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Revision as of 09:53, 3 October 2004
Dragoljub "Drazha" Mihailovich (also Čiča, Draža Mihajlović or Mihailović, Serbian Драгољуб Дража Михаиловић), (April 26, 1893 - July 17, 1946) was a Serbian general who became a war hero in World War I and who later led the Chetniks during World War II.
Mihailović went to Serbian military academy in October 1910 and as a cadet fought in Balkan Wars 1912-1913. In July 1913 he was given rank of Second Lieutenant as a top of his class. He served in World War I and together with Serbian army crossed over to Albania in 1915, later he received several decorations on Salonica front.
Between the wars he become staff officer (elite of Serbian/Yugoslav army) and achieved rank of colonel. He also served as military attaché in Sofia and Prague.
His military carrier almost came to a abrupt end after several incidents, most dangerous one being idea of dividing Yugoslav army according to national lines (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes) to make it more effective for which he got 30 days imprisonment. World War II found Mihailovich on a rather minor position of assistant to chief of staff of the Second Army.
After the Yugoslav defeat 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 mountains. After arriving at Ravna Gora in Serbia on May 8, he realized that his group of seven officers and twenty four non-commissioned officers and soldiers was the only one.
Mihailović first organized Chetniks detachment of Yugoslav Army which become Military-chetnik detachments and finally Yugoslav Army of the Homeland (Jugoslovenska vojska u otadžbini).
The first Chetnik formations led by Mihailović were recorded around Ravna Gora on June 14th, making them the first organized resistance against the Nazi occupiers in Yugoslavia. The goal of Mihailović's Chetniks was the liberation of the country from the fascists forces which included the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Ustase (the fascist regime of Croatia).
However, he decided against a mass uprising because the same thing during World War I was quelled in blood with mass executions of Serbs, mostly by Bulgarians, and instead wanted to gather weapons and wait until the right moment. The leader of the WWI Toplice uprising was Kosta Milovanović Pećanac and he now became Mihailović rival for control over various Chetnik groups. Because of his open collaboration with the Germans, Pećanac lost support and was eventually caught and shot in 1944.
The British Special Operations Executive were being sent to aid Mihailović's forces beginning with the autumn of 1941. Mihailović rose in rank, becoming the Minister of War of the exile government in January 11, 1942 and General and Deputy Commander-in-Chief on June 17 the same year.
In late 1941, he attempted to sign a truce with the Germans and offer to fight the partisans, but the offer was declined. The Chetniks were forced to move to eastern Bosnia where they engaged in heavy combat with the Ustase, resulting in several incidents of war crimes against people who supported the other faction. A notable incident happened in Foča where a large group of Bosnian Muslims (est. over 2,000) was subject to mass rape and murder at the hand of the Chetnik forces.
The collaboration of the Chetniks with the Italians and against the Ustase and to an extent the Partisans started in the southern zone by 1942. The group collaborating with the Italians was led by another Chetnik leader, pop Momčilo Đujić, but despite the fact they were a diverse group this reflected upon their commander Mihailović and was frowned upon by the Allies, particularly Winston Churchill. In 1943, the Germans decided to pursue the Chetniks in the northern zone, and even offered a reward of 100.000 gold marks for the capture of Mihailović, dead or alive. By the end of 1943, the United Kingdom and the USA decided to stop supporting the Chetniks after their refusal to carry out several sabotages. Instead, they switched their support to Tito's Partisans who they deemed to have become the main anti-fascist resistance group in Yugoslavia.
After the war, he was captured by the Communist government on March 13, 1946. Trialled for high treason between June 10 and July 15, he was sentenced to death on July 17th, shot to death and buried in an unmarked grave near Belgrade. His main prosecutor was Milos Minic, later minister of foreign affairs for the Communist government of Yugoslavia and ethnic Serb. His execution was a sticking point in Franco-Yugoslav relations and Charles de Gaulle refused to visit Yugoslavia on account of refusing to meet Mihailovich's murderer, Marshall Tito.
Although there are rumours that he was also the TIME Magazine's Man of the Year in 1942, actually it was Joseph Stalin. Time did feature an article which boasted of Mihailovich's Chetniks' success at one point.