CASUALTY RECORD // April 19, 1945
Battle of Odžak
Estimated casualties — killed, wounded, captured, and missing — by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Casualties by side
1 sides catalogued · combined 1,000–10,000 estimated
Yugoslavia
1,000–10,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of Odžak, fought from 19 April to 25 May 1945 in the Bosnian town of Odžak, holds the distinction of being the last battle of World War II in Europe. Croatian Armed Forces (NDH) under Petar Rajkovačić continued organized resistance against the Yugoslav Army under Miloš Zekić for 17 days after the formal end of the war in Europe, making it an outlier engagement with no parallel on the European theater's timeline. Yugoslav forces numbered between 23,000 and 35,000 against an NDH garrison estimated between 1,800 and 11,000, and Yugoslav casualties ranged from 1,000 to 10,000. The battle ended in a Partisan victory, extinguishing one of the final pockets of NDH military resistance and completing the consolidation of Yugoslav control over Bosnia. Its significance lies not in altering the war's outcome, which had already been decided, but in demonstrating that the collapse of the NDH was contested and uneven, requiring continued combat operations well past V-E Day.
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