The Blue Guard (), also known as the Slovene Chetniks (, ), was a

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

n anti-communist militia, initially under the leadership of Major Karl Novak and later Ivan Prezelj. Their official name was the Royal Yugoslav Army in Slovenia.

History

The detachments under Novak's command were part of the wider

Chetniks The Chetniks,, ; formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland; and informally colloquially the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist m ...

that included units from all over Yugoslavia that swore allegiance to

Draža Mihailović Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović ( sr-Cyrl, Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић; 27 April 1893 – 17 July 1946) was a Yugoslavs, Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetniks, Chetnik Detachments ...

. The ranks were drawn from Slovene officers in the pre-war

Royal Yugoslav Army The Yugoslav Army ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Jugoslovenska vojska, JV, Југословенска војска, ЈВ), commonly the Royal Yugoslav Army, was the principal Army, ground force of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It existed from the establishment of ...

(JV). At first, the JV units in Slovenia that offered resistance were under the command of Jaka Avšič until his mid-1941 transfer to the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

. Based on direct appointment of Draža Mihailović, the commander of Slovene Chetniks was Karel Novak. Slovene Chetnik units included Styrian Chetnik detachments that were, according to some estimates, the only anti-Communist military unit that consistently attacked Axis occupiers throughout the war. The detachment under Melaher's command had 200 men. In 1942, the bulk of members joined the Legion of Death. When Karel Novak resigned in 1944, because the defeat in the Battle of Grčarice, Mihailović appointed Ivan Prezelj as commander. His headquarter was with the Inner Carniola Detachment and Soča Detachments, and the Slovene Chetniks also included the Lower Carniola Detachment and the Styria Detachment, commanded by

Jože Melaher Jože Melaher - Zmagoslav (1913-1991) was Yugoslav military officer, most notable for being commander of Chetnik Štajerska detachment during the World War II. Early life Melaher was born in Zrkovcih na Pobrežju, on 26 February 1913 from fat ...

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History

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Further reading