Ivan Babić

Who was Ivan Babić?

Ivan Babić was a Croatian soldier and lieutenant-colonel in the Croatian Home Guard and later an emigrant dissident writer against Communist Yugoslavia.

He attended gymnasium in Bjelovar. Babić became a military cadet in the Yugoslav Royal Army and was sent to Paris to perform further training at the École Superieure de Guerre. During the April War Babić served as a major in the 38th Drava Infantry Division.

In 1942 he commanded the 369th Reinforced Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the Croatian Legion, which fought on the Eastern Front. In 1943 he headed the Home Guard Central School.

In 1943 Babić flew a mission to American troops in Italy to suggest that the Allies invade the Dalmatian coast of the Independent State of Croatia to prevent the country from falling into communist hands. He claimed the invasion would meet no resistance and that the Croatian army would establish a beachhead for them. The British subsequently held him as prisoner of war in Bari.

After the war he worked for a period as an engineer in Venezuela. He was a frequent contributor to the Croatian emigrant weekly Hrvatska revija. He secured the visa for Croatian writer, and later assassination victim, Bruno Bušić to come to Spain.