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194-707: By mid-1943, British government realised, through intercepted German intelligence, that "armed bands bearing the name of Partisans and led by a shadowy figure known as Tito" were causing Germans considerable inconvenience, especially in Bosnia. Very little else was known about them in London. It was believed that they were under communist leadership, with various theories about the identity of Tito ranging from an acronym, rotating post and even "a young woman of startling beauty and great force of character". A few British officers had been dropped to partisan controlled areas recently, but due to

388-507: A modus vivendi and operating as "legalised" auxiliary forces under Axis control. Over a period of time, and in different parts of the country, the movement was progressively drawn into collaboration agreements: first with the puppet Government of National Salvation in the German-occupied territory of Serbia , then with the Italians in occupied Dalmatia and Montenegro , with some of

582-611: A Linea di condotta ("Policy Directive") on relations with Chetniks, Ustaše and Partisans. In line with these efforts, General Vittorio Ambrosio outlined the Italian policy in Yugoslavia: All negotiations with the (quisling) Ustaše were to be avoided, but contacts with the Chetniks were "advisable". As for the Partisans, it was to be "struggle to the bitter end". This meant that General Roatta

776-458: A "favourite target for Nazi propaganda". Finally, the two women, in charge of keeping Tito's maps, lists and bundles of signals were Davorjanka-Zdenka Paunović (22) and Olga Humo (24). Olga, "tall and well-built, in her black breeches and boots, with a pistol hanging at her belt", was especially useful to the British mission as she was one of the rare people who spoke fluent English as she attended

970-522: A "problem" to be solved in the final stages of the war and immediately afterwards. The CNK approved the Greater Serbia project after it formed in August. It can be assumed that Mihailović, who was a hard-core Serb nationalist himself, endorsed all or most of both proposals. This is because their contents were reflected in a 1941 Chetnik leaflet entitled Our Way , and he made specific references to them in

1164-646: A 12-point program to Mihailović as the basis of cooperation. Six days later, Tito and Mihailović met at Mihailović's headquarters where Mihailović rejected principal points of Tito's proposal including the establishment of common headquarters, joint military actions against the Germans and quisling formations, establishment of a combined staff for the supply of troops, and the formation of national liberation committees. These disagreements lead to uprisings being quashed in Montenegro and Novi Pazar due to poor coordination between

1358-673: A Deed of Settlement, given full effect in the Chequers Estate Act 1917 . The house is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England . The name "Chequers" may derive from an early owner of the manor of Ellesborough in the 12th century, Elias Ostiarius (or de Scaccario). The name "Ostiarius" meant an usher of the Court of the Exchequer and scacchiera means a chessboard in Italian. Elias Ostiarius's coat of arms included

1552-540: A Franciscan friar, who was the chairman of the local council, and who somewhat surprisingly greeted him with a clenched fist salute. After a short rest, the group was taken on a drive around the island. They met the locals, inspected partisan detachments, the hospital and printworks even being "pelted with flowers by some nuns". Maclean noticed that, in contrast to the mainland, the Roman Catholic clergy in Korčula seem to be

1746-708: A Serb "nationalist- chauvinist " movement outside Serbia proper escalated ethnic tensions, especially the conflict between Serbs and Croats. Under Pećanac's leadership, membership of the Chetnik organisation was opened to new young members who had not served in war and were interested in joining for political and economic reasons, and in the course of the 1930s he took the organisation from a nationalist veterans' association focused on protecting veterans' rights, to an aggressively partisan Serb political organisation which reached 500,000 members throughout Yugoslavia in more than 1,000 groups. Trifunović-Birčanin and others were unhappy with

1940-556: A brief visit to the US. They were welcomed on the ground by John Selby and Slavko Rodić who took Maclean to see Tito in a makeshift camp nearby. They reached his hut just after midnight and Maclean congratulated him on being given a rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia in Nov 1943. He then handed him the letter from the Prime Minister, which Tito did not expect. Maclean witnessed Tito's reaction, opening

2134-523: A command post and designated themselves the "Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army". While this name was clearly derivative of the earlier Chetniks and evoked the traditions of the long and distinguished record of the Chetniks of earlier conflicts, Mihailović's organisation was in no way connected to the interwar Chetnik associations or the Chetnik Command established in 1940. As early as August,

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2328-520: A courier network, and collecting arms and ammunition. From the very beginning their strategy was to organise and build up their strength, but postpone armed operations against the occupation forces until they were withdrawing in the face of a hoped-for landing by the Western Allies in Yugoslavia. The pre-war Chetnik leader Pećanac soon came to an arrangement with Nedić's collaborationist regime in

2522-505: A demand he refused. Partisan-Chetnik truces were repeatedly violated by the Chetniks, first with the killing of a local Partisan commander in October and then later, under orders of Mihailović's staff, massacring 30 Partisan supporters, mostly girls and wounded individuals, in November. Despite this, Chetniks and Partisans in eastern Bosnia continued to cooperate for some time. In December 1941

2716-505: A fighter escort. The General and his crew landed safely. By April, as the snow started to melt, and the Partisan movement grew in strength, Maclean was told to report to London in person in order to agree on the next course of action. He was authorised to bring a Partisan representative with him, so Velebit came along as well. They made their way back to Bosanski Petrovac and the nearby landing-strip. They were air-lifted quickly, together with

2910-415: A finishing school in London before the war. After a long period of observation, investigation and feedback from officers in the field, Maclean drafted his report. In it he stated that the partisans, whatever their politics, were fighting the Germans most effectively. They were more numerous, better led, organised and disciplined than the Chetniks, who were largely either not fighting at all or fighting with

3104-468: A former diplomat realised that the mission would require professional soldiers, explosive, intelligence and supply experts as well as people with political experience. Hence, he picked cavalry officer Robin Whetherly (27), SAS Major Vivian Street and John Henniker-Major (27) another soldier-diplomat to accompany him. Later, they were joined by three sappers: Peter Moore, Donald Knight and Mike Parker who

3298-519: A former member of the Yugoslav Republican Party; Stevan Moljević , a Bosnian Serb lawyer; and Mladen Žujović , Vasić's law firm partner who had also been a member of the Yugoslav Republican Party. Vasić was the most important of the three, and was designated by Mihailović as the ranking member of a three-man committee, along with Potpukovnik (Lieutenant Colonel) Dragoslav Pavlović and Major Jezdimir Dangić , who were to take over

3492-621: A grandson of Oliver Cromwell . The house is known for this connection to the Cromwells, and still contains a large collection of Cromwell memorabilia. In the 19th century, the Russells (by now the Greenhill-Russell family) employed Henry Rhodes to make alterations to the house in the Gothic style. The Tudor panelling and windows were ripped out, and battlements with pinnacles installed. Toward

3686-410: A group of Domobran POWs, who were "miserable troops...took the first opportunity of deserting or let themselves be taken prisoner" and whom "partisans regarded with good-natured toleration". He then met up with Koča Popović (35), the commander of Partisan First Corps , who made quite an impression: "I have seldom met anyone who gave a more vivid impression of mental and physical activity... he had

3880-447: A group of badly wounded Partisans and flown to Algiers in a Dakota. From there, Maclean made a phone-call to Winston Churchill and was told that he and Velebit must continue onto London at once. They found the country in suspense, with numerous American and Allied troops preparing for the D-Day invasion . They were taken to meet senior army officers including General Eisenhower and finally

4074-818: A half drive. The Ridgeway National Trail crosses the private drive. Notes Bibliography Chetniks Axis powers [REDACTED] Partisans (October 1941 – May 1945) Axis powers The Chetniks , formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army , and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and informally colloquially the Ravna Gora Movement , was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist movement and guerrilla force in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia . Although it

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4268-485: A popular referendum to determine the future of his rule. The month after the Second Session of AVNOJ, the major Allied powers met at Tehran and decided to provide their exclusive support to the Partisans and withdraw support from the Chetniks. The congress was held in circumstances where large parts of the Chetnik movement had been progressively drawn into collaboration with the occupying forces and their helpers over

4462-689: A post-war Chetnik dictatorship that would hold all power within the country with the approval of the King, with a gendarmerie recruited from Chetnik ranks, and intense promotion of Chetnik ideology throughout the country. The final Chetnik ideological document that appeared prior to the Ba Congress in January 1944 was a manual prepared by the Chetnik leadership around the same time as the Conference of Young Chetnik Intellectuals of Montenegro in late 1942. It explained that

4656-535: A prize which has been won at such cost." Maclean left the meeting with much to consider. He found Tito having energy, determination and intelligence as well as sense of humour who was ready to give his views on any subject that crops up: "Here, at last, was a communist who did not need to refer everything to the 'competent authorities', to look up the Party line at every step... there was that unexpected independence of mind, that odd lack of servility..." Maclean's next task

