Battle of Poljana

Battle of Poljana
Part of World War II in Yugoslavia
Captured Germans, Ustaše, Chetnik, Slovene soldiers and civilians in Maribor after the battle
Date May 14–15, 1945 Location Poljana, near the village of Prevalje, Yugoslavia Result Allied victory Axis forces surrender Beginning of the Bleiburg repatriations
Belligerents
Axis and collaborationist forces:  Germany  Independent State of Croatia Chetniks Slovenia Cossacks	Allies: Partisans  United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Alexander Löhr  August Schmidhuber  Helmuth von Pannwitz  Erwin Rösener  Desiderius Hampel  Ante Pavelić Vjekoslav Luburić Rafael Boban (MIA) Kosta Mušicki  Sekula Drljević † Leon Rupnik	Kosta Nađ Petar Drapšin
Units involved
Army Group E 104th Jäger Division 369th (Croatian) Infantry Division 373rd (Croatian) Infantry Division 392nd (Croatian) Infantry Division 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps Croatian Armed Forces Ustaše Militia Domobrans Montenegrin National Army Chetniks Serbian Volunteer Corps Slovenia SD	Yugoslav Army 3rd Army 4th Army
Strength
Mixed column of 30,000 Axis soldiers and civilians	Unknown
Casualties and losses
350 killed, wounded or missing	100 killed and wounded
Approximately 70,000 to 80,000 German, NDH, Montenegrin, Chetnik, Slovene Home Guard soldiers and civilians massacred around Maribor

The Battle of Poljana took place outside of Poljana, near the town of Prevalje in Yugoslavia (modern-day Slovenia) between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, which consisted of the German Wehrmacht, the Croatian Armed Forces (which consisted of Home Guard and Ustaše soldiers), the Montenegrin People's Army (which was of former Chetniks and survivors of the Battle of Lijevče Field), the Serbian Volunteer Corps, the Slovene Home Guard, the 15th Waffen SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and other collaborationist forces who were on their way to surrender to the British in Austria. The battle was one of the last confrontations of World War II in Europe taking place on 14 and 15 May 1945, 6 days after Germany unconditionally capitualated.