The place is famous for the heavy fighting at the end of the war, when the remnants of the defeated German army and their servants, mainly Ustasha and Četniks, took refuge there. On 9 May, Colonel-General Alexander Löhr, who became commander of the entire German army in Yugoslavia in March 1945, signed the unconditional surrender of his army in Topolščica, but the army and its Quisling units were moving towards Austria to evade Yugoslav captivity. Therefore, the Yugoslav troops of the 4th Operational Zone, which had in the meantime liberated a large part of Carinthia and had already arrived in Celovec / Klagenfurt at the same time as the British on 8 May, and troops of the 3rd Yugoslavian Army at the river Drava / Drau, closed the way for the enemy to enter Carinthia. The three armies pushed the germans towards the barrier line, along which, after heavy fighting, they had to surrender by 15 May.
In the Mislinja and Mežica valleys, the first days of May 1945 saw heavy fighting with Ustasha, Četniks and other Quislings. The bulk of the Ustasha fought their way through the line of defence at Poljana and penetrated into the Libuče / Loibach forests near Bleiburg / Pliberk - in the hope of surrendering to the British there. The positions of the 14th Shock Division units at the Ustasha barrier at Pliberk / Bleiburg, which had been occupied the day before by the 3rd Battalion of Tomšić's and the 3rd Battalion of Zidanšek's Brigade, and which were based on Senčna hill to the south-east of Libuče / Loibach and on the western outskirts of Borovje nad Hrustom, were heavily reinforced during the night of 15 May. The nearest crossing of the river Drava / Drau at the bridge at Lipica / Lippitzbach was well defended. Here the whole of the 3rd Battalion was in position with one company of the 2nd Battalion of the Schlander Brigade. This meant that there was no longer any way for the Ustasha to move north from the field of Libuče / Loibach.
From negotiations to suicides…
The first negotiations on the surrender of the Ustasha took place on 14 May 1945 around midday and continued until the next day. British officers were also present at the negotiations. At that time the British supported the Partisans or the Yugoslav Army not only with words but also with deeds, which showed that they would not tolerate any attempt by the Croatian fascists to continue the fighting.
The Ustaša had no choice: they laid down their arms and it was decided at what time they would hoist the white flags. When there were no flags at the appointed hour, the partisans started firing machine guns and mortars towards them. The shelling lasted about fifteen to twenty minutes, and then the Ustasha put up the white flags after all, which meant that they had surrendered. The disarming of the Ustasha lasted all night and all the next morning.
On the night of 16 May, the flight of those began who did not dare to give an account for what they had done during the war and for the evil they had committed, or who rightly feared reprisals. Many of the Ustasha headed towards the Drava and swam across the river. Of these, only a few escaped. Most of them were hunted down by patrols of the Zidanšek Brigade. Individual shots and bomb explosions could also be heard in the Ustasha camp itself. Some took their own lives, even killing their own wives and children.
In the end, the Yugoslav army captured more than 20,000 refugees and tens of thousands of Qusling soldiers and officers. With these operations by the partisans or the Yugoslav army, the Second World War ended on 15 May 1945, not only in Yugoslavia and Austria, but also in Europe. The end of the Second World War in Europe is also commemorated by a memorial at Poljana, right next to the Austrian-Slovenian border on the Slovenian side.
Many victims among couriers
In the centre of the village cemetery in Libuče / Loibach, there is a tall stone square with folowing inscription:
Partisans killed in the fight against fascism 1941-1945
Rudolf Trdina and comrades
Previously, a wooden cross stood on the mound; since 1971, the current monument has stood. However, the partisan grave in Libuče / Loibach has always been well tended and always decorated with fresh flowers. Rudolf Trdina was a native of Mežica. He was a shoemaker by profession. He joined the partisans in May 1944 and became a courier in the East Carinthian Detachment. He was killed on 24 January 1945 in a battle with the Nazis near Mozir homestead in Šentjur nad Pliberkom / St. Georgen bei Bleiburg.
A permanent courier liaison had to be maintained between mountain Peca / Petzen and Svinška planina / Saualm, linking fighters and activists from both banks of the river Drava / Drau. The courier route there led right through the conscious village of Libuče / Loibach. Many couriers were ambushed by the enemy or fought to the death with the police and Gestapo in some other way on this route. On the basis of numerous reports from fellow fighters, it can be reasonably assumed that there are still more hitherto undiscovered partisan graves in the area of Libuče / Loibach.
Location:
Libuče / Loibach is a village in the municipality of Pliberk / Bleiburg, located southeast of the city centre. The village can be reached by following the regional road towards Slovenia.