Sources
I
edit- Tito, Mihailović and the Allies, 1941-1945, by Walter R. Roberts: [1]
- P.XVII - Tito/Serbs relations (interesting)
- P. 20 - Mihailovic reaches the Serbian mountains:
"Inmediatelly upon the capitullation of the Yugoslav armed forces a colonel of the General Stuff, Dragoljub (Draza) Mihailovic, who was then in Bosnia, vowed that he would continue to fight in the "Cetnik way". In continuation a short history of the Cetnik movement. More, talking on Cetniks: "The most important posts were held by Royal Yugoslav (mostly Serb) officers, for whom Cetnik work was a full-time activity even in peacetime. Thus when the Germans invaded Yugoslavia they met an organisation specifically trained and adapted for guierilla warfare." Next, talks how Mihailovic went to Serbia where he could develop his guerilla activities, but "He avoided capture by the Germans who took 200,000prisioners of war, all Serbs". - P. 21 - Story of Mihailovic. Afterwords, in middle, numbers Chetnik organisations, and says "...and of course, there were those who openly collaborated with occupying forces. They were the followers of Nedic, who also called themselfs Chetniks, and the adherents of the Serbian fascist, Dimitrije Ljotic." Meaning, not Mihailovic, and from the fact that these were also named Chetniks may come the confusion.
Then says: "In order to dissociate himself from the Chetniks who collaborated with the Germans, Mihailovic at first called its movement the "Ravna Gora Movement". - P. 25 - Benzler report, September 11, 1941: "Individual Chetnik groups are now also taking up positions against the German occupation troops, althugh so far there has been no fighting involving them." He doesn´t talk about Mihailovic Chetniks, but "individual Chetnik groups", however points the general feeling among them. However, "By the end of the month an offensive was under way against the rebels-principally the Communists but also those Chetniks who did not subordinate themselfs to the Germans and Nedic."
- P. 26 - Title: Two different concepts of resistance continues, "The two movements, the Ravna Gora (Chetnik) Movement and the Partisans-found themselfs side by side in the same part of Serbia and at first even collaborated to some extent. It is now clear, however, that Mihailovic and Tito had entirely different concepts of resistance. Although there were some clashes between the Germans and the Chetniks as early as May 1941, Mihailovic thought of resistance in terms of setting up an organisation which, when the time was ripe, would rise against the occupying forces." ... "Mihailovic followed the policy laid down by the Yugoslav Government-in-Exile on July 22, 1941, when it issued a declaration explaining the impossibility of continuing resistance. It asked the population to bear calmly the hardships of occupation and to believe in an Allied victory which would bring freedom to Yugoslavia. The declaration which was read over the BBC admonished the Yugoslav people to avoid battles and to await the signal from London." However, "Mihailovic followed suit now and then against his better judgment in order not to leave the resistance entirely to the Communist-led guerillas."
- P. 27 - "British policy with regard to European resiatnce movements was to restrain them from activities which would led to their premature destruction." Obviously, "This Brittish policy coincided initially with the concepts on the basis of which Mihailovic´s movement was being operated."
- P. 28 - Hudson and radio transmitors.
- P. 34 - "one houndred hostages be executed for every German killed" That policy lead to the Kragujevac massacre that killed on German estimates about 2,300 people. Continuing, "This made a deep impression on Mihailovic, and he vowed not to allow himself to be pushed into operations against the Germans unless he was sure that it would result in total liberation of the country."
- P. 34 - Further, "Tito recalls that during the meeting at Brajici he offered Mihailovic the supreme command but adds that had he accepted it, he would not have served under the Chetnik leader.
- P. 35 - German/Chetnik meeeting at Divci: "His idea (German Captain Matl) was to establish a modus vivendi between German occupying authorities and Mihailovic´s resistance forces." ... "German negociators demanded Mihailovic´s complete surrender. This he rejected." ... "The meeting failed and the state of beligerancy continued".
- P. 37 - "The Chetniks went into the hills of Ravna Gora, but remnants of their forces were under German attack troughout December."
- P. 39 - Just as curiosity: "Herioc resistance was legendary in Serbian history". Important: "It is undoubtedly true that Mihailovic was not unhappy with the expulsion of Partisans from Serbia. The Chetniks may even, here and there, have "helped along". But there was at that time no understanding betwen him, or any commanders acting under his orders, and the Germans."
- P. 41 - Italian/Chetnik relations in Montenegro: "The Montenegrin Chetnik leaers accepted, and this was the beggining of Italian-Chetnik collaboration. However, it should be pointed out that this collaboration started at a time when Mihailovic was still in Serbia and had no control over events in Montenegro, where local Chetnik leaders like Bajo stanisic and Pavle Djurisic decided matters without reference to Mihailovic, even trought there was some courier contact, and Djurisic himself actually came to Ravna Gora in December 1941."
