Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović was a Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army (Chetniks), a royalist and nationalist movement and guerrilla force established following the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941.
Colonel Duane Tyrell "Bill" Hudson, was a British Special Operations Executive officer who worked as a liaison officer with the Yugoslav Partisans and Chetniks in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II.
Operation Typical was the name of the first World War II British mission fully assigned to Yugoslav Partisans HQ and Marshall Tito organised by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The six soldiers flew from Derna airfield on 27 May 1943 and parachuted to Black Lake in Montenegro at the height of a large German offensive Operation Schwarz which aimed to destroy the Partisan forces. The group was led by Col William Deakin and Capt William F Stuart, together with the two radio operators - Sergeants Walter Wroughton and Peretz 'Rose' Rosenberg. Canadian-Yugoslav Ivan ('John') Starčević acted as a translator and Sgt John Campbell (RM) was a cipher clerk, and bodyguard.
Operation Halyard, known in Serbian as Operation Air Bridge, was an Allied airlift operation behind Axis lines during World War II. In July 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) drew up plans to send a team to the Chetniks force led by General Draža Mihailović in the German-occupied Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia for the purpose of evacuating Allied airmen shot down over that area. This team, known as the Halyard team, was commanded by Lieutenant George Musulin, along with Master Sergeant Michael Rajacich, and Specialist Arthur Jibilian, the radio operator. The team was detailed to the United States Fifteenth Air Force and designated as the 1st Air Crew Rescue Unit. It was the largest rescue operation of American airmen in history. According to historian Professor Jozo Tomasevich, a report submitted to the OSS showed that 417 Allied airmen who had been downed over occupied Yugoslavia were rescued by Mihailović's Chetniks, and airlifted out by the Fifteenth Air Force. According to Lieutenant Commander Richard M. Kelly (OSS), a grand total of 432 U.S. and 80 Allied personnel were airlifted during the Halyard Mission. According to Robert Donia, allied air operations over Partisan territory in Yugoslavia were strategically significant and extensive in scope. Evaders’ forms show that airmen landed on much of Yugoslavia from eastern Serbia to Slovenia and even on Bulgaria. Evacuees most frequently mentioned airstrips at Tičevo, Sanski Most and on the Croatian coastal island of Vis. Of the 2,364 flyers rescued from Yugoslavia, about 2,000 were extracted from Partisan-controlled territory and 350 from Chetnik-controlled territory.
In 1941 when the Axis invaded Yugoslavia, King Peter II formed a Government in exile in London, and in January 1942 the royalist Draža Mihailović became the Minister of War with British backing. But by June or July 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had decided to withdraw support from Mihailović and the Chetniks he led, and support the Partisans headed by Josip Broz Tito, even though this would result in "complete communist control of Serbia". The main reason for the change was not the reports by Fitzroy Maclean or William Deakin, or as later alleged the influence of James Klugmann in Special Operations Executive (SOE) headquarters in Cairo or even Randolph Churchill, but the evidence of Ultra decrypts from the Government Code and Cipher School in Bletchley Park that Tito's Partisans were a "much more effective and reliable ally in the war against Germany". Nor was it due to claims that the Chetniks were collaborating with the enemy, though there was some evidence from decrypts of collaboration with Italian and sometimes German forces.
Ljubo Novaković was a Montenegrin officer in the Royal Yugoslav Army who became a Chetnik commander during World War II. He initially fought for the Chetniks of Draža Mihailović and those of Kosta Pećanac, but became disillusioned with both movements. He went to eastern Bosnia in late 1941, and raised Chetnik bands to fight Yugoslav Partisans there. He was captured by the Partisans in January 1942 and taken to Foča, where he was kept under constant surveillance. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito likely believed that Novaković could be used to counteract Mihailović's influence among Chetniks in eastern Bosnia. Novaković left Foča with a British mission in April 1942 and returned to Montenegro with the intention of reassembling the disorganized Chetnik formations there. He was killed in late 1943, either by the Partisans or Mihailović's Chetniks.
Lieutenant Colonel Zaharije Ostojić was a Montenegrin Serb and Yugoslav military officer who served as the chief of the operational, organisational and intelligence branches of the Chetnik Supreme Command led by Draža Mihailović in Yugoslavia during World War II. He was a major in the Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force prior to the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, and was involved in the coup that deposed Prince Paul of Yugoslavia on 27 March 1941. After the coup, he escorted Prince Paul to exile in Greece, and was in Cairo during the invasion in April. In September 1941, he was landed on the coast of the Italian governorate of Montenegro along with the British Special Operations Executive officer Captain Bill Hudson and two companions. He escorted Hudson to the German-occupied territory of Serbia and introduced him to the Yugoslav Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito at Užice, then accompanied Hudson to Ravna Gora to meet Mihailović. Ostojić soon became Mihailović's chief of staff, and after the German attempt to capture the Chetnik leader during Operation Mihailovic in December 1941, brought the Chetnik Supreme Command staff to Montenegro where they were re-united with Mihailović in June 1942. During the remainder of 1942, Ostojić launched a counter-attack against Ustaše troops of the Independent State of Croatia returning to the eastern Bosnian town of Foča where they were expected to continue their genocidal anti-Serb policies. As many as 2,000 local Muslims were subsequently killed in the town by forces under Ostojić's command. Ostojić later oversaw large-scale massacres of civilians and burning of Muslim villages in the border region between Montenegro and the Sandžak.
The Government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Exile was an official government-in-exile of Yugoslavia, headed by King Peter II. It evacuated from Belgrade in April 1941, after the Axis invasion of the country, and went first to Greece, then to Palestine, then to Egypt, and finally, in June 1941, to the United Kingdom. Hence, it is also referred to as the "Government in London".
