NDH High Command

[Steen Ammentorp]

I was wondering whether anybody could provide a diagram of the organization of the NDH high command, specially the general staff.

Kind Regards
Steen Ammentorp
[url=http://www.generals,dk]The Generals of World War II[/url]

[Allen Milcic]

Hi Steen:

For what period of the war? The NDH forces, including the High Command, were re-organized several times in the 4 years they existed.

Best regards,
Allen/

[Steen Ammentorp]

Hi Allen,

I am a bit afraid of giving the answer to your question: The whole period!, so I'll refrain from that

At the moment I am particularly interested in the Ustrojbenog (Organisation?) Department, which general Đorđe F. Gruić became head of on the on 1st January 1943. What was this department subordinated to? Did change name or affiliation during his tenure (until Dec. 1944)?

Kind Regards
Steen Ammentorp
The Generals of World War II

[Larry D.]

GRUJIĆ, Djuro. (DOB: 1887). 01.01.43 General, appointed chief of the Organizations Branch (Ustrojstveni odjel or Odjel za Ustrojstvo) in HQ MINORS (and 12.43, 09.44 and probably to 30.11.44). 01.12.44 General, appointed Armed Forces Chief of Staff this date. 07.05.45 General, commander of Field Operations.

No identified predecessor or successor to this position.

--Larry

[Steen Ammentorp]

Larry,

Thank you very much I appreciate it very much. Perhaps you and Allen will find this interesting (Sorry I had to make in two images).

Kind Regards
Steen Ammentorp
The Generals of World War II

[Larry D.]

Thanks for the clipping, Steen. I hadn't seen it before. Once back in Tito's hands, they sure didn't waster any time trying and executing him!

--Larry

[Allen Milcic]

Hi Steen & Larry:

This is what I have on Gruic:

GRUIC, Djuro, vitez - NDH General (Born Srijemska Mitrovica on Dec. 6, 1887 - Executed in Belgrade on September 24, 1945): Completed Cadet School in Kamenica. Officer in the Austro-Hungarian and Royal Yugoslav armies. He attained the rank of Brigadier General and was the commander of the rear echalon units with the Army HQ of the Royal Yugoslav Army at the time of Yugoslav surrender to the Axis forces in April 1941. Accepted into the Domobranstvo of the NDH in 1942 and appointed as Chief of the Organizational Branch on January 1, 1943. From December 1944 till the collapse of the NDH in May 1945 he is the Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the NDH Armed Forces (Poglavnik Headquarters). He accompanied Ante Pavelic on his visit to Adolf Hitler in September 1944. Was one of Pavelic's closest and most trusted collaborators and confidants; carried the title of 'vitez' (Knight). Achieved much during his tenure in modernizing and re-organizing the NDH armed forces. He retreated from Zagreb on May 6, 1945 even though he was one of the NDH officers that argued for continued resistance against Communist forces and was against the withdrawl. Captured in Austria by the British and repatriated to Yugoslavia. The Supreme Court of the DFJ sentened him to death on September 19, 1945, with the sentence carried out 5 days later.

Based on a short biographical essay by Milan Pojic, Croatian State Archives.

I note that General Gruic is fascinating as he was an ethnic Serb, and a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church until 1941 when he became Roman Catholic.

Allen/

[Allen Milcic]

Hi Allen,

I am a bit afraid of giving the answer to your question: The whole period!, so I'll refrain from that

At the moment I am particularly interested in the Ustrojbenog (Organisation?) Department, which general Đorđe F. Gruić became head of on the on 1st January 1943. What was this department subordinated to? Did change name or affiliation during his tenure (until Dec. 1944)?

Kind Regards
Steen Ammentorp
The Generals of World War II

Steen:

I will go through the outstanding though voluminous "Hrvatsko domobranstvo u drugom svjetskom ratu" I i II dio (Croatian Domobranstvo in WW2 parts 1 and 2) by Kosutic which I'm sure covers the organizational changes in some detail.

Allen/

[AJK]

Does anyone have a photo of General Gruic? For someone holding such a senior command position, it is surprising that there is not an image of him on the internet...

Thanks,

AJK

[VJK]

Sveiks!

I found this pic on a "weirdo" site - https://hitlerparody.fandom.com/es/wiki/Duro_Gruic,
but it did contain a pic of the real General.

Kind regards,

Valdis

[AJK]

Sorry, VJK, but that photo is incorrectly labelled. It is in fact a photo of Mihajlo Lukic - see here: https://www.mreza-mira.net/vijesti/razn ... skom-ratu/.

Regards,

AJK

[Steen Ammentorp]

Hi AJK,

From the above mentioned source.

[AJK]

Thank you very much, Steen!

Regards,

AJK