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A Biography of Draza Mihailovich-Dragoljub Draza Mihailovic was born on April 27th, 1893 in Ivanjica, Serbia. His father, Mihailo and mother Smiljana had two other children, Milica and Jelica, Milica died as a young child. Draza and his sister Jelica lost their father to tuberculosis in 1895, the year Jelica was born. Five years later their mother died. The two children were taken in by their uncle Vladimir, who was a military officer in Belgrade as were their two other uncles. There was little doubt that Draza, under the influence of his officer uncles would choose anything but a career in the military. In September 1910, after finishing secondary school, Draza entered the Serbian Military Academy (Vojna Akademija) in Belgrade.He distinguished himself at the prestigious academy, but his third year was interrupted by the first Balkan War in 1912. Serbia with its Allies - Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro fought hard to drive Turkey out of the region. This was young Draza'a first war. Thirty years later, World War II would be his fourth. Draza was just 19 years old when he was placed in the Drina Division and took part in the famous battle of Kumanovo. He was promoted to sergeant major and received the silver medal for bravery.The following year 1913, the second Balkan War broke out. This time Serbia and its allies - Greece and Romania fought Bulgaria a former ally. Shortly there after he was transfered to the Morava Division where he became the leader of a platoon. He was wounded in battle, and received the gold metal for bravery, and promoted to Second Lieutenant. When an Albanian revolt broke out, Mihailovic, as part of the 4th Infantry Regiment "Stefan Nemanja" , was sent to Kosovo, after he had served several months he returned to Belgrade. Dinarska DivizijaDraza at the time of World War IIn 1914 Serbia had to face one of its greatest military challenges, the first World War. When the Austro-Hungarian army invaded Serbia, Draza was in the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Drina Division; Mihailovic participated in the famous battle of Cer (Tser) and the battle of Kolubara. In each he received the gold medal for bravery. In December of 1915, the Serbian Army and government facing insurmountable odds began to retreat from Serbia, rather than to capitulate. This event was know in Serbian history as the Albanian Golgotha (Albanska Golgota). Serbian soldiers and civilians struggled through the bitter cold and rugged mountainous terrain to reach the safety of the sea, where they would be ferried to the Island of Corfu. Young Draza was on that retreat, but unlike other units, which discarded their heavy weapons along the way, he and his men, managed to hold onto captured machine guns. After getting re-supplied and rearmed on Corfu, Mihailovic was shipped to the Salonika front, where he took part in numerous battles.On September 11th, 1916 he was seriously injured although the doctors told him that he should be reassigned to the rear, he refused. After his recuperation he returned to the front lines. In January of 1918 he was promoted to First Lieutenant. Mihailovic was a war hero, in 1918 he was awarded the Order of White Eagles with Cluster (IV) for outstanding service and bravery. This was one of the highest awards in the Serbian Army and young officers like Draza were rarely given such a prestigious medal. He was only Serbian soldier in the Division to receive the English Military Cross.Following the war, he again was sent to Kosovo because of an Albanian revolt. He was there for a few months before he was transferred to his peacetime command, at the "King Peter I" barracks in Skoplje, Macedonia, as the deputy commander of the machine gun detachment of the 28th Infantry Regiment. Recommended by his commander as the best soldier in his regiment, he was reassigned to the prestigious Kings Guard Regiment in Belgrade in 1919. In 1920 he was promoted to the rank of Captain and received, the Order of White Eagles with Clusters (V). Mihailovic was quickly becoming one of the highest decorated soldiers in the Royal Yugoslav Army. In 1920 Mihailovic married Jelica Lazarevic, Draza and Jelica had four children Branko, Ljubivoje, Vojislav and Gordana. Vojislav, who served with his father during world war two, was killed in 1945. Gordana still lives in Belgrade and is a retired pediatric radiologist, Branko lived in Belgrade until 1995 and Ljubivoje died as an infant.In 1921 Draza was transferred to Sarajevo at the Non-Commissioned officers infantry school as an instructor, but he returned later on in the year to Belgrade to join the 23rd class of the Graduate School at the Military Academy. Two years later he finished near the top of his class with a Masters Degree in Military Science, he was promoted to captain first class. In 1925 he passed his exams for promotion to major. The young major, then only in his thirties was one of the elite officers in the Yugoslav