Chetniks Slovenia Yugoslav Army The Battle of Poljana took place outside of Poljana, near the town of Prevalje in Yugoslavia (modern-day Slovenia) between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, which consisted of the German Wehrmacht, the Croatian Armed Forces (which consisted of Home Guard and Ustaše soldiers), the Montenegrin People's Army (which was of former Chetniks and survivors of the Battle of Lijevče Field), the Serbian Volunteer Corps, the Slovene Home Guard, the 15th Waffen SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and other collaborationist forces who were on their way to surrender to the British in Austria.

The Chetniks were based on the objective of establishing a Greater Serbia, ethnically cleansing regions with Bosnian Muslims and Croats while also collaborating with the Italian and German forces in destroying the Partisans.

In a vain gesture to gain the trust of the Allies, the NDH government revoked their racial policies on 5 May, in which the Ustaše exterminated the majority of Serbs, Jews, and Roma during the course of the war.

That same day, a column of 30,000 soldiers from Army Group E (German: Heeresgruppe E) began their retreat north to Austria, seeking an opportunity to surrender to the British and evade Partisan reprisals.

On May 14 shortly before 9:00 am, the 30,000 strong column of German, Croat, Chetnik, and Slovene soldiers smashed through the defense of Poljana, which was a small town close to the Austrian border.

Large number of skirmishes took place around the field surrounding Poljana, with individuals and small groups fleeing to the hills to make their own way towards Austria while others fell to complete confusion and chaos.

Britain, which at this point had tens of thousands of German, Ustaše, Chetnik, Cossack, Slovene soldiers and civilians in custody, handed the rest of their prisoners at gunpoint to the Yugoslav forces who began massacring the column in what became known as the Bleiburg repatriations.