During the interwar period, Yugoslavia had built its air force primarily around planes imported from France, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Britain. The Yugoslav aircraft industry was still in its infancy, trying to produce licensed versions of the Hawker Hurricane, Bristol Blenheim I, and Dornier Do-17K, as well as the domestically designed lkarus IK-2 and IK-3. In 1940, Yugoslavia found that the German occupation of France and Czechoslovakia, coupled with the fierce air actions over Britain, had cut off all of its aircraft supplies, especially critically needed spare parts. Therefore, when the inva, sion began, as many as one third of some types of aircraft were unusable. This was particularly true concerning the German produced Me 109E-3, of which only 46 of some 73 available machines were fit for combat duty.

The British attempted to remedy this by furnishing Yugoslavia with 20 Blenheims and enough spare parts to complete some 17 more Blenheims at the Ikarus factory at Zemun. This did not, however, greatly help the Yugoslav Air Force, which found that only 14 of 18 domestically produced IK-2's and IK-3's were combat ready. A breakdown of the combat planes available at the time of the invasion is given in the next column.

Additionally, there were numerous recon, training, and other aircraft. However, out of an estimated air strength of around 800 planes, only 353 combat planes were available to meet the combined might of the German Luftwaffe and the Italian Regia Aeronautica.

Available Combat Planes

70 Dornier Do-17K's
55 Bristol Blenheim I's
48 Hawker Fury's
46 Messerschmidt Me-109E-3's
45 Savoia Marchetti SM-79s
40 Hawker Hurricanes
12 Caproni Ca-310's
12 Caproni Ca-310 bis'
8 Ikarus IK-2's
6 Ikarus IK-3's
5 Caproni Ca-311's
4 Avia BH 33E's
2 Potez 63's

Yugoslav Air Force

1st Fighter Brigade

6th Fighter Regiment
32nd Group at Krugedol: 3 squadrons Me 109E-3
51st Group at Zemun: 1 squadron Me 109E-3 and 1 squadron IK-3

2nd Fighter Regiment

52nd Group at Knid: 2 squadrons Hurricanes
31st Group at Kraluievac: 2 squadrons Me 109E-3

2nd Mixed Brigade

4th Fighter Regiment
33rd Group at Alexsandrovac: 2 squadrons Hurricanes
34th Group at Alexsandrovac: 1 squadron Hurricanes and 1 squadron IK-2

8th Bomber Regiment

68th Group at Rovine: 2 squadrons Blenheim I
69th Group at Rovine: 2 squadrons Blenheim I

3rd Mixed Brigade

3rd Bomber Regiment
63rd Group at Skoplje: 3 squadrons Do-17K
64th Group at Priftina: 3 squadrons Do-17K

5th Fighter Regiment

21st Group at Leskovca: 2 squadrons Furys
35th Group at Kumanovo: 2 squadrons Furys

4th Bomber Brigade

1st Bomber Regiment
61st Group at Bijeljine: 2 squadrons Blenheim I
62nd Group at Paracina: 2 squadrons Blenheim I

7th Bomber Regiment

66th Group at Cacka: 2 squadrons SM-79
67th Group at Uzicke Pozege: 2 squadrons SM-79

Air Force High Command

81st Bomber Group at Mostair: 2 squadrons SM-79
11th Recon Group at Ruma: 2 squadrons Blenheim I
"Coastal" Fighter Training Sqdrn: 2 Hurricanes, 3 Me-109E-3, 2 Avia BH-33E

Army Recon Units (all equipped with POTEZ-25 and Brouget XIX)

1st Group at Ruma
2nd Group at Djakova
3rd Group at Ni
4th Group at Zagreb
5th Group at Tetovo
6th Group at Bre2ice
7th Group at Sm. Palanka
Independent Squadron at Mostair

Notes:

1. 4th Fighter Regiment is based at the Bosnian Alexsandrovac.
2. Organization is that of April 1941.

Recon Group Assignments

More Yugoslav Army of WWII

Introduction
Infantry and Border Units
Cavalry and Artillery
Mechanized Units and AA
Navy
Air Force (with OOB)
Army OOB
Yugoslavia Map (slow: 75K)