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Showing posts from September, 2015

Did you know that Richard Burton played Tito in the movie Sutjeska

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''The Battle of Sutjeska'' is a Partisan war movie directed by Stipe Delic. It was  made in 1973 in the SFR Yugoslavia.   It tells the story about the famous Battle of Sutjeska , the greatest engagement of the  Yugoslav Partisan War . This movie was made for the 30th anniversary of the battle. It was filmed at the authentic site where the battle took place in 1943, in the National Park Sutjeska, also known as the Valley of Heroes.   It is one of the most expensive movies in the history of Yugoslav cinema . Tito has personally participated in the making of this movie. He insisted that his character was played by the famous British actor Richard Burton. At that time, Richard Burton was at the peak of his career. A lot of information about his experience in Yugoslavia was discovered later in his book. Hoewver, he does not specify how it came to the engagement. According to some sources, Richard and Elizabeth Taylor were having dinner with the Princess Marga

7 German Offensives in Yugoslavia in WWII Part I

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The National Liberation War was led between the people of Yugoslavia and four Axis occupying forces. The Axis occupying forces were Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria, but they were also supported by their locally collaborationist forces: the Independent State of Croatia, the Croatian nationalists Ustashas, the Home Guardsmen, the troops of General Nedic, the troops of Dimitrije Ljotic, the Balists (Albania), Bela Garda, and the Chetnik movement led by Draza Mihailovic. The National Liberation War in Yugoslavia lasted from July 1941 until May 15th 1945. During this period, the Axis forces engaged a large number of soldiers. Year Axis forces Partisan troops Ration 1941 620.000 80.000 8:1 1942 930.000 150.000 6:1 1943 920.000 300.000 3:1 1944 720.000 500.000 2,4:1 1945 680.000 800.000 1:1,3 Table.1. Ratio strength between the A

Underground Airbase Željava

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Given that Zeljava is a huge complex of underground and overground military facilities, it has been quite a challenge to write an article about it. Therefore, in this article, I will try to present the most important information about the Airbase Zeljava. Zeljava is the largest underground military airport of the former Yugoslav People´s Army (JNA), and it is also one of the largest underground airports in Europe. It is located on the border of the two countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, near the town of Bihac. Hence, it was also known as the Bihac airport. The airport has been fully operating from 1968 until 1992, when it was destroyed during the withdrawal of the JNA by activating explosives. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ) invested approximately $6 billion in its construction. In the end, only ruins remained. Potential endeavors to reconstruct the airbase are limited by a lack of financial resources.