Mihailovic and I

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MIH ILOVICHAND IRichard L. Felman,l ofajor, U.S.A.F. Retired

Y nOMEH BEHEPAJIA ,l PA)KE


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INTRODU TIONThis i an eyewitneu. f ~ c t ~ l n o w - ~ t ~ n . b c - t o ~ d story. While

. r important historical Significance, I t I I also. simple story. ItsS rt.nee lies in the betrayal o(World War Two s greatest unsungm ~ rn n that Hiltory will record as being responsible for theero, . k d basn, point in the greatest destructive war man In everturm . r 1known. lu simplicity lies In the asSOCiation 0 an Inconsequentl.oldier with this man of history and of his attempt to repay a long

:utstandinl. but nevcr-to-bc repaid debt.On April6th. 94 the savage hordes of the Nazijuggemaut in-

vaded YUIOII.via. Its beloved Xing. Peter the Sccond, was smuggledout orlhe country in black of night and set up an exile lovemment inLondon. Its poorly equipped army could do vcry liule apinst theaU.hty Wehrmacht Panzer divisions. Within a matter of days theBeast of Berlin added another country to his infamous list. Anothercountry, perhaps, but not another people; for remaining behind wasPeter', Minister of War and Commander In Chief, General DrazaMibailovich. Mihailovich quickly assembled his make-shift,a1inphot army and retreated to the hills. The fint and by far mosteffective luerilla leader of World War Two had begun operations. Inno time, reports coming out of Yugoslavia related of his many heroicraids on German garrisons, acts of harassment, sabotage, etc. Evertinee September 939 when Hitler overran Poland no country orpeople had been .ble to offer .nything more than token resistance tothe onrushing Nazi steamroller. Suddenly, the Allied world hadreason to hope and to question the invincibility of this indestructibleforce. Here was the Twentieth Century version of David and Goliath.New.papersscreamed headlines of Mihailovich and his brave bandof Chelnib. Hollywood produced motion picture of theircoura,eous guerilla activities. TIME Mag.zine ran a cover story onDraza Mihailovich on May 25, 1942. Even kids switched from

c O ~ b o y s and Indians to playing Chetniks . Everywhere, freedomIOVlna people sana out his name hopefully, with renewed strength, ina d.rkened world.. On July 17th, 946 a beaten, tired Mihailovich .tood before afi-fln,squad of the Federated People Republic of Yugoslavia and wasexecuted as a war coll.borator' .

HIS grateful fOllowers of the war years were shocked. New,-p a p e ~ . COmmentators and historians were just as vociferous in theirrevulsion u they h d L __ th h a ~ In his ,upport. Indignant peopled r ~ u g out the freedom-loving world were uking: 'What happenedunng the interve . , I .mng yean . th i . the same man who fought so


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their confusion, top German staff officers admitted that Mihailovichhad caused so much embarrassing harassment the invincible Nazimachine that Hitler transferred 4 Panzer divisions from the Russianfront to wipe him out at all costs. These s,me divisions. they claimed,spelled the difference in the balance of power on the Russian frontand changed the tide of the war. Could this be his reward? Whatweird and diStorted mechanisms of international intrigue permit atragedy of this nature?

While 1 lay no claim to being a muter of global politics, I dohave the right to speak out the truth u 1 saw it and lived it. As anaverage American citizen I consider myself most fortunate in havingbeen so closely related to this most important part of history and tothe man responsible fO.r it. Little did I realize when I saw the movieThe Chctniu in 943 that the real life hero portrayed in the filmwould be saving my life one year later, or that his Commander-lnChief, King Peter, would personally decorate me with the RoyalOrder of Ravna Gora, Yugoslavia's highest military decoration.


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P RT ONI enl is ted in the Army Air Corps as an Aviation Cadet on July

24 1942. On February 4, 1944 I won my wings and 2nd Ltc o ~ m i s s i o n After an all-too-brief leave at home in which to show offmy new adornments, l picked p my ten :an crew at e ~ t o v e r F ~ e l dMass. and a shiny new 8-24 Liberator Bomber at Mitchell Field,N.Y. At Morrison Field . Fla ., we received our sealed secret orders tobe opened after takeoff. Once outside the three mile limit wenervously tore them open: Assignment - 98th Bombardment Group15th Air Force, Italy,' via the South Atlantic route . Except forlanding with minimum fuel at Trinidad, a lost engine over theBrazilian jungles and strong headwinds over the Atlantic, the tripproved uneventful. First stop on the Dark Continent was Dakar.Then Marrakesch, Tunisia, and finally Leece, Italy . Anxiety foraction was written all over our faces as we smartly reported for dutyto our new Squadron Commander. His good-to-see-ya , fellaswelcome wa s quite a change from the sluffy, dignified air of ourprevious Stateside commanders. This wa s the combat zone. This waswhat we had trained for and hoped for the past year. Howsooncouldwe get a crack. al those sons-of bitches11t didn't take long before ourvisions of combat, glory and medals were somewhat dampened. Thatevening we sat around for a bull session with some of the oldexperienced crews. They had lost 3 of their crews that day and 2 theday before. The previous two months there had been a 60% urnoverof crews due to losses. The ne ighboring 'Fighting 4OOth had beencompletely wiped out. This was all Dinah Shore's fault. I thought. jhad heard her sing He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings andimmediately rushed down to 39 Whitehall Street to enlist in the AirCorps. But this wa s not the place to be thinking of what a greatsupply officer I would have made at Ft. Dix. N.J . We had a duty tofulfill and a proud organizational tradition to uphold . Our groupcommander, Colonel Killer' Kane had previously been awarded theCongressional Medal of Honor for his daring work. We were with

t ~ e best . The crew's four officers were quartered in one tent (pilot , co ~ l o t navigator and bombardier). We had out own natural-ItaliandIrt floor, open sides and an overhead sprinkler system that workedautomatically whenever it rained. Furnishings consisted of 4 cots, 4footlockers and one 25 watt bulb. (Light bulbs were at a premium. AsSOon as a crew was shot down, the returning crews would head for thedOwned crew' t . d . .b s nt Imme lately after landmg and confiscate theirulb.)

Meager as our accomodations were they were vastly better thanOUr front Ii . r . .ne m antryman sleepmg m mud for weeks and months on


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end. In addition. we were fortunate in having our own valet. For abuck a week per man. Romano. an II year old from the neighboringvillage. took care of all our chores. He would continuously sweep thetent. wash all our laundry and protect our few valuables. The onlytime he would leave our tent was to tee us off at our pre-dawntakeoffs. and then he would wait faithfully at the flight line till wereturned. Regardless of how tough the mission was. the mostwelcome sight in the world was the grinning ear-to-ear reception wealways got. His clothes were ragged and tom. he reeked with garlic,but he was beautiful. Soon as Ken my bombardier dropped hisbombs he would invariably announce over interphone 'Let's get thehell out of here . We can t keep Romano waiting.After a brief orientation flight of local terrain. our crew flew itsfirst combat mission. After that they came fast and furious.Roumania, Germany, Yugoslavia. Northern haly, Southern France,Austria and Hungary. Twenty-three missions in slightly over onemonth. By this time we were combat hardened Vets, and consideredourselves fortunate in having all three major faiths represented on

the crew. At least one of them was watching over us . We had ourshare of fighter attacks. engine fires , emergency landings, etc., butcame through miraculously unscratched . Even our ship Never aDull Moment' held up magnificently. After every mission we wouldjump out and count flak (anti-aircraft) holes. Our mission to Munichearned us the coveted squadron record . We counted two hundredand twelve hits, throughout the fuselage, tail assembly and wings.How the ten crew members aboard escaped unscratched defieshuman explanation. There are no atheists aboard bombers either.

