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Revision as of 14:39, 16 November 2004 by Tschitscha (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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. He was posthumously awarded the "Legion of Merit" for the Chetnik rescues of American Airmens, by the US president Harry S. Truman.
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 the Croatia).
However, he decided against a mass uprising because of catastrophical Serb losses in World War I, in which the Kingdom of Serbia lost a quarter of its male population to the war. Instead, Mihailović gathered logistics in men and weapons, waiting for an Allied landing in the Balkans. A WW I uprising leader and former Chetnik himself, Kosta Milovanović Pećanac, opposed this view and opted for cooperation with the Germans against the Communists who ravaged the Serb countryside and caused the very massive bloodshed Mihailović wanted to avoid. Pećanac and Mihailović became rivals, both claiming to the Chetnik heritage and with Pećanac commanding a much smaller allegiance than Mihailović. Because of his open collaboration with the Germans, Pećanac was shot in 1944 by Mihailović Chetniks for treason upon his capture.
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 Ustaše, resulting in several incidents of war crimes against people who supported the other faction. A notable incident happened in Foča where a large number of Bosnian Muslims (est. over 2,000) were executed by the Chetnik forces. The Chetniks on the other hand claimed that this was nothing more than a reprisal and a retaliation for the Muslim participation in Ustaše war crimes in eastern Bosnia under the régime of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).
A group of Chetnik units commanded by a pre-war priest and later vojvoda, Momčilo Đujić, was located in the southern, Italian zone of NDH, in relative isolation from other Chetnik forces and surrounded by enemies. In 1942, Đujić's troops started accepting arms from the Italian occupation troops in order to fight mainly the Ustaše, but also the Communist Partisans in the border area of Dalmatia, Lika and Bosnia.
This was viewed as proof of Chetnik collaboration with the Axis, even though it was a localized example rather than a rule. Both Đujić and the commander of the Venezia division (viewed by some as pro-Allied and hoping for an Allied landing as well) acted independently of their commanders. Nevertheless, it reflected of Mihailović and was frowned upon both by the Wehrmacht and 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 as the SOE made reports saying the Chetniks refused to carry out several sabotages. The Chetniks denounced these reports as misleading, incomplete and innacurate, as well as originating from the left-wing elements in the SOE. 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. Tried for high treason from June 10 to July 15, he was sentenced to death by firing squad on July 17th. His body was believed to have been burnt and burried 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.
TIME Magazine, in 1942, featured an article which boasted of Mihailovich's Chetniks' success and heralded him as the sole defender of freedom in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Due to the efforts of Major Richard L. Felman and his buddies President Harry S. Truman, on the recommendation of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, posthumously awarded Mihailovich the "Legion of Merit", for the rescue of American Airmens by Chetniks. For the first time in history, this high award and the story of the rescue was classified secret by the State Department so as not to offend the communist government of Yugoslavia and subsequently publicize their colossal blunder of switching sides to Tito during the war.