- Territorial Defense Forces (Yugoslavia)
Territorial Defense Forces (Serbian and Macedonian: Територијална одбрана, "Teritorijalna odbrana", Croatian: "Teritorijalna obrana", Slovenian: "Teritorialna obramba") were a separate part of the
armed forces of the formerSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . The forces acted as aHome Guard which roughly corresponded to amilitary reserve force or an official governmentalparamilitary . Each of the Yugoslav constituent republics had its own Territorial Defensemilitary formation s, while theregular army for the wholeFederation was theYugoslav People's Army (JNA ), which also maintained its own reserve forces.Background
SFR Yugoslavia was asocialist state but not anEastern Bloc country. In 1948 following theTito-Stalin split Yugoslavia broke ties with theSoviet Union and its allies, and during theCold War , it was one the leading members of theNon-Aligned Movement . After the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the concerns about an eventual Soviet attack started to rise within the Yugoslav leadership. The invasion of Czechoslovakia showed that the standing conventional forces of a small country could not repulse a surprise attack by a qualitatively and quantitatively superior aggressor. Being strategically positioned between the two major blocs, theNATO and theWarsaw pact , Yugoslavia had to prepare its ownmilitary doctrine for an eventualThird World War scenario.Doctrine
With the passing of the National Defense Law of 1969,
SFR Yugoslavia adopted atotal war military doctrine named "Total National Defense" or "Total People's Defense" (Serbian: Општенародна одбрана, "Opštenarodna odbrana", Croatian: "Općenarodna obrana"; Slovenian: "Splošna ljudska obramba"; Macedonian: Општонародна одбрана, "Opštonarodna odbrana"; abbr.: Latin: ONO, Cyrillic: ОНО). It was inspired by theYugoslav People's Liberation War against the fascist occupators and their collaborators in theSecond World War , and was designed to allow Yugoslavia to maintain or eventually reestablish its independent and non-aligned status should an invasion occur. According to it, "any citizen who resists an aggressor is a member of the armed forces", thus the whole population could be turned into a monolithic resistance army.Starting from the
elementary school education, overhigh schools ,universities , organizations and companies, the authorities prepared the entire population to contest an eventual occupation of the country and finally to liberate it. For this purpose, the Territorial Defense Forces (TO) would be formed to mobilize the population in case of an aggression. The combat readiness of the TO meant that the steps of organization and training could be bypassed after the start of hostilities. The TO would supplement the regularJNA , giving it greater defensive depth and an armed local population ready to support combat actions. Large numbers of armed civilians would increase the cost of an invasion to a potential aggressor.The most likely scenario in the doctrine of ONO was a general war between the
NATO and theWarsaw Pact . In such a situation, Yugoslavia would remain non-aligned, and it would not accept foreign troops of either alliance on its territory. The doctrine did recognize the likelihood that one side or the other might try to seize Yugoslav territory as a forward staging area, to ensure lines of communication, or simply to deny the territory to enemy forces. Such action would be considered aggression and would be resisted. Regardless of ideology, the occupiers would be considered Yugoslavia's enemy.Territorial Defense Forces
The Territorial Defense Forces were formed in 1969 as an integral part of the Yugoslav "Total National Defense" doctrine. The TO forces consisted of able-bodied
civilian males andfemales . Between 1 and 3 million Yugoslavs between the ages of 15 and 65 would fight under TO command as irregular orguerrilla forces in wartime. In peacetime, however, about 860,000 TO troops were involved inmilitary training and other activities.The TO concept focused on small, lightly armed
infantry units fighting defensive actions on a familiar local terrain. A typical unit was a company-sized detachment. More than 2000 communes, factories, and other enterprises organized such units, which would fight in their home areas, maintaining local defense production essential to the overall war effort. The TO also included some larger, more heavily equipped units with wider operational responsibilities. The TObattalions andregiments operated in regional areas withartillery andantiaircraft guns and somearmoured vehicle s. Using their mobility and tactical initiative, these units would attempt to alleviate the pressure of enemy armored columns andair strikes on smaller TO units. In the coastal regions, TO units had naval missions. They operated somegunboats in support ofnavy operations. They were organized to defend strategic coastal areas and naval facilities against enemyamphibious landing s and raids. They also trained some divers for use insabotage and otherspecial operations .The TO was helped by the fact that most of its citizen-
soldiers were one-timeJNA conscript s who had completed their term of compulsorymilitary service . But TO recruitment was somewhat limited by the JNA desire to include as many recently released conscripts as possible in its ownmilitary reserve . Other sources of TO manpower lacked prior military service and required extensive basic training.The TO organisation was highly decentralized and independent. TO units were organized and funded by the governments in each of the Yugoslav constituent republics:
SR Slovenia ,SR Croatia ,SR Bosnia and Herzegovina ,SR Montenegro ,SR Macedonia andSR Serbia , as well as in each of its subunitsSAP Vojvodina andSAP Kosovo .Dissolution
The possibility that each Yugoslav federal unit could have its own armed formations led to concerns that someday these separate "armies" may oppose the federal Yugoslav
JNA in an act of an eventualsecession . Such concerns became reality during thebreakup of Yugoslavia and theYugoslav Wars when the TO forces in many of the constituent republics switched their allegiance and turned into separatistparamilitaries . Those former TO forces, along with Yugoslav army deserters and volunteers contributed to the founding of the respective armies of theindependent state s and other political entities that emerged after the disintegration of Yugoslavia. This includes the armies of: Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina etc.References
*
Library of Congress Country Studies - [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+yu0183) Yugoslavia: Territorial Defense Forces]
*Library of Congress Country Studies - [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+yu0175) Yugoslavia: Military Doctrine]ee also
*
Military of Yugoslavia
*Yugoslav People's Army
*People's Liberation Army (Yugoslavia)
*Yugoslav People's Liberation War
*Partisans (Yugoslavia)
*Titoism
*Organ Zaštite Naroda (Armije) - OZNA
*Kontra-Obaveštajna Služba - KOS
*Ten Day War imilar formations
*
State Defense Forces
*Territorial Army
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.