The TK (TK-3) and TKS were Polish tankettes developed during the 1930s and used in the Second World War .
34-579: TK-3 may refer to: TK-3 (tankette) , a Polish military vehicle of the Second World War Teradako-ken TK-3 , a Japanese transport plane of the Second World War TK-3 (missile) or Sky Bow III, a 2010s Taiwanese anti-aircraft system See also [ edit ] VR Class Tk3 , a Finnish class of freight locomotive [REDACTED] Topics referred to by
68-487: A German officer cadre) reduced the size of the Croatian Home Guard to 70,000 men, down from its peak at 130,000 in 1943. The NDH government, under heavy German pressure, reacted by formally integrating Croatian Home Guard and Ustasha Militia. New and more reliable officers were appointed, and draconian measures were introduced to increase discipline and prevent further defections. As a result, by May 1945,
102-592: A cavalry regiment in Zagreb and an independent cavalry battalion at Sarajevo . Two independent motorized infantry battalions were based at Zagreb and Sarajevo respectively. The fledgling Army crushed the revolt by Serbs in eastern Herzegovina in June, and fought in July in eastern and western Bosnia . They fought in eastern Herzegovina again, when Croatian- Dalmatian and Slavonian battalions reinforced local units. By
136-589: A two-gun artillery group, 16 light and 16 heavy machine guns , and six mortars. Two volunteer regiments, and a mobile Gendarmerie Brigade were also established; but, by November 1942, the partisans had occupied northern Bosnia, and the Army could only hold main towns and communications routes, abandoning the countryside. During 1943, four Jäger Brigades (5th to 8th) were set up, each with four 500-man battalions in two regiments and an artillery group, equipped for hilly terrain. The Home Guard reached its maximum size at
170-598: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages TK-3 (tankette) The TK (also known as the TK-3) tankette was a Polish design produced from 1931 based on the chassis of the British Carden Loyd tankette , with an improved hull and more powerful engine, and armour up to 8 mm (0.31 in) thick (10 mm or 0.39 in on the TKS). In 1939, up-arming of
204-771: The Armistice of Cassibile , the Croatian Navy was expanded, but the loss of an ally further weakened the Croatian state. The Home Guard was under the command of the Ministry of the Croatian Home Guard, in 1943 renamed to the Ministry of the Armed Forces (MINORS). The ministers were: The Home Guard also had its General Staff. Chiefs of the General Staff included: Despite being the best-armed and having
238-478: The Panzer I . The handful of tankettes armed with 20 mm guns were more effective against enemy tanks; in one instance on 18 September 1939 a 20 mm gunned TKS commanded by Podchorąży (officer cadet) Roman Orlik destroyed two German Panzer 35(t) tanks and a Panzer IV ausf B tank which was commanded by Victor IV Albrecht von Ratibor. After the conquest of Poland, captured tankettes were used by
272-536: The Red Army . 575 TK/TKS tankettes formed the bulk of the Polish armoured forces before the outbreak of war. They suffered heavy losses during the invasion of Poland , often being the only armoured fighting vehicles available. Their small size suited them for reconnaissance and infantry support, but with their light armament of a single machine gun they stood no chance in combat against German tanks, except against
306-537: The Ustashe Militia . A smaller Polish force retreated to (then neutral) Hungary from the German and Soviet troops occupying Poland. This mixed formation had 30 tracked vehicles, of which 15-20 were TKS (contemporary sources did not officially distinguish between TK-3 and TKS). These vehicles were used for training in tank driving and machine gun handling drills. By the end of the war, they were worn out due to
340-619: The Croatian divisions were allocated to various German corps and by March 1945 were holding the Southern Front. Securing the rear areas were some 32,000 men of the Croatian Gendarmerie ( Hrvatsko Oruznistvo ), organised into five police volunteer regiments plus 15 independent battalions, equipped with standard light infantry weapons, including mortars. The Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia and
374-590: The German army in various support roles, mostly for training, security duties or as artillery tractors. Many captured tankettes were also used by the Luftwaffe for airfield security and snowplowing. Some were later sold to the puppet state of Croatia . In spring 1941, the National Police received 18 TK-3 tankettes, some with the 20mm gun, while in summer 1941 the Army received 18 TKS, 4 of them being sent to
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#1732779696564408-768: The Home Guard than Serb-dominated Chetniks . A year later, this manifested in Croatian Partisan commanders referring to the Home Guard as their "supply depot", due to its personnel being reliable source of arms, ammunition, general supplies, and intelligence . Following the capitulation of Italy in September 1943 and the first aid shipments from the Western Allies , the military situation in Yugoslavia began to even more dramatically shift in favour of
