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The Battle of Lijevče Field () was a battle fought between March 30 and April 8, 1945 between the Croatian Armed Forces (HOS, the amalgamated Ustaše militia and Croatian Home Guard forces) and Chetnik forces on the Lijevče Field near Banja Luka in what was then the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). The HOS forces were led by General Vladimir Metikoš, while the Chetniks were led by Lieutenant Colonel Pavle Đurišić. The combined Chetnik force was defeated by an NDH force. Chetnik leaders, Đurišić, Zaharije Ostojić and Petar Baćović, and ideologue Dragiša Vasić were captured in an apparent trap set by the NDH forces and Sekula Drljević after being induced to negotiate. They were then executed along with a number of Serbian Orthodox priests.〔Tomasevich (1975), pp. 447–448〕 == Build-up to the battle == In the fall of 1944, the Chetniks were scattered across the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Divisions of the Red Army had entered the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia and were assisting Yugoslav forces in capturing and destroying the Chetniks. The Armed Forces of the NDH were reorganized in November 1944 to combine the units of the Ustaše militia and the Army of the Independent State of Croatia into the Croatian Armed Forces (HOS) comprising eighteen divisions, comprising 13 infantry, two mountain, two assault and one replacement divisions, each with its own organic artillery and other support units. There were also several armoured units. From early 1945, the HOS divisions were allocated to various German Corps and by March 1945 were holding the Southern Front.〔Thomas, 1995, p.17〕 Securing the rear areas were some 32,000 men of the NDH Gendarmerie (''Hrvatsko Oruznistvo''), organised into five Police Volunteer Regiments plus 15 independent battalions, equipped with standard light infantry weapons, including mortars.〔Thomas 1995, p. 30.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Lijevče Field」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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