Post by Bozur on Feb 14, 2010 18:00:56 GMT -5
Mostar Liberated by Partisans, 65 years ago
Published on 14-02-2010
Exactly 65 years ago on this day – February 14, 1945, Mostar was liberated by Yugoslav partisans. The fighting between Nazis and Nazi collaborators ensued until the partisans, now the only legal and official fighting unit of Yugoslavia, expelled the opposing forces from Mostar.
On March 20th 1945, the following month, the Yugoslav partisans under the command and leadership of Josip Broz Tito, launched their General offensive to rid remaining occupation forces from the land. The operation was a success in that it confirmed Tito as a capable first Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, and that it eventually made Tito 1st Federal Secretary of People’s Defense. By the end of April 1945, the country’s forces liberated the remaining regions in southern Yugoslavia. The new government soon took effective control of the entire country, allowing for additional units to be deployed into southern Austria and Trieste, a seaport city in north eastern Italy.
Following the end of the Second World War, Mostar was rebuilt and became a major industrial region in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city eventually grew more important for the entire Yugoslav Federation under its industrious plan, providing Yugoslav citizens with wine, tobacco, bauxite minerals, aircraft manufacturing, aluminum products, and the harnessing of hydroelectric power through the use of the Neretva River. This brought employment to thousands of people and helped provide products that stimulated Yugoslavia's economy which was still wounded from the Second World War.
Mostar experienced great economic growth during the Tito era, but was subsequently replaced by turmoil and ethnic tensions in the 90’s once more. Today the city has again been rebuilt, following the Bosnian war, but still suffers from postwar divisions and a limited budget.
By Denis Vrabac
www.sarajevo.net/content/134-Mostar-Liberated-by-Partisans