Then it happened t was 3 AM when the charge-of-quarterswoke us . We slipped on our flying suits. sprinkled our eyelids andthen slumped down in our seats at mission briefings. Gentlemen,our target for today is the Astro Romano oil refinery at Ploesti,Roumania . .. Here was a beauty. I thought, but the most heavilydefended target in all Europe .. As you know our primary objectivein strategic air warfare is to destroy the enemy's war makingcapacityto the extent that he will no longer have the will nor ability to wagewar. The German machine runs on oil. Destroy his oil supplies andhis entire system collapses. Ploesti supplies 80%of the enemy's oil. .. The target and its importance described, the briefing then continuedwith the customary photographs of the target, number and location


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k oul the guerilla fighter with the Red Star on his hat . . TilO'sto see There had been reports that Mihailovich and his Chetnikm e ~ i l l a s were "cutting off the ears"' of downed Allied airmen and

~ ~ n i n g them over to the N a ~ s This couldn't be the same man I hadbeen reading all those glowmg reports about. I thought. But therewere too many other important things to o n e n t r ~ t e on . A quickbreakfast of powdered eggs, and powdered milk, a stop atIntelligence to deposit all valuables and identification. a wave toRomano and off the ground at OS13 hours for mission numbertwenty-four. Climbing to altitude we assembled with the test of ourformation at Foggia and took up a magnetic course of 050 degrees. Itwas a clear, sunny day as the silver ships soared over the deep blueAdriatic on its mission of destruction . Gazing out the cockpitwindow I could see nOlhing but a skyfull of airplanes. Two hundredfifty of them, B24'sand B-17's, sailing majestically through the skies.A feeling of security as well as a sense of pride resounded through mybody. Next came the coastline of Yugoslavia , a change of course toavoid a flak area and the mission was going along exactly as briefed.Occasionally a plane would drop OUI of formation with minor enginetrouble and head home, bUI that didn't stop this mighty air armada.AI the Roumanian border we picked up our fighter escort and alteredcourse a few times to confuse the ground tracking stations of ourdestination . So far everything was working perfectly. Suddenly, tenminutes out from the target, all hell broke loose. It seemed as ifeveryone of Ploesti's 325 gun emplacements opened up at once.Bombers in the wave ahead of us were exploding or going down inblack smoke. ME-I09s were coming at us from every direction. Thesky ahead was almost completely covered by solid black smokecaused by the flak bursts. You're scared but you're too concernedwith gming our bombs off first . Dear lord , give me the serenity toaccept the things I cannot change OK Jerry, you can hit me laterbut not with ten thousand pounds of dynamite on board . Seconds

s e e ~ like days. You're committed to your bomb run You've got no~ h o l c e You're part of a formation . . . . There's no room for heroic

~ d i v i d u a l ta.ctic Get those bombs ~ f t Finally, after what seemske ~ n eterDlly, Bombs away: ' The plane jumps 1 feet higher withthe lighter load. You simultaneously rack it over in the direction ofhome and heave a sigh of relief. You're by no means home safe in'fiollr.trundle bed, but the worst is over. From here on out you stand aIghtlng chance.

l'1 avmg the target area I glanced over to my right. About oneml e beyond formation I spotted a single B-17 "Flying Fortress.-ThismUSt have '--- f h .f ~ one 0 t e 2 or 3 Forts the Germans captured mtactrom us . From time to time they've been using them to fly (ormation


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with us and called off our altitude to their ground gun batteries. Nowonder those Kraut b s t r ~ s were so accurate today .Fortyfive minutes later things quieted down. We had all settledback comfortably for the trip home" when it '"hit the fan' again.S / Sgt. Carl Walpusk, left waist sunner, broke the silence over theinterphone with '"Look at the pretty pS I s. (Carl was the newaddition to our original crew. We had picked him up in Italy. He hadbeen assigned originally to the 98th Bomb Group as a Supply Sgt.and had been overseas for over a year. During that time e had seencombat crews come and go as soon as they completed their quota ofmissions. Carl figured the only way he could get home would be as acrewmember. That being the case, we dug up an old pair ofwings andpinned them on his shirt. Carl was nowa full fledged gunner. Anyonecould point a SO caliber machine gun and pull a trigger - or so wethought. Our only oversight was fo.getting about the intensiveaircraft identification course normally given back in the states. Sowhen Carl spotted the P-SIs, he couldn't figure out why they wereshooting at us. Needless to say, the "pretty P-Sls" wereMesserschmitts - ME-I09s.) They were all over us before we knewwhat happened. 30mm shells ripped throughout the aircraft. Oneburst just a few feet from me and the air was splattered with debris.We managed to carry on a running fight for about ten minutes, butthe odds were against us and the inflicted damage was much toogreat. Half our tail assembly was shot off, aileron control out, norudder, huge chunks were torn out of the left wing and fuselage, theinterphone gone and finally gas tanks punctured. This was it Wecould blow up any second with fuel streaming out all over the plane.The order to abandon ship had to be relayed visually. t grabbed mychest pack, hooked it on to my harness and lunged out the belly. Thiswas my first jump. Altitude: 18,000 fect. Temperature: 30 degrccsbelow lero. The slipstream carried me straight back, missing the tailsection by inches. As soon as I lost the forward momentum of theplane, the force of gravity took over and I started falling down.Although I was fallins at close to 100 miles per hour, the sensationwas more like floating freely through space as there were no nearbyobjects to judge relative motion. My fmt thought was to count tenand pull the ripcord. This is what I had seen in the movies . But thiswas no Hollywood set. I and enemy fighters above and enemyterritory below. ft pulled my ripcord right then I would be a sittinduck for Fritz.At 18,000 feet it would take approximately 20 minutelto parachute to the ground. By that time every Kraut for milesaround would have spotted mc coming down and been on hand towelcome me as soon as I bit. My safcst bet was to delay opening mychute as long as I could. After freefalling about 14,000 fcct thc


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nund started to come up pretty fast. 1 crossed my fingers andg ~ l e d the ripcord. The sudden jerk caused me to blackout for a splitp cond , but then the canopy blossomed out beautifully. In a little~ h i l I was on the ground , right smack in the middle of an open field.Instinctively I thought of getting out of my parachute harness andheading for cover. t was only then I realized I had been hit andcouldn't move my leg. It wouldn't have helped . As if from nowhereabout twenty peasants appeared. Men, women and children. Thebearded men threw their arms around me and kissed me. They weregrinning from ear to ear. The women and children stood back inawe.l t was a wonderful feeling being with friends - or were they? I thoughtabout the Intelligence briefing that morning ......Look for the manwith the red star The Chetniks will cut off your ears ..... My handsstarted to reach up to protect my ears, but these wonderful peoplecouldn't be hostile. Be sides, what ehoicc did I have? As usual,Intelligence goofed again.

When they had all taken their turns embracing me, they raisedme on their shoulders and carried me about 500 yards to a group ofthree cabins. Before long I was lying comfortably in a small room . Afew minutes later about thirty more villagers had heard the news andeach filed by my bed to see the visitor that dropped from space. Theybrought fruit , flowers and slivovitz - (Serbian 160 proof plumbrandy .) To celebrate this momentous occasion two of the youngermen played music while the children danced. For me. it was more likecoming back home than being shot down in enemy territory. and Iloved it. We didn't have 10 speak each other s language. The mutualunderstanding was there. One of the armed men then offered me awater tumbler full of slivovitz. and while we toasted the happyoccasion, he poured the remainder of the bottle over my woundsandbandaged them .