442-647: The NDH armed forces in total numbered 200,000 men. The army of the Independent State of Croatia was organized in November 1944 to combine the units of the Ustaše and Croatian Home Guard into 18 divisions, comprising 13 infantry, two mountain, two assault and one replacement Croatian divisions, each with its own organic artillery and other support units. There were also several armoured units, equipped in late 1944 with 20 Pz III N and 15 Pz IV F and H medium tanks. From early 1945,
476-584: The Partisans. By mid-1944, many Home Guard personnel and units began to openly side with Partisans, leading to some instances of mass defections that included battalion -size formations as well as some ZNDH aircraft. By November 1944 the defections and desertions , as well as the creaming off of troops to the Ustashe Brigades or the 369th , 373rd , and 392nd so-called legionnaire divisions ( Wehrmacht infantry divisions with Croatian troops under
510-519: The ZNDH, with aircraft losses amounting to 234, primarily on the ground, it entered 1945 with 196 planes. Further deliveries of new aircraft from Germany continued in the early months of 1945 to replace losses. April 1945 saw the final deliveries of up-to-date German Messerschmitt Bf 109G and K fighter aircraft and the ZNDH still had 176 aircraft on its strength in April 1945. By the end of March, 1945, it
544-436: The backbone of which was provided by 500 former Royal Yugoslav Air Force officers and 1,600 NCOs with 125 aircraft. By 1943, the ZNDH was 9,775 strong and equipped with 295 aircraft. The small Navy of the Independent State of Croatia ( Ratna Mornarica Nezavisne Države Hrvatske , or RMNDH) was limited by a special treaty with Fascist Italy . The Navy comprised a few riverine craft and, from 1943, coastal patrol boats. After
578-525: The best logistics and infrastructure of all the domestic military formations in the World War II Balkans, the Croatian Home Guard failed to become an efficient fighting force for a variety of reasons. The most immediate reason was the lack of professional officers . Although initially significant numbers of ethnic Croat officers from the old Yugoslav army joined the Croatian Home Guard, most not entirely voluntarily, they were mistrusted by
612-620: The collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . It was done with the authorisation of German occupation authorities. The task of the new Croatian armed forces was to defend the new state against both foreign and domestic enemies. Its name was taken from the old Royal Croatian Home Guard – the Croatian section of the Royal Hungarian Landwehr component of the Austro-Hungarian Army . The Croatian Home Guard
646-582: The end of 1941, the NDH military forces consisted of 85,000 home guard and the national police force of about 6,000. In January 1942, it forced the Partisans in eastern Bosnia back into Montenegro , but could not prevent their subsequent advance into western Bosnia. Clearly conventional infantry divisions were too cumbersome, and so, in September 1942, four specially designed mountain brigades (1st to 4th) were formed; each had two regiments totalling four 1,000-man battalions , mounted and machine gun companies,
680-531: The end of 1943, when it had 130,000 men. By 1944, the Croatian Army had 90,000 men, though only 20,000 were front-line combat troops, organised in three mountain, four Jager and eight static garrison brigades, and the 1st Recruit Training Division. The Croatian Home Guard also included an air force, the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia ( Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske , or ZNDH),
714-682: The gradual decline in support for the Ustaše regime among ethnic Croats, first fuelled by the abandonment of Dalmatia to Italy, then by the prospect of Home Guard troops being used by the Germans as cannon fodder on the Eastern Front – a repeat of the same traumatic experience from the First World War . This process intensified while the prospect of the Axis powers , and NDH with them, losing
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#1732779696564748-564: The lack of spare parts, so there is no trace of them after early 1944. The crew was able to travel to England with the help of the Hungarian government during 1940. Experimental models: A list of registration numbers [1] (might be incomplete): There are only two fully operational TKS tankettes and one TK-3 surviving. All of them were reconstructed from wrecks in the first decade of 21st century, using non-original parts. The other survivors are not in working order. Background: History of
782-599: The last desperate attempt to seek shelter among Western Allies . This resulted in many Home Guards becoming victims of the Bleiburg repatriations during which the victorious Partisans showed little mercy or even tendency to treat captured Home Guards separately from captured Ustashas. Those Home Guards who survived the ordeal, as well as members of their families, were mostly treated as second-class citizens in Tito's Yugoslavia , although there were some exceptions, most notably with
