Battle of Poljana

The Battle of Poljana took place outside of Poljana, near the village of Prevalje in Yugoslavia (modern-day Slovenia) between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, which consisted of the German Wehrmacht, the Croatian Armed Forces (which consisted of Home Guard and Ustaše soldiers), the Montenegrin People's Army (which was of former Chetniks and survivors of the Battle of Lijevče Field), the Serbian Volunteer Corps, the Slovene Home Guard, the 15th Waffen SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and other collaborationist forces who where on their way to surrender to the British in Austria. The battle was one of the last confrontations of World War II in Europe taking place on 14 and 15 May 1945, 6 days after Germany unconditionally capitualated.

Battle of Poljana
Part of World War II in Yugoslavia

Captured Germans, Ustaše, Chetnik, Slovene soldiers and civilians in Maribor after the battle
DateMay 14–15, 1945
Location
Poljana, near the village of Prevalje, Yugoslavia
Result

Allied victory

Belligerents
Axis and collaborationist forces:
 Germany
 Independent State of Croatia
Chetniks
Slovenia
Cossacks
Allies:
Partisans
 United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Alexander Löhr 
August Schmidhuber 
Helmuth von Pannwitz 
Erwin Rösener 
Desiderius Hampel 
Ante Pavelić
Vjekoslav Luburić
Rafael Boban (MIA)
Kosta Mušicki 
Sekula Drljević 
Leon Rupnik 
Kosta Nađ
Petar Drapšin
Units involved

Army Group E

Croatian Armed Forces

Chetniks

  • Serbian Volunteer Corps
  • Montenegrin National Army

Slovenia

  • SD

Yugoslav Army

Strength
Mixed column of 30,000 Axis soldiers and civilians Unknown
Casualties and losses
350 killed, wounded or missing 100 killed and wounded
Approximately 70,000 to 80,000 German, NDH, Chetnik, Slovene Home Guard soldiers and civilians massacred around Maribor
Location of Poljana in Slovenia
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