Rafael Boban was born on 22 December 1907 in the village of Sovići, near the town of Grude, Austria-Hungary. He was a Roman CatholicBosnian Croat. He served as an officer in the Royal Yugoslav Army prior to joining Ustaše units based in Italyin the summer of 1932. In September 1932, he returned to Croatia and participated in the Ustaše-led Velebit uprising against Yugoslav rule. Afterwards, he traveled to Italian-controlled Zadar to request Italian citizenship and protection. In May 1934, Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić promoted Boban to the rank of sergeant in the Ustaše and he became a member of Pavelić's inner circle. The following year, Boban became a deputy commander of a Royal Italian Army company based in Lipari before being transferred to Calabria. At the beginning of December 1937, Italian authorities arrested him and other members of the Ustaše on suspicion that they were planning to assassinate Yugoslav Prime MinisterMilan Stojadinović. They were all quickly released.
World War II
With the creation of the Independent State of Croatia in April 1941, Boban returned to Croatia and joined the Ustaše Militia. He went to Kupres with 250 Ustaše under his command and organized mass murder of local Serbs. During the June 1941 uprising in eastern Herzegovina Boban was member of group of Ustaše officers led by Mijo Babić which reinforced Ustaše troops attacking the Serb rebels. Their aim was to suppress the uprising and completely destroy Serb population. On 3 July 1941 Boban commanded one of three main groups of Ustaše forces that attacked the rebels along the line: Vranjkuk - Rupari - Trusina - Šušnjatica. On 24 July 1941 Boban commanded a group of Ustaše from Međugorje and Čitluk that imprisoned 20 Serb villagers from village Baćevići and killed them in Međugorje, disposing their bodies in a nearby pit. He was promoted to the rank of captain in November and later became commander of the Black Legion alongside Jure Francetić. Boban assumed full command of the legion following Francetić's death in December 1942. Ustaše propaganda declared him Francetić's natural successor. The legion operated in various parts of the NDH under his command. Boban was promoted to the rank of general in December 1944 and became the head of the Podravina-based Fifth Ustaše Active Brigade of the Croatian Armed Forces that month. That autumn, he was responsible for guarding the imprisoned politicians Mladen Lorković and Ante Vokić in the town of Koprivnica. He held the rank of colonel within the Ustaše Militia by April 1945. In May, he withdrew with the Ustaše towards Austria and is reported to have successfully reached the town of Bleiburg, alongside Pavelić and Vjekoslav Luburić. Many theories exist about what happened to him. One theory states that he was killed in Podravina in 1945, while another states that he either died fighting with the Crusaders in Herzegovina in 1947 or that he emigrated to the United States via Argentina, joined the United States Army and fought Communist forces in the Korean War.
