Bombing, reconnaissance and supply in support of Axis and NDH ground forces against the Partisans.

The Independent State of Croatia was set up in April 1941 after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and was allied to Germany and Italy. Its air force, formed on 19 April 1941, received about 211 of the more than 300 Royal Yugoslav aircraft the Germans captured, mostly obsolete Potez 25s, Breguet 19s and Blenheims, and later German and Italian fighters and bombers. Wikipedia’s account says most of its work was tactical bombing, reconnaissance and supply against the Partisans, peaking at about 4,800 sorties in 1942. Defections were a constant: a Breguet and a Potez went over to the Partisans on 23 May 1942, two Blenheims flew to Turkey in July and October 1942, and several Bf 109s defected in April 1945. When the war ended its surviving aircraft were taken into the new Yugoslav air force. The modern Croatian Air Force dates itself from 1991 and does not present this service as its predecessor on the official pages checked; it is included here because it was a Croatian air force that fought.

Outcome The NDH collapsed in May 1945 and its air force ended on 8 May 1945.

Sortie and aircraft figures come from Wikipedia and its cited specialist literature, not from an official Croatian source. The NDH was an Axis state responsible for mass crimes; this entry covers only its air arm.

Flying for

Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia (Zrakoplovstvo NDH)

Where

Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Alongside

Germany and Italy

Against

Yugoslav Partisans

Aircraft

Potez 25, Breguet 19, Bristol Blenheim, Dornier Do 17, Fiat G.50, Messerschmitt Bf 109

Sorties

About 4,800 sorties in 1942 alone, about 30 per cent of them combat missions, per Wikipedia.

Losses

Not established in the sources checked; several aircraft were lost by defection to the Partisans and to Turkey.

Sources

Wikipedia

A fighter and a bomber squadron attached to the Luftwaffe.

Formed on 12 July 1941 with about 360 officers and men, the Legion sent a fighter squadron and a bomber squadron to serve inside Luftwaffe units in the Soviet Union, on three tours between October 1941 and March 1944. The bombers flew Dornier Do 17Zs and came home in December 1942 with nine aircraft. The fighters, known as 15.(Kroat.)/JG 52, flew Bf 109s and are credited with 283 victories, and 14 of their pilots are counted as aces by late 1943. Those numbers are wartime claims recorded under Luftwaffe procedures and cannot be matched against Soviet loss records here; they should be read as claims. Several Legion pilots later changed sides, among them Mato Dukovac, the best-known of them. The Legion was officially disbanded on 21 July 1944.

Outcome Withdrawn from the Eastern Front by March 1944 and officially disbanded on 21 July 1944; its men were absorbed into home air defence.

Victory totals are claims, not confirmed kills; Soviet loss records were not checked. Individual scores were not confirmed and are left out.

Flying for

Croatian Air Force Legion (Hrvatska zrakoplovna legija)

Where

Soviet Union, from the Ukraine to the Crimea and the Caucasus

Alongside

Germany

Against

Soviet Union

Aircraft

Messerschmitt Bf 109E/G, Dornier Do 17Z, Macchi C.202

Sorties

1,3321,332 combat missions by the bomber squadron (Wikipedia); a separate figure of over 1,500 sorties is given in the NDH air force article.

Losses

Not established in the sources checked.

Sources

Wikipedia · Wikipedia

Supply, casualty evacuation and improvised bombing in 1991; from 1992–1993 reconnaissance, air superiority and close air support with MiG-21s and attack and transport helicopters.

Croatia went to war with almost no air force. The JNA’s air force, with about 300 MiG-21s and Galeb and Orao attack jets, struck targets across Croatia, including Banski dvori in Zagreb on 7 October 1991, and the UN arms embargo of 25 September 1991 fell hardest on the new Croatian forces. Croatian airmen began with An-2 crop dusters; Marko Živković’s Independent Air Platoon Osijek, formed on 8 October 1991, flew supplies to besieged Vukovar and dropped improvised bombs, according to Wikipedia, before he and his crew were killed on 2 December 1991. A Yugoslav Mi-8 hit near Petrinja on 23 September 1991 became the first helicopter. Defecting pilots brought the first MiG-21s — Perešin to Austria in October 1991, Borović in February 1992 and Ivandić on 15 May 1992, with Ivan Selak — and purchases in 1993–1994 added about 20–40 more and about 15 Mi-24s. Wikipedia credits the MiG-21s with reconnaissance, air superiority and close air support, including in Operation Maslenica and Winter ’94, at a cost of three lost to enemy fire. Across the war Croatia reported 15,007 dead or missing (8,685 soldiers and 6,322 civilians); Serb losses are put at 7,134–8,413 dead or missing.