4850-692: A proclamation to the Serbian people in December and in a set of detailed instructions dated 20 December 1941 to Pavle Đurišić and Đorđije Lašić , newly appointed Chetnik commanders in the Italian governorate of Montenegro . The Belgrade Chetnik Committee proposal was also smuggled out of occupied Serbia in September and delivered to the Yugoslav government-in-exile in London by the Chetnik agent Miloš Sekulić . In March 1942,

5044-521: A ratio of 100 hostages executed for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages executed for every soldier wounded. In October 1941, German soldiers and Serbian collaborators perpetrated two massacres against civilians in Kraljevo and Kragujevac , with a combined death toll reaching over 4,500 civilians, most of whom were Serbs . This convinced Mihailović that killing German troops would only result in further unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of Serbs. As

5238-487: A reaction to the massacres of Serbs carried out by the Ustaše, however the largest Chetnik massacres took place in eastern Bosnia where they preceded any significant Ustaše operations. Croats and Bosniaks living in areas intended to be part of Greater Serbia were to be cleansed of non-Serbs regardless, in accordance with Mihailović's directive of 20 December 1941. The terror against the communist Partisans and their supporters

5432-630: A reputation for indiscriminate terrorisation of the Macedonian populace. Pećanac and his Chetniks were also active in fighting Albanians resisting the Serb and Montenegrin colonisation of Kosovo . Even under the homogenizing pressures of dictatorship, the Chetniks were not a monolithic movement. In 1929, Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin became president of the association, serving until 1932, when he became president of another Serbian nationalist organisation, Narodna Odbrana (National Defence), and established

5626-508: A result, he decided to scale back Chetnik guerrilla attacks and wait for an Allied landing in the Balkans. While Chetnik collaboration reached "extensive and systematic" proportions, the Chetniks themselves referred to their policy of collaboration as "using the enemy". The political scientist Sabrina Ramet has observed, "[b]oth the Chetniks' political program and the extent of their collaboration have been amply, even voluminously, documented; it

5820-627: A settlement between the Royal Yugoslav Government and Tito. Finally, he met some of the British Liaison Officers (BLOs) who were attached to General Mihailović HQ, including the one at Chequers presided by the Prime Minister: "We found there was little or no disagreement between us as to the facts. It was common ground that the Četniks, though in the main well disposed towards Great Britain, were militarily less effective than

6014-424: A shot-down Italian pilot who delivered them in a captured motor-bus to Livno at night. The next stop was Aržano , after which they continued onto Zadvarje and finally on foot to Baška Voda . Once there, the group was met by two partisan fishermen, who took them in their fishing smack to Sućuraj , and finally reached Korčula at dawn. Once on the island, Maclean met the local partisan representatives as well as

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6208-562: A significant, 20,000-strong, force providing assistance to the German and Italian encirclement from the east (the far bank of the river Neretva ). However, Tito's Partisans managed to break through the encirclement, cross the river, and engage the Chetniks. The conflict resulted in a near-total Partisan victory, after which the Chetniks were almost entirely incapacitated in the area west of the Drina river. The Partisans continued on, and later again escaped

6402-591: A small German aeroplane and were intending to fly out the delegation themselves. They had informed Bari in order to warn the RAF and anti-aircraft batteries not to shoot at their small aeroplane with German markings and refuelled. On 27 Nov 1943, at first light, as the passengers and those who had come to see them off had gathered around the aircraft, they had noticed a small German observation plane. It flew quickly very low over their heads and dropped two small bombs. One exploded near Robin Whetherly and killed him. The other hit

6596-627: A soldier and not as a reigning sovereign, as the question of the future form of government would be settled after the war was over. Finally, Maclean asked if Tito's new Yugoslavia would be an independent state or part of the Soviet Union, the response surprised him somewhat: "You must remember the sacrifices which we are making in this struggle for our independence. Hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavs have suffered torture and death, men, women and children. Vast areas of our countryside have been laid waste. You need not suppose that we shall lightly cast aside

6790-497: A traditional policy of deceiving Croats with the help of Serbs and they believed that Italy, in case of victory of the Axis powers, would favor Serbs in Lika, northern Dalmatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and that Serbian autonomy would be created in this area under Italian protectorate. The Italians (especially General Dalmazzo) looked favorably on these approaches and hoped to first avoid fighting

6984-497: A unit which was in the area of Doboj on 15 April when it was advised of the decision of the Supreme Staff (the wartime General Staff) to surrender. A few dozen members of the unit, almost exclusively Serbs, joined Mihailović when he decided not to follow these orders, and the group took to the hills. They marched southeast then east, aiming to get to the mountainous interior of what became the German-occupied territory of Serbia in

7178-534: A vital link between the Eastern and Western fronts. The air-drop of the explosives was arranged, and Peter Moore was sent to Slovenia to blow up the Stampetta Bridge , key viaduct on the line. The operation, code-named 'Bearskin', was a great success, as the bridge was severely damaged and remained so for some time. The co-operation between Moore and the local Partisan troops had proven to be very effective. By now,

7372-419: A written report on the situation in Yugoslavia to Eden who promised to forward it to Churchill. He also verbally confirmed to him that the partisan movement is effective, likely to be very influential after the war and that their effectiveness could be considerably increased by Allied help. The report had caused a stir. Maclean returned to Bari and managed to get in contact with Tito's HQ at Jajce. As expected

7566-512: Is a reference to this in the book Elizabeth: Apprenticeship by David Starkey , which describes the early life of Elizabeth I . William Hawtrey built the current mansion around 1565, and it may have involved the reconstruction of an earlier building. A reception room in the house bears his name today. Soon after its construction, Hawtrey acted as a custodian at Chequers for Lady Mary Grey , younger sister of Lady Jane Grey and great-granddaughter of King Henry VII . Lady Mary had married without

7760-620: Is crumbling. We must now put all the pressure we can on them on the other side of the Adriatic. You must go in without delay." Maclean then expressed concern about partisans' leadership communist and pro-Soviet ambitions. Churchill responded: "So long as the whole Western civilization was threatened by the Nazi menace, we could not afford to let our attention be diverted from the immediate issue by considerations of long-term policy. We are as loyal to our Soviet Allies as we hoped they were to us. Your task

7954-411: Is hoped, benefit the nation as well as its chosen leaders. –Lee's rationale for the gift, set out in the Chequers Estate Act 1917 This house of peace and ancient memories was given to England as a thank-offering for her deliverance in the great war of 1914–1918 as a place of rest and recreation for her Prime Ministers for ever. –Inscription in a stained glass window in the long gallery of

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8148-540: Is more than a bit disappointing, thus, that people can still be found who believe that the Chetniks were doing anything besides attempting to realize a vision of an ethnically homogeneous Greater Serbian state , which they intended to advance, in the short run, by a policy of collaboration with the Axis forces". The Chetniks were partners in the pattern of terror and counter-terror that developed in Yugoslavia during World War II. They used terror tactics against Croats in areas where Serbs and Croats were intermixed, against

8342-548: Is near the village of Ellesborough , halfway between Princes Risborough and Wendover in Buckinghamshire , at the foot of the Chiltern Hills , 40 miles (64  km ) north-west of central London . Coombe Hill is two-thirds of a mile (1.1 km) northeast. Chequers has been the country home of the serving Prime Minister since 1921 after the estate was given to the nation by Arthur Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham by

8536-566: Is simply to find out who is killing the most Germans and suggest means by which we could help them to kill more. Politics must be a secondary consideration." Maclean, who was a Conservative MP at the time and had no liking for communists, was relieved. He left for Cairo to prepare the mission. On 28 Jul 1943, Churchill wrote to the Foreign Secretary that he wanted "a daring Ambassador-leader with these hardy and hunted guerrillas", making Maclean an ideal candidate. Thirty-two-year-old Maclean,

8730-634: The 5th Army area, and providing him with arms and funds for the purpose; the 5th Army was responsible for the Romanian and Bulgarian borders between the Iron Gates and the Greek border. On 6 April 1941, Yugoslavia was drawn into World War II when Germany, Italy and Hungary invaded and occupied the country, which was then partitioned. Some Yugoslav territory was annexed by its Axis neighbours: Hungary, Bulgaria and Italy. The Germans engineered and supported

8924-771: The Bulgarians in the Second Balkan War . After the Balkan Wars , Chetniks bands were used in the pacification of the new areas of Serbia gained during the wars, which occasionally involved terrorising civilians . As they had proven valuable during the Balkan Wars, the Serbian army used Chetniks in World War I in the same way, and while useful they suffered heavy losses. At the end of the Serbian campaign of 1914–1915, they withdrew with

