1941 Serb uprising
In June 1941, Serbs in eastern Herzegovina rebelled against the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (, NDH), an Axis puppet state established during World War II on the territory of the defeated and occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As the NDH imposed its authority, members of the fascist Ustaše ruling party began a genocidal campaign against Serbs throughout the country. In eastern Herzegovina, the Ustaše perpetrated a series of massacres and attacks against the majority Serb population commencing in the first week of June. Between 3 and 22 June 1941, spontaneous clashes occurred between NDH authorities and groups of Serbs in the region.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union began on 22 June. Over the next two days, the sporadic revolts by Serbs against the NDH in eastern Herzegovina erupted into mass rebellion, triggered by Ustaše persecution, Serb solidarity with the Russian people, hatred and fear of the NDH authorities, and other factors. Serb rebels, under the leadership of both local Serbs and Montenegrins, attacked police, gendarmerie, Ustaše and Croatian Home Guard forces in the region. In the first few days, the rebels captured gendarmerie posts in several villages, set up roadblocks on the major roads and ambushed several military vehicles. On the night of 26 June, the rebels mounted a sustained attack on the town of Nevesinje in an attempt to capture it, but the garrison held out until the morning of 28 June when NDH troops broke through the rebel roadblocks.
On 28 June, the rebels ambushed a truckload of Italian soldiers, prompting the Italian Army commander in the NDH to warn the NDH government that he would take unilateral action to secure communication routes. A further gendarmerie post was destroyed by the rebels, and in the evening the rebels captured the village of Avtovac, looting and burning it, and killing dozens of non-Serb civilians. The following day an Italian column cleared the rebels from Avtovac and relieved the hard-pressed NDH garrison in the town of Gacko. From 3 July, an NDH force of over 2,000 fanned out from Nevesinje, clearing towns, villages and routes of rebels. The rebel forces did not put up any significant opposition to the clearing operation, and either retreated into nearby Montenegro, or hid their weapons in the mountains and went home. By 7 July, NDH forces had regained full control of all towns and major transport routes in eastern Herzegovina.
Background.
The Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was founded on 10 April 1941, during the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. The NDH consisted of most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with some parts of modern-day Serbia. It was essentially an Italo-German quasi-protectorate, as it owed its existence to the Axis powers, who maintained occupation forces within the puppet state throughout its existence. In the immediate aftermath of the Yugoslav surrender on 17 April, former Royal Yugoslav Army troops returned to their homes in eastern Herzegovina with their weapons. This was a significant security concern for the fledgling NDH government due to the proximity of the border with Montenegro, the close relationship between the people of eastern Herzegovina and Montenegro, and widespread banditry in the region. On the day after the surrender, the commander of the NDH armed forces, "Vojskovođa" (Marshal) Slavko Kvaternik issued a proclamation demanding the surrender of all weapons to NDH authorities by 24 April.
On 24 April, the NDH created five military command areas, including Bosnia Command and Adriatic Command, both of which were initially headquartered in Sarajevo. Each of the five military commands included several district commands. Adriatic Command included the districts of Knin and Sinj in the Dalmatian hinterland, and Mostar and Trebinje in eastern Herzegovina. The NDH began to mobilise soldiers for the Home Guard, with six battalions identified to join Adriatic Command. The battalions were mobilised from areas outside of eastern Herzegovina, and were to be ready by 20 May. The aggressive actions of the Ustaše fifth column during the Axis invasion made Serb civilian leaders in eastern Herzegovina apprehensive about the NDH, and they attempted to obtain Italian protection, and urged the Italians to annex eastern Herzegovina to the neighboring Italian-occupied territory of Montenegro. A collaborationist "Interim Advisory Committee" of Montenegrin separatists was advocating the establishment of an "independent" Montenegrin state, and a similar committee of separatist Serbs was formed in eastern Herzegovina. A delegation from that committee arrived in Cetinje in Montenegro on 6 May to ask for Italian protection. Similarly, a delegation of Muslims from eastern Herzegovina travelled to Sarajevo, the historic Bosnian capital, to urge the NDH authorities to link eastern Herzegovina to that city.
Due to the poor response to the demand for the surrender of weapons, the deadline was extended several times until a date of 8 July was fixed. On 17 May, courts-martial were established to try those that were arrested in possession of weapons, and those found guilty were immediately executed by firing squad. The precedent for this brutal repressive measure against Serbs had already been established by the Germans. It was clear from the outset that the NDH weapons laws were not being enforced as strictly against Croats as they were against Serbs. Securing the border between eastern Herzegovina and Montenegro was considered a high priority due to concerns that the Montenegrin Federalist Party had revived Montenegrin claims to parts of the NDH that had been promised to the Kingdom of Montenegro in the 1915 Treaty of London.
The Italians handed over the administration of eastern Herzegovina to the NDH government on 20 May 1941, following the signing of the Treaties of Rome, which ceded formerly Yugoslav territory along the Adriatic coast to Italy. The Italians did not immediately withdraw all their troops from the region. The NDH moved quickly to establish its authority in the towns and districts of eastern Herzegovina, which included appointing mayors and prefects, the creation of local units of the Ustaše Militia, and deploying hundreds of gendarmes, Croatian Home Guards and Ustaše Militia units from outside eastern Herzegovina. These forces were brought in to maintain order. The academic Professor Alija Šuljak was appointed the Ustaše commissioner for eastern Herzegovina.
