Romanian, Hungarian and Italian troops all took part in the large-scale Battle of Stalingrad, but they did not enter the city itself. They covered the flanks of the German strike group rushing to the Volga.
The Nazis had a low opinion of the fighting ability of their allies and concentrated only their best units on the spearhead of the strike. Among them, however, was the so-called ‘Croatian Legion’.
Although it was formed on the territory of the puppet Independent State of Croatia, in its structure and organization, it was a typical German military formation.
Officially, the Legion was called the ‘369th Croatian Infantry Regiment’ and was part of the ‘100th Light Infantry (since 1942 - Jäger) Division’ of the Wehrmacht. Its soldiers wore German uniforms, were subordinate to the German command and were distinguished from the others only by patches in the form of the Croatian coat of arms with the signature ‘Hrvatska’.
During the city fight, the Croatians were thrown into the most difficult areas. The regiment suffered particularly heavy losses in the area of the ‘Krasny Oktyabr’ factory.
By the beginning of 1943, less than a thousand of the 4,500 Legionnaires remained alive in blockaded Stalingrad. At the end of January, they surrendered to the Soviet troops.
Some prisoners of war, led by regimental commander Lt. Col. Marko Mesic, defected to the Soviet side. In 1944, as part of the ‘1st Independent Yugoslav Infantry Brigade’, they went to fight against the Germans in the Balkans.
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