9118-499: The Chequers Estate Act 1917 . The Lees, by this time Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham, left Chequers on 8 January 1921 after a final dinner at the house. A political disagreement between the Lees and Lloyd George soured the handover, which went ahead nonetheless. The property houses one of the largest collections of art and memorabilia pertaining to Oliver Cromwell in the country. It also houses many other national antiques and books, held in

9312-620: The Muslim population in Bosnia , Herzegovina and Sandžak , and against the Communist -led Yugoslav Partisans and their supporters in all areas. These tactics included the killing of civilians, burning of villages, assassinations and destruction of property, and exacerbating existing ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs. The terror tactics against the non-Serb population in the NDH were, at least to an extent,

9506-634: The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens . During the early part of the Second World War , it was considered that security at Chequers was inadequate to protect the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill . Therefore, he used Ditchley in Oxfordshire until late 1942, by which time the approach road, clearly visible from the sky, had been camouflaged and other security measures had been put in place. Chequers under Neville Chamberlain had one telephone – in

9700-681: The Royal Serbian Army , and the Serbian government soon took over the direction of these activities. Similar forces had been sent to Macedonia by Greece and Bulgaria , who also wished to integrate the region into their own states, resulting in the Serbian Chetniks clashing with their rivals from Bulgaria as well as the Ottoman authorities. Except for the social democratic press, these Chetnik actions were supported in Serbia and interpreted as being in

9894-412: The Serbian word četnik was commonly used to describe a member of a Balkan guerrilla force called a cheta ( četa / чета ), meaning "band" or "troop". Today, the word Chetnik is used to refer to members of any group that follows "the hegemonic and expansionist politics driven by Greater Serbia ideology". Small-scale rebellious activity akin to guerrilla warfare has a long history in

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10088-567: The South Slav -inhabited lands, particularly in those areas that were under Ottoman rule for a long period. In the First Serbian Uprising which began in 1804, bandit companies ( hajdučke čete ) played an important part until large-scale fighting gave the Ottomans the upper hand and the uprising was suppressed by 1813. A second rebellion broke out two years later, and guerrilla warfare

10282-649: The Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia . Colonel Draža Mihailović , who was "interested in resisting the occupying powers", set up his headquarters in Ravna Gora and named his group "The Ravna Gora Movement" in order to distinguish it from the Pećanac Chetniks. However, other Chetniks were engaged in collaboration with the Germans and the Chetnik name became again associated with Mihailović. The movement

10476-403: The Ustaše forces in northern Bosnia , and, after the Italian capitulation in September 1943, with the Germans directly. The Chetniks were active in the uprising in the German-occupied territory of Serbia from July to December 1941. Following the initial success of the uprising, the German occupiers enacted Adolf Hitler 's formula for suppressing anti-Nazi resistance in Eastern Europe,

10670-412: The chequer board of the Exchequer, so the estate may be named after his arms and position at court. The house passed through generations of the Scaccario family (spelt many different ways) until it passed into the D'Awtrey family, whose name was eventually anglicised to Hawtrey. Alternatively, the house could have been named after the chequer trees ( Sorbus torminalis ) that grow in its grounds. There

10864-428: The "Association of Serbian Chetniks for King and Fatherland" and the "Association of Serbian Chetniks ' Petar Mrkonjić '". In July 1925 these two organisations amalgamated as the "Association of Serbian Chetniks 'Petar Mrkonjić' for King and Fatherland" led by Puniša Račić , who was elected to the National Assembly as a Radical representative in 1927, and in 1928 murdered three Croatian Peasant Party representatives on

11058-402: The "leading lights in the Partisan Movement". Due to technical problems with the radio, they were unable to contact Cairo or Jajce and spent time planning the next steps. It was then that they witnessed the first aerial bombardment of Korčula harbour by a dozen Stuka bombers. Finally, a British Navy M.L. , laden with several tons of arms and supplies, speculatively docked at the other end of

11252-430: The Allies were getting little or no return militarily from the arms they had dropped to the Chetniks, and that they were used against the partisans, who were fighting the Germans, and were impeding rather than furthering the war effort. He concluded that, purely on military grounds, the Allies should stop supplies to the Chetniks and "henceforth send all available arms and equipment to the partisans". While in contact with

11446-475: The Axis forces". The Chetniks were almost exclusively made up of Serbs except for a large number of Montenegrins who identified as Serbs, and consisted of "local defence units, marauding bands of Serb villagers, anti-partisan auxiliaries, forcibly mobilised peasants, and armed refugees, which small groups of uncaptured Yugoslav officers was attempting without success to mold into an organised fighting force". The aforementioned Chetnik manual of late 1942 discussed

11640-413: The Axis occupation and had contacts and negotiations with the Partisans. This changed when the talks broke down, and they proceeded to attack the latter (who were actively fighting the Germans), while continuing to engage the Axis only in minor skirmishes. Attacking the Germans provoked strong retaliation and the Chetniks increasingly started to negotiate with them to stop further bloodshed. Negotiations with

11834-416: The British government had received reports of partisan resistance and were anxious to help. His team of military experts was to establish the extent and nature of the movement as well as report and advise how help could best be given. He suggested sending an officer with a wireless set to each of the main partisan HQs throughout the country and agree the best way to arrange to supplies. Tito agreed and wanted

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12028-558: The British representatives to see how the partisans were fighting in different regions. As Italy had recently capitulated, they considered sending supplies by sea, before Germans had had a chance to reoccupy the coast. The discussion moved onto Chetniks , and possible renewed co-operation between the two forces, which by now seemed impossible. Tito mentioned his initial meetings with Col Mihailović (50), but realised that his troops had become too undisciplined and demoralised from long inaction, and had gone too far in their collaboration with

12222-401: The Bulgarian occupation troops, then infiltrated the Austro-Hungarian occupied zone . Just prior to the end of the war, the Chetnik detachments were dissolved, with some sent home and others absorbed by the rest of the army. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was created with the merger of Serbia, Montenegro and the South Slav-inhabited areas of Austria-Hungary on 1 December 1918, in

12416-481: The Chetnik Central National Committee ( Serbo-Croatian : Centralni Nacionalni Komitet, CNK , Централни Национални Комитет ) was formed to provide Mihailović with advice on domestic and international political affairs, and to liaise with the civilian populace throughout the occupied territory and in other parts of occupied Yugoslavia where the Chetnik movement had strong support. The members were men who had some standing in Serbian political and cultural circles before

12610-519: The Chetnik Dinara Division promulgated a statement which was accepted the following month by a meeting of Chetnik commanders from Bosnia , Herzegovina , northern Dalmatia and Lika at Strmica near Knin . This program contained details which were very similar to those included in Mihailović's instructions to Đurišić and Lašić in December 1941. It mentioned the mobilisation of Serbs in these regions to "cleanse" them of other ethnic groups, and adopted several additional strategies: collaboration with

12804-459: The Chetnik Association. After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 the General Staff was aware that Yugoslavia was not ready for war against the Axis powers and was concerned about neighboring countries igniting a civil war in Yugoslavia. Despite its misgivings about using Chetniks for guerrilla warfare, in April 1940, the General Staff established the Chetnik Command, which eventually comprised six full battalions spread throughout

12998-400: The Chetnik Command were captured during the invasion, and there is no record of them being used for their intended purpose or that elements of these units operated in any organised way after the surrender. In the early days of the invasion, army Pukovnik (Colonel) Draža Mihailović was the deputy chief of staff of the 2nd Army deployed in Bosnia . On 13 April, he was commanding

13192-431: The Chetnik Greater Serbia ideology from the long-standing traditional one was their plan to "cleanse" Greater Serbia of non-Serbs, which was clearly a response to the massacres of Serbs by the Ustaše in the NDH. The final documents detailing Chetnik ideology were produced by the Ba Congress called by Mihailović in January 1944, in response to the November 1943 Second Session of the communist-led Anti-Fascist Council for

13386-529: The Chetniks after their attacks on the Partisans in the German attack on Užice , but Britain continued to do so. Throughout the period of 1941 and 1942, both the Chetniks and Partisans provided refugee for Allied POWs, especially ANZAC troops who escaped from railway carriages en route via Yugoslavia to Axis POW camps. According to Lawrence, following the Allied defeat at the Battle of Crete , POWs were transported via Yugoslavia in railway carriages with some ANZAC troops escaping in occupied Serbia. Chetniks under

13580-517: The Chetniks opted for a more subtle form of resistance. Instead of detonating TNT to destroy railway tracks and disrupt Axis railway lines, Chetniks contaminated railway fuel sources and tampered with mechanical components, ensuring trains would either derail or breakdown at random times. Martin suggests that these acts of sabotage significantly crippled supplies lines for the Afrika Korps fighting in North Africa. On 2 November, Mihailović's Chetniks attacked Partisan headquarters in Užice . The attack

