Navy of the Independent State of Croatia

Navy of the Independent State of Croatia Ratna Mornarica Nezavisne Države Hrvatske
Insignia of the Navy of the Independent State of Croatia
Active	1941–44
Country	NDH
Allegiance	Poglavnik
Type	Navy
Size	1,262 personnel (1943)
Part of	Croatian Armed Forces
Headquarters	Zagreb, Independent State of Croatia
Engagements	World War II
Disbanded	May 1945
Commanders
Notable commanders	Đuro Jakčin Edgar Angeli Nikola Steinfl
Insignia
Naval Ensign (1941–1944)
Naval Ensign (1944–1945)

The Navy of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Ratna Mornarica Nezavisne Države Hrvatske, RMNDH), was established as the navy of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) on 10 April 1941, the date the Axis puppet state was created by the fascist Ustaše party from parts of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which had been invaded by the Axis powers four days earlier. It consisted of two commands, the Coast and Maritime Traffic Command, and the River and River Traffic Command, and had its headquarters in the NDH capital, Zagreb. The Coast and Maritime Traffic Command consisted of three naval commands along the Adriatic coast, which were each divided into a number of naval districts. The naval districts consisted mainly of naval and weather stations, and were only responsible for coast guard and customs duties. The River and River Traffic Command consisted of seven river stations, a naval infantry battalion, and a River Command Flotilla built around two former Yugoslav river monitors.

The RMNDH was only a small part of the armed forces of the NDH, largely due to restrictions imposed by Italy. To avoid these restrictions, the Germans raised the Croatian Naval Legion which fought as part of the German Navy in the Black Sea campaign between 1941 and 1944. After the Italian capitulation in September 1943, the Germans transferred several captured Italian vessels to the RMNDH, although all of the significant ones had been lost by December 1944 when the remaining personnel were assigned to duties ashore to circumvent their defection to the Yugoslav Partisans. The RMNDH was disbanded in May 1945 with the collapse and defeat of the NDH.