By: HISTORY.com Editors

1941

Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis

Published: February 09, 2010Last Updated: November 06, 2025

During World War II, representatives of Yugoslavia’s various regions sign an armistice with Nazi Germany at Belgrade, ending 11 days of futile resistance against the invading German Wehrmacht. More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and soldiers were taken prisoner. Only 200 Germans died in the conquest of Yugoslavia.

On March 27, 1941, two days after the Yugoslav government signed a controversial pact with the Axis powers, Yugoslav air officers, aided by the British secret services, toppled the country’s pro-Axis regime. In response, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler launched a massive invasion of the country that began on April 6 with the bombing of Belgrade. The Yugoslav defenders, made up of various politically unstable nationalities, were routed by the hordes of German, Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian troops invading their country.

On April 17, Yugoslavia surrendered and was divided, with the exception of the puppet state of Croatia, between the four invading Axis powers. The occupying troops aggravated the traditional religious and national differences in the region, and the Serbs were especially brutalized. However, by the end of the year, two separate effective resistance movements had sprung up, one led by Colonel Dragolyub Mihailovich, which was loyal to the Yugoslav government-in-exile, and another led by Josip Broz Tito, which was made up of members of the illegal Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

Why Hungary Sided With Hitler—and How It Backfired

Joining the Axis powers proved to be a terrible miscalculation.

By: Dave Roos

Timeline

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Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on April 17th

1790

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1917

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1942

General Henri Giraud makes his great escape from the Nazis

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1945

Americans seize 1,100 pounds of uranium in effort to prevent Soviets from developing A-bomb

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1960

Eddie Cochran dies, and Gene Vincent is injured, in a UK car accident

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1961

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1964

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1966

Bill Russell becomes the NBA’s first Black coach

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1969

Architect of Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring forcibly resigns

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1970

Apollo 13 returns to Earth

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1975

Cambodia falls to the Khmer Rouge

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1989

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2002

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