. After the initial excitement tapered off, an elderly peasant hesitatmgly approached . He pointed outside the cabin to me and thenclasped hi s hands in a prayerful gesture. He then provided me with acrudely fa shioned crutch and I followed him. t was their chapel. Weboth knelt in humble prayer and gave thanks. Though separated bylanguage, country and religion, the brotherhood of man was nevermore in meaningful evidence.

In the late afternoon I met Colonel Dragisha Vasic:h . He hadheard of my arrival and came to welcome me. He was very striking in~ p e r n e neatly dressed. about sixty-five, snow white hair and a

tnm goatee. He had been the biggest editor and publisher in Belgradebefore the war. Soon after the invasion he left his home and businessand went into the hills to carryon the fight for freedom. Mihailovich


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h d made him the Corps Commander of the area I was in. His wife, af:rmer schoolteacher. acted as interpreter. Shewu the first one I metho spoke English. We sat under a huge tree surrounded by the:lIagers as he spoke with the humility of tile truly great. He told mehow honored his people were to have me there. How they cheeredevery time they saw the American bombers oyerhead en route todestroying our common enemy. I was the first American most ofruspeople had ever seen. He then related how his people took tothe hillsin April 94 after the Hitler invasion. How Mihailovich, as KingPeter s Minister of War had gathered together a guerilla force ofover3 ,000 men and, though poorly equipped, had wreaked havoc withthe hated Nazi. How Mosc:owtrained Tito suddenly appeared on thescene and declared himself Ithe representative of the Yugoslavgovernment. How Tito amounted to nothing more than a minorannoyance until the Big Three conference at Teheran in November1943. Uncle Joe, seiting on the opportunity created by the chaoticconditions of wartime occupation and an absentia King, insisted wewithdraw Allied support from Mihailovich and recognize his manTilo. The skillful Russian leader was already planning the bloodlessaddition of another country under his control after the war. Noofficialannounoement was ever made, but gradually Allied supportto Mihailovich dropped 0((. Official communiques started to comeout of Tito s headquarters and Mihailovich was abandoned.Although this made Mihailovich s task that much more difficult theycarried on nonetheless. Not only were they hampered in theirstruggle against the German invader, they now had to fight off amuch better equipped Tito guerilla force.

As for my own present situation, Colonel Vasich went on u:plain: The Chetnib had counted ten chutes coming out ofmy plane.The Germans had reached the spot where our disabled plane hadcruhed They pulled one body out of the wreckage, stripped it of aUvaluables and left. A band ofChetniks then swarmed down, carriedthe body 1 a cabin and returned to remove the S calibre machineguns from the plane. They could not identify the body as theGermans had stripped off his dog tags.

He further explained there was a German garrdon ofSOOtroopsabout 2 miles away and another larger one of 2,000 at ten miles.Although Ihere wu Ihe ever constant danger of being discovered byGerman patrols, I need have no fear. He was assigning one of his

~ t able and courageous men to me as my per.onal bodnuardM10drag Stefanovich was charged with the responsibility ofprotecting my life at the risk of his. He was never to leave my side. Iwas to sleep at all times fully clothed and ready to take off at amoment s . . .nOlace Just n case the group I was with was discovered . I


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to have complete freedom of movement at all times and could goW-:Where I pleased. As (or my chances artvacustion. he pointed out~ ~ e y wert difficult but not impossible. I stood a much better chance

( being picked up y a rescue team on the coast , but there would eo any hazards reaching there. t was 2.50 miles distant and overrnauntainous terrain and through German control. Although he~ v i s c d against it he would give me all the assistance I needed shouldI decide to try it.

He then mentioned how concerned Mihailovich was, not onlywith our safety, but with our morale as well . He realized how closelyknit American family ties were and wanted to avoid any unnecessarywony ovcr the customary Missing in Action telegram. Normally.the War Department waits thirty days before scnding the MIAtelegram to the next of kin. To avoid this, Mihailovich would wirename, rank and serial number to the next of kin and advise them ofour safety. He had a shon wave transmitter in the hills and wouldsend this information to a station in Cairo. Cairo in turn would relayit to the Yugoslavian Ambassador in Washington, ConstantinFolitch. (After the war met Ambassador Fotitch in Washington.He told me he received this information about me and so advised theWar Depanment. As Mihailovich at that time was no longerrecognized this information was ignored and an official Missing inAction telegram was needlessly sent to my family . )

That night slept soundly; cabin, fireplace and straw-mattressbed. awoke early to a heavy downpour and noticed my ten manguard huddled together outside under a tree and getting soaked.beckoned to Miodragand inquired why the men hadn't come in bythe fire . His gestures indicated they were afraid they might awakenm .

About ten o'clock that morning, S/ Sgt. Carl Astifan. my nosegunner, strolled into the village with the men who picked him up . Weembraced, back-slapped and jumped for joy at the sight of eachOther. SOOn as we settled down asked if he knew whose body theyremoved from the plane . His reply was negative.

At 3 that afternoon in came Lt. Kenneth Mann, my bombardier.Soon as Ken hit the ground he thought he would play it by the book.Our stateside survival training had taught us in the eyent ofa bailoutOver enemy territory to take cover in the hills find a farmhouse and

~ t a k e it out for a few days, surviving in the'meantime on berries,~ ~ s e c t s .etc. As per instructions, Ken buried his chute and remained

d ~ e n In the hills. By morning he was cold, hungry and disgusted, so~ e c l d e d the hell with this noise . He headed for the nearest cabin andonunately found it friendly . made similar inquiry of Ken; if he

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knew wh o had been killed . He too had no information. At least weknew 3 who had survived.The following morning we heard noises. Dancing and singing upthe path were a group of children, immediately followed by tworaunchy looking characten on horseback. They were covered withflowers . t was Tech Sgt. Leonard "Tex" Pritchett, our flightengineer, and Tech. Sgt. Israel "Bronx" Meyer, our radio operator.All five of us took turns embracing each other and rolling on thegrass with joy. Each one then related his own indiVUlual experiencessince leaving the ship. Eventually theall important question that wason everyone's mind came up . Whose body did the Germans find?Which one of our buddies was killed? The ill fated day we were shotdown we carried our regular crew of ten plus an extra photographerto like pictures of the bomb hits of the wave ahead of us. That left sixmen unaccounted for . We tried to piece together what we each hadexperienced just prior to bailing out, but had no luck. The 5 in ourpresent group had all been at our positions in the forward section andwith our interphone shot out had no way of knowing what was goingon in the tail. Still trying to figure out who he might have been, weeach lay back and silently thought to ourself. Strange, the warmthand understanding you fed towards others when you think theymight e gone forever .

Word came the following day that the other five surviving members of the crew had been assembled. We were all to rendezvous at anearby farmhouse. What should have been a joyous reunion wasinstead a gloomy occasion. The question in everyone's mind - whowas it? On the way over no one said a word. We entered the roomwhere our other five men had already assembled . There was a briefsilence as we all scanned faces. Then someone sobbed out "Tom "t was Staff Sgt. Thomas P. Lovett of Roxbury, Mass., our scrappy

little ban turret gunner. ;r"here wasn't a dry eye in the room. Tomknew we were abandoning the ship, but wanted to stay onjust a littlelonger to get one more Nazi bastard . He never got to tell us about it.

The next month was spent preparing for ourevacuation Duringthat time we roamed the hills with different luerilla bands. Forsecurity reasons our crew never traveled more than 3 in the samegroup. No matter how often I changed bands , Miodrag was nevermore than 2 or 3 steps behind me. He seemed to mysteriously senseeverytime I sot the nicotine urge. I used to glance: behind me andthere he was rolling the paper and then presenting it to me to lick.

