Draža Mihailović

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

General Dragoljub Mihailovich, portrait by Jim Pollard, St. Sava Cultural Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1981

Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailovich (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић; also known as Чича / Čiča (Old man)) (April 27, 1893 - July 17, 1946), was a Serbian general now primarily remembered as leader of the Yugoslav Royal Army in the Fatherland (the "Chetniks") during World War II. After the war, he was tried by rival Communist Partisans for alleged collaboration, shot and then buried in an unmarked grave. 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.

Born in Ivanjica, Serbia, Mihailović went to the Serbian military academy in October 1910 and as a cadet fought in the Balkan Wars 1912–1913. In July 1913 he was given rank of Second Lieutenant as the top soldier in his class. He served in World War I and together with the Serbian army marched through Albania in 1915 during the long retreat of the Serbian army. He later received several decorations for his achievements on the Salonica front.

Between the wars he became a staff officer (elite of Serbian/Yugoslav army) and achieved the rank of colonel. He also served as military attaché in Sofia and Prague.

His military career almost came to an abrupt end after several incidents, the most important one being the idea of dividing the Yugoslav army along national lines into (Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes), for which he was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment. World War II found Mihailović occupying a minor position of assistant to chief of staff of the Second Army.

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 mountains. After arriving at Ravna Gora, Serbia on May 8, he realized that his group of seven officers and twenty four non-commissioned officers and soldiers was the only one.

Colonel Mihailovich, 1930's

At Ravna Gora, Mihailović organized the Chetniks detachment of the Yugoslav Army, which became the Military-chetnik detachments and finally 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 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 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. 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's Chetniks for treason upon his capture.

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. 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.

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. It is unclear however how much say Mihailović himself had in these incidents. 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.

German standing offer of 100,000 Reichsmarks in gold for Mihailović capture, 1943

By the middle of 1943, the partisan movement had successfully survived an intense period of Axis pressure, while the Chetniks had almost entirely abandoned anti-fascist activities in favour of fighting the Partizans. Consequently, at the Tehran Conference in November 1943, a decision was made by the Allies to cease their support of the Chetniks, and switch allegiances to Tito's Partisans who were the main anti-fascist resistance group in Yugoslavia.

Towards the end of the war, Mihailović went into hiding in East Bosnia. He was captured on March 13, 1946 by agents of OZNA (Odsjek Zastite Naroda — Department of National Security). Tried for high treason and war crimes from June 10 to July 15, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad on July 15th. The Presidium of the National Assembly rejected the clemency appeal on July 16. He was executed together with nine other officers in the early hours of 18 July 1946, in Lisiciji Potok, about 200 meters from the former Royal Palace, and buried in an unmarked grave on the same spot. His main prosecutor was Miloš Minić, later minister of foreign affairs for the Communist government of Yugoslavia.

His execution was a sticking point in Franco–Yugoslav relations and Charles de Gaulle, Mihailović's friend, refused to visit Yugoslavia due to what he viewed as Mihailović's murder by Marshal Tito's communist regime.

1 Legion of Merit
2 War crimes
3 External links
- 3.1 Photos

[edit] Legion of Merit

Legion of Merit, posthumous award by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, 1948

Due to the efforts of Major Richard L. Felman and his friends, President Harry S. Truman, on the recommendation of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, posthumously awarded Mihailović the "Legion of Merit", for the rescue of American Airmen 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.

"General Dragoljub Mihailovich distinguished himself in an outstanding manner as Commander-in-Chief of the Yugoslavian Army Forces and later as Minister of War by organizing and leading important resistance forces against the enemy which occupied Yugoslavia, from December 1941 to December 1944. Through the undaunted efforts of his troops, many United States airmen were rescued and returned safely to friendly control. General Mihailovich and his forces, although lacking adequate supplies, and fighting under extreme hardships, contributed materially to the Allied cause, and were instrumental in obtaining a final Allied victory." March 29, 1948, Harry S. Truman.

Almost sixty years later, on May 9, 2005, Draža Mihailović's daughter Gordana was presented with a decoration bestowed posthumously on Draža Mihailović by President Truman in 1948, for the assistance provided to the crews of US bombers that were gunned down on the territory under Chetnik control in World War II.