Serbian Warriors IV

Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović (Anglicised: Drazha Mihailovich; also known as Čiča, born in Ivanjica, Kingdom of Serbia, April 27, 1893-July 17, 1946) was a Serbian general now primarily remembered as leader of the Yugoslav Royal Army in the Fatherland during World War II. U.S. President Harry S. Truman posthumously awarded him the Legion of Merit for overseeing the rescue of five hundred American airmen by Chetniks during World War II. Following the Yugoslav defeat by Germany in April 1941, a small group of officers and soldiers led by Mihailović refused to surrender, and retreated in hope of finding Yugoslav army units still fighting in the mountains. At Ravna Gora, Mihailović organized the Chetniks detachment of the Yugoslav Army, which became the Military-Chetnik Detachments and finally the Yugoslav Army of the Homeland(Jugoslovenska vojska u otadžbini). The first Chetnik formations led by Mihailović were formed around Ravna Gora on June 14. The stated goal of the Chetniks was the liberation of the country from the occupying armies including the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Ustaše (the fascist regime of the Independent State of Croatia). In 1943, the Germans decided to pursue the Chetniks in the northern zone, and offered a reward of 100,000 Reichsmarks for the capture of Mihailović, dead or alive. The British Special Operations Executive were being sent to aid Mihailović's forces beginning with the autumn of 1941. The Chetniks were forced to move to eastern Bosnia where they engaged in heavy combat with the Ustaše. The Chetnik movement was highly decentralized, and in that way was more like a collective of many small regional guerrillas which shared the same name, rather than a unified army under complete control of Mihailović and his staff. Evidence of Mihailović's loyal Allied and anti-Axis actions, all the way to the end of the occupation, comes from the 500 to 600 Allied (mostly UK and US) military personnel who were rescued by Mihailović forces over almost the entire area where Mihailović forces existed. These British and American personnel often remained with Mihailović and his various forces for months at a time, before they were able to be flown back to the West. As an independent American commission concluded in 1946, these Allied airmen were instructed by their American and British superiors to look for any signs of collaboration, they were given freedom of movement by Mihailović forces, and yet not one of these hundreds testified of Mihailović collaboration with the Axis. Several of these western military personnel gave very detailed testimony of witnessing, and in some cases participating in, anti-Axis actions, even after the Chetniks were abandoned by the Western Allies. The independent American commission that took testimony from some of these airmen concluded:"ALLEGED COLLABORATION WITH THE ENEMY No evidence was adduced before the commission which tended to show any collaboration between General Mihailović and the Axis powers. On the contrary, all the evidence tended strongly to disprove the existence of any such collaboration. ...all classes of witnesses were constantly on the lookout for collaboration, had full opportunity to discover it, and would be expected to discover it if it had existed. ... all the witnesses testified that in Mihailović territory they were allowed to go freely, and without escort, wherever they wanted, to talk without restriction to civilians and soldiers alike, and to make observations as they wished. OPERATIONS AGAINST THE ENEMY The evidence of American officers before the Commission indicated not merely the absence of collaboration between General Mihailović and the Axis powers, but also establish that General Mihailović and his men continued to conduct hostile operations against both the Germans and the Italians, even after the Allies had stopped sending him supplies and had concentrated their support in favor of Marshal Tito, and even after the date of the Italian surrender. American officers testified to numerous specific operations of this kind in which they had themselves participated with General Mihailović or with troops acting under his direction.

Channel: News & Politics
Uploaded: May 7, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Author: Didzoni

Length: 10:12
Rating: 4.63
Views: 40524

Tags: CCCC  Cetnici  Cetnicki  Cetnik  Cica  Dinarska  Divizija  Draza  i  Kosovo  Krajina  Metohija  Mihailovic  Pokret  Srbija  Srpska  

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