- P. 42 - Yugoslav/Soviet relations: "Earlier in November the Government-in-Exile upgraded Mihailovic title from "Commander of the Chetnik forces" into "Commander of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland"
- P. 43, 44 - "Soviets asked Partisans to join Mihailovic forces". "Partisans who listened to Moscow radio were deeply disturbed...". "Moscow radio continued well into 1942 to praise Mihailovic as the leader of the Yugoslav resistance forces."
II
edit- Shadows on the mountain - The Allies, the Resistance, and the rivalries that doomed WWII Yugoslavia, by Marcia Christoff Kurapovna: [2]
- P. 25 - "D.M. trough terribly wounded during the brief but decisive Serb victory against the Ottomans in Monastir in November 1912, had arrived at the Ostrogovo region with the Vardar Division on August 20as part of a machine-gun company that would reinforce the French and Serbian Armies." (WWI)
- P. 99 - Important: "Nonetheless, around the time that Maclean was writting this report , the original American OSS liaisons to the Chetniks landed in Serbia in late summer and early autumn of 1943, one of the most agressive periods of activity on the part of the Chetniks against the Axis force." ... "The Chetniks were involved in a half-dozen major attacks on those forces, and each time the enemy death tole was around 200 to 300. At Mučanj, to the south of Uzice, on July 31the Chetniks engageed a Bulgarian force, inflicting several casualties. On August 29 they derailed two troop trains and killed 200, while at Prijepolje on Spetember 11 they attacked a German garrison 1,000 strong, killing another 200. The next day at Priboj, a town that lay at the strategic crossoads between Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, they forced the surrender of an Italian garrison of 1,800 man."
- P. 100 - Continuation of Chetnik actions: "Such victories large and smallcontinued on trough the autumn and early winter. On October 5, the Chetniks attacked an 800-strong German garrison killing "several houndred" of them, according to one summary of Chetnik activity of this period. After that attack they blew-up the Belgrade-Sarajevo rail line at Visegrad. On October 14 Mihailovic forced killed several hundred Ustase. Four major railway bridges were destroyed, and the trucks were torn up on the Sarajevo-Uzice line." ... "they were instrumental in compelling the surrender of the Italian Venezia Division at Berane [Montenegro] and of substantial Italian units at Kotor and other points. There were two large scale attacks by German forces to Mihailovic´s headquarters, one o September 5 and the other on October 10 (1943)". ... "Thanksgiving celebration at Ravna Gora for the Amrican mission with him ... not to mention the Chetnik leaders love for America."
- P. 148 - Operation Halyard. "...four thousand troops of Mihailovic´s First Ravna Gora Corps..."
- P. 150 - Stil Halyard: "Mihailovic, meanwhile, had organised 8,000 Chetnik guards to safeguard the areas while Musulin had a Chetnik soldier stationed at each flare ready to light them up on the signal."
- P. 162 - New York Times and Washington Post articles about Mihailovic: "These tributes were not without foundation. Mihailovic´s forces had captured the attention of the Allied powers trough several effective offensives against the Germans." Follows the explanation about the importance of route sabotage by Chetniks and its link to North Africa front. "On all sides of that communication line, Mihailovic forces blew up railroad lines, destroyed bridges, and attacked transportation convoys and German garrisons." (without green-light from London)... "By way of recognition of Yugoslav efforts during the time that French North Africa was being liberated, "free Frech" leader General Charles de Gaulle decorated Mihailovic with the Croix de Guerre with red palm. Serbian efforts in the African campaign were recognised by Adolf Hitler in his New Years speech of 1943, when he said the war in Africa was lost because communications to that theater had been disrupted in Italy and the Balkans." ... "Recognsing the value of General Mihailovic´s initiative Admiral Sir Nehry Hardwood, commander of the Mediterran Fleet, General Claude Achinleck, commander of Brittish troops in the Near East, togehter sent a telegram to General Mihailovic on August 16, 1942 congratulating the Serbian leader, saying they had followed his operations "with admiration" which were "of inestimable value to our Allied cause".
- P. 163 - Comunications of appreciation between Mihailovic and Allies.
- P. 268 - By end of war: "Mihailovic, as we learned earlier, was invited to leave with the Americans. He choose to stay behind, and then he disappeared."
- P. 270 - "Feldman (pilot Richard R. Feldman) was among the twenty-one airman who, it will be recalled, had petitioned Harry S. Truman and the U.S. governament to be allowed to go, at their own expense, to present their testimonies to the jury on trial." ... "Mihailovic, on the recomendation of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, was posthumously awarded the highest award the United..."
