Ivan Babić (15 December 1904 – 6 June 1982) was a Croatian soldier and

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

in the Croatian Home Guard and later an emigrant dissident writer against

Communist Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yugo ...

. He attended gymnasium in

Bjelovar Bjelovar ( hu, Belovár, german: Bellowar, Kajkavian: ''Belovar'') is a city in central Croatia. It is the administrative centre of Bjelovar-Bilogora County. At the 2021 census, there were 36,433 inhabitants, of whom 93.06% were Croats. Histor ...

. Babić became a military cadet in the

Yugoslav Royal Army The Yugoslav Army ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Jugoslovenska vojska, JV, Југословенска војска, ЈВ), commonly the Royal Yugoslav Army, was the land warfare military service branch of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (originally Kingdom of Serbs, ...

and was sent to

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to perform further training at the École Superieure de Guerre.

World War II

During the German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Babić served as a major in the 38th Drava Infantry Division. In 1942, he commanded the 369th Reinforced Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the ''Croatian Legion'', which fought on the Eastern Front. In 1943, he headed the Home Guard Central School. In 1943, he flew a mission to American troops in Italy to suggest that the Allies invade the Dalmatian coast of the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was established in p ...

to prevent the country from falling into communist hands. He claimed the invasion would meet no resistance and that the Croatian army would establish a beachhead for them. The British subsequently held him as prisoner of war in Bari. After the war he worked for a period as an engineer in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. He was a frequent contributor to the Croatian emigrant weekly, ''Hrvatska revija'' (Croatian Review). He secured a visa for Croatian writer

Bruno Bušić Ante Bruno Bušić (6 October 1939 – 16 October 1978) was a Croatian writer and critic of the government of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He was one of the best-known victims of UDBA (Yugoslav secret police) killings. Biography ...

to come to

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; Busić was later assassinated. He published ''U.S. Policy Towards Yugoslavia'', which was translated into English by Mate Meštrović.Mirnim i demokratskim putem ostvariti neotuðivo pravo hrvatskoga naroda na narodni i dravni suverenitet
''

Vjesnik ''Vjesnik'' () was a Croatian state-owned daily newspaper published in Zagreb which ceased publication in April 2012. Originally established in 1940 as a wartime illegal publication of the Communist Party of Croatia, it later built and maintaine ...

''; Retrieved 2 February 2019.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Babic, Ivan 1904 births 1982 deaths People from Sveti Ivan Žabno People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia Royal Yugoslav Army personnel of World War II Expatriates in Venezuela Croatian expatriates in Spain Croatian exiles Croatian Home Guard personnel Nazis in South America World War II prisoners of war held by the United Kingdom