1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
| 1st Cavalry Division | |
|---|---|
| Country |
 Yugoslavia
|
| Branch | Royal Yugoslav Army |
| Type | Cavalry |
| Size | Division (6,000–7,000 officers and men) |
| Part of | 1st Army Group |
| Engagements | Invasion of Yugoslavia (1941) |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Dragoslav Stefanović |
The 1st Cavalry Division was a horsed cavalry formation of the Royal Yugoslav Army that formed part of the Yugoslav 1st Army Group during the German-led Axis invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941. In peacetime, the division consisted of two cavalry brigades commanding a total of four cavalry regiments, but its wartime organisation specified one cavalry brigade commanding two or three cavalry regiments, along with divisional-level combat and supporting units.
Along with the rest of the Yugoslav Army, the 1st Cavalry Division began mobilising on 3 April 1941, and was still engaged in that process three days later when the Germans began an air campaign and a series of preliminary operations against the Yugoslav frontiers. By the end of the following day, the division's cavalry brigade headquarters and all of the division's cavalry regiments had been detached for duty with other formations of the 1st Army Group. The divisional headquarters and divisional-level units remained in the vicinity of Zagreb until 10 April, when they were given orders to establish a defensive line southeast of Zagreb along the Sava river, with infantry and artillery support. The division had only begun to deploy for this task when the German 14th Panzer Division captured Zagreb. The divisional headquarters and all attached units were then disarmed by armed Croat fifth column groups, or surrendered to German troops.
The Royal Yugoslav Army (Serbo-Croatian: Vojska Kraljevine Jugoslavije, VKJ) was formed after World War I as the army of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kingdom of SCS), when that country was created on 1 December 1918. To defend the new kingdom, an army was formed around the nucleus of the victorious Royal Serbian Army combined with armed formations raised in the former parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that joined with the Kingdom of Serbia to form the new state. Many former Austro-Hungarian officers and soldiers became members of the new army. From its beginning, the army, like other aspects of public life in the new kingdom, was dominated by ethnic Serbs, who saw the army as a means by which to secure Serb hegemony in the new kingdom.
...
Wikipedia