- P. 286 - Under "Notes": "The Italian Second Army sought to bring order to their areas of control after the August 1941 Chetnik-led Dvar Uprising against the Ustase and the Partisans, which took place troughout the Western border of Bosnia and into the Croatian province of Dalmatia, where an estimated 100,000 Serbs lived. "By late October of that year, the Italians extended their occupation zone into the NDH, and sent a delegation to Djujic´s Dinaric Division in November to conclude peace agreement. If the Chetniks left them alone, the Italians would not assist the Ustase against the Chetniks. The Germans required that the Chetniks of the Dinaric Division turn over their arms, however, and the men refused to do so. Several of Djujic man, taken to a POW camp near the Croatrian border with Slovenia, chose to committ suicide rather than hand over their guns. As for Djurisic, by February 1942 he had established ties to the Italian Taro Division and signed an agreement with General Alessandro Pirzio Biroli, commander of the Italian Ninth Army, for mutual cooperation against the Partisans. Pirzio Biroli, it should be noted, fought with the Serbs in World War I and had been condecorated with the White Eagle military order of the Kingdom of Serbia."
III
edit- Beacons in the Night, by Franklin Lindsay and John Kenneth Galbraith [3]
- P. 268 - After Chetniks lost Brittish support: "Churchill now protested to Roosvelt again. If they each backed different sides (Brittish Partisans, and Americans Chetniks) they would lay the scene for civil war." This needs more attention, but means definitely that after Mihailovic lost Brittish support, he had American one.
- P. 270 - "At same time Partisans launched their final drive to eliminate the Chetniks... On September 13, the Brittish liaison officcer with the Partisan units attcking Mihailovic in Serbia reported somewhat gleefully by radio: Mihailovic headquarters overrun. Mihailovic escaped with protection... American colonel and two officers with him ... American mission with him." Response from U.S. Colonel John Clarke, Macleans base commander in Italy: "You must reasure us that Partisans are making Belgrade their military objective and not Mihailovic."
- P. 271 - "The two OSS air rescue officers on the ground were impressed with the care the Chetniks took of the downed airman. Men without adequate weapons, clothing, food, and medical care would nevertheless fight the Germans and Partisans to rescue and protect the Americans." ... "In the four months the OSS team was with the Chetniks 340 American airman and several Brittish, Russian, French, Italian, and Polish escapees were flown out of Chetnik territory in Allied C-47S. ... An even larger number had been rescued by the Chetniks in 1943."
- P. 272 - "According to OSS Lieutenant George Musulin, who was with the Chetniks in the winter and spring of 1943-44, the last Chetnik-initiated attack on the Germans was in October 1943." ... "Mihailovic´s attitude is summarized in his own message to his corps commanders in May 1944. Musulin had surreptitiously obtained the text." THE TEXT IS HERE ON THIS PAGE (Talks about the fear of the Communists and the co-existance with Germans on this, athough it says that NO agreement existed between them) "Mihailovic beleaved to the very end that the Brittish and American forces would land and occupy Yugoslavia, and when that day..." (next page without free access, how oportune...)
- P. 274 - "Musulin said that during his months with Mihailovic he had seen no evidence of collaboration."
- P. 274 and 275 - Explains how the collaboration happend (Chetnik official words towards Germans: "You are our enemy..."). Latter, "Tito was determined to keep from us the extent to which the Partisans were fighting the Chetniks rather than Germans as well as the extent they were using Allied weapons to do so. This undoubtedly was one factor behind Tito´s campaign to restrict our contacts and movements with his units and to bring the maximum pressure on us to withdraw all American officers from Mihailovic´s forces. In contrast, even after Allied support was stoped in 1943, Mihailovic and his commanders allowed American officers complete freedom to talk with all ranks and with civilians."
IV
edit- War and revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945, II Volume, by Jozo Tomasevich: [4]
V
edit- Hitler´s new disorder: the Second World War in Yugoslavia, by Stevan K. Pavlowitch: [5]
- P. IX - Interesting: "There was little solidarity between victims of different communities. Muslims militiaman dressed up as Serb chetniks or partisans, Croat ustashas as Muslims, Serb chetniks as partisans and vice versa, to provoke enmity or to divert reprisals to other yet similar villagers." Bogoljub Kočović census of WWII victims is from 900,000 to 1,150,000.
- P. 5 - "The traditional dislike of Germany limited the appeal of Nazi-inspired ideology in Serbia..."
