(Središnja or Centralna oružnička škola)
by H.L. deZeng IV

Formed 1 November 1942 in Bjelovar from a smaller Gendarmerie school previously located in Sremska Kaminica near Petrovaradin in Syrmia. The school was originally structured to have a HQ, an NCO Training Section, a Patrol Leaders Training Section, an Experimental Section, a Labor Battalion and an Auxiliary Battalion with a total strength of about 2,000 officers and men. The Auxiliary Battalion’s task was to guard and protect the School and its drilling and training areas. Many of the School’s graduates were then sent on to specialty courses at Carabinière schools in Italy and Gendarmerie schools in the Reich. (1)

Operational History

27 Feb – 8 Mar 43: one company of 200 men from the School took part in Operation “Mirko” in the Kalnik and Bilo gora Mountains near Bjelovar.
26 Jul 43: a company from the School was attacked in the village of Dubrava near Križevci by elements of the Moslavača NOP Detachment losing 1 killed and 15 captured while the Partisans lost 1 killed and 11 wounded.
Oct 43: a Gendarmerie Labor Battalion belong to or was attached to the Central Gendarmerie School in Bjelovar this date. According to a German note, it consisted of 26 recruits (4 of whom were Pravoslavni) and an estimated 600 reservists from reserve classes I and II called up in July and August (25 of these were Pravoslavni), all of whom were fully qualified for combat service. Of the total, 400 were fully trained as infantry, 100 as artillerymen, 19 as engineers, 10 as cavalry and 7 as signalmen. The Germans were very angry to find that these men had been assigned to a labor unit, evidently to keep them out of combat.
20 Jun 44: School HQ in Bjelovar with I School Bn. (3 companies), II School Bn. (3 companies), and III School Bn. (4 companies) with a total strength of 4 officers, 130 NCOs and 1,020 men.
1 Sep 44: Bjelovar with three battalions.
22 Oct 44: according to a Partisan intelligence report, there were two battalions from the School in Bjelovar on this date.

Commandant

Gend Pukovnik Krešimir Pavelić (1 Nov 1942 - ?)
Ust. Pukovnik Antun Magaš (? - c.Sep 1944) Aug 1943, Oct 1943

Footnotes

1. Arhiv VII, kut. 114b, reg.br. 1/2; kut. 134a, reg.br. f.3/1-96; [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Zbornik dokumenata i podataka o narodnooslobodilačkom ratu jugoslovenskih naroda, Tom V/13, pp.539-53; V/34, p.463; [Vojnoistorijski institute] - Hronologija oslobodilačke borbe naroda jugoslavije 1941-1945 (Belgrade, 1964), p.514; Bulat, Rade - Deseti korpus “Zagrebački” NOV i POJ (Zagreb: “Globus”, 1985), p.187; NARA WashDC: RG 242 (T-315 roll 1556/177).

Reference material on this unit

- None known at this time -