816-589: The legendary sportscaster Mladen Delić . In 1945 the Partisans also destroyed the central Home Guard cemetery in Zagreb's Mirogoj Cemetery . As Croatia gained independence during the Yugoslav wars , the new government under the presidency of Franjo Tuđman began the process of re-building the historical Home Guards. The rehabilitation of Home Guards is only reflected in surviving Home Guards receiving pensions and other state benefits. Home Guards disabled during
850-454: The new Ustaše puppet regime. Instead, the higher ranks were filled by presumably more reliable former Austro-Hungarian officers. Those men were older, retired and generally had little knowledge of modern warfare. NDH authorities tried to remedy this by forming officer schools and having junior staff trained in Italy and Germany, but effects of this policy came too late to affect the outcome of
884-448: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title formed as a letter–number combination. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TK-3&oldid=937428639 " Category : Letter–number combination disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
918-499: The tank , Tank classification , interwar period Croatian Home Guard (World War II) The Croatian Home Guard ( Croatian : Hrvatsko domobranstvo ) was the land army part of the armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia which existed during World War II . The Croatian Home Guard was founded in April 1941, a few days after the founding of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) itself, following
952-514: The tankettes with nkm wz. 38 FK 20 mm (0.79 in) autocannons began, but only 24 of these were completed before the outbreak of World War II. On 6 November 1934 Estonia purchased 6 vehicles from Poland , with the contract deal worth over 180,000 krones . The deal also included one additional tracked-lorry, and a motorcycle was given free as a bonus. After the Soviet Union occupied Estonia, these vehicles were put into service with
986-700: The units of the Croatian Air Force Legion ( Hrvatska Zrakoplovna Legija , or HZL), returned from service on the Eastern Front provided some level of air support (attack, fighter and transport) right up until May 1945, encountering and sometimes defeating opposing aircraft from the British Royal Air Force , United States Army Air Force and the Soviet Air Force . Although 1944 had been a catastrophic year for
1020-503: The war received state recognition in 1992 equivalent to Partisan veterans. The Home Guard has also received recognition from the government in helping to establish the democratic Republic of Croatia. There has been no official historical revisionism of their role in World War II, and the measure of providing pensions is viewed just as a social security measure because most of the surviving members could not provide for themselves under
1054-606: The war was getting more certain. Domobrani dissention, over the sadistic policies of the Ustaše, led to the outright persecution, deportation, and murder of Home Guard soldiers within the Jasenovac concentration camp system. As early as 1941, the Croatian Home Guards was being infiltrated by resistance groups. Yugoslav Partisans , who were based on non-sectarian ideology and had Croatian statehood as part of their pretext, were more successful in making inroads into
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1088-528: The war. The other, more practical, reason was the rivalry between the Croatian Home Guard and the Ustaše Militia ( Croatian : Ustaška vojnica ), the less numerous but yet more reliable paramilitary formation. Those two formations never properly integrated their activities and the Militia was gradually taking more and more dwindling resources from the Home Guard. Third and, arguably, most important reason,
1122-497: Was obvious to the Croatian army command that, although the front remained intact, they would eventually be defeated by sheer lack of ammunition. For this reason, the decision was made to retreat into Austria , in order to surrender to the British forces advancing north from Italy . In May 1945, following the final Partisan offensive and collapse of the NDH, remaining Home Guard units joined other Axis forces and civilian refugees in
1156-483: Was originally limited to 16 infantry battalions and two cavalry squadrons – 16,000 men in total. The original 16 battalions were soon enlarged to 15 infantry regiments of two battalions each between May and June 1941, organised into five divisional commands, some 55,000 men. Support units included 35 former Yugoslav light tanks returned by Italy, four engineer battalions, 10 artillery battalions (equipped with captured Royal Yugoslav Army 105mm weapons of Czech origin),
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