13774-437: The Chetniks viewed the war in three phases: the invasion and capitulation by others; a period of organising and waiting until conditions warranted a general uprising against the occupying forces; and finally a general attack on the occupiers and all competitors for power, the Chetnik assumption of complete control over Yugoslavia, the expulsion of most national minorities, and arrest of all internal enemies. Crucially, it identified

13968-500: The Chetniks was social-democratic Yugoslavism, with a change to a federal Yugoslav structure with a dominant Serb unit, but in asserting the need to gather all Serbs into a single entity, The Serbian Goals of the Ravna Gora Movement was reminiscent of Homogeneous Serbia . The congress also did not recognise Macedonia and Montenegro as separate nations, and also implied that Croatia and Slovenia would effectively be appendages to

14162-416: The Chetniks' political program and the extent of their collaboration have been amply, even voluminously, documented; it is more than a bit disappointing, thus, that people can still be found who believe that the Chetniks were doing anything besides attempting to realize a vision of an ethnically homogeneous Greater Serbian state, which they intended to advance, in the short run, by a policy of collaboration with

14356-503: The Chetniks, and then use them against the Partisans, a strategy which they thought would give them an "enormous advantage". An agreement was concluded on 11 January 1942 between the representative of the Italian 2nd Army, Captain Angelo De Matteis and the Chetnik representative for southeastern Bosnia, Mutimir Petković, and was later signed by Draža Mihailović's chief delegate in Bosnia, Major Boško Todorović . Among other provisions of

14550-564: The Dalmatian coast was now fully blocked and the only way to extract the delegation would be to land an aeroplane at the air-strip at Glamoč and fly them out. The mission would require a large enough passenger aircraft capable of completing the return journey while escorted by some half a dozen fighters. Maclean was promised a Baltimore bomber and a group of Lightnings and the timing was agreed. Two attempts were made to reach Glamoč but due to thick storm clouds both had to be abandoned. By now,

14744-524: The Germans against their own countrymen. At the time, the partisans were containing a dozen or more enemy divisions and by increasing the "practically non-existent supplies" to them and giving them air-support, the Allies could ensure that they continued to contain this force. Their operations, if coordinated, could be of direct assistance to the recently arrived Allied armies in Italy. Finally, Maclean had stated that

14938-585: The Germans in the Battle of Sutjeska . In the meantime, the Allies stopped planning an invasion of the Balkans and finally rescinded their support for the Chetniks and instead supplied the Partisans. At the Teheran Conference of 1943 and the Yalta Conference of 1945, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided to split their influence in Yugoslavia in half. Throughout

15132-563: The Italian VI Army Corps (General Renzo Dalmazzo , Commander) as early as July and August 1941 for assistance, via a Serb politician from Lika , Stevo Rađenović . In particular, Chetnik vojvodas ("leaders") Trifunović-Birčanin and Jevđević were favorably disposed towards the Italians, believing Italian occupation over all of Bosnia-Herzegovina would be detrimental to the influence of the Ustaše state. Another reason for collaboration

15326-758: The Italian occupiers; determined armed opposition to NDH forces and the Partisans ; decent treatment of the Bosnian Muslims to keep them from joining the Partisans, although they could later be eliminated; and the creation of separate Croatian Chetnik units formed from pro-Yugoslav, anti-Partisan Croats. From 30 November to 2 December 1942, the Conference of Young Chetnik Intellectuals of Montenegro met at Šahovići in Italian-occupied Montenegro. Mihailović did not attend, but his chief of staff Zaharije Ostojić , Đurišić and Lašić attended, with Đurišić playing

15520-575: The Italian-annexed and later German-occupied Ljubljana Province in Slovenia. The collaboration in Dalmatia and parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the most widespread. The split between Partisans and Chetniks took place earlier in those areas. The Partisans considered all occupation forces to be "the fascist enemy", while the Chetniks hated the Ustaše but balked at fighting the Italians, and had approached

15714-542: The Lightnings circled above. Without switching off the engines, William Deakin, Vladimir Velebit and Anthony Hunter boarded the plane, together with wounded Milojević and Vladimir Dedijer (30). Finally, Captain Meyer, captured German intelligence officer, was put on board on his way to Bari for interrogation. The plane took off completing the first successful landing operation in enemy-occupied Yugoslavia. Cairo in early-Dec 1943

15908-529: The Mission, together with the Partisan HQ, moved onto Drvar, a small town farther away from German garrisons. The Mission occupied an adapted house in town, while Tito's HQ opted for a nearby cave . From there, they were able to coordinate the assistance to Partisans in other parts of Yugoslavia. One of the key tasks was to interrupt Trieste-Ljubljana railway, crucial for the supply of the German forces in Italy, and

16102-471: The National Liberation of Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian : Antifašističko vijeće narodnog oslobođenja Jugoslavije , AVNOJ) of the Partisans. The Second Session of AVNOJ had resolved that post-war Yugoslavia would be a federal republic based on six equal constituent republics, asserted that it was the sole legitimate government of Yugoslavia, and denied the right of the King to return from exile before

16296-571: The Partisans and that some of Mihailović's subordinates had undoubtedly reached accommodations with the enemy. I was interested to find that some of those who knew him best, while liking and respecting him as a man, had little opinion of Mihailović as a leader." Chequers Chequers ( / ˈ tʃ ɛ k ər z / CHEK -ərz ) is the country house of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . A 16th-century manor house in origin, it

16490-638: The Partisans themselves and demanded Mihailović's surrender. Around this time the Germans launched an attack on Mihailović's forces in Ravna Gora and effectively routed the Chetniks from the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia. The bulk of the Chetnik forces retreated into eastern Bosnia and Sandžak and the centre of Chetnik activity moved to the Independent State of Croatia . The British liaison to Mihailović advised Allied command to stop supplying

16684-550: The Partisans, rather than Axis forces, were the primary enemies of the Chetniks. To avoid reprisals against Serb civilians, Mihailović's Chetniks fought as a guerrilla force, rather than a regular army. It has been estimated that three-quarters of the Orthodox clergy in occupied Yugoslavia supported the Chetniks, while some like Momčilo Đujić became prominent Chetnik commanders. While the Partisans opted for overt acts of sabotage that led to reprisals against civilians by Axis forces,

16878-725: The Partisans. The collaboration of the Chetniks with the Italians and later Germans may have also been a factor in the Jewish rejection of the Chetnik movement. The vast majority of Orthodox priests supported the Chetniks with some, notably Momčilo Đujić and Savo Božić , becoming commanders. Chetnik policies barred women from performing significant roles. No women took part in fighting units and women were restricted to nursing and occasional intelligence work. The low status of female peasants in areas of Yugoslavia where Chetniks were strongest could have been utilized and advantageous in military, political, and psychological terms. The treatment of women

17072-459: The Prime Minister's 32-year-old son, who followed his father to Tehran and back, agreed to join the mission. Maclean thought that Randolph was dependable, had endurance and determination, and that his sometimes explosive approach to life was similar to a Yugoslav one, and that they may well like him for that. Maclean's team flew to Italy and crossed the Adriatic in a motor-torpedo-boat passing by two British Navy Hunt Class destroyers , and realising

17266-538: The Prime Minister. Velebit was pleased with being able to put his point of view to Mr Churchill personally and had made other useful contacts within the Establishment and the Press, hoping to keep Tito and the Partisan movement before the mind of the public. He then flew back, preceded by Vivian Street who took charge of the mission while Maclean remained in London for numerous further discussions. Maclean met Joint Planners,

17460-413: The Ravna Gora Movement reinforced the existing Chetnik idea that all Serbian provinces would be united in the Serbian unit within the federal arrangement, based on the solidarity between all Serb regions of Yugoslavia, under a unicameral parliament. The congress also resolved that Yugoslavia should be a constitutional monarchy headed by a Serb sovereign. According to some historians, the new program of

17654-682: The Royal Navy, Maclean had arranged for the landing supplies to the island of Korčula, recently freed from the Italian army. He suggested that he would go there himself, with a wireless set and give particulars about the landing facilities. The first section of the journey, from Jajce to Bugojno was done "rather surprisingly" by a captured train, which left the station followed by the whistles of three retired station masters "complete with magnificent peaked caps, liberally adorned with gold braids, flags, whistles and all paraphernalia of office" on 5 Oct 1943. In Bugojno, by now largely in ruins, Maclean noticed

17848-618: The Serbian entity. The net effect of this, according to the historian Jozo Tomasevich , was that the country would not only return to the same Serb-dominated state it had been in during the interwar period, but would be worse than that, particularly for the Croats. He concludes that this outcome was to be expected given the overwhelmingly Serb makeup of the congress, which included only two or three Croats, one Slovene and one Bosnian Muslim among its more than 300 attendees. The historian Marko Attila Hoare agrees that despite its superficial Yugoslavism,