Army. He was then reassigned to the staff of the Kings Guard where he became the head of the Staff and commander of the Third Battalion of the Infantry Regiment. At that time he also taught strategy at the academy and was awarded the Order of St. Sava (IV). On Easter 1930, at the age of 37 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.In this same period, Lt. Col. Mihailovic was sent to France for further military training, Mihailovic was fluent in French and during his stay, he befriended a French officer, Charles de Gaulle. After his return, Mihailovic received the Order of the Yugoslav Crown (IV). Six months later he was appointed military attaché to the Court of King Boris of Bulgaria. Upon Draza's return to Yugoslavia, Draza as promoted to rank of full colonel and King Boris awarded him to the Order of Alexander of Nevsky III. His next assignment was military attaché to Czechoslovakia, he arrived in Prague of May 1936. His main duty was to acquire military supplies for Czechoslovakia from the Yugoslav factory in Krusevac. When he left Czechoslovakia he received the Order of the White Lion II from the President of Czechoslovakia, Edward Benes. In 1939 he was transferred back to Belgrade as permanent instructor of the Military Academy in Belgrade.Mihailovic's return to Belgrade was less favorable in the eyes of Gen. Milan Nedic, the Minister of Army and Navy. When Draza was stationed in Slovenia in 1937 he witnessed the German annexation of Austria. He was suspicious of the Germans and openly anti-Nazi. When he watched the German minority in Slovenia celebrate victories of Adolph Hitler, he suspected many in Yugoslavia of "fifth column" activities and warned his commander that the Nazis would not stop at the Austrian border. As a result he wrote a detailed report to Nedic. In it he concluded that, if Yugoslavia were invaded, it would be difficult to hold the central government together and defend the cities. The current military methods of defense-fortifications could not stop a superior army like the Germans.In order to oppose an invasion he suggested instead that the people of Yugoslavia convert to the traditional warfare of the chetas, small bands of soldiers living in the mountains. He urged that materials be systematically concealed in the mountains to supply small bands of resistance. While the enemy occupied the flat lands, a three-part program should be initiated. The first part would be for small bands to gather necessary intelligence about enemy troop locations and strengths. Second guerrilla, sabotage activity would target the enemy's supply and transportation system. And finally, once the countries allied against Germany had crossed into Yugoslavia, a general uprising would begin. The highest echelon in Belgrade thought that Draza's plan was revolutionary and dangerous. To them the very idea of abandoning the cities, especially Belgrade was ridiculous. As a result of the report, general Nedic had Mihailovic arrested. He served three days in military prison, but Nedic however, lacked the support to court martial the popular colonel.After this ordeal he went back to the academy and continued teaching his students the idea of guerilla warfare in case of an invasion. Many would later join him during the war. His ideas were so unpopular with the command that his teaching career was cut short. In 1940 at a reception held the English Embassy, Draza openly criticized Germany, Hitler and the Nazi's. A German representative at the reception reported Draza's comments to the Yugoslavian foreign Minister, Alexander Cincar-Markovic who would later sign the Tripartite Pact with the Axis powers. Markovic informed General Nedic of Mihalovic's behavior. Once again Mihailovic served 30 days in a military jail.Draza During World War TwoWhen the Germans did invade the kingdom of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, after the coup over through the pro German government of Prince Paul and was replaced by the pro British government of King Peter the second, colonel Mihailovic was ordered to report to the second army's headquarters in Kiseljak, near Sarajevo. Within one week the German army marched within Belgrade and four days later the government and large portions of the Yugoslav army surrendered. General Nedic made a public speech in which he ordered the Yugoslav soldiers to surrender to the Germans, but Mihailovic still in Bosnia refused to capitulate. Instead he gathered his men and gave the following speech:"Junaci ! (Heroes) From these messages we can see that our leaders have shamefully signed an unconditional surrender in the face of German Military power. I do not recognize this capitulation. I will not surrender to the Germans alive. Germany must loose this war. This war was not over; this war was a blunder. We will organize and carry out a guerilla struggle against the occupiers as much as we are able. When our allies the English hear our situation, they will help us". "Little Serbia lead the first and second