Allied ground and air forces at Bleiburg on May 15, 1945

Abstract

The documentary sources of the British armed forces show that on May 15, 1945, the day of the surrender of the refugee column from the NDH on the Bleiburg field, British planes did in fact fly over that area with the task of “demonstration of force”, in order to exert pressure and accelerate the surrender of the retreating army and civilians, who managed to cross the Austrian border. With the help of hitherto unexplored and unpublished photos taken from an American reconnaissance plane, the layout and position that the fugitives occupied, as well as the positions of the British units that blocked their way to the west were precisely determined. Based on these findings, it is possible to correct the misinterpretations of the numbers of retreating forces who surrendered at Bleiburg, that are present in historiography and public discourse in general; and this is an important contribution to the understanding of the events on the Bleiburg field that day.