18042-577: The Yugoslav government-in-exile in London under King Peter II promoted Mihailović to Brigadier-General and named him commander of the Yugoslav Home Army. By this time Mihailović had established friendly relations with Nedić and his Government of National Salvation and the Germans who he requested weaponry from to fight the Partisans. This was rejected by General Franz Böhme who stated they could deal with

18236-531: The Yugoslav resistance movements increased in strategic importance, and there was a need to determine which of the two factions was fighting the Germans. A number of Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents were sent to Yugoslavia to determine the facts on the ground . According to new archival evidence, published in 1980 for the first time, some actions against Axis carried by Mihailović and his Chetniks, with British liaison officer Brigadier Armstrong , were mistakenly credited to Tito and his Communist forces. In

18430-512: The aggressive expansion of the organisation and its move away from traditional Chetnik ideals. After 1935, Chetnik activity was officially banned in both the predominantly Croat Sava Banovina and almost entirely Slovene Drava Banovina , but the Chetnik groups in those regions were able to continue operating at a lower level. During this period, Pećanac formed close ties with the far-right Yugoslav Radical Union government of Milan Stojadinović , which ruled Yugoslavia from 1935 to 1939. During

18624-502: The agreement, it was agreed that the Italians would support Chetnik formations with arms and provisions, and would facilitate the release of "recommended individuals" from Axis concentration camps ( Jasenovac , Rab , etc.). The chief interest of both the Chetniks and Italians would be to assist each other in combating Partisan-led resistance. According to Martin, the Chetnik-Italian truce received approval from British Intelligence as it

18818-478: The air supply and air support had to take priority. It was agreed to increase substantially the amount of supplies and number of dedicated aircraft and that regional missions will be dropped to smaller partisan HQs in order to organise supply, train and advise them. The new officers have been added including Andrew Maxwell and John Clarke of the Scots Guards and Geoffrey Kup, a gunner. Finally, Randolph Churchill ,

19012-607: The air-drops of large quantities of medicament. One of the more surprising arrivals was the very first Soviet Military Mission, headed by the Red Army General Nikolai Vasilevich Korneev , on 23 February 1944. Due to constant heavy snow, the Partisans were unable to keep clear a sufficiently large runway for an aircraft to land and take-off, and the Soviets did not want to be parachuted. Finally, two Horsa gliders were found and pulled over by two Dakotas with

19206-407: The aircraft, destroying it completely and killing Donald Knight and Ribar, and wounding Milojević. As the improvised airfield at Glamoč was unlikely to remain in partisan hands for much longer, the operation was given a higher priority, and Maclean was able to fly over in a troop-carrying Dakota escorted by half a dozen Lightning fighters on 3 Dec 1943. The Dakota had landed in broad daylight while

19400-610: The approval from the Commander-in-Chief and the Foreign Office. The time was of the essence as the Germans were consolidating their positions and were about the close the access to Dalmatian islands. Maclean and Tito knew that agreeing to host a partisan delegation would put British government on a collision course with the Royal Yugoslav Government (in-exile) who were their allies and the official representatives of

19594-700: The army in the Great Retreat to Corfu and later fought on the Macedonian front . Montenegrin Chetniks also fought against the Austro-Hungarian occupation of that country . In late 1916, new Chetnik companies were being organised to fight in Bulgarian-occupied southeastern Serbia . Concerned about reprisals against a large-scale uprising, the Serbian army sent the veteran Chetnik leader Kosta Pećanac to prevent

19788-565: The clenched-fist salute... In Russia, I had only seen the Revolution twenty years after the event, when it was as rigid and pompous and firmly established as any regime in Europe. Now I was seeing the struggle in its initial stages, with the revolutionaries fighting for life and liberty against tremendous odds." Maclean met Tito (51) and explained the purpose and ambition of his mission. Both men were fluent in German and Russian. Maclean explained that

19982-457: The command of Mihailović provided refugee to these ANZAC troops and were either repatriated or recaptured by Axis forces. In April 1942 the Communists in Bosnia established two Shock Anti-Chetnik Battalions (Grmeč and Kozara) composed of 1,200 best soldiers of Serb ethnicity to struggle against Chetniks. Later during the war, the Allies were seriously considering an invasion of the Balkans, so

20176-424: The commander of the 15th Army Group and his CoS General John Harding were keen to help. They realised that supporting partisans in Yugoslavia will ensure fewer German troops available for deployment and reinforcements on the Italian front. On 6 Jan 1944 Jack Churchill was ordered to make a reconnaissance of Vis, while Maclean and Randolph flew out to Marrakesh to meet the Prime Minister again. Mr Churchill (senior)

20370-533: The congress had clear Greater Serbia inclinations. The congress expressed an interest in reforming the economic, social, and cultural position of the country, particularly regarding democratic ideals. This was a significant departure from previous Chetnik goals expressed earlier in the war, especially in terms of promoting democratic principles with some socialist features. Tomasevich observes that these new goals were probably more related to achieving propaganda objectives than reflecting actual intentions, given that there

20564-461: The country. They anticipated a long wait. Maclean, in the meantime, had to leave for the island of Hvar , expecting Ribar and Milojević to join him once the agreement to host them has been reached. After the midnight crossing, Maclean reached the town of Hvar and was welcomed by the local people. They were aware that the enemy had already landed at the western shore of the island. He got in touch with Cairo who instructed him to come immediately via

20758-595: The country. However, it is clear from the series of Yugoslav war plans between 1938 and 1941 that the General Staff had no real commitment to guerrilla warfare prior to the April 1941 Axis invasion of Yugoslavia , and did not seriously consider employing the Chetnik Association in the role either. A short time before the invasion, Pećanac was approached by the General Staff, authorising him to organise guerrilla units in

20952-528: The course of the war, and may have been held with the tacit approval of the Germans. The document that was produced by the Ba Congress was called The Goals of the Ravna Gora Movement and came in two parts. The first part, The Yugoslav Goals of the Ravna Gora Movement stated that Yugoslavia would be a democratic federation with three units, one each for the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and national minorities would be expelled. The second part, The Serbian Goals of

21146-454: The creation of a Greater Serbia within a Greater Yugoslavia which would include not only the vast majority of pre-war Yugoslav territory, but also a significant amount of territory that belonged to all of Yugoslavia's neighbours. Within this, Greater Serbia would consist of 65–70 per cent of the total Yugoslav territory and population, and Croatia would be reduced to a small rump. His plan also included large-scale population transfers, evicting

21340-575: The creation of the fascist Ustaše puppet state , the Independent State of Croatia ( Croatian : Nezavisna Država Hrvatska , NDH), which roughly comprised most of the pre-war Banovina Croatia , along with rest of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and some adjacent territory. Before the defeat, King Peter II and his government went into exile, reforming in June as the Western Allied -recognised Yugoslav government-in-exile in London. All elements of

21534-599: The dominant role. It advanced strategies that constituted an important and expanded version of the overall Chetnik program, and the report of the meeting bore an official Chetnik stamp. It reinforced the main Greater Serbia objective of the Chetnik movement, and in addition advocated the retention of the Karađorđević dynasty , espoused a unitary Yugoslavia with self-governing Serb, Croat and Slovene units but excluding entities for other Yugoslav peoples such as Macedonians and Montenegrins as well as other minorities. It envisaged

21728-481: The end of the 19th century, the house passed through marriage to the Astley family. Between 1892 and 1901, Bertram Astley restored the house to its Elizabethan origins, with advice from Reginald Blomfield . The restoration and design work was completed by John Birch, architect. It is not possible to foresee from what classes or conditions of life the future wielders of power in this country will be drawn. Some may be as in

21922-403: The enemy. He then introduced Father Vlado (40), a Serbian Orthodox priest, who had left chetniks to join the partisans and who in addition to the usual red star, wore a gold cross as his cap badge. They discussed the future of the young King Peter II of Yugoslavia (20), still exiled in London. At a suggestion that the king might return to join the partisans, Tito replied that he could come as

22116-477: The established order, realised that he and his movement were finally recognised as an ally and were in direct and formal communication with the Prime Minister of a Great Power. He understood that the official and public recognition may not be far away. The questions of partisans' contribution to the Allied cause and the best way to assist them have been fully answered. After a few days in snow-covered Bosanski Petrovac,

22310-591: The estate. In July 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May held a Cabinet meeting at Chequers to agree on the UK's approach to Brexit which became known as the proposed " Chequers plan ". In April 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson chose to recover at Chequers after being hospitalised at St Thomas's , London, with respiratory complications from COVID-19 which included a three-night stay in ICU. Downing Street and Chequers are approximately 41 miles (66 km) apart, roughly an hour and

