Serbian Volunteer Corps (World War II)
| Serbian Volunteer Corps | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1941–1945 |
| Allegiance |
 Serbian government (de facto) Nazi Germany (de jure)
|
| Size | 9,886 |
| Nickname(s) | Ljotić's men (Ljotićevci) |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Kosta Mušicki Miodrag Damjanović |
The Serbian Volunteer Corps or SDK (Serbian: Српски добровољачки корпус; German: Serbisches Freiwilligenkorps), also known as Ljotićevci after their ideological leader Dimitrije Ljotić, was a collaborationist anti-Partisan military formation that was raised in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia during World War II. In July 1941, a full-scale rebellion by the communist Yugoslav Partisans and the royalist Chetniks erupted in the territory. The Germans pressured Milan Nedić's collaborationist government to deal with the uprisings under the threat of letting the armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), Hungary, and Bulgaria occupy the territory and maintain peace and order in it.
On 15 September 1941, Nedić proposed that the government should be dismissed and allow neighbouring states to police it, but minister Mihailo Olćan proposed that the puppet government should call upon the Serbian population to form anti-communist units.
The next day 234 members of ZBOR, Ljotić's and Olćan's pre-war political party enlisted as the first volunteers. On 17 September the Serbian Volunteer Command was formed under the command of Colonel Konstantin Mušicki, a Serbian officer. The command consisted of 12 companies, each 120-150 men strong. Many volunteers came from the student ZBOR organization and others were refugees from the NDH. The men wore olive green uniforms or, in the case of officers, the uniform of the former Yugoslav armed forces, with the Cross of St. George on the right breast. Ranks or grade designations were for all practical purposes those of the former Royal Yugoslav Army. Weapons were mixed; besides German arms which were eventually supplied, foreign rifles and machine guns, especially those seized as war booty from the defeated Yugoslav forces were used. Mortars and light artillery were also on hand in varying quantities. The command also had an educational department whose task was to educate fighters ideologically. The head of the educational section was journalist Ratko Parežanin. It also had an intelligence section which had centres all over Serbia. The spiritual needs of the corps were maintained by protojerej Aleksa Todorović. The corps often operated in close alliance with the Russian Corps.
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