Outcome Croatia regained the Krajina in 1995; the war ended with the Erdut Agreement in November 1995 for eastern Slavonia.

Wikipedia also states that Croatian forces downed more than 40 enemy aircraft; that total mixes air and ground fire, is not broken down, and could not be confirmed on an official page, so it is not used as a figure here. Casualty totals are those reported by each side.

Flying for

Croatian Air Force and Air Defence (HRZ i PZO)

Where

Croatia, including Slavonia, the Banovina, Lika, Dalmatia and Dubrovnik

Alongside

No allied air arm

Against

Yugoslav People’s Army and its air force (1991–1992) and Republic of Serbian Krajina forces

Aircraft

Antonov An-2, MiG-21bis/R/UM, Mi-24, Mi-8

Sorties

No consolidated sortie count was found on official pages.

Losses

3 aircraftWikipedia records three MiG-21s lost to enemy fire. Marko Živković, founder of the Independent Air Platoon Osijek, was killed with his crew on 2 December 1991 (Wikipedia); Rudolf Perešin was killed on 2 May 1995. A full roll of air force dead was not found.

Sources

Wikipedia · Wikipedia · Wikipedia · MORH · MORH · MORH · MORH · MORH · Wikipedia · MORH · MORH · MORH · MORH · MORH

MiG-21 strikes on the Sava bridge at Stara Gradiška and Krajina Serb positions; Mi-24s were requested to stop Serb armour.

Operation Flash, launched on 1 May 1995, was the first of the two offensives that ended the Krajina. According to Wikipedia’s account, artillery and air force strikes caused panic in the Krajina Serb rear but did not bring down the Sava bridge at Stara Gradiška, the escape route into Bosnia; General Bobetko asked for the Mi-24s to be used against Serb armour. The Krajina Serb side put up only two helicopters, and its political leaders refused requests for air support, partly because of NATO’s no-fly zone over Bosnia. On 2 May, at about one o’clock, Perešin — the pilot whose 1991 defection had become a national symbol — was shot down near the bridge. The ministry records that he ejected but landed on enemy-held ground and died; his body was recovered in 1997 and buried at Mirogoj on 15 September 1997. He was then commanding the 21st Fighter Squadron of the 91st Wing.

Outcome Croatia retook western Slavonia in two days. Krajina Serb forces fired cluster rockets at Zagreb on 2–3 May, killing six civilians and injuring 205, per Wikipedia.

The loss is attributed by Wikipedia to Republika Srpska air defences and by the ministry to enemy anti-aircraft fire; the exact unit was not confirmed.

Flying for

Croatian Air Force and Air Defence (HRZ i PZO)

Where

Western Slavonia, around Okučani and Stara Gradiška

Alongside

No allied air arm

Against

Republic of Serbian Krajina forces

Aircraft

MiG-21bis, Mi-24

Losses

1 aircraft · 1 killedRudolf Perešin’s MiG-21 was hit by anti-aircraft fire near Stara Gradiška on 2 May 1995; he ejected over enemy-held ground and was killed. His remains came home on 4 August 1997.

Sources

Wikipedia · MORH · Wikipedia

MiG-21 strikes on command posts, communications, bridges and artillery; Mi-24 attacks on armour; Mi-8 casualty evacuation.