Balkan wars and the First World War. From these Wars she immerged victorious. She showed absolute faith in her allies and Serbian heroism amazed the whole world and served as an example of how one suffers and dies for freedom. And this time we will fight for our freedom and for a better and happier Yugoslavia-Zivo Kralj" (Long live the King).From Bosnia, Draza and a few of his men began to make their way back to Serbia, to begin the resistance movement that he described two years before. Because the rest of Europe was occupied, Mihailovic had no one on the outside to rely on. He began his plan, but the missing element was the vital system of supplies he had envisioned concealed throughout the mountains. Of course, it had not been prepared and for the rest of the war, Mihailovic would be plagued by his constant lack of supplies.By May 8, 1941, Mihailovic and a few officers had reached Ravna Gora, a mountainous central region of Serbia near Draza's home. In spite of his preparations, Mihailovic did not expect to become the leader of the entire resistance movement.He believed that other higher-ranking officers would step forward and organize the new army. At Ravna Gora, he considered that he was developing a purely local resistance group. After a few months his name and his resistance movement spread through Serbia, and his reputation as a Serbian freedom fighter grew. It became clear to him that there was no one else to lead the movement, so he reluctantly took charge. Most interestingly Draza did not officially use the name Chetnik to describe his movement. His army would officially be called the Royal Yugoslav Army of the Homeland. The people in the villages gave his movement the name "Chetniks". Chetnik is derived from the work Cheta meaning small band or group. (During the Ottoman Empires occupation of Serbia Chetas, would attack Turkish positions through utilizing guerilla warfare tactics). Draza also refereed to his movement as the Nationalist movement, to differentiate himself form the other movements, such as Kosta Pecanac leader of the group called the Chetniks, which were allied with the Germans."Crna Trojka" which was a secret military police under Draza's command, had Kosta executed due to his collaboration with the Germans. The Yugoslav government in exile reached London and became the legitimate power of Yugoslavia in the summer of 1941. As long as the German- Soviet non-aggression pact sighed by Hitler and Stalin on August 23, 1939 was in effect the Communists were not to join the resistance. Only after Germany invaded Russia on June 22 1941, did the Communist party of Yugoslavia begin their resistance movement known as the Partisans, lead by an unknown person at the time Josip Broz Tito.Draza met with Tito twice in the fall of 1941, and no agreement was concluded. After the second meeting the Partisans attacked the nationalist (Chetniks) while the Chetniks were conducting attacks on the Germans. Draza had planned a resistance movement that would eventually drive out the occupation forces; he had not foreseen a simultaneous and protracted civil war that would eventually ware down the Nationalist/Royalist movement.. . In early 1942, Mihailovic was appointed the Minister of the Army, Navy, and the Airforce, as well as being promoted to the rank of general. Mihailovic now had full backing of the British and the Americans and was receiving supplies from the British to carry out his guerilla warfare. Time magazine featured Mihalovich on the front cover and published a positive article on his resistance movement (in May of 1942). 20th Century Fox (in Hollywood) produced a movie called "The Chetniks-Fighting Guerillas" and an American actor portrayed General Mihailovic, in a positive light. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) also praised Draza as the leader of the only large-scale resistance movement to emerge out of Nazi occupied Europe. However this all started to change in July 1942 when "The daily Worker", a Communist Newspaper in New York, ran an article which called Draza a fascist collaborator and sited Radio Free Yugoslavia as the source of this information. The Yugoslav government in exile claimed that there was no such radio station, later on it turned out that radio free Yugoslavia was being broadcast from the Soviet Union. The seeds of doubt about Draza's Royalist-nationalist movement had been planted. In December 1942 the Saturday Evening Post ran an article by Louis Adamic a Slovenian-American writer for Communist papers who also used information from the "Daily Worker", criticizing Mihailovic and praising Partisans.In early 1943, the BBC began to broadcast that the partisans were the only resistance force in Yugoslavia, thus the allied shift had begun. Another compelling factor in the Allied shift from Mihailovic to Tito was that there were communist spies planted in Cairo, where all intelligence reports from Yugoslavia were collected and sent to London. Special Operations Executive SOE double agent by the