Other Forces

Croat Air Force’s high ranks

High ranks of the Independent State of Croatia’s Air Force (Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske or ZNDH) during a visit to a Croatian air base (the Officer in the centre is perhaps the General Kren first ZNDH’s commander). Photo taken surely after June 1942 because the presence in background of one of the Italian built fighter aircraft Fiat G.50bis purchased by Croat Air Force and in effect delivered from this date as replacement of older airplanes former Royal Yugoslav Air Force. The Independent State of Croatia (in Serbo-Croatian Nezavisna Država Hrvatska or NDH) was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers, and its air force was originally organized into seven wings and subdivided into squadrons with four airbases (Zagreb, Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar) while an Air Legion, equipped mainly with German flight material fought on Eastern Front beside the Luftwaffe. The Croat Air Force had command also over the Anti-Aircraft Artillery, divided into two Regions, Ist at Zagreb and IInd at Sarajevo, and a Parachute Battalion based at Koprivnica and later at Zagreb used mainly in anti-partisan missions. Also the many Croatian planes, except the aircraft of the Croat Air Legion, flew in a support role to the Luftwaffe in anti-partisan operations in the Balkans while other, included the G.50s and later the Bf 109Gs, was employed for the defense of the Country against the Allied raids. The ZNDH’s commanders was Major-General Vladimir Kren, a former captain in the Royal Yugoslav Air Force (April 1941-14 September, 1943), Colonel Adalbert Rogulja (14 September, 1943-June 4, 1944), and again the General Kren (June 4, 1944-May, 1945). The latter, arrested by the British and extradited to Yugoslavia, was executed as traitor in Zagreb on 2 December 1948. Victor Sierra