Lorković – Vokić plot Lorković – Vokić plot ( ) was an attempt initiated by the Minister of Interior , Mladen Lorković and Minister of Armed Forces , Ante Vokić , to form a coalition government with the Croatian Peasant Party ( HSS ) , abandon the Axis powers and align the Independent State of Croatia with the Allies with help of the Croatian Home Guard . The plan originated from the HSS which was also involved in the negotiations with the Allies . The plot ended with the massive arrests and execution of major plotters , including Lorković and Vokić . Situation in Europe . On 24 August 1942 , Germans launched an attack on Stalingrad . The Battle of Stalingrad ended in German defeat on 2 February 1943 . After this victory , the war was in the Soviet favour . Allied invasion of Sicily was launched on 9 July 1943 , and not long after , Benito Mussolini was overthrown and arrested on 25 July . On the same day , Italian king , Victor Emmanuel , named Pietro Badoglio Italy ' s Prime Minister and on 8 September 1943 he signed the unconditional capitulation of Italy . On 6 June 1944 the Allies launched the Operation Overlord , an invasion of the German - occupied coast of Normandy . The operation is also known as the D - Day . Coup attempts among the Axis nations . Because of defeats that Axis forces suffered from Allied armies , some Axis nations tried to change sides . On 23 August 1944 , as Soviet forces approached Romania , Romanian king , Michael made a coup and joined the Allies . After that Romania was split into two parts , one supporting King Michael and other still supporting the Germans and Ion Antonescu . Not long after the coup in Romania , Fatherland Front in Bulgaria overthrown the earlier Bulgarian government on 2 September 1944 . Three days later , the Soviet Union declared a war on Bulgaria soon occupying the northeastern part of Bulgaria . Bulgarian Army was ordered not to make any resistance . Bulgaria joined the Allies on 8 September 1944 . On 15 October 1944 , Hungarian leader Miklos Horthy announced that he had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union . However , the Germans launched Operation Panzerfaust and installed Ferenc Szálasi as leader of Hungary . Even after Horthy announced the armistice , Hungarian soldiers continued to fight the Red Army . Preparations for the coup . Vladko Maček , the President of the Croatian Peasant Party , thought that the British would support the democratic and anti - communist Croatian state . Because of that , he thought that the Allies would eventually land on the Dalmatian coast and support his party as democratic and anti - communist . He also assumed that the Croatian Home Guard will support the HSS once the invasion of Dalmatia starts . Nevertheless , the Draža Mihailović ' s Serb - dominated Chetniks had a plan directed against both , Croats and Communists , if the Allied invasion of Dalmatia would occur . The three members of the HSS ' leadership , August Košutić , the Vice President ; Ljudevit Tomašić , a deputy secretary and representative who was already in contact with the Allies ; and Ivanko Farolfi were assigned for negotiations with the British . Farolfi was the most active and was in charge of maintaining contact with the Croatian army officers , party leaders and foreign intelligence services . Mladen Lorković , had in plan to disarm the German army on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia ( NDH ) , install the Croatian Peasant Party ( HSS ) into the government and to call all of the Allied armies to land on the territory of the NDH . He also believed that the HSS would prevent the communists or King Peter II to came into power . In July 1944 , Vokić held a meeting at which he pointed out that once Allies invade Balkans , the German armed forces must be disarmed . The Germans were aware that Croatia could switch to Allies . The Luftwaffe ' s attache in Zagreb on 11 August reported that the Croatian military become increasingly uncooperative towards the Germans . He also noted their request for higher amount of arms and ammunition from the German military . Lorković established the contact with the Croatian Peasant Party representatives in Croatia , Ivanko Farolfi , Ljudevit Tomašić and August Košutić . Their plan about Allied invasion of Dalmatia failed at its beginning , as Allies had no intention to do that . Even so , Winston Churchill was a sympathizer of the Allied invasion of Croatian coast , so he initiated a discussion with Josip Broz Tito about invasion of the Istrian peninsula in August 1944 . The representatives of the HSS and Croatian Home Guard offered only promises , while the Yugoslav Partisans were involved in the war , and at the Teheran Conference , the Partisans gained status of the Allied force . The British did not wanted to risk the cooperation with the Partisans , and their involvement in Yugoslavia was already well complicated as they dealt with the Royal Yugoslav Government - in - exile and the Communists ; involvement of the Croatian Home Guard and the HSS would complicate the situation even more . The Croatian negotiators with the Allies were Tomo Jančiković , Zenon Adamić and Ivan Babić . The British always had a separate meeting with them . The HSS thought that their emissaries were successful with the making of the invasion plan . The appointment of Ivan Šubašić as the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia in exile and General Ivan Tomašević ' s offered help that he would put his army under Allied command once the invasion begins , encouraged the plotters even more . Finally , the Romanian coup and advance of the Soviet troops make them believe that the Allies would soon invade Dalmatia . End of the plot and arrests . Ante Pavelić , " Poglavnik " of the Independent State of Croatia , thought that the Germans would win the war with the " horrible weapons " . He called a meeting of his cabinet to his villa , which was guarded by the armed men . A meeting took place on 30 August 1944 , and Pavelić accused both Lorković and Vokić for the involvement in the plot and treason . Vice President of the Government , Džafer Kulenović , and many other defended them , but without avail . Lorković and Vokić were arrested among 60 others . Lorković requested from Pavelić that he shouldn ' t harm the members of the HSS , " as promised " , while Vokić defended them in front of Pavelić that they did everything as he ordered them to . Few those who were arrested were soon released , while Lorković and Vokić were tried and imprisoned .