name of James Klugman worked for the SOE in Cario, when the Chetniks destroyed bridges and railway lines to interrupt German supply lines he would report to London and the credit for these acts to the Partisans.Due to the fact that Communist agents were planted in the American and British governments they were able to use their influence on top officials to redirect allied support to Tito.By late 1943 and early 1944 Draza's movement was abandoned by the west and full support was given to Tito. But Draza still remained loyal to the British and the Americans. During the spring and summer of 1944 American bombers were flying over Yugoslavia to bomb Hitler's precious oil fields in Poliesti, Romania. During these bombing missions, American bomber crews were intercepted by German fighters and shot down over Serbia. General Draza and his Royalist Chetniks would rescue the shot down pilots, and air crews in total there were 513 Americans, and 83 air men from other Ailed countries were rescued. This would be one of the largest rescues behind enemy lines which became known as the "Halyard mission". Mihalovic's Royalist Chetniks would put themselves at great risk in order to rescue these airmen from the nearby Nazi troops. Soon after the Halyard mission came in the Ranger mission which Colonel McDowell of the American O.S.S. and with the help of Lieutenant Nick Lalich (an American of Serbian heritage), gathered intelligence on Nazi troop movements and wrote a report on Draza's Royalist Chetnik movement. McDowell wrote that he never saw any type of collaboration between Mihailovic and the Germans, he did notice however how much Draza hated them.After the Teheran Conference Mihailovic was forsaken by his Allies, Britain and America. The red army marched into Belgrade in October of 1944 and under Soviet sponsorship control of Yugoslavia passed into the hands of Tito. Certain American officials knowing what would happen once Tito consolidated power offered Draza an escape. He refused flatly, " I must stay with my people, my strength is in the people". Soon after Mihailovic contracted typhus. Although he was near death he was carried by a stretcher from village to village in order to evade capture by the Partisans. Everywhere he went the villagers sheltered him and gave him food to take on his journey. He was so loved by the people that they called him "Cica" (Uncle).Another deadly blow to the Royalist Chetnik movement came in mid 1945 while travelling through Serbia Approximately 50,000 of Draza's Chetniks died of typhus. After this tragedy, with no supplies and no outside support, Draza knew that the end was near. In the first months of 1946 friends contacted Mihailovic from Switzerland insisting that he leave Communist dominated Yugoslavia and save himself. Again he refused to leave his people behind,"under no conceivable circumstances will I leave my country and my people" he told them, "you can not carry your country with you on the soles of your shoes". "For I am not Josip Bros Tito who has nothing in common with this land and these people that I should run away at the first sight of danger to seek refuge in some isolated island. It may be that I shall fall in our sacred cause. But you all know well that this would not mean that the righteous cause for which our nation is fighting will die with me. For I am only carrying out the will of the people. That is why I commence the struggle against the occupying forces and later against the communists. I do not doubt for one minute that the sun shine of freedom from Ravna Gora will soon brighten our troubled and suffering motherland."For almost a year and a half, hundreds of thousands of partisans searched the countryside for Mihailovic. It was not until March 24, 1946 that Tito's press was able to boast to the world that the Chetnik leader had finally been captured. Brought before a mock "trail" Toto's government received a number of requested from American officers who had served with Mihailovich to testify on the defendant's behalf. The requests were refused. On July 15, General Draza Mihailovic was sentenced to death and two days later a firing squad carried out his sentence. The general went to his death calmly, without recriminations, with his head held high. On Tito's orders Mihailovic 's body was thrown into an unmarked grave. Witnessed say that the executioners poured acid on Mihalovic's body to destroy the remains, because Tito feared that if Mihailovic was given a proper burial he would be a martyr for the Serbian people.The world was shocked at Mihalovic's fate. Mihalovic's murder was a political move on Tito's part to ensure that he would remain in power, with no opposition. General Draza Mihalovic is a patriot, a hero, a warrior, and martyr who will live on in the hearts of all who love freedom; his memory will remain eternal."The heroic man has the whole earth as his monument, and as his tomb. For the memory of a heroic life in shrined in every breast and preserved in every heart." - Pericles