We were constantly on the move. Never stayed at one farmhouseOr location more than 2 nites, usually one. During that time I musthave Overed well over 500 miles, but not in a straisht line. Each new

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precious to the .Serbls it is .tothe American . Howeve.r, b e c u ~ it is.soprecious the pnce comes high. The Serb has spent virtually his entirehistory fighting off different enemies in order to protect his freedomand individual dignity. We in America who have not had it as oftenor so close to home may find it difficult to understand what appearson the surface a cruel thing. Life without freedom meant nothing tothem. One American flier, dropping one bomb on the commonenemy could do more toward achieving their goal than 200 or even2 000 women and children.

Their choice was as simple as that I had heard of it beinbetter todieon one's feet than to live on one's knees. I have never seenit more emphatically demonstrated The following day I watchedthe burning of the village .

During the early part of the war, while Tito was being briefedand trained in Moscow, the Chetnik guerillas took a heavy toll ofGerman lives. Word ofthese humiliating losses wasshielded from theGerman high command until they eventually assumed cripplingproportions. An infuriated Hitler dispatched sorely needed troopsfrom the Russian front and personally directed reprisals be takenagainst the civilian popUlation. For every German soldier killed, onehundred Serbs would e slaughtered. The wholesale massacre oftheir entire civilian population was certainly not worth the relativelyfew and unimportant troops they could kill. New methods had to bedevised. Each German they killed had to be important. Each act ofsabotage had to go undetected and still be effective . 'SubtleSabotage became their new weapon.

Fortunately, I was allowed to participate on some of these mis-sionsand witnessed their ingenious methods. One night MiodragandI joined a group of 6 Chetniks and stole down to the railroad yards.One of our railway workers had brought us the news that a supplytrain was due to leave fully loaded in the momin for Roumania . Therest of us stood guard while a 15 year old Chetnik slipped aboard thecoal car and added to their supply of coal. The chunks he addedh Vo t ve r, were actually hollowed out and filled with TNT. The rate ofcoal consumption had to e accurately figured out 10 that the 'coal'would not be used until the train was well within the Roumanianborder.

Another method we used was covering the axle gears of supplytrucks, box


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a thousand deaths until we retreated safely to the hills.

The basic diet consisted mainly of black bread cheeses, assortedvegetables and plums - plus the ever constant slivovitz: 160 proofplum brandy. The hills abounded with plum trees. No matter howpoor the farmhouse, they would each have their own distillery. Eggs,chicken or any form of meat was scarce. f there were any to be hadthey would be certain to offer it to me, their honored guest. Slivovitzwas served at every meal a nd it would be an insult to your host to sitwith anything but a full glass.

The people who fed or sheltered us did so at the risk of their livesIf it had been discovered it would have meant certain death to themfor aiding the enemy.

At all times under my jacket I wore onc air corps emblem andmy lieutenant bar. This was in keeping witb tbe terms oftbe GenevaConference which tbe Germans bonorably respected in dealing withour troops. f captured by the enemy, the two military buttons wouldserve notice that I was a military combatant and entitle me to betreated as a prisoner of war. Without them I could be shot as a spy.

The Chetniks requested that I provide them with the name, ranle.serial number and hometown of Tom Lovett for inscription on hisgrave marker. They had given him a proper burial at which a SerbianOrthodox priest officiated and 300 of their villagers paid him respect.Afterwards they gave me pictures of the funeral procession andgravemarker to give to Tom's family.

An interesting sidelight of my travels was the 3 days I spent witha Russian officer who had escaped from the German prison camp atBelgrade. A Russian enlisted man had also escaped with him andeven under these unusual circumstances served as his aide and valet.Strictest military discipline between the two was maintained at alltimes. Probably the oddest sight of the war was the valet applying thefinishing touches of a spit-polish shine to the officer's boots justbefore he steped out into the mud . His stern military bearingcrumbled the moment I mentioned my Mother's Russian ancestry.Once again the feeling of brotherhood overcame a languagedirrerence. Just before we parted on our separate ways he gave me thefollowing note in Russian to give to her: Dear Dora, Forgiwme/orcalling you by yourfirsllUlme bUll do not know yourfather:rname.Your son and I were thrown by fate imo a pit 0/ circumstanceaccidently Gnd we Gre al/ very sorry about what happened, but wefirmly believe that jn the near future,your son willrelurn home. Weartalso sure ofa quick victory. Only then willI too be able to return to


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One bright and sunny afternoon my shadow and 1 stopped bythe viJlage inn. The b r k e e p ~ r and about seven ofthe villagers knewof me and raised their glasses in my direction. fterdowninga few,aGetman patrol car pulled up outside. The driver remained in the carwhile an oberlieutenant came in to look around. I was feeling no painso welcomed him for a drink. He was very young looking andapparently not in the least bit hostile. He accepted the drink andinsisted on paying for the round. I will never forget my looking himSquarely in the eye and saying to myself Heres one Jewboy youslimy bastards don throw n o ovens. I could just sense everyonein the bar holding their breath especially Miodrag, whose bloodpressure must have hit 250. Fritz finally left, followed by a collectivesigh of relief.Clean clothes were a problem. I can only recall one time wewashed our clothes. rex , Bronx and I stayed with a farmer whohad 2 young daughters. One 6 and one 8 years old. In the morningthey pointed to our clothes and suggested we follow them. They tookus to a stream. The 3 of us then stripped behind a rock and threwthem our clothes. We could hear them giggling on the other side.Soon as they dried, they threw them back to us and we were on ourway

Lt Milton E Friend of Passaic, New Jersey became one of myclosest friends in the service. We met in June of 1943 as AviationCadets at Se)man Field, La. With virtually everything in the militaryarranged alphabetically, Felman and Friend were assigned adjoiningbunks. Through all phases of our training we were invariablyassigned together and became inseparable. We graduated the sameday and took our leaves together. After graduation, assignments inOur cadet flight of 42 students were scattered throughout the world,but our luck still held out. Coincidentally, we both picked up our newcrews, further training and overseas orders at the same time.Departing Natal, Brazil for the )ong overwater hop to Africa we flewa 2 ship ' buddy formation. t was only when we arrived in Jtalythal

e were split up and assigned to different bases 5 miles apart. Jarranged to meet Milt on the following Sunday night at the RedCross in Lecce. When I arrived there his copilot told me that Milt

~ d been shot down on his first mission. The balance ofthis anecdoteas unbelievable as it is obvious Thousands of miles from thetales and in the middle of enemy territory, my group ran acrossanother roaming guerilla band and right smack in their midst wasmyl ~ buddy Milton, guzzling down a bottle of slivovitz. t was atnillion to one shot.

I

I


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Rtscutd Flitrs broullrl by PtllSanls and lrdnib 1tilt Suprtmt tadquarttrs


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by his humility. Of the hundreds of Serbs 1spoke with there was notone that did not speak of him with reverence and love .We proceededto the airstrip where one thousand of his troops put on a review in ourhonor. Afterwards the American fliers assembled under a huge treeand Mihailovich spoke to us through an interpreter. t wasundoubtedly ~ n of the most impressive and unbelievable scenes ofthe war. Here was the greatest guerilla leader of all time. the Ministerof War of His Majesty's Government. seated on a rock anddiscussing the affairs of state with over one hundred bearded ,shabbily-dressed, average soldiers ofa foreign country. Hestared offinto space as h related how he always admired the freedomlovingprinciples and ideals of America. How he hoped that some day hispeople could enjoy these same liberties. He then related howdisappointed he was at the way the Allied nations had abandonedhim. How strange the bitler ironies of war. he thought out loud .During the time he was slaughtering thousands of German troopsTilo. a Russian agent was a friend of the Nazi . One deceitful powerplay by Stalin and Tito becomes the fair haired boy in Yugoslavia .He was also well aware oftke false reports Tito had broadcast abouthim and appealed to us to take back the truth to our homeland . I wasonly a few feet away from himas he spoke and it was obvious his eyeswere watuy .