Operation Bullseye was the code-name of the first Special Operations Executive (SOE) mission to Yugoslavia since its occupation by the Axis forces. It was led by Capt D.T. Bill Hudson with the objective to discover what was happening in Yugoslavia and co-ordinate all forces of resistance there. The mission also included three Royal Yugoslav Army (RYA) officers from Montenegro: Maj Mirko Lalatović, Maj Zaharije Ostojić and Sgt Veljko Dragićević the wireless transmitter (W/T) operator. The group boarded the submarine HMS Triumph in Malta and reached Petrovac on the Montenegrin coast on 20th Sep 1941.
Arthur Terence Atherton was a British journalist, War correspondent and a newspaper proprietor of various English language publications in Belgrade between 1931 and 1941. He was also a British Special Operations Executive intelligence officer for Section D and an espionage agent, both in pre-war Belgrade and during World War II in Yugoslavia. The former journalist led a Commando Mission behind enemy lines during World War II and died in mysterious circumstances.
The Maclean Mission (MACMIS) was a World War II British mission to Yugoslav partisans HQ and Marshal Tito organised by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in September 1943. Its aim was to assess the value of the partisans contribution to the Allied cause and the means to increase it. It was led by a recently promoted Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean and was first such mission with full authorization and a personal message from Winston Churchill. His memoir of these years forms the final third of Eastern Approaches (1949).
Peretz Rosenberg was one of the early parachutists of Mandatory Palestine. As the radio operator of special forces leader William Deakin, he was parachuted into Yugoslavia in 1943 on a mission to reach the headquarters of Tito. After World War II, he became head of the clandestine radio service of the Haganah. Rosenberg was the inventor of many agricultural water-saving devices.
Operation Hoathley 1 was one of the two Special Operations Executive (SOE) exploratory missions to the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. Both Hoathley 1 and the second mission, Operation Fungus, flew out on the night of 20 April 1943 from an airfield Derna, Libya. The missions' objective was to establish who the Partisans were, who their leader was and if and how they could be utilised to further the Allies' military ambitions. They also served as each other's backup, in case one failed to reach the Partisans or fell into the enemy's hands. The mission consisted of three Yugoslav Canadians who were recruited by the SOE and trained in clandestine operations at Camp X on the Lake Ontario, near the US border. It was led by Stevan Serdar who was joined by George Diklić and Milan Družić. They wore no identifiable uniform or rank.
Operation Fungus was one of the two Special Operations Executive (SOE) exploratory missions to Yugoslav Partisans during the World War Two. Both Operation Fungus and the second mission, Operation Hoathley 1, flew out on the night of 20 Apr 1943 from Derna airfield. The missions' objective was to establish who the Partisans were, who their leader was, and whether and how they could be utilised to further the Allies' military ambitions. They also served as each other's backup, in case one failed to reach the Partisans or fell into enemy's hands.
The Ba Congress, also known as the Saint Sava Congress or Great People's Congress, was a meeting of representatives of Draža Mihailović's Chetnik movement held between 25 and 28 January 1944 in the village of Ba in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II. It sought to provide a political alternative to the plans for post-war Yugoslavia set out by the Chetniks' rivals, the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans, and attempted to reverse the decision of the major Allied powers to provide their exclusive support to the Yugoslav Partisans while withdrawing their support of the Chetniks.
Robert Harbold McDowell was an American historian and intelligence officer who worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. McDowell, an expert on the Near East, was a professor of Balkan history at the University of Michigan. During World War II he was an OSS desk officer in Cairo and between August and November 1944 a member of an American mission Ranger, to the Chetniks, where he participated in negotiations with Germans to surrender their troops to Chetniks and Americans, and in Operation Halyard, to organize transport of the Allied pilots rescued by Chetniks. In some works he has been described as a man of "violently pro-Chetnik prejudices".
Brigadier Charles Douglas Armstrong was a British Army officer in World War I and World War II. In the latter conflict he was the head of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) liaison mission to the Chetnik forces of Draža Mihailović in Yugoslavia from July 1943 to early 1944.
The Battle of Višegrad was the battle between Chetnik forces and Axis, and part of an Chetnik offensive in Eastern Bosnia in autumn of 1943, in Axis occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. The Chetnik forces of 2,500 captured Višegrad, destroyed big railway bridge across river Drina and continued their advances toward Rogatica and Sokolac. The German and Ustaše garrison in Višegrad and garrison that protected the bridge of total 1,100 soldiers had 350 dead and 400 wounded. The Chetniks had 21 dead and 30 wounded. In subsequent battle for Rogatica waged ten days later, the Chetniks captured Rogatica and killed more than 200 Axis soldiers.
Stanley William Bailey was a British Army officer in World War II, who reached the rank of colonel and was most notable for being the head and then political advisor of the British Special Operations Executive Liaison Mission to the Chetnik Forces of Draža Mihailović from December 25, 1942—January 29, 1944. British policy toward Mihailović was shaped by the regular reports from Bailey. Bailey's position on General Mihailović was influential in undermining the relationship between Mihailović and the Chetniks with Churchill and the British Foreign Office, and consequently with the other Allied nations.
Mission Davidson was a World War II Special Operations Executive (SOE) military expedition to Yugoslav Partisans led by Basil Davidson, a peacetime journalist, Sergeant William Ennis and a wireless operator Sergeant Stanley Brandreth. Codenamed "Savannah", the mission landed by parachute at Petrovo Polje in central Bosnia on 16 August 1943. They were welcomed by the local British Liaison Officer, Major William Deakin who took Davidson to meet Marshall Tito. Once he explained that his ambition was to get into Hungary, Tito suggested Davidson joins General Kosta Nađ and his troops on their way towards Belgrade.
