Uroš Drenović
Bosnian Serb military commander (1911–1944) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Uroš Drenović (Serbian Cyrillic: Урош Дреновић; 1911 – 29 May 1944) was a Bosnian Serb military commander in the central Bosnia region of the fascist puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), led by the Ustaše, during World War II. After distinguishing himself in resisting the Ustaše alongside communist-led rebels, Drenović betrayed the communist-led Partisans and began to collaborate with the Ustaše, Italians and Germans against them.
Vojvoda Uroš Drenović | |
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Native name | Урош Дреновић[1] |
Born | 1911 Sitnica, Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary |
Died | 29 May 1944 (aged 33) Banja Luka, Independent State of Croatia |
Place of burial | Klisina, Stričići |
Allegiance |
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Commands held |
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Battles/wars | World War II in Yugoslavia |
Awards | Order of Karađorđe's Star |
Following the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Ustaše implemented genocidal policies against the NDH's Serbs, Jews and Roma. Drenović joined the Partisans and distinguished himself during the initial uprising against the NDH government by capturing the town of Mrkonjić Grad in August 1941. He was then appointed to command the 3rd "Petar Kočić" Battalion in central Bosnia and was appointed the deputy commander of the 3rd Krajina Detachment. A Serbian nationalist with anti-Muslim and anti-Croat views, Drenović eventually betrayed the Partisans and sided with the royalist, Serbian nationalist Chetniks, whose ideology more closely matched his own. In April 1942, Drenović fled to Banja Luka after his units were defeated by the Partisans. There, out of military and political necessity, he concluded an alliance with the NDH against the Partisans. Drenović later began collaborating with the Italians and Germans against the Partisans, and continued to do so until his death in an Allied bombing raid on Banja Luka in May 1944.
Despite his extensive collaboration with the Axis, a Banja Luka street is named after him, and within Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the actions of his Chetniks are celebrated and equated with those of the Partisans. The celebration and rehabilitation of Chetniks such as Drenović has been criticised by the civil society organisation the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights as reflecting a “deeply ill society”.