Speaking what was on his heartfint . he then turned to thesituation at hand . Within a day he would have over 8.000 of his mensurrounding the airstrip. If the evacuation plan should be discoveredby the enemy. his men could hold them off long enough to getall ourplanes off the ground . He mentioned the German garrisons of sixthousand troops at Chacak. about twelve miles away. but assured uswe need not be concerned . Even though the Germans were far betterequipped they would have difficulty maneuvering the trickymountainous terrain in their vehicles and would have to resort to hillfighting at which the Chetniks had no equal .

After the informal meeting broke up he greeted each one of uspersonally and signed our ' short snorters. As the group dispersed totheir respective campsites. he invited a few of us to join him fordinner at a nearby farmhouse . After the evening meal we sat aroundsinging. dancing and tGasting to victory. As the f s t i v i t ~ s of theevening tapered off. Mihailovich asked me about my family,schooling and future plans. His interest was truly sincere, not


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Soldir,s of the Ravna Co,. Co'ps who tua,drd Ihe sll/dy ofairfitld in thr JliIIlltr oJ , a i l U l ~ du,int Iht rJlt,cullliOn of ' r mainoup oj AmrriClln /lirrs on A UluSIID, 1'44. Ctnt'(llMiltailovicllIlISptcts Iht t,oops btfo't tilt;' dtJXUluu for tltt l lslt .


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could reciprocate with the ceremonial dagger he carried at his side. tis one of my m >st treasured possessions.

We now had to work fast. Our numbers were steadily increasing,and were scattered within a hundred mile radius of the airstrip, ifitcould be called that. The Germans had. control ofall the airfields. Theonly stretch of land that even resembled an airstrip was at Pranjane.t was a narrow, furrowed plateau used for cattle and sheep grazing.In width, no more than 100 feet of it was usable. Its length of 1900 feetwas well below the minimums for anything buta Piper Cub We hadno idea of the intentions of Fifteenth Air Force. Were they going todrop supplies? Where they going to land and try to evacuate us? We

gathered as many Chetniks, Russians, Canadians and Italians as wecould and worked feverishly on the strip.The night of July 31 one hundred sixty Allied airmen breathlessly awaited a rendezvous with an unknown quantity. t was pitchdark and there were no navigational radio aids. This would requireprecision, pin-point navigation to locate us. At the prearrangedhour, 10 PM, there was a complete silence. Minutes dragged on. At

10:38 PM we had almost given us hope when we heard the faint droneof an airplane in the distance. Was our rescuer late or was it asearching German aircraft? We were tempted to light the three flarepots at either side of the strip, but decided it best not to risk givingaway our position ifit was German. We trudged away from the stripdisheartened. The following day we tried contacting Hqs again, butno luck. At night we returned to the airstrip again but heard nothing.As it was our only source of hope we returned the third night,August 2, once again. At 10:15 PM we heard a plane in the distance.Could this e the one? Spirits were low, hope was faltering, we wereready to risk anything. We lit the flare pots and the wind tee showingthe direction of landing and waited. The unidentified plane saw thelights and turned toward us. Asit descended and headed for the strip,rosary beads and mazuzahs were kissed.Whoever it was camein low and then buzzed the field. In the dimlight all eyes strained searching for the slightest clue Finally wesaw it. A large white star painted on the side of the fuselage. Theinsignia of the United States Army Air Corps. The cheers weredeafening. This was the first tangible sign we had had that 15th AirForce Hqs recognized our plight and that rescue was forthcoming.The plane turned around, made another pass at the strip and


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He extended his hand and introduced himself I'm Lt. GeorgeMusulin OSS

Musulin brought with him two other men - Master Sgt. MichaelRajacich, Intelligence Specialist, and Arthur Jibilian, Navy radioexpert. They were officially designated as Air Corps Rescue UnitTeam Number One. Of greater importance, they had brought withthem supplies radios and an evacuation plan .

All three men were of Yugoslavian extraction and spoke the language fluently. Mwulin had been in Yugoslavia before as liaisonofficer with Mihailovich but had been recalled when support wasswitched to Tito. He knew many of the people there and they greetedhim warmly and affectionately.Bright and early the following morning the wheels started to

turn. Jibilian contacted Hqs on a prearranged frequency and with amore formal code. He received a 'well done from Major GeneralNathan Twining, Commanding General of Fifteenth Air Force.Musulin discussed our numbers, sick and wounded, latest reports onGerman positions, etc. Rajacich turned over the medical supplies tothe escaped Italian doctor who was treating us. (Of all the suppliesthat were dropped, the most welcome sight to me was a roll of toilettissue. I had contracted amoebic dysentary a few days after myarrival and my supply f f i v e d o l a ~ bills had long run out. After that Ihad to resort to coarse leaves. Undoubtedly my five hundred miletrek through the hills could be spotted from the air simply byrelracing the trail of bare bushes.)

OUf next step was to improve the airstrip. Musulin advised usthat C-47s would be coming in to evacuate us . This meant anadditional 300 feet of runway at the very minimum. To compoundthe problem there was a group oftrees at one end ofthestrip. Shouldthe wind be coming from the opposite end of the runway, anapproach over these trees would make the first six to seven hundredfeet of landing distance useless. All these problems, plus theadditional hazards of the evacuation being scheduled at night, addedup to an almost impossible situation. Nevertheless, work startedimmediately with all hearts praying for success. Every available manstarted digging, hauling and unloading. Even the women andchildren chipped in. Around the clock we worked for five consecutivedays and nights. On the night of August 8we decided wedid as muchas we possibly could with the poor equipment we had . Every minute's


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prio rity given the sick and wounded and then based on length of stayin Yugoslavia. Becawe of the extremely haza rdow runwayconditions and the limited visibility at night . only twelve men coulde assigned per plane. In order to lighte9the load further the planes

would have to e stripped to the barest necessities no armament)and only minimum fuel carried . Even with these precautions manywise old hands were skeptical.The following day. August 9.1944 .we spent the momingputtingthe finishing touches on the strip and sat back and waited . A fewcows and sheep taking advantage of the lull in activity. returned tograze. As we relaxed amid this peaceful rural scene we heard the

sound of engines. In no time at a ll. three Stuka dive bombersappeared and buzzed the strip. Had they spotted our position or didthe grning cows throw them off? Were they right now radioing theirbase or was it just a coincidence their flying over? As our pick-up wasscheduled only a few hours away, our rescue planes had alreadytaken orr. it was 100 late to call them back . As a precautionarymeasure we sent word to check all surrounding German garrisons forany indication of increased activity. We had no other choice but towait - and pray.

Night fell and we all assembled at theairstrip.At precisely IOPMwe heard engines. Anxiously we blinked 3 dashe s: ~ O s c a r Theyreplied with Kilo the prearranged code signal. Positiveidentification. The flare pots were lit . Now for the most difficult partof the operation. The wind had been Shifting all day. it shifted intothe trees at the end ohhe runway. a landing would e impossible.Thefirst plane made his approach As he came over the edge of therunway he gave it the gun and continued on. He had misjudged thestrip and overshot. The same thing happened with the second andthird planes So near and yet so far Let me upthere. showthem how to do it

The next plane approached and this time everyone prayed harder. He made it. He pulled to a full stop only inches from the edge ofthe strip. There was no time for back-slapping or displayofgratitude.Numbers one to twelve got on board and took off barely missing thegroup of trees t wa s so close that had his wheels not jwt beenretracted he would have hit them. The next plane could not landeither and was gunned around. The following attempt wassuccessful. however in taxiing around , one of the wheels got stuck ina ditch . Every available hand and back was applied tothe plane until


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far. We could not allow any more of the planes to land under theseconditions at night. We blocked off the strip and signalled the planesto return to tneir base without landing.