22504-751: The famous " long room ", including a diary of Admiral Lord Nelson and the Chequers Ring , one of the few surviving pieces of jewellery worn by Elizabeth I . The collection is not open to the public. Nearby Coombe Hill was part of the estate until the 1920s, when it was given to the National Trust . Coombe Hill and the Chequers Estate are part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, designated in 1965. The landscaped park, woodlands and formal gardens surrounding Chequers are listed Grade II on

22698-637: The fierce fighting, there has been no comprehensive report from them. Maclean and his team were sent to "form an estimate on the spot of the relative value of the partisans' contribution to the Allied cause and the best means of helping them to increase it". On 25 Jul 1943, Churchill met Maclean at Chequers , the Prime Minister's country house, north-west of London. During the evening, the PM announced that Mussolini had resigned. He then told Maclean: "This makes your job more important than ever. The German position in Italy

22892-486: The fighters needed to be redeployed elsewhere, and Maclean made the third attempt un-escorted. This time they tried to get under the cloud cover but to no avail. On the return to Italy, they were told that Bari airfield had too low visibility and to land in Foggia instead where they spent the following two days in a downpour of rain. By the time they re-established full communications, a tragedy occurred. Partisans had captured

23086-523: The first time in Struganik where Tito offered Mihailović the chief-of-staff post in return for the merger of their units. Mihailović refused to attack the Germans, fearing reprisals, but promised to not attack the Partisans. According to Mihailović the reason was humanitarian: the prevention of German reprisals against Serbs at the published rate of 100 civilians for every German soldier killed, 50 civilians for every soldier wounded. On 20 October, Tito proposed

23280-482: The first time: "They were mostly very young, with high Slav cheek-bones and red stars stitched to their caps and wearing a strange assortment of civilian clothes and captured enemy uniform and equipment. The red star, sometimes embellished with a hammer and sickle, was the only thing common to all of them... While we sat there, messengers kept bringing in situation reports from nearby areas where operations were in progress. As they delivered their messages, they too gave

23474-634: The floor of the National Assembly. He presided over a great deal of dissension until the organisation ceased to operate. After the imposition of royal dictatorship by King Alexander in 1929, at which time the state was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Račić's former organisation was dissolved, and the former dissidents rejoined the original "Chetnik Association for the Freedom and Honor of the Fatherland", which

23668-434: The group flew from Cairo to Bizerta , where they switched planes and boarded Halifax bombers for a flight to the mountains of Bosnia. On 17 Sep 1943, the parachuted group and their cargo landed near Mrkonjić Grad and were met by Vladimir Velebit (36) and Slavko Rodić (25), who helped them move onto Jajce to meet Tito (51). Maclean, who had been to Soviet Union long after the revolution, now saw real-life partisans for

23862-504: The group was on the move to Kupres and Livno , marching on foot beside their packed horses. They were unsure if it was safe to continue, when they encountered Ivo Lola Ribar (27), who "had a distinguished fighting record", and who confirmed that the partisans had recaptured Livno and were fighting in Kupres, which would also be in their hands shortly. After being unable to establish wireless contact with Cairo HQ at Kupres, they were driven by

24056-470: The height of the German Fifth Offensive , and "able to give us a better idea than anyone of what the partisans were worth". By now, Maclean had a much better understanding of the partisan movement and its motivation: "All had one thing in common: an intense pride in their Movement and in its achievements. For them, the outside world did not seem of immediate interest or importance. What mattered

24250-405: The higher attention that the area was now receiving. They arrived at Vela Luka on the island of Korčula and off-loaded the arms and ammunition that they brought with them. By now, the Germans have taken over the neighbouring Pelješac peninsula and started exchanging of shell-fire across a narrow strait that separated them. It became obvious that Korčula could not be held for much longer, and that

24444-468: The hope of linking up with other elements of the defeated army that had chosen to keep resisting. In the first few days, Mihailović's group was attacked by German forces. The group was joined by other parties of soldiers but heard no news of others continuing to resist. On 28 April, the group was about 80 strong, and crossed the Drina River into the occupied territory of Serbia the next day, although over

24638-463: The house commissioned by Lord and Lady Lee In 1909, the house was taken on a long lease by Arthur Lee and his wife Ruth (an American heiress). Lee immediately re-engaged Blomfield to undertake a restoration of the interior. At the same time, Henry Avray Tipping undertook the design of several walled gardens from 1911 to 1912. In 1912, after the death of the last of the house's ancestral owners Henry Delaval Astley, Ruth Lee and her sister purchased

24832-601: The idea of enlisting a significant number of Croats for the movement, but the movement only attracted small groups of Chetnik-aligned Croats in central Dalmatia and Primorje , and they were never of any political or military significance within the Chetniks. A small group of Slovenes under Major Karl Novak in the Italian-annexed Province of Ljubljana also supported Mihailović, but they also never played an important role. There had been long standing mutual animosity between Muslims and Serbs throughout Bosnia, and in

25026-537: The immediate aftermath of the war. Due to their military record since 1904, Chetnik veterans were among the leading Serbian patriotic groups in the new state. In 1921, the "Chetnik Association for the Freedom and Honor of the Fatherland" was organised in Belgrade by Chetnik veterans, with organisational aims of cultivating Chetnik history, spreading Chetnik patriotic ideas, and to care for the widows and orphans of Chetniks who had been killed, along with disabled Chetniks. It

25220-589: The interwar period, limited training on guerrilla warfare was given to junior officers of the army, and in 1929 the Handbook on Guerrilla Warfare was published by the government to provide guidance. In 1938, the General Staff revised the approach detailed in 1929, recognising that operations similar to those carried out by Chetniks between 1904 and 1918 would not be possible in a modern war, and clearly indicating that it would not entrust any important wartime functions to

25414-445: The island of Vis , and that the partisan delegation could follow later "if required". Maclean realised that the Germans were continuing to advance and that the coast would be cut-off very soon. He reached Vis after an overnight trip on a fishing boat. He realised the strategic importance of the island which was within striking distance of the coast yet far enough out to sea for it to be reasonably easy to hold and access from Italy. It

25608-502: The island, and while the partisans offered one brigade, another one had to be found from the Allied 15th Army Group still fighting in central Italy. Maclean and R Churchill returned to Bari to consider their options. On 31 Dec 1943 at a New Year's Eve party in nearby Molfetta , Randolph and Maclean met with brothers Jack and Tom Churchill (no relation), young Commando officers who offered to help and station their unit on Vis subject to approval by high command. Both General Alexander ,

25802-592: The island. David Satow, Maclean's assistant, brought in the sailors, including Sandy Glenn, whom Maclean recognised immediately. As the partisans were off-loading the cargo, news came from Pelješac peninsula that the Germans were advancing and preparing a naval invasion fleet at the mouth of the river Neretva . Maclean managed to send two messages from the Navy vessel. One was to Air Vice-Marshall Coningham asking for an aerial attack on German troop concentrations at Mostar , Metković and Pelješac and their invasion barges at

25996-502: The islands, bringing a spare wireless set, mail and the news for the Maclean's group. Maclean returned to Jajce to agree on the future action with Tito. He told him that he would return to Cairo to find out "what prospect there was of securing effective Allied support in Dalmatia". Tito agreed, and asked him to take two partisan representatives, Ivo Lola Ribar and Miloje Milojević (31), with him. Maclean accepted, stating that he would seek

26190-737: The kitchen; but Churchill "at once installed a whole battery on his desk and had them in constant use", according to Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Portal of Hungerford , who served as Chief of the Air Staff during the Second World War. On 1 June 2007, the Chequers estate was designated as a protected site under Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 . This specifically criminalised trespass into

26384-649: The latter. Due to the location of their headquarters, Mihailović's organisation became known as the "Ravna Gora Movement". While adherents of the Chetnik movement have claimed that Mihailović's Chetniks were the first resistance movement to be founded in Yugoslavia in World War II, this is not accurate if a resistance movement is defined as a political and military organisation of relatively large numbers of men conducting armed operations intended to be carried on with determination and more or less continuously. Soon after their arrival at Ravna Gora, Mihailović's Chetniks set up

26578-598: The leadership of the organisation if anything should happen to him. In effect, Vasić was Mihailović's deputy. From the beginning of Mihailović's movement in May 1941 until the Ba Congress in January 1944, the ideology and objectives of the movement were promulgated in a series of documents. In June 1941, two months before he became a key member of the CNK, Moljević wrote a memorandum entitled Homogeneous Serbia , in which he advocated for

26772-520: The main Serbian irredentist objective, Mihailović's Chetnik movement was an extreme Serb nationalist organisation, and while it paid lip service to Yugoslavism, it was actually opposed to it. It was also anti-Croat , anti-Muslim , supported the monarchy , and was anti-communist . Given the ethnic and religious divisions in Yugoslavia, the narrow ideology of the Chetnik movement seriously impinged on its military and political potential. The political scientist Sabrina Ramet has observed, "Both

