These notes provide more detailed background for Yugoslavia in Twilight:2000. Most importantly, these notes were first developed in 1991-2 and have almost no influence of the tortuous events of the last five years. The unit deployment come from Twilight:2000’s NATO and Warsaw Pact Vehicle Guides. Curiously enough, a lot of names that have since become better known appear…
(as of Summer, 2000):
| Unit | Location | Troops | Vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IV Corp HQ | Cantonment north of Split (Croatia). | |||
| 42nd Inf Div | Cantonment north of Split (Croatia). | 3000 | 6 M60 | |
| 76th Lt Inf Div | Cantonment in Titograd (Montenegro). | 1000 | ||
| 80th Lt Inf Div | Cantonment north of Split (Croatia) | 3000 | ||
| Unit | Location | Troops | Vehicles | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Front: | |||||
| 112th Air Asslt Bgd | Beograd (Serbia). | 700 | 2 Heli | ||
| 20th Army: | |||||
| 9th Internal Rfl Div | Mostar (SW Bosnia). | 1000 Cav | |||
| 73rd Gds Mot Rfl Div | Sarajevo (Bosnia). | 4000 | 2 T72 | ||
| 266th Motor Rfl Div | Sarajevo (Bosnia). | 4000 | |||
| Unit | Location | Troops | Vehicles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Provis Inf Div | Near Beograd | 2000 | 3 T74, M47 |
| Kragujevac Inf Bgd | Near Beograd | 400 | |
| Valjevo Inf Bgd | Near Beograd | 500 | |
| Novi Sad Inf Bgd | Near Beograd | 300 | |
| Pancevo Inf Bgd | Tuzla, Serbia | 600 | |
| Nis Inf Bgd | Lescovak (fighting Bulgarian bandits) | 400 | |
| 1st Prov Mtn Bgd | Kosovska Mit, Kosovo (fighting Albanians) | 700 | |
| Sabac Inf Bgd | Vrsac, NW Serbia (fighting bandits) |
500 |
| Unit | Location | Troops |
|---|---|---|
| Prvi Bgd | Vicinity of Split (Dalmatia) | 400 |
| Drugi Bgd | Dubrovnik (S Dalmatia) | 800 |
| Treci Bgd | Sisak (central Croatia) | 450 |
| Cetvrti Bgd | Lovran (NW Croatia, near Rjieka) |
200 |
| Peti Bgd | Sibenik (Dalmatia, NW of Split) |
500 |
| Sesti Bgd | Osijek (NE Croatia) | 700 |
| Sedmi Bgd | Zagreb (N Croatia) | 600 |
| Osmi Bgd | Vicinity of Split (Dalmatia) | 200 |
| Unit | Location | Troops |
|---|---|---|
| IV Inf Bgd | Pec (Kosovo) | 500 |
| III Art Rgt | Shkoder, Albania (opposite US 76th) |
400 |
| Unit | Location | Troops | Vehicles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28th Mot Div | Belogradchik, NW Bulgaria | 1000 | 2 T55 |
| 1st Mot Trng Div | Sofia, W Bulgaria | 800 | |
| 9th Tank Bgd | Rila, W Bulgaria | 600 | 2 T55 |
| Unit | Location | Troops |
|---|---|---|
| 18th Mot Rfl Div | Timisoara area. Dispersed partisans |
1100 |
| 2nd/6th Comb Mtn Bgd | Turnu Severin area | 900 |
| Unit | Location | Troops | Vehicles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elements of Greek 9 Inf Div.: Div HQ, Rfl Btn, Art Rgt, Tank Btn |
Skopje and Kumanovo (closes passes to Kosovo) |
100,400,600,200 | 12 Leopard I, 3 M-48 |
| Rfl Rgt | Kriva Palanka (guards vs Bulgarians) |
1000 | 3 M-48 |
| Rfl Rgt | Bitola (blocks Albanians; pass to Greece) |
900 | 2 M-48 |
| Rfl Rgt | Gevgelija (guards pass to Thessaloniki) |
1200 | 3 Leopard I |
The Tank battalion is kept in reserve as a quick reaction force to back up the other regiments. The Greeks are well-supplied with men, tanks, and support equipment, but have limited fuel.
Map of Yugoslavia and vicinity
In one of the larger wasted efforts of the war, in the summer of 1998, the IV US Corps was brought over from the CivGov areas of the northeastern seaboard to Yugoslavia, in an attempt to prop up the resurgent Yugoslav government. However, almost as soon as they arrived, IV Corps ran into trouble.
The Yugoslav government they had been sent over to assist had been dismembered by the Italian military between the time CivGov had committed to rounding up IV Corps and the time the troops arrived after a slow crossing. In its place were the states of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. Greece sent a fresh infantry division to occupy most of the province of Macedonia. The Italians withdrew most of their occupation forces, leaving a few to prop up Slovenia as a buffer. With the ability to strike back resistence crushed, Italy had little further interest in the area. The Russians held Serbia and Bosnia using forces from Romania.
Slovenia is an Italian satellite, a puppet state. All local militias have about half the numbers you'd expect due to arms confiscations.
Croatia is an open buffer state. The Italians (and the Russians) are banking on Croatian hate for Serbians to keep them apart and too divided to help remove the Pact forces. The Croatians are kind of against everyone: the Italians and the Russians (fear of occupation), the US troops (invasion), and the Serbians (long list of historical reasons).
Bosnia has no independent government. The Russians occupied the cities; internal strife between Croatian, Serbian, and Moslem populations keep it in turmoil. The Russians don't like to venture outside the cities much as everyone shoots at them.
Serbia's puppet government wouldn't last a day after the Russian troops left, and commands little outside the city of Beograd. Serbian militias operate independently of the puppet government to oppose the Russian invaders. They spent 1998 and 1999 squeezing the Russians into Beograd, and keep them surrounded while trying to bring the rest of the country under control. They steal most of their military supplies from the Russians.
No one has come after Montenegro except the Albanians to the South.
Shortly after landing at Split, IV Corps gained contact with military leaders in Serbia -- including their contacts from the former Yugoslav high command.
76th Division was embarked to support the Yugoslav army and Montenegran militia against invading Albanians. The light troops would not have fared well against the other major Yugoslav military problem - the Russians, then taking over occupation for the Italians. The 76th has gotten on well with the Montenegrans: their fighting spirit appeals to the warrior aspect of the culture and the 76th has done some clever work against Albanian raiders. They have also not been afraid to use their engineers and troops as muscle for public works programs. The local culture has a bit of a soft-spot for "Mad" Milo Coleman, the divisional CO.
The Croatians saw the US troops as aiding Serbian needs - not their own. So, the bulk of IV Corps (the 42nd Inf and 80th Lt Inf Div, plus most Corps assets) found itself fighting its way through the local population just to get at the Russians. Unfortunately, the friction with locals took the edge off IV Corps (which was not all that strong anyway), and they were unable to dislodge the Soviets. IV Corps halted and set up cantonments northwest of Split.
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