Time Slip Reiwa Japan

107 - Yugoslav Conflict - 4

The situation in Yugoslavia was deteriorating at an accelerating rate. Initially, the armed struggle (Partisan) targeted only the betrayers of Yugoslavia (Serbs), but since the abundant arms smuggling from Italy began, invaders (Germans) also became targets.

At first, it was the lightly armed Gestapo. They were attacked during operations or when they were walking on holidays, and many of them were killed in action. The Serbian governing body hastily attempted to control the situation through the Preparatory Committee (Puppet Doll), but as the policing organizations that should have been its limbs had long since collapsed, there was little they could do. The bodies of Serbs and Germans piled up day by day.

Even the Germans, true to form, panicked in this situation, and it was agreed to reorganize the police under the Preparatory Committee, but things were not as simple as they seemed. Firstly, there was a shortage of individuals trained as police officers due to clashes with the military, and many people were unwilling to serve as German lackeys.

But more than that, there was a budget issue. The wealth generated by the Yugoslav economy, in the form of taxes, was mostly seized by Germany as preparation fees for joining the United Greater European Reich (Third Reich), leaving little for the Preparatory Committee. With this limited budget, it was difficult to recruit enough police officers to restore law and order throughout Yugoslavia. Therefore, the Preparatory Committee decided to limit the activities of the reconstructed police force to the capital and Serbian residential areas deemed important by themselves. For areas outside these important zones, local authorities were instructed to establish their own vigilante groups.

It was a bad move.

Already at this point, many Yugoslavians who had witnessed deteriorating security and the oppressive behavior of Germans and Serbs had begun to resent the Third Reich. Thus, these vigilante groups became breeding grounds for anti-German sentiment (Anti-Reich). *1

. . .

Germany

Initially, the German government underestimated the destabilization of the situation in Yugoslavia. Believing that their excellent Gestapo and Waffen-SS troops could easily crush any small resistance, they had seen the French struggle to quell the fire they ignited in French Indochina as a result of the French being retarded like frog bastards that they are, which they mocked. However, reality proved harsh as things worsened easily, disregarding German desires.

Initially, members of the Preparatory Committee were hanged, followed by indiscriminate targeting of Serbs of all ages and genders. But they never anticipated that the ruling class of Europe, the Germans, would be targeted. That illusion vanished when a senior official of the Nazi Party, the chairman of the United Greater European Reich Integration Committee — essentially the ruler of Yugoslavia, who would later become its governor — visited Yugoslavia. He was killed in a literal sense: a French-made rocket-assisted recoilless gun (Lance-ATM) was fired into his car, killing him instantly and scattering his remains along with the car.

This enraged the Germans. Especially Hitler was furious.

Yugoslavia, acquired through politics without war, was a badge of honor for Hitler as a politician. And now it was tarnished by the very Yugoslavs he underestimated. It was only natural for them to be furious like a raging fire. As a result, the Integration Committee was strongly instructed to crack down mercilessly on rebellious Yugoslavians.

In compliance with Hitler's strict orders, the Integration Committee established the Yugoslav Security Maintenance Committee under its authority. Under the name of this Security Maintenance Committee, unlimited use of various powers related to maintaining security was granted to the Gestapo and the Waffen-SS. Moreover, to address the anticipated shortage of operational units that the SS alone couldn't handle, a new Serbian Security Maintenance Force, commanded by Germans, was formed. This would later become infamous as the Yugoslav Special Action Squads (Einsatzgruppen).