[1] The leadership of the Independent State of Croatia was preparing for the impending major battles against the Yugoslav Partisans who were in 1944 reinforced by the Red Army.

Staff jobs, that is planning, logistic, technical work and training were performed by German army experts, while the Ustaše provided the manpower.

Regardless, the majority of the Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia and a large number of Ustaše members retreated towards the Austrian and Italian borders.

[2] Soldiers who returned from abroad in mid-1945 acted in unorganized, small groups, which provided a foundation for future guerrilla forces.

[3] Croatian historian Zdravko Dizdar describes the Crusaders mostly as soldiers and other individuals associated with the NDH army who went underground for fear of their lives, because the Partisans had engaged significant OZNA resources in tracking them down, which led to either their summary executions, judicial executions, or long prison sentences.

There was also support for the Crusaders in anti-Communist emigrant communities, especially in Spain, Argentina, Canada, the United States, and West Germany.

[3] The Yugoslav Department of State Security (UDBA) blamed the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS, also called Mačekovci) and the Catholic clergy for the creation of the Crusaders.

The UDBA claimed that the name "Crusaders" was coined in June 1945, when remaining elements of the Croatian Armed Forces and the clerical part of the HSS joined.

Their flag was the Croatian tricolor with the slogan "For Croatia and Christ Against Communists" ("Za Hrvatsku i Krista protiv komunista") on one side, and "In this sign thou shalt conquer" ("U ovom ćeš znaku pobijediti") on the other.

[citation needed] Yugoslav government victory In the summer of 1945 after their complete dispersion, the Crusaders started to organise, connect and form strongholds.

In July of the same year, president of the Government of the People's Republic of Croatia, Vladimir Bakarić stated that they would destroy the guerrillas within a month if the Crusaders weren't helped by Austria and Italy.

[citation needed] The Yugoslav government invested great efforts to renew residential buildings and communications.

Communist Party organisations, charged to prevent the spread of defeatism and demoralisation, still reported conflicts between Croats and Serbs.[which?]

Conditions in Croatia in mid 1947 was described in reports by Ustaše Officers Ljubo Miloš and Ante Vrban.

However, UDBA soon captured both Vrban and Miloš and used them to lure senior officers and politicians back in the country by sending false information, so they can arrest them.

[citation needed] Though there was an attempt at founding a new Crusader group in 1952 near Našice, it was clear that their existence as an active movement was at its end.

[citation needed] With the end of the Crusaders, the last sign of armed Ustaše resistance to Communism in Croatia vanished.

Although the Communist government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, especially through the Department for the Protection of the People (OZNA) Department of State Security (UDBA) fought against the Crusaders and their sympathizers mercilessly,[citation needed] some level of armed resistance to the Yugoslav government by Croatian nationalists continued long after the end of WWII.