Draža Mihailović
Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović (Драгољуб Дража Михаиловић, also Čiča, Draža Mihailović), (April 26, 1893–July 17, 1946) was a Serbian general who became a war hero in World War I and who later led the Yugoslav Royal Army in the Fatherland, also referred to as Chetniks during World War II. After the war he was tried for alleged collaboration with the various invaders by the rival Communist Partizans, shot and buried in an unmarked grave. U.S. president Harry S. Truman posthumously awarded him the "Legion of Merit" for the rescue of 500 American Airmen by Chetniks during World War II.
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 a 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.
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 14th,. 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 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. Pećanac and Mihailović became rivals, both claiming to the Chetnik heritage and with Pećanac commanding a much smaller allegiance than Mihailović. Because of his collaboration with the Germans, Pećanac was executed in 1944 by Mihailović's 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.
On May 25th 1942. the TIME Magazine featured front cover picture of Dragoljub "Draja" Mihailovic with an article describing Mihailovic as greatest guerilla fighter of Europe.
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.
As per official history books of Communist Yugoslavia, 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 (if any) Mihailović had himself involved 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.
By the middle of 1943, the communist partisan movement had successfully survived an intense period of Axis pressure, while the Chetniks had almost entirely abandoned anti-fascist activities (without substantial evidence) in favour of fighting the Communist 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.
Towards the end of the war, Mihailović went into hiding in East Bosnia. He was obducted on March 12, 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 and proclaimed guilty. Mihailovic was 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, Mihajlović's friend, refused to visit Yugoslavia on account of refusing to meet Mihailović's adversary Marshal Tito, whom he accused of de-facto killing his rival.
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 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.
Almost 60 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.
External links
- V-E Day celebrations in Serbia with Chetnik and U.S. veterans
- Mihailović's bio at Columbia Encyclopedia
- Biography of Dragoljub-Draža Mihailović at Vojska.net
- SUC Biography
- Congressional Record on Mihailović
- General Mihailović's Legion of Merit
- Tribute to Mihailović
- Draža Mihailović In Memoriam
- Erection of Mihailović monument in US