(The very same planes that picked ~ up from the Chetniks haddropped supplies to Tito's Partisans on the way over. How cruel,ignorant and ungrateful can our policy-making brain trust be?)

Musulin got to work immediately. He radioed our situation toHqs and were advised to standby. No one left the strip throughoutthe night .

At the crack of dawn there was an ear-splitting noise in the distana:. Every head looked skyward. The air seemed to be saturatedwith airplanes. We counted six C-47s surrounded by about 100 P-S Isand P-38s. Here was Hqsanswer. Once again our cheers rang out andalmost drowned out the noise of engines. The powers-te-be haddecided that only a daytime evacuation could be successful and sentfighters along for protection. Daytime operations would also permitthe loading of twenty men per plane, requiring fewer transports forthe evacuation.

As a diversionary tactic the fighters peeled off and strafed everySwastika within a radius of fifty miles. Supply convoys, freighttrains, troop encampments . . nothing German escaped their guns.It was one of the greatest airshows of World War II .While all this was going on overhead, the dramatic evacuationwent on with machine-like precision. There were many many tearfuldepartures between Americans and Chetniks who had formed very

close relationships. Many Americans removed various items ofclothing, particularly shoes, to leave with their less fortunatecomrades. But farewells had to be short. The planes' fuel supply wasfigured to the last drop and no time could be lost on sentimentality.While there were a few anxious moments, the entire operationwent off without a hitch. The unarmed transports assembled over theairstrip, the fighters formed their protective cover and the mighty

armada started its perilous return to Italy.Thirty minutes later the second wave of six C-47s and one hundred Mustangs and Lightnings appeared and the entire show wasrepeated. In all, 243 Americans. plus an assortment of twentyRussians, British, French. Canadians, Italians and Yugoslavianswere evacuated safely to Italy.The flight back over enemy territory, while not without incident,


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We all landed safely at Bari, ltaly and were met by General Twining. He greeted us all personally and then cautioned us that we werenot to reveal the slightest information of ourcx.periences to anyonebut top level Intelligence officen. The war was It ll very much inprogress and he was taking no chances on jeopardizing futureevacuations. Another consideration was the fear of reprisals thatmight be taken against our benefactors.

All of us were then deloused, given new uniforms and sent backto our bascs. I remained at the U.S. General Hospital in Bari for thenext two weeks before I was released for duty .

Back at the base our crew had a joyful reunion . Even Romanowho had never left the night line area during our absence. joined inthe festivities.

As soon as things quieted down. our Intelligence officer calledus in . Word came from Washington ordering the crew to return tothe States. Even though we had not completed our mission quota wecould be shot as spies if captured by the enemy. According to therules of the Geneva Conference. any military personnel who havespent time in enemy territory and then return to the ir own lines arcpresumed to have brought back informatio n. Consequently, ifsubsequently captured by the enemy, we would not e entitled toprisoner-of-war consideration. but treated as spies and shot. Theshooting war was over for us . The crew had another joyous reunionin New York and then received individual assignments. I spent thenext few months lecturing fresh-looking apple-cheeked crewmembers going overseas on the techniques ofsurvival .. .. my debt toMihailovich still not repaid.

(An interesting postscript to my experiences abroad occurred inNew York harbor. Just prior to disembarking. the Red Cross hadbrought hot coffee, doughnuts and newspapers on board ship. Onpage two of the New York Times was a delayed dispatch fromYugoslavia . ~ M Q r s h Q n O Q n n o u n c ~ d his PQrtiSQn forus hQdsucussfully d ~ s l r o ) ~ d t h ~ / Q r g ~ Qmmunition dump Qnd railroadrtrminQ/ at Gorny ilQnovilS Qlrtr fighting off u p ~ r i o r n u m b ~ r s ofumlln Qnd co/lilborating C h ~ r n i k troops Bully for you, Manhallthere s only one hitch in your story. I had been on that particular raidwith the Chetniks and there wasn t a Red Star within 50 miles Aswas true of his technique throughout the war, Tito took advantage ofthe fact that he controlled the only source of newl coming out ofYugoslavia, and claimed credit for Mihailovich s victoriel . Here waltypical Communist proof of the pen being mightier than the sword .)


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P RT TWWith the armistice signed, Tito and his Communist governmentwere now firmly entrenched in Yugos)avia"- the result of the greatest

(next to Berlin) and cruelest diplomatic blunder of World War II.The only threat to Tilo's complete domination of Yugoslavia wasMihailovich, the true leader of the people, still living in the hills.Realizing the overwhelming support of his opponent, theCommunist leader dispatched every available man he had to hunthim down . t took almost two years.

On March 2S 1946, Tilo brazenly announced that Mihailovichhad been captured and would be tried as a "'War Collaborator .WAR C O L L A B O R A T O R ? ? ? ? ? ? ~ This was the man who saved mylife as well as the lives of almost six hundred other Allied airmen. Ihad a reward poster put out by the Germans offering 100,000Reichmarks in gold for his capture . . A War Collaborator' "' Iflushed with rage. The true story must e told - and a debt repaid.

(While travelling through Yugoslavia I had ripped the followingreward poster from a tree. They were posted throughout thecountryside and in all the villages.)

"REWARD100,000 REICHMARKS IN GOLD WILL BE AWARDEDTO THE PERSON BRINGING IN, DEAD OR ALIVE THELEADER OF THE BANDITS, DRAZA MIHAILOVICH.

This criminal tbrew the c::ountry into its crutnt disaster. Emerc-ing from a deprned life, he Imagined he was c::alled to libt:'rate thenation. As an EnC isb hirelinc this ridic::u ous boaster did not plananythine else tban to break the road to Bobhnism, and tbus helpedto destroy all the national property that the people recarded assacred. He thus disrupted the peace of the peasants and dtiuns. Hedemolished property, estates and lives of thousands of people; andthe c::ountry is, as a result, In Indesc::rlbable misery and ponrty.THEREFORE, THIS MOST DANGEROUS BANDIT OF THECOUNTRY IS VALUED AT 100,000 REICHMARKS IN GOLD.

The person who proves that this c::riminal was c::aptured and surrendered to the nearetauthorities, will not only receive the reward of100,000 Relc::bmarb n cold, but wut also perform a patriotic:: ad.since he will reltast: the c::ountry of the whip of the inhuman tenor.


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Propelled by my fury. I proceeded to hit every newspaper inNew York City Tbe News and Mirror regretted their format didnot allow for a story of this nature. The Than suggested a U t t ~ r to

t h ~ Editor.- The pink Posl and PM showed me the door.Discouraged. but not beaten. I headed for the JoumaJ AmeooDwhose strong anti-Red policy assured me of a warm reception.Promised national. front-page coverage. I gave them the story. t waspublished in all Hearst newspapers. March 31 , 1946. In no time,letters of support poured in from aU over the country. Other airmenwho had been saved by Mihailovich offered assistance . TheArchbishop of the Serbian Orthodox hurch in New York City, aclose friend of Mihailovich. thanked me for my effom and thenadded: It m o t t ~ r s not w h ~ t h ~ r Drozo I i v ~ s or d j ~ s . I , O l h ~ r DrllzlIwill r i s ~ from t h ~ hills to 1 ~ l I d I h ~ /Hoplr. TM important thing is toc ~ a r his n ~

Things then staned to happen fast. On April 3 I told my storyover the NBC radio network. Together with a few former buddies ofmine we formed the Committee to Aid General Mihailovich.- In amatter of one ll k we received over 300 depositions from airmenwho had been with us in Yugoslavia . On April 28. 1946 twenty of usplus two Canadians chartered a plane and new to Washington toplead for a fair trial for the man who saved our lives. Whereas wenever claimed to pass judgment on the guilt or innocence ofMihailovich. a matter technically beyond our province, we offeredthe overwhelminl evidence we had in his bchalfto be presented at histrial.

We were met at the airport by a reception committee of dilna-taries. Included were Senators Taft. Lafollette, Wiley, Revercomband McClellan, Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth and Major GeneralE.L Oliver (father of one of the rescued airmen). We were furtherencouraged by a turnout of over 2,000 people who cheered us on. Amotorcycle escort accompanied our procession to the Hotel Raleighwhere we let up our base of operations. The following day weswarmed over Capitol Hill and pleaded our cause to our individualSenators and Congressmen.

The following il taken from the: Congressional Record 79thCongress, May I, 1946:AMERICAN A VIA TORS AND GENERAL

MIHAILOVICH39


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n. BOLTON Congresswoman from Ohio : Mr. Sptaker. onMarch 9 inserted into the ApJHndix of he Congressional Record aItll publishtd in Ihe Washington Post entitled In eftnR oJ\fibaJlo.leb.- This I pnfaud with few words urging upon thisGowmment the suuestion that everything possible H done toinsure jwt andfair trialfor this man to whose 10YIlI,y lind courllgesomt 60 Amtriclln Ilviatort owe their liws.

Today I would CIlIIIO Ihellllention oflhis Howt the trelltlmntmeted OUI to a sptcilll delegation of tMU Ilirmen by theirCommander in Chief and by our ikptlrtmtnt of State. 'These flyers~ f tM;r homes. their jobs. and their amilies at considerllble exptnuond inconvenitnct in order to present their point of view directly 10tht Prtsident and to the Acting Secretary ofState. Their story is wrysimple: Tltey owe their lives to Gentrlll Mihailovich . During theirstay with his troops not one of hem nor Ilny oftheir6(}() companionssimilarly rescued had utn or luard reliably reporttd the slightesttvidtnce ofany collaboration #Hlwun Gentral Mihailovich and ourcommon enemy Germany.

A sptcially chllrlutd airline the Missionfor Mihailovichbrought them 10 Washington Sunday afternoon. TMy are leavingthis Ilfternoon greatly disappointtd. having Hen barredfrom ewntht briefesl of Iludiencts with thtir Commandtr in Chief, IhePrtsidtnt of Iht United States.First inlerviewtd by Mr. &rbour. chairman ofSouthern u r ~ptan IlIJa'rs. tMY finally wert given opportunity to discws the matltr

with the Acting Suretllry o f Stille, Mr. Achtson.In telling mt their txperknu. they slrtssed the point that thtyW'ldtrJlllnd rojo is to Mve an 'nterAlfied trial. That is what they lireIUkingfor Gentrlll Mihailovich. 7My do not tukfor his release. They

IUk only for jwtlct.Mr. Sptllker. I mwt express my detp rerret 01 tM lock ofjudg

mtnt ofwhlll is truly in tht public in'erest which cllused this refusal to/H n't thtse young men to prtsent 10 tht;r Commander in Chiefresolutions urging him to do all possible to insure justice to tht manto whom 600 living AmericlltU ~ the greattst dtbt one man canpossibly 10 tmother their liws.

I ask u1l4nimoUJ consent 10 include in these rtmarlu copy ofthe resolution o f t hu 10Yili American Ilv/alors.

The SPEAKER: s thert Ilny obj,ctlon to 1M requesl o f he


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(fhe matter referred to follows:)RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE NATIONAL COMMITTEEOF AMERICAN AIRMEN TO AID CENERAL MIHAILOVICHAND THE SERBIAN PEOPLE, WASHINGTON, MAY I, 1 ' .

Wher s we, official deleptts of the National Commillee ofAmerican Airmen to Aid General Mihailovich and the SerbianPeople, have come to our Nation's Capital from all parts of theUnited States at our own expense. In order to present to thePresident of the United States and to the Acting Secretary of Stateour very considerable evidence upon behalf of the Allied GeneralDrau Mihailovich, of Yugoslavia, who has saved the lives of ourdelegation and the more than 600 additional Allied airmen whom werepresent.

Whereas we have sought in vain to present at toplevel (that is,to the President and the Acting Secretary of State) positive anddocumented disproof of the charges made by Marshal Tito, ofYugoslavia, that Mihailovich is a 'traitor' or collaborationist;

Whereas we have been denied this right formally to petition. atfirst hand. our Commander in Chiefpc:rsonaUy to intervene 1 insurethat we e subpoenaed as material witnesses. and that testimony ofAllied personnel attached to Mihailovich'l headquarters in wartimeYugoslavia e submitted to the trial court;

Where . in addition. we have been denied the right personallyto ask of our President and Commander in Chiefand the act ing chiefe:ucutive of our Department of State that all documents from thefiles of the State and War Departments be ad milled in the trial ofGeneral Mihailovich: Therefore e it:Raolved, That we. representing the National Committee ofAmerican Airmen to Aid General Mihailovich and the SerbianPeople. despite the failure of OUf President personally to Innt w anaudience to hearourcaseat the end of this vital mission an omiuionwhich we ascribe to the Presidential Secretariat - and despite Mr.Acheson's flat refusal to receive us personally to set forth a casewhich the State Department already has championed in a weak andwatery form, and despite the timorous and apparently insincereattitude of the United States Government toward the: Tito reaime inYugoslavia. we shall unrelentingly continue the fiaht for a fair trialand absolulejustice for Genenl Draxa Mihailovich. By this we meanthat we shall, in our home cities and home States and through ourCongressman and our United States Senators, continueunfalteringly to insist upon a fair. interAllied tri l for M i h a i l o v ~ hwithout which American Veterans consider that international


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justice and morality have ceased to exist .Nallonal Committee of American Airmen to AidGeneral Mihailovith nd the Serbian People:

Lt. William L Rogers, Manteno, Ill.Richard L Felman, New York. N.Y.Staff Sgt. Hal D. Souter. Milwaukee. Wis .Lt. Oscar Menaker, Forest Hills, N.Y.Tech . Sgt. Gerald E. Wagner, Roanoke. Va .Donald F. Rice, Brooklyn, N.Y.Lt. Charles L Davis, Washington, D.C.

LI . Charles F. Gracz, Chicago, .Staff Sgt. ohn F. O'Grady, Clifton, N.J .Lt. George Salapa, Cleveland. OhioTech Sgt. Gus T. Brown, r ., Luling, TexasStaff Sgt. Mike McKool, Dallas. Texas

Staff Sgt. David J . O'Connell, Chicago, .Staff Neal S. Janosky. Milwaukee, Wis .Lt. ohn E Scroggs, Kansas City, Mo.Lt. ohn P. Devlin, Pittsburgh, Pa .

Lt . Robert W. Eckman, Chicago, .Staff Sgt . David E LaBissoniere, Milwaukee, Wis .Staff Sgt . Denzil Radabaugh, Masontown, W. Va .(Congressional Record - May I, 1946: unquote)

As an American it was inspiring to observe and be part of theworkings of democratic government. We were 20 average Americancitizens who believed firmly in a cause and carried our grievances toour seat of government where we reeeived fullest cooperation.