26966-446: The meantime, the Germans, also aware of the growing importance of Yugoslavia, decided to wipe out the Partisans with determined offensives. The Chetniks, by this time, had agreed to provide support for the German operations, and were in turn granted supplies and munitions to increase their effectiveness. The first of these large anti-Partisan offensives was Fall Weiss , also known as the Battle of Neretva . The Chetniks participated with

27160-454: The mid-18th century. Matija Ban used the word Chetnik in 1848 in terms of the need to establish armed units outside the Principality of Serbia to act in opposition to Ottoman rule following the rise of nationalism in the Balkans . At end of the 19th century, the term was extended to members of military or paramilitary organizations with Serb ethnonationalist aims . Dating from 1904,

27354-582: The monarch's consent, and as punishment was banished from court by Queen Elizabeth I and kept confined. Lady Mary remained at Chequers for two years. The room where she slept from 1565 to 1567 remains in its original condition. Through descent in the female line and marriages, the house passed through several families: the Wooleys, the Crokes and the Thurbanes. In 1715, the then owner of the house married John Russell ,

27548-537: The mouth of the Neretva. The second message was sent to the Navy's Flag Officer at Taranto asking for some Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) to be sent to patrol off the mouth of the Neretva. Both messages were received and acted upon as the group was getting ready for the return journey to Jajce. As Baška Voda was by now in German hands, their small fishing boat took them to Podgora , where they bumped into Gordon Alston and his W/T operator. They were on their way from Jajce to

27742-641: The national interest. These Chetnik activities largely ceased following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The Chetniks were active in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913; during the First Balkan War against the Ottomans they were used as vanguards to soften up the enemy ahead of advancing armies, for attacks on communications behind enemy lines, for spreading panic and confusion, as field gendarmerie and to establish basic administration in occupied areas. They were also put to good use against

27936-504: The next few days it lost a number of officers and enlisted men who were concerned about the pending hardship and uncertainty. After crossing the Drina, the group was also attacked by gendarmes belonging to the collaborationist puppet Commissioner Government . On 6 May Mihailović's remaining group was surrounded by German troops near Užice and almost completely destroyed. On 13 May, Mihailović arrived at some shepherd huts at Ravna Gora on

28130-1048: The non-Serb population from within the borders of Greater Serbia, although he did not suggest any numbers. At the same time that Moljević was developing Homogeneous Serbia , the Belgrade Chetnik Committee formulated a proposal which contained territorial provisions very similar to those detailed in Moljević's plan, but went further by providing details of the large-scale population shifts needed to make Greater Serbia ethnically homogenous. It advocated expelling of 2,675,000 people from Greater Serbia, including 1,000,000 Croats and 500,000 Germans. A total of 1,310,000 Serbs would be brought to Greater Serbia from outside its boundaries, of which 300,000 would be Serbs from Croatia. Greater Serbia would not be entirely Serb, however, as about 200,000 Croats would be allowed to stay within its borders. No figures were proposed for shifting Bosnian Muslims out of Greater Serbia, but they were identified as

28324-423: The occupation forces, and started cooperating with the Axis in a struggle to destroy the Partisans, receiving increasing amounts of logistical assistance. Mihailović admitted to a British colonel that the Chetniks' principal enemies were "the partisans, the Ustasha, the Muslims, the Croats and last the Germans and Italians" [in that order]. At the start of the conflict, Chetnik forces were active in uprising against

28518-437: The occupiers were aided by the two sides' mutual goal of destroying the Partisans. This collaboration first appeared during the operations on the Partisan " Užice Republic ", where Chetniks played a part in the general Axis attack. Chetnik collaboration with the occupation forces of fascist Italy took place in three main areas: in Italian-occupied (and Italian-annexed) Dalmatia; in the Italian puppet state of Montenegro ; and in

28712-465: The outbreak. However, the Bulgarians started conscripting Serbs, and hundreds of men joined the Chetnik detachments . This resulted in the 1917 Toplica Uprising under the leadership of Kosta Vojinović , which Pećanac eventually joined. Successful at first, the uprising was eventually put down by the Bulgarians and Austro-Hungarians , and bloody reprisals against the civilian population followed. Pećanac then used Chetniks for sabotage and raids against

28906-420: The past men of wealth and famous descent; some may belong to the world of trade and business; others may spring from the ranks of the manual toilers. To none of these [...] could the spirit and anodyne of Chequers do anything but good. [...], the better the health of our rulers the more sanely will they rule and the inducement to spend two days a week in the high and pure air of the Chiltern hills and woods will, it

29100-444: The period of late April and May 1941, the first Chetnik mass atrocities were carried out against non-Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in other ethnically heterogeneous areas. A few Sandžak and Bosnian Muslims supported Mihailović, and some Jews joined the Chetniks, especially those who were members of the right-wing Zionist Betar movement, but they were alienated by Serb xenophobia and eventually left, with some defecting to

29294-423: The population, kill pro-Bulgarian resistance leaders and impress the local population into forced labour for the army. Resistance by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization was met with further terror, which included the formation in 1922 of the Association against Bulgarian Bandits led by Pećanac and Ilija Trifunović-Lune, based out of Štip in eastern Macedonia. This organisation quickly garnered

29488-411: The post-First World War era was bringing in a new breed of politician. These men did not have the spacious country houses of previous prime ministers in which to entertain foreign dignitaries or a tranquil place to relax from the affairs of state. After long discussions with then Prime Minister David Lloyd George , Chequers was given to the nation as a country retreat for the serving Prime Minister under

29682-401: The preparation for the evacuation onto the island of Vis, the farthest away from the mainland, should start. Once on Vis, Maclean and the team inspected the island and realised that its main valley would make an ideal airfield. Having an ability to base or refuel there would extend the Allied air-power range across the whole of Adriatic and deep into Yugoslavia. However, they needed to garrison

29876-473: The principality became the Kingdom of Serbia . Between 1904 and 1912, small groups of fighters who had been privately recruited, equipped and funded in Serbia, travelled to the region of Macedonia within the Ottoman Empire with the aim of releasing the area from Ottoman rule and annexing it to Serbia, regardless of the wishes of the local population. These groups were, in the main, commanded and led by officers and non-commissioned officers on active duty in

30070-411: The property and later gave it to Arthur Lee. During the First World War , the house became a hospital and then a convalescent home for officers. After the war, Chequers became a private home again (now furnished with many 16th-century antiques and tapestries and the Cromwellian antiquities), and the childless Lees formed a plan. While previous Prime Ministers had always belonged to the landed classes,

30264-424: The representatives of each branch of the armed forces, and agreed the best way to help the Partisans and increase their contribution to the war effort as a whole. On the political front, he met King Peter II, a trained pilot, and agreed that the King could maybe join the RAF Yugoslav Squadron, which "appealed to him". He then met Dr Ivan Šubašić , a moderate former Governor of Croatia, who was trying to reach out for

30458-431: The resistance forces. Mihailović's fears for ongoing reprisals became a reality with two mass murder campaigns conducted against Serb civilians in Kraljevo and Kragujevac , reaching a combined death toll of over 4,500 civilians. Killings in the Independent State of Croatia were also in full swing with thousands of Serb civilians being killed by the Ustaše militia and death squads. In late October, Mihailović concluded

30652-408: The return to the throne, Maclean's opinion was that the king would have to go back and take part in the war of liberation, as his father had done in the last war. The king replied: "I wish that it only depended on me.". The next task was to agree with senior British officers to form a nucleus of the new Yugoslav Air force and Navy by training partisan fighters. At the same time, the immediate need of

30846-429: The rival "Association of Old Chetniks", but the latter never challenged the main Chetnik organisation. He was replaced by Pećanac, who continued to lead the organisation until the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Starting in 1929, the main Chetnik organisations established chapters in at least 24 cities and towns outside Serbia proper , many of which had large Croatian populations. This expansion of what remained

31040-441: The same tense, strained look as all the Partisan leaders, a look which comes from long months of physical and mental stress... Vitality radiated from his leathery, drawn features... He spoke French like a Frenchman (and a very witty Frenchman at that)... the science of warfare had first become a reality to him in Spain, where he had fought for the Republicans, an experience which had left a profound impression on him." After Bugojno,

31234-427: The seal and unfolding the heavy paper with the address of 10 Downing Street and the PM's signature at the bottom, enclosed with a signed photograph. He saw Tito smile and try to translate the wording, and understand the complimentary references to the partisan fight and promises of Allied assistance as well as advice on future mutual correspondence via Maclean. Tito, the underground fighter perpetually in conflict with