On 4 August 1995, according to Wikipedia’s account, the air force had 17 MiG-21s, five attack helicopters, nine transport helicopters, three transport aircraft and two reconnaissance aircraft. On the first day 13 MiG-21s destroyed or disabled six targets in the Gospić and Zagreb corps areas, with one jet badly damaged and three slightly; three Mi-8s flew casualties. Over the next two days MiG-21s struck a communications facility, a storage site, a command post and a bridge near Karlovac and Glina, a Mi-24 attacked Serb armour near Sisak, and two MiG-21s tried to intercept Bosnian Serb jets but were defeated by fog. US Navy EA-6Bs and F/A-18s on NATO patrol fired on Krajina Serb missile sites at Udbina and Knin on 4 August. The Krajina Serb air force achieved little and had fled to Banja Luka by 5 August. Wikipedia gives 174–211 Croatian soldiers and 560 Krajina Serb soldiers killed. Serb civilian deaths are disputed: 214 by Croatian figures and 1,192 in Serbian sources; 150,000–200,000 Serbs fled. The ICTY tried three Croatian generals and all were ultimately acquitted.

Outcome Croatia retook the Krajina in four days; Croatia marks 5 August as Victory Day, while Serbia commemorates the exodus of the Krajina Serbs.

Each side’s figures are given as attributed; they differ sharply for civilian deaths. Air force figures are from Wikipedia’s summary of the CIA’s Balkan Battlegrounds and similar literature, not from an official Croatian source.

Flying for

Croatian Air Force and Air Defence (HRZ i PZO)

Where

The Krajina: Lika, Kordun, Banovina and northern Dalmatia

Alongside

No allied air arm

Against

Republic of Serbian Krajina forces

Aircraft

MiG-21bis, Mi-24, Mi-8

Sorties

13 MiG-21s flew on the first day and 11 on the second; a campaign total was not found.

Losses

0 aircraftOne MiG-21 severely and three slightly damaged on 4 August, per Wikipedia; no aircraft loss recorded there.

Sources

Wikipedia · Wikipedia

Mi-171Sh helicopters and crews flying transport and support for NATO’s Kosovo Force.

Croatian helicopter crews landed in Kosovo with Mi-171Sh helicopters on 2 July 2009, the year Croatia joined NATO, and the ministry marked ten years of the commitment in July 2019. Contingents rotate from Divulje and Lučko; in August 2019 two freshly overhauled Mi-171Sh went out with the multirole helicopter squadron. It is a peace-support mission rather than combat, but it is the air force’s longest-running operation abroad.

Outcome Continuing; two overhauled Mi-171Sh deployed from August 2019.

Hours flown and passengers carried were not found on official pages.

Flying for

Croatian Air Force

Where

Kosovo

Alongside

NATO

Aircraft

Mi-171Sh

Losses

0 aircraft · 0 killedNone recorded in the sources checked.

Sources

MORH · MORH

Mentored Afghan Air Force Mi-17 pilots and ground crews.

Croatia used its Mil helicopter experience to train Afghans on the Mi-17. The tenth Mi-17 Air Advisory Team finished pre-deployment training at Lučko and Zemunik in February 2014, alongside the 15th KFOR contingent; Wikipedia says the teams trained Afghan helicopter pilots and technicians in Kabul. Start date, locations and totals were not confirmed on official pages.

Outcome The tenth rotation deployed in 2014, as ISAF drew to a close.

Start year UNVERIFIED and left blank.

Flying for

Croatian Air Force

Where

Afghanistan

Alongside

NATO

Against

Taliban

Aircraft

Mi-17 (Afghan aircraft)

Losses

0 aircraftNone recorded in the sources checked.

Sources

MORH · Wikipedia

Two fighters on alert inside NATO’s integrated air and missile defence system.

Croatia has policed its own airspace since joining NATO, which is why the MiG-21 had to be kept flying so long. The MiG-21 alert pair stood down after 30 November 2024; from 1 December 2024 Italian Eurofighters and Hungarian Gripens covered Croatia from their home bases under bilateral arrangements, at no cost to Croatia, so that the Rafale pilots could train without interruption. Hungary’s share ended at the end of 2025, and from 1 January 2026 the Rafales have held the alert 24 hours a day under NATO standards.

Outcome Continuing; Rafales on 24/7 alert since 1 January 2026.

The start of NATO-integrated alert in 2009 is inferred from the date of accession; a formal start date was not found.

Flying for

Croatian Air Force

Where

Croatian airspace

Alongside

NATO, Italy and Hungary

Aircraft

MiG-21bis-D, Rafale

Sorties

Scramble totals were not found on official pages; a MiG-21 intercept near Bjelovar was reported in August 2023.

Losses

0 aircraft · 0 killedNone.

Sources

MORH · MORH · MORH · MORH