniks, Slovenian Home Guard, and Montenegrin volunteers. VE day had occurred nearly a weak ago and yet these men had yet to surrender.  The reason for this was quite clear; after the surrender of German forces in what was then Yugoslavia, Yugo Partisans were sweeping the nation, executing thousands of collaborators and anti-communist fighters.  So despite the surrender, these men had decided to continue on, hoping to find refuge among the British occupation forces in Austria.When the Axis column neared the Austrian border on May 14th, they were stopped by Yugoslav Partisans who blocked their way. Gunfire erupted, and a fierce battle ensued as the Axis forces tried to batter their way past Yugoslav defenses, desperately trying to escape to Austria.  After several assaults, Axis forces retreated, where they were then pounded by Yugoslav artillery.  The Yugoslav Partisans then counterattacked, but could not break the desperate Axis army.  Fierce fighting continued throughout the night and into the morning of May 15th.  Finally, in the late morning a force of 20 British tanks and several infantry arrived on the scene, and to the sad disappointment of Axis forces, took the side of the Partisans.  Knowing that all was lost, the 30,000 Axis soldiers surrendered unconditionally.  During the battle 350 Axis solders were killed while the Yugoslav Partisans lost 100.To the horror of the Axis soldiers, the British made it clear that they were not going to harbor collaborationists.  In addition they turned over tens of thousands of other collaborationists to the Yugoslavs.  Most were summarily executed and buried in mass graves.  Others were detained in forced labor camps until they died of disease, hunger, or exhaustion.  Few would ever return home again. -- source link

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