Page "Yugoslav Partisans" Paragraph 29

At the very beginning, though, Partisan forces were relatively small, poorly armed and without any infrastructure.

But they had two major advantages over other military and paramilitary formations in former Yugoslavia: the first and most immediate was a small but valuable cadre of Spanish Civil War veterans who, unlike anyone else at the time, had experience with modern war fought in circumstances quite similar to those of World War II Yugoslavia.

Another advantage, which became apparent in later stages of war, was in Partisans being founded on ideology rather than ethnicity, which meant the Partisans could expect at least some levels of support in any corner of the country, unlike other paramilitary formations whose support was limited to territories with Croat or Serb majorities.

This allowed their units to be more mobile and fill their ranks with a larger pool of potential recruits.