From the very beginning the military was given a privileged position in the new state both in military and in political terms. However, the institution faced in the first place immense legitimacy problems. Paradoxically the military’s (Serbian) core consisted of the officer corps with a distinguished war record. Yet the predominantly Serb army and its transformation into a Yugoslav institution met significant obstructions both with Serbs and non-Serbs. Serbs were proud of their army which had completed the historical mission and expected it to guard these achievements in peacetime. The fragile Yugoslav construction had to be protected from both external and internal enemies. _thirty-five The latter were not difficult to identify since from the very beginning Yugoslavia was faced with harsh opposition and even violent upheavals. ₃₆ The Serbian army had acquired a rich experience in domestic intervention in the pre-war period, but now the situation seemed very simple since the ‘enemies’ could have been identified through national and alleged political criteria.

The main of General Professionals, the newest greatest Vojvoda Misic directly inspected the problem in the Croatia and you can provided a discouraging report in the Belgrade. In his look at the state having Croats are hopeless in which he advised a remedy — to exit Croats to help you secede and also to mark the ‘just’ limitations between them states with each other ethnic and you can ‘historical’ requirements. Naturally he’d in your mind the project of an increased Serbia rather than Higher Yugoslavia which would have been browsing supply the Serbs armed forces excellence. Though Queen Aleksandar rejected the new muddy matches logowanie suggestion the latest habits of your own military on ‘new territories’ received it an adverse label. Brand new tortures and you may harsh reprisals of the civil populace worsened brand new entire opportunity of your the new condition-strengthening and you may destroyed the organization validity of your own ‘new’ army definitively:

First and foremost, the newest officials off Slovene, Croat and you may Montenegrin origin was required to make an application for admission with the military, while it was not necessary on Serb officials

This was a blatant misappropriation of authority, quite contrary to the realities that led to the unification, and endangered great discomfiture, especially since the army applied brutal, coercive, and, as one historian dubbed them, Milos-style punishments, frequently even without the formality of a military court-ous of these was the practice of meeting out corporal punishment by blows with clubs or truncheons. ₃₇

One of the most critical problems of the new state was institution building. While the other political institutions had to be created from scratch, the military was only to be transferred from the Serbian state. The units of the former Austria-Hungarian army were disbanded. The non-Serbs saw the military as a continuation of the Serbian army with the command language, insignia and all other details directly transferred from the Serbian Kingdom. The regime declared that it supported an open-door policy regarding the officers from the former Habsburg army. In reality, however, there were many problems to surmount, the question of loyalty having been in the background in the majority of cases. Furthermore, the position of the non-Serb officers was humiliating. They faced huge obstacles in terms of promotion, subordination, the question of rank etc. The figures show that they were also underrepresented, which does not necessarily imply that it was a result of a planned action. For instance, in 1938 only 10 per cent of the Yugoslav officers and only 31 per cent of 191 generals were Croats. ₃₈

The newest Croat and you can Slovene officers experienced advanced inside the academic and top-notch terms and conditions, while you are uneducated Serbian officials got marvelous conflict details

Discover a huge pit amongst the officials increased in the additional armed forces cultural surroundings, in accordance with a different army ethos, ethnic provider and you may, above all, conflict sense. The latest Serbian military choose to go through a real Golgotha in the battle where the 2nd men failed to endure. The most important postings inside military ladder had already been filled of the war heroes who had been to not surrender pricey achieved ranking. Serbian officers thought of the newest addition of your own officials regarding the (former) challenger army either given that a keen insult on their heroic opposition or as an indication of generosity and forgiveness toward enemy’s battle sins. The fresh peasant-for example soldiers and officials got an enthusiastic inferiority state-of-the-art regarding the ‘noble’ and you may really-experienced Austria-Hungarian officers. A number of them was basically defectively harm, enjoying their combat units’ flags getting replaced by Yugoslav about three-colored flag. Petar Jovic, a good combatant regarding Salonica Front and you can president of the Connection of 1912-1918 Volunteers said: