Legion of Merit

The Tragedy of Draza Mihailovich

I reminded the Court of Hitler’s message to Mussolini saying that I was the greatest enemy of the Axis, and was only waiting for the moment to attack...I strove for much, I undertook much, but the gales of the world have carried away both me and my work.

Draza Mihailovich, closing speech at his trial, July 1946


By February 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had admitted to each other that they had made a serious error in backing Josip Tito rather than Draza Mihailovich in Yugoslavia.  It had become clear that Tito would not form a post war government that was friendly to the West, that he had entered Joseph Stalin’s orbit instead.  On 5 April 1945, Tito signed a document permitting the “temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory.”  Following Germany’s surrender to the Allies on 8 May, Tito’s Partisans began hunting down General Mihailovich.  His friends and allies outside Yugoslavia urged him to escape to Switzerland, but Mihailovich refused to abandon his country.  The Partisans captured him in late March 1946 and Tito charged him with collaborating with the Nazis during the occupation of Yugoslavia.

When the story was picked up by American newspapers, the OSS agents and rescued airmen who had known Mihailovich were outraged to see him characterized as a traitor who had sold out his country.  Arthur Jibilian went to the offices of the Washington Post to set the record straight.  Richard Felman wrote articles praising Mihailovich for the Hearst syndicate of newspapers.  Within a matter of weeks, hundreds of the rescued American airmen were lobbying Congress and the U.S. State Department to step in and save Mihailovich from a show trial that would certainly end with his execution.  Their visit to Washington received a great deal of press coverage, but Secretary of State Dean Acheson refused to see Felman, and the State Department declined to forward to the court in Belgrade documentary evidence by the men of Operation Halyard that would exonerate Mihailovich.

The public outcry against the railroading of a man who had saved the lives of hundreds of American servicemen finally had some impact.  Acheson authorized a letter to Tito that urged him to consider the testimony of the OSS agents and the rescued air crews at Mihailovich’s trial.  Tito rejected the recommendations.

On 10 June 1946, in the auditorium of a military school in Belgrade, General Draza Mihailovich appeared before the court that had already concluded he was guilty, appearing utterly worn out.  The trial dragged on for a month, with the prosecutors digressing occasionally to denounce the United States and Great Britain for opposing Tito’s alliance with Stalin and the imposition of a Communist government on the people of Yugoslavia.

On 15 July the court found Mihailovich guilty and sentenced him to death.  Two later he was executed by firing squad and his body dumped in an unmarked grave.

In 1948, President Harry Truman posthumously awarded the Legion of Merit to Draza Mihailovich for his contributions to the Allies’ victory in Europe.  If the award had been publicized at the time, it would have gone a long way to rehabilitate Mihailovich’s reputation, but the State Department insisted that such recognition would antagonize Tito and damage U.S. relations with his government.  Public recognition was suppressed until 2005, when the award was at last presented to the general’s granddaughter, Gordana Mihailovich.

 

Source: Craughwell, Thomas J.  Great Rescues of World War II (Pier 9, 2009), p. 152.

 

 

Operation Halyard

U.S. Airmen with Dragoljub Mihalović

Operation Halyard was the largest Allied airlift operation behind enemy lines, of over 500 Allied airmen downed over Nazi occupied Serbia by Serbian Chetnik guerrillas, led by General Dragoljub Mihailović, with the assistance of American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) liaison officers. Most of the airmen had been shot down during numerous bombing runs, most of which were on their way from Italy to bomb German occupied oil fields in Romania. They were not captured, but instead practiced escape and evade until coming into contact with the Chetniks.

This operation took place between August and December 1944 from a crudely constructed airfield created by Serbian peasants in Pranjane, Serbia. It is little known today, and largely unknown to most Americans. It is the subject of the 2007 book The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II, by author Gregory A. Freeman. In his book, he describes it as one of the greatest rescue stories ever told. It tells the story of how the airmen were downed in a country they knew nothing about, and how the Serbian villagers were willing to sacrifice their own lives to save the lives of the air crews.

The OSS planned an elaborate rescue involving C-47 cargo planes landing in enemy territory. It was an extremely risky project, involving the planes not only entering enemy territory without being shot down themselves, but also landing, picking up the downed airmen, then taking off and flying out of that same territory, again without being shot down themselves. The rescue was a complete success, but received little to no publicity. Part of this was due to the timing, and the world being focused on the D-Day operations in France.

Because of this operation, and due to the efforts of Major Richard Felman, U.S. President Harry S. Truman posthumously awarded General Mihailović the Legion of Merit award for his contribution to the Allied victory during World War II. The award was presented to Mihailović's daughter Gordana by the U.S. State Department on May 9, 2005.

For the first time in history, this high award and the story of the rescue was classified secret by the U.S. State Department so as not to offend the then Communist government of Yugoslavia. Such a display of appreciation for the Chetniks would not have been welcome as the Allies switched sides to Josip Broz Tito's Partisans during the war.

On September 12, 2004, four American veterans, Clare Musgrove, Art Jiblian, George Vujnovich and Robert Wilson visited Pranjani again for the unveiling of a commemorative plaque at the Pranjani airfield. 

 

Source: General Draza Mihailovich: Unsung World War Two Hero: http://www.generalmihailovich.com/.