Although our request to see President Truman was not granted,our efforts were not without results. Shortly thereafter, our StateDepartment sent an official note to the Government of Yugoslavia. Itread in part:

.A number of heu individuals (U.s. Airmen) and others inthe United Stotes who were closely associated with GeneralMihai/ovich possess first-hand evidenct which cannot but haW abearing upon the charges ofenemy callaboration which the YugoslavA uthorities have indicated they will bring against GeneralMihai/ovich.

The United States Government, in these circumstances, is confldent that in the intereslof ustice the Yugoslav Government will wishto make suitable arrangements whereby the evidence of any suchpersons who may so desire may be r e ~ n t e in connection with thetrial, said to be contemplated, of General Mihailovich.


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In reporting from Washington on the State Department's note,Neal Stanford, Staff Correspondent for the Cbristlan ScienceMonitor commented:" General Mihai/ovich contribution to the Allied cawe dOl s'101, however, have to ren entirely on Americans say-so. The Nazisthemselves wve admitted Ihat the General and his Chetnib playedhovoc with their plans. Hitler has credited these Yugo lav guerillaswith delaying his &lkan operations two months and thus upsettinghis whole war schedule.

The least Washington can do in General Mihailovich defense isto assure afair trial, it isfelt here. For it can be argued that the UniredStates is partly to blame for his present plight in that it ditched hisGovernment, following a Big Three conference, and backedMoscow choice for Yugoslav leader, Marshall TiIO .

On returning to New York from Washington. a group of prom -nent Americans took up our cause and formed the "Committee forFair Trial for Draza Mihailovich." Members of the Committeeincluded such famous personages as: Sumner Welles, Gov. FrankLausche (Ohio), Bishop William Manning, Justice FerdinandPecora, William Phillip Simms, Dorothy Thompson, Rep. ClareBooth Luce, Norman Thomas, Justice Francis Rivers, MiriamHopkins and many other distinguished American citizens. The longlist of signatories who lent their names and support to the committeein the interests of justice were: Governors Griswold (Nebr.), Willis(Ky.), Stevenson (Texas), Gruening (Alaska), Senators Hart(Conn.), LaFollette (Wis. , O'Mahoney (Wyo.), Taft (Ohio),Tydings (MD), Young (N.D.), Representatives Lesinaki (Mich.),.Plumley (Vt.), Voorhis (Cali .), Mansfield (Mont.), Mundt (S.D.),Hale (Me.), and Almong (Va.).The executive chairman of the Committee, Ray Brock (formerNew York Times foreign correspondent) disclosed that Morris L.Ernst, the noted lawyer, had offered to defend Mihailovich andwould fly to Europe to appeal to the Yugoslavian Government.

With public indignation rising and protesti pouring in from allover the country, our State Department dispatched a second formal


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Witb aU hopes of our testifying in Belgrade apparently lost, theCommittee for a Fair Trial requested that an impartial publichearing e held and a report submitted for presentation at the8eJarade trial. Immediately a Commission of Inquiry in the Case ofOrau Mihailovich was formed. The Commission was composed offour of the most prominent jurists in America - Arthur GarfieldHayes, Chairman; Former ASlt. Secretary of State Adolph A. Berle;former Lt. Gov . of N.Y., the Hon. Charles Poletti; and TheodoreKiendl.

The Commission of Inquiry convened on May 17, 1946 at theCounty Lawyers Association Bldg., 14 Vesey Street, New York.Invited was aU evidence both pro and con pertaining to the charp ofcollaboration apinst Mihailovich.

Three other American flyers, besides myself, appeared beforethe Commission and told of our experiences in Yugoslavia and ofbeing rescued by Mihailovich. Substantiating our testimony, weoffered in evidence the three hundred depositions of other AmericanAirmen. Additional testimony was furnished by the six formerofficers of the Office of Strategic Services who were working asliaison officers with Mihailovich at different times throughout theentire war. (Colonel Robert McDowell, Chief of the final Americanmission; Capt. George Musulin, Capt. Nick Lalicb , Capt. EliPopovich, Capt. Denni Desich and Lt . E.R. Kramer). All formerAmerican ass officers and crewmen were most emphatic in theirtestimony that at no time did they observe even the slightest evidenceof Draza Mihailovich s collaboration with the enemy. Throughoutthe entire period of the war, at least one of the ass who testified wasvirtually at Mihailovich s side.As an interesting sidelight of the Inquiry, during the time that Iwas on the stand, a representative ofthe TASS News AleneJ walkedin and proceeded to take notes. At the completion of my testimony Istepped down and openly invited him to take the stand. He lost notime in walking out of the courtroom .

For a full week the Commission heard the evidence. Their fullfindings together with almost six hundred pages of testimony wasforwarded to the Government of Yugoslavia for presentation at thet r ia l . Their repor t in par t read as fol lows :

We are convinced halthe testimony given before us u ma eri-a/ on the question o the guilt or innocence 0/ GeneralMihallovich OJ a werr criminal and tha under sltmdortU ofjustice which hove been recognized by civilized no lollSthroughoutlhe yeors 1M uc/wion of uch es imony/rom the


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highly prejudicial as to prewnt the ponibility ofhis obtaining afair trilli.By their unstlftsh efforts in the interests of justice and law, thevoluntary Commission had established a proud and noble precedent.Never before in the long history of intemationallaw has a report ofthis nature been prepared. The YUloslavian Government, asexpected, ignored the Report, but by 1 doing. only served tounderscore their false charges.The foUowin. editorial appeared in the Ntw York Times, May

31 :TITO ND HIS PRISONER

T h ~ cause of afair trialfor G ~ n t r a l Draza Mihailovich prob-ably is a lost cause. TMre is little r ~ a s o n to hope that the Ttoo ~ r n m e m r YugoslavIa inundJ 1 hud t h ~ p ~ a s o our

GowrnmMt or of he many Allied i r m ~ n who w ~ t h ~ i r I i v ~ s to himand his Cltemiks. It intends to find him gui/ty ofcollaboration withthe Germans and hang him or shool him.

This much as bun done. however. by the l ~ a s in his behalfandthe hearing given United States W i t n ~ s s e s by t h ~ Commission ofInquiry headed by Arthur Garfield H a y ~ s : A record has bun o d ~for history. That will b ~ smallsolacefor Mihailovich as he gMS 1 hisdeath. But it will serve 1 m i l i g a t ~ if il does not entirely clear hismemory.

On June 10 1946 . Mihailovich stood before a court of law inBelarade on charles of War collaboration and treason . Whatfollowed was a mockery of ustice as we in the civilized world know it.The charges were typical ofCommunist expediency, the trial typicalof Communist technique and the sentence typical of Communisttreachery. '

Jwt before sentence was pronounced. a tired, battered anddrugged Mihailovich stood before the bench. His last public wordswere: I wtJnud nothing for myself. / n e ~ r wtJmed the oldYugos/tJvia, but I htJd tJ difficult I ~ g a c y . I had against me acomjHlilive orglmization. the Communislparty. which suksilSaimswithout compromise . . I I i ~ v ~ d I was on the right road and a l ~ don any fouign journalist or Red rmy Minion to visit m ~ and ueverything. Butfale was merciless to m ~ when it threw me imo thismaelstrom. I wamed much. I started much. but the gale oflhe worldcarried away me and my work.

On July 1946, a Communist firing SQuad carried out the sen-tence of the court. The blackest chapter of World War II had been


45/45

TII MOVIN FING R WRITES

Documents

Mihailovic and I