On 20 May, the recently formed Home Guard battalions began to deploy into the Adriatic Command area. On 27 May, 6 officers and 300 gendarmes of the Sarajevo-based 4th Gendarmerie Regiment were deployed into parts of eastern Herzegovina. They established platoon strength posts in Nevesinje, Trebinje, Gacko and Bileća, with their headquarters also in Bileća. The Dubrovnik-based 2nd Gendarmerie Regiment established posts in Stolac and Berkovići. The headquarters of Adriatic Command was transferred to Mostar in late May, and General Ivan Prpić was appointed as its commander.
By 29 May, the battalions of Adriatic Command were in their garrison locations: the 6th Battalion at Mostar, the 7th Battalion at Trebinje, and the 10th Battalion in the Dubrovnik area. The other two Adriatic Command battalions were deployed to Knin and Sinj far to the west. The 18th Battalion was allocated as a reserve and was garrisoned in Mostar. Main Ustaše Headquarters was tasked to recruit one battalion for duties within the Adriatic Command area. Home Guard battalions had a standard structure, consisting of a headquarters company, three infantry companies, a machine gun platoon and a communications section, while battalions of the Ustaše Militia consisted of a headquarters, three companies and a motorised section. Even after the establishment of NDH authorities in eastern Herzegovina, Italian forces maintained their presence in the region. The 55th Regiment of the 32nd Infantry Division "Marche" remained garrisoned in Trebinje, with the 56th Regiment based in Mostar. The 49th MVSN Legion (Blackshirts) were also stationed in Bileća. The Italians maintained a troop presence in Nevesinje until 17 June, and conducted almost daily motorised patrols throughout eastern Herzegovina.
The NDH authorities established new administrative sub-divisions, organising the state into counties () and then districts (). Eastern Herzegovina was covered by the counties of Hum and Dubrava. Hum County included the districts of Mostar and Nevesinje, and Dubrava County included the districts of Bileća, Gacko, Stolac, Ravno and Trebinje. The "Župan" (county prefect) of Hum was Josip Trajer with his seat in Mostar, and the "Župan" of Dubrava was Ante Buć, based in Dubrovnik.
According to the Yugoslav census of 1931, the population of eastern Herzegovina comprised 4 per cent Croats, 28 per cent Muslims, and 68 per cent Serbs. According to Professor Jozo Tomasevich, the estimated population of the districts of Bileća, Gacko and Nevesinje was only around 1.1 per cent Croat, so in those areas nearly all the NDH government appointments and local Ustaše units were staffed by Muslims, an ethnic group that made up about 23.7 per cent of the local population. The poor Muslim peasants of eastern Herzegovina largely sided with the Ustaše. The NDH government immediately tried to strengthen their position by vilifying the Serbs, who, according to Tomasevich, comprised around 75 per cent of the population.
Prelude.
The Ustaše began to impose the new laws on the Serb population of the NDH. On 28 May, a group of ten young Ustaše students from the University of Zagreb arrived in Trebinje and began removing signs written in the Cyrillic script used by Serbs. On 1 June, in several towns and villages in eastern Herzegovina, Serbs were shot and businesses belonging to Serb merchants and others were seized. On that day, the Ustaše students in Trebinje shot nine Serbs and arrested another fifteen, apparently due to their links to the inter-war Chetnik Association. Differences began to appear between the brutal treatment of Serbs by the Ustaše and the more careful approach of the other NDH authorities such as the Home Guard, who were aware of the potential danger created by Ustaše methods. In early June, the NDH authorities began operations to confiscate weapons from the population, meeting with immediate resistance. On 1 June, the residents of the village of Donji Drežanj, near Nevesinje, refused to co-operate with weapons collectors. In response, the Ustaše killed a number of Serbs and burned their homes.
On 3 June, there were several incidents in which armed villagers spontaneously retaliated against the local authorities. That afternoon, 20 Ustaše were entering Donji Drežanj to confiscate firearms when they were attacked by a group of armed villagers. The villagers withdrew after a short firefight, with one of their number being captured. Reinforcements from the Home Guard and gendarmerie soon arrived, along with more Ustaše who burned another 20 houses and shot a woman. On the night of 4/5 June, a group under the control of the Ustaše commissioner for the Gacko district, Herman Tonogal, killed 140 Serbs in the village of Korita, near Bileća, and threw their bodies into a nearby sinkhole. Another 27 Serbs from the village were killed between this massacre and 9 June, and over 5,000 head of livestock were stolen and distributed to Muslim villages in the Gacko area for the exclusive use of the Ustaše. The estimated number of Serbs killed at Korita vary from 133 to 180.
In the immediate aftermath, Serbs and Montenegrins from the local area attacked villages, and Adriatic Command sent the 2nd Company of the 7th Battalion from Bileća to reinforce the Ustaše. After a brief clash near Korita, during which the Ustaše and gendarmerie lost one killed and several wounded, the rebels withdrew across the nearby border into Montenegro. The 2nd Company of the 7th Battalion spent the night in the village of Stepen before establishing itself as the Avtovac garrison the following day. Due to its exposure to fire from rebels overlooking their location, the gendarmes were unable to re-occupy their post in Stepen, which meant that the Stepen–Korita road was no longer secure. On 8 June, the district office in Gacko reported to Adriatic Command that they had taken 200 Serbs as hostages and issued a proclamation to the population to cease fighting and surrender their weapons. As this proclamation met with no response, on 10 June the Ustaše Commissioner for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jure Francetić, had 19 hostages shot (one escaped). On 12 June, the gendarmerie in Ravno shot four people on the orders of the Ustaše commissioner for Ljubinje. Such actions led to Serb peasants leaving their villages to seek safety in more remote areas, and Muslim villagers became increasingly nervous about their Serb neighbours.
In mid-June, the commander of the 2nd Company of