- P. 6 - For other "mediations": "...the Commintern - which, having called for the disollution of Yugoslavia, was more interested in the revolutionary potential of separatist movements. (KPJ) Taken over by its left, which gave priority to the struggle against the Serbian bourgeois nationalist interpretation of Yugoslavia, it had moved its centre from Belgrade to Zagreb."
- P. 8 - Moto of Serb Cultural Club (SKK): "a strong Serb identity - a strong Yugoslavia"
- P. 9 - Situation in Yugoslavia at 1940, and the general feeling among Serbs. Very important for understanding the general conditions in which Yugoslavia was at start of war.
- P. 11 - "Joining Hitler´s coallition was highly unpopular, specially in Serb opinion, which was also warried about the preservation of Yugoslavia´s territorial integrity because so many Serbs were spread troughout the country."
- P. 12 - "Germany was seen, espeacially by Serbs, as the traditional enemy." ... "The German military attaché in Belgrade told an Italian journalist: There will not remain a single stone of Belgrade if the Serbs do not accept the pact." Signing of adherence to the Tripartite Pact, following P.13 "...Yugoslavs behaved as though they were at funeral. (The Ribbentrop Memoirs)"
- P. 13 - More evidence of Serbian anti-German sentiment: "...by accepting the leadership of Germany and Italy in the new European order, Prince Paul and his government had ended their policy of neutrality: this was the last straw for the Serb oposition." This led to the Yugoslav military coup of March 27, 1941. When the pact was signed: "Whidespread demonstrations erupted on that day, first in Belgrade, then in other Serbian towns, and also outside Serbia (notably in Sarajevo, Skopje and Ljubljana)."
- P. 14 - British agents encouraged the coup, then numbers the reasons of the discontent, explaining, again, the Serbian natural predisposition towards the West, and the antipathy towards the Pact.
- P. 15 - About the Coup: "...enthusiasm of Serb people. Even though Croats and Slovenes were, on the whole, appalled by what seemed to them an irresponsable slap in the face to Hitler that placed their regions in a hazardous situation, the coup showed a deep yearning for a fully representative government in an hour of need."
- P. 16 - Interesting: "He (Hitler) wanted to punish the Serbs, the main disturbers of European order. In him, the anti-Serbian Austrian streak erupted that went back to before the First World War." ... "He gave orders to invade Yugoslavia at the same time as Greece and destroy it as a state "with merciless brutality"....A propaganda campaign was started which depicted Yugoslavia as an inorganic construct made up of mutually hostile races, with chauvinistic Serbian power seekers engaged in a belligerant course against the Reich. It set non-Serbs against Serbs and disseminated stories about Serb terror against ethnic Germans,..."
- P. 17 - "On the same day, alledging atrocities against the German minority, Hitler attacked at dawn with no ultimatum or declaration of war." After, interesting: "Rumors were spread (by Germans) that only Serbia would be defended. Special propaganda units to subvert the Croats reinforced ustasha action." P. 17/18 Bombardment of Belgrade: "...lasted three days and destroyed almost fifty per cent of the housing of what was suposedly an open city."
- P. 18 - Unrelated to mediation: "There was even an offensive (of Yugoslav Army) into Albanian territory, with a concentric attack to Shkoder (Scutari)." ... "By 14 April the Yugoslavs had effectively turned to the defensive in Albania. There were other cases of efficient initiatives by lower commanders and of local resistance, notably heroic action in the defence of Belgrade by air force pilots who, incidentally, represented a good cross section of Serb, Croat and Slovene officers."
- P. 22 - After the capitulation, the German Supreme Command announced the end of operations on "Serbian Theatre". Various categories of prisoners of war were allowed home ... until only 181,000 were left in camps in Germany and 10,000 in Italy - ninety percent of them Serbs". "Hitler wanted to destroy forever the "Versailles construct" that was Yugoslavia. Serbs were to be punished; Croats brought over to the Axis; Slovenes Germanised or dispersed. Germany ... and it was ready to satisfy many territorial claimants. ... a residual Serbia under German control."
- P. 23 - About NDH: "Its proclamation has been stage-menaged by German emissaries, under the umbrella of the Wehrmacht. A significant part of the population, generally in towns and particularly in Zagreb, viewed it favourable. The ustashas had a modicum of popular support in western Herzegovina and Lika, but virtually nowhere else. However, most people accepted "the resurrection of a Croatian state" with the feeling that the war had ended quickly and that the worste had been avoided."
- P. 24 - Note: "13 April, German operations against Yugoslav Army were still going on."
- P. 33, 34 - Serbin population under NDH, mass moves/Jasenovac. P. 34 - Serbs in Bosnia under NDH.