Welcome to the Partizans

The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans[1][2] (Serbo-Croatian, Slovene: Partizani, Serbian cyrillic and Macedonian: Партизани; meaning: "partisans") were a communist-led World War II resistance movement engaged in the fight against Axis forces and their collaborators in Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav People's Liberation War (being part of World War II) from 1941 to 1945.

The movement's full official name was People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia,[3] (NOV i POЈ) (Serbo-Croatian: Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odredi Jugoslavije; Slovene: Narodnoosvobodilna vojska in partizanski odredi Jugoslavije; Macedonian: Народноослободителна војска и партизански одреди на Југославија)

The common name of the movement is "the Partisans" (capitalized), while the adjective "Yugoslav" is used sometimes in exclusively non-Yugoslav sources to distinguish them from other (World War II) partisan movements. Despite the fact that their name suggests they fought as a guerrilla force, this was only true for the first three years of the conflict. From the second half of 1944 the total forces of the Partisans numbered 800,000 men organized in four field armies and 52 divisions, which engaged in conventional warfare.[4]