(2/10)Battlefield II The Campaign in the Balkans Episode 3 (GDH)

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Romanian borders faced the USSR directly. Prime Minister Ion Victor Antonescu led Romania from 1940 to 1944. In late 1940 Romania was forced to surrender Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union and Transylvania to Hungry. The following day Antonescu requested the dissolution; of the Romanian parliament and constitution, from King Carol, and proclaimed himself Conducător (leader). The powerful Iron guard challenged Antonescus power grab and launched an unsuccessful coup. The Iron Guard was completely eliminated as a party, banned and its leaders expelled from the country. Romanias commitment to Operation Barbarossa was large. Romania recaptured valuable land from the USSR. It losses at Stalingrad shook the country. Romania signed a peace agreement with the USSR on September 12, 1944. Antonescu and four of his cronies were executed in 1946. Actual footage of the execution was filmed and is widely available on the internet. Yahoo search: Executia lui Antonescu

Admiral Miklós Horthy, or sometimes known in the West as Nikolaus von Horthy, was Regent of Hungary from 1920-1944. Horthy was considered right wing, but not a fascist. Many requests placed on Horthy by Hitler were refused. Hungary joined the Axis powers in November 1940 and assisted in the invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941. Joining the Axis guaranteed Hungary new territory. Hungary invaded the Soviet Union, under the command of Army Group South on June 26th, 1941. The Hungarian Karpat Group was attached to the German 17th Army during the Battle of Uman. During this operation the Soviet 6th and 12th Armies were completely destroyed. During the Stalingrad campaign the Hungarian 2nd Army was completely destroyed in detail defending the flanks of the German 6th Army. Again, attached to Armeegruppe Fretter-Pico the Hungarians assisted in another startling victory over the Soviet Union in 1944. The heavy casualties suffered by Hungary in 1944 forced the Hungarian 2nd Army to disband. The Germans occupied Hungry in March 1944. Horthys son was kidnapped by SS units and Horthy was forced to resign and was arrested. Hungary fought on with German units until a peace agreement was signed in Moscow on January 20th, 1945. However, the Hungarian 3rd Army continued to resist. The war in Hungary lasted until April 4th 1945. Admiral Miklós Horthy was not tried as a war criminal and later retired in Portugal until his death in 1957. His remains were re-interred in 1993 and are now buried in Hungary.
Bulgarias involvement in World War II was almost negligible. Growing sympathies toward Nazi Germany, war in the area between Greece and Yugoslavia and the earlier decision to return Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria all persuaded King Boris III to join the Axis forces. When German and Axis units invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 Bulgaria committed no troops. In fact Bulgaria never declared war on the USSR. Hitler placed pressure on Bulgaria to commit troops to the Russian front. Bulgaria declared a symbolic war on the Allied Powers. This pledge would bring heavy air attacks on Sofia. However, King Boris stood firm. Bulgarias main contribution to the Axis cause was an important rail line that ran through Bulgaria to Greece. King Boris died suddenly in 1943. In 1944, with Soviet forces rushing into Bulgaria, Communist fifth columns launched a bloodless coup and installed Communist Kimon Georgiev. Bulgaria was one of 3 Axis power governments to ignore pleas from Germany to surrender its Jewish population (50,000). However, Bulgaria did surrender Jews in captured Southern Dobruja.
Yugoslavia was to be a thorn in Nazi Germanys side throughout World War II. Prince Paul, hoping to keep Yugoslavia out of war, signed with the Axis Powers in 1941. Infuriated Army officers launched a coup, exiled Paul and installed Prince Peter to power. Hitler was infuriated by the coup and launched an attack on Yugoslavia along with Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian forces. Yugoslavia was easily crushed and broken up. Several resistance groups formed. Resistance members inclined to support the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia formed the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland, better known as the chetniks and was lead by Draža Mihailović. Partisans against the royals and pro-communist in political doctrine, formed Yugoslav National Liberation Army led by legendary leader Josip Broz Tito. The partisan war in Yugoslavia was very complicated and confusing. The Chetniks and Communist partisans began to loath each other as much as the German occupiers. Titos partisans received substantial aid from the west and USSR. At the end of the war, Tito was seen as the true hero of the resistance and won power. Mihailvic was arrested and executed at the end of the war.(GDH)

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[FerralD3mur]

I'll try to make it simple from you.The Dacs are the ancient inhabitants of our land (They are the descendants of the Tracs).After several attempts by the Roman Empire to conquer Dacia,they finally gained the upper hand in the year 106.

After that the colonization of our land begun.

So basically we are the descendants of the Dacs and Romans.

[FerralD3mur]

That's because your history converted into a phrase is like this : Each time someone came to conquer you , you had nothing against.

Why don't you google for Romania's history and you'll find out why it took the Roman Empire 150 years to conquer us , or why the Ottomans never managed to truly conquer us or how we defended against incredible odds in WW2.

[Hurqq]

lol Italian incompetence had to drive the Germans crazy.

[gujoni402]

@espejosgigantescos There are actually heavy religious divisions on Balkans, even Roman empire was divided here. Orthodox christian Serbs are in between catholic Croats and muslims-many converted to one of those, the rest is marked for destruction, that's what's going on for centuries. Religious differences provoke tensions, exploited-even provoked by near by religious and profit centers and their politics, people react to protect themselves, seek justice or revenge.

[mhintrepid]

This is a good program. However, it expends alot of time in the beginning segments going into everything BUT the Balkan campaign.

[Kolonac23]

Britain, with MI6 forced Yugoslavia into WW 2. Even Yugoslavia wanted to stay as much neutral as possible, just by allowing forces of axis to pass across it's territory. But, allied forces didn't like this call made by Paul (Pavle), so they forced a coup and led Yugoslavia into disastrous destruction (bombing) and fast capitulation, that put our country years backwards, and stopped economic development, which was sort of wish of mighty countries, like Britain was. Sad, but very true.

[espejosgigantescos]

@gujoni402 when i hear about the balcans i only think of two things evil and murder. serbia sounds to me like the name of a concentration camp.. if the jews, hate the croats, and the ortodox kill cristians, and protestants kill muslims... i dont understand.. i give them a solution to end the figthing, they should all commit suicide and give their land to peace loving citizens of the world. sick of all this bosnia otan albania crap. they dont want peace they want to be killed

[brav0wing]

@gujoni402 The dacians were not exterminated, there existed the free dacians that were not conquered, nor exterminated by the romans!

[gujoni402]

@brav0wing, @Acunga No need to argue so much. Balkan history is very much interesting, also terrible, from ancient times until nowdays. Dacians were almost exterminated by Romans, and modern Romanians are of more Roman colonizators' and Slavic ancestry of their genes, thats what I've read and seen in documantary films. Also what was called Bulgaria(Mongols) in early middle ages has almost nothing to do with modern Bulgarians(Slavs). Respect for both of your people from Sebia.

[brav0wing]

@Acunga If you check the history of Wallachia you will see the rulers that fought against the turks, from Mircea cel Batran (Mircea the Elder) to Vlad Tepes (Dracula) to Mihai viteazul (Michael The Brave)!

[brav0wing]

@Acunga There was no romania in the middle-ages, there were however 3 regions called Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania and all 3 of them had romanian speaking language people. Wallachia was also called the romanian country. The territory of today Bulgaria under Ottoman Empire covered dobrogea (near black sea), not Wallachia. In 1862, Moldova united with Wallachia and formed Romania. In 1878, a year after our independece, Dobrogea is made part of Romania and Bulgaria becomes autonomous.