31428-407: The situation somewhat stabilised and the Allied aeroplanes were able to drop new members to the mission. This included Major Doctor Lindsay Rogers RAMC (NZ) who led his own Mission and organised improvised hospitals throughout the Partisan controlled territory, insisting on standards of hygiene, medical discipline and the isolation and treatment of the many typhus cases. He was also able to organise

31622-535: The start of Operation Barbarossa , the communist-led Partisans under Josip Broz Tito organised an uprising and in the period between June and November 1941, the Chetniks and Partisans largely cooperated in their anti-Axis activities. Chetnik uprisings, often in conjunction with the Partisans , against Axis occupation forces began in early July 1941 in Western Serbia . Uprisings in the areas of Loznica , Rogatica , Banja Koviljača and Olovo lead to early victories. On 19 September 1941, Tito and Mihailović met for

31816-451: The three had decided to give all-out support to the partisans. The question of continuing support to Chetnik forces was raised by the British officers attached to their formations who advised that Chetniks' resistance is not solid, their troops ill-disciplined and their commanders collaborating more or less openly with the enemy. In short, their contribution to the Allied cause was by now little or nothing. Their commander, General Mihailović,

32010-399: The time. Maclean arranged a dinner with the king and the British ambassador Ralph Stevenson . The king asked him what the partisans and other people thought of him, and what were his chances of reclaiming the throne after the war. The response was that the partisans resented some radio proclamations condemning their leaders as traitors and that many did not take much interest in him. As for

32204-462: The two most important tasks during the second phase as: Chetnik-led organisation for the third phase without any party political influences; and incapacitation of their internal enemies, with first priority being the Partisans. Revenge against the Partisans and Ustaše was incorporated into the manual as a "sacred duty". The manual paid some lip service to Yugoslavism , but the Chetniks did not really wish to become an all-Yugoslav movement because that

32398-442: The use of the Bulgarian language , and imposing lengthy jail terms for those convicted of anti-state activities. Over 300 Macedonian advocates of Greater Bulgaria were murdered between 1918 and 1924, thousands were arrested in the same period, and around 50,000 troops were stationed in Macedonia. Thousands of Serb colonists were settled in Macedonia. Bands of Chetniks, including one led by Jovan Babunski , were organised to terrorise

32592-423: The war, and some CNK members also served on the Belgrade Chetnik Committee that supported the movement. Much of the early CNK was drawn from the minuscule Yugoslav Republican Party or the minor Agrarian Party . The three most important members of the CNK, who comprised the executive committee for much of the war, were: Dragiša Vasić , a lawyer, former vice-president of the nationalist Serbian Cultural Club and

32786-415: The war, the Chetnik movement remained mostly inactive against the occupation forces, and increasingly collaborated with the Axis, eventually losing its international recognition as the Yugoslav resistance force. After a brief initial period of cooperation, the Partisans and the Chetniks quickly started fighting against each other. Gradually, the Chetniks ended up primarily fighting the Partisans instead of

32980-434: The war?' 'No, Sir.' I replied. 'Neither do I,' he said. 'And, that being so, the less you and I worry about the form of Government they set up, the better. That is for them to decide. What interests us is, which of them is doing most to harm the Germans?'" Maclean realised that the Soviet Union had remained the ally since 1941 and that the British were doing everything in their power to bolster up Soviet war effort. This

33174-442: The western slopes of Suvobor Mountain near the town of Gornji Milanovac in the central part of the occupied territory, by which time his group consisted of only seven officers and 27 other ranks. At this point, now aware that no elements of the army were continuing to fight, they were faced with the decision of whether to surrender to the Germans themselves or form the core of a resistance movement, and Mihailović and his men chose

33368-533: The word Chetnik is obscure. Some believe it to have developed from the Turkish word çete , meaning "to plunder and burn down", while another view is it was inherited from the Proto-Slavic , meaning "member of a company ". The word may also derive from the Latin word coetus ("coming together" or "assembly"). The suffix -nik is a Slavic common personal suffix , meaning "person or thing associated with or involved in". The first use of Chetnik to describe members of army and police units appeared around

33562-434: Was their War of National Liberation, their struggle against the invader, their victories, their sacrifices. Of this, they were proudest of all, that they owed nothing to anyone; that they had got so far without outside help... With this pride went a spirit of dedication, hard not to admire. The life of every one of them was ruled by rigid self-discipline, complete austerity; no drinking, no looting, no love-making. It

33756-420: Was "coldly competent", Edvard Kardelj (33), the expert Marxist dialectician was "perfectly frank, perfectly logical, perfectly calm and unruffled", Aleksandar Ranković (34) in charge of the Intelligence services who was "not, you felt, a man who would come off worst in a bargain", Milovan Đilas (32), "young, intolerant and good looking" and Moša Pijade (53), an elderly Jewish Belgrade intellectual who became

33950-468: Was a fundamental difference between the Chetniks and Partisans and Chetnik propaganda disparaged the female role in the Partisans. Ruth Mitchell (ca. 1889–1969) was a reporter who was the only American woman to serve with the Chetniks. Fluent in German, she worked for the Chetniks as a spy and a courier for about a year. Initially, Mihailović's organisation was focussed on recruiting and establishing groups in different areas, raising funds, establishing

34144-458: Was a necessity to protect Serbs from the Ustaše and Balli Kombëtar . When the Balli Kombëtar earmarked the Visoki Dečani monastery for destruction, Italian troops were sent in to protect the Orthodox monastery from destruction and highlighted to the Chetniks the necessity for collaboration. For this reason, they sought an alliance with the Italian occupation forces in Yugoslavia. The Chetniks noticed that Italy on occupied territories implemented

34338-445: Was again utilised to significant effect, assisting in the establishment of the partially-independent Principality of Serbia , which was expanded significantly in 1833 and became fully independent in 1878. Throughout this period and until the end of the 19th century interest in guerrilla warfare remained, with books on the subject being commissioned by the Serbian government and published in 1848 and 1868. Four years after independence,

34532-432: Was also a political pressure group, and from the beginning there were questions about its leadership and political ideology. Initially, the main political influence in the organisation was the liberal Democratic Party , but a challenge for influence by the dominant People's Radical Party led to a split in 1924. The pro-Radical Greater Serbia elements of the association broke away and formed two new organisations in 1924,

34726-425: Was done without examining too closely their political system or the circumstances which had brought them into the war on the same side. It was also possible that the nationalist forces in Yugoslavia will overwhelm the communists in the end. There was however one major unresolved issue, the British government had continued to support the Yugoslav government-in-exile and King Peter II, who also happened to be in Cairo at

34920-433: Was driven back and a counterattack followed the next day, the Chetniks lost 1,000 men in these two battles and a large amount of weaponry. On 18 November, Mihailović accepted a truce offer from Tito though attempts to establish a common front failed. That month, the British government, upon the request of the Yugoslav government-in-exile , insisted Tito make Mihailović the commander-in-chief of resistance forces in Yugoslavia,

35114-481: Was given a last chance to blow two railway bridges on the strategic Belgrade to Salonika railway. If he failed to carry out the operation by an agreed date of 29 Dec 1943, the missions would be withdrawn and the supplies to Chetniks would cease. Indeed, that was the final outcome. Maclean once more raised the concern about partisans' commitment to the Soviet Union once the fighting had finished when Churchill asked: "'Do you intend, to make Yugoslavia your home after

35308-455: Was ideologically driven. Several historians regard Chetnik actions during this period as constituting genocide . Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the Chetniks in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina range from 50,000 to 68,000, while more than 5,000 victims are registered in the region of Sandžak alone. About 300 villages and small towns were destroyed, along with a large number of mosques and Catholic churches. The etymology of

35502-458: Was inconsistent with their main objective of achieving a Greater Serbia within Greater Yugoslavia. Due to their Serb nationalist stance, they never developed a realistic view of the "national question" in Yugoslavia because they disregarded the legitimate interests of the other Yugoslav peoples. Their ideology was therefore never attractive to non-Serbs except for those Macedonians and Montenegrins who considered themselves Serbs. The only new aspect of

35696-557: Was informed that Jajce had fallen to the Germans and that Tito and his HQ were on the move once again. He realised that they needed some encouragement and wrote a personal letter to Tito. He congratulated him on his past achievements and held out the hope of future help. He then instructed Maclean to deliver it personally, without delay. They flew back to Bari and soon were parachuted near Bosanski Petrovac. The group consisted of Maclean, Randolph, Sgt Duncan, Sgt Campbell (new W/T operator), Corp Iles (signaller) and Slim Farish returning from

35890-424: Was later to be renamed the "Yugoslav Army in the Homeland", although the original name of the movement remained the most common in use throughout the war, even among the Chetniks themselves. It is these forces that are generally referred to as "the Chetniks" throughout World War II although the name was also used by other smaller groups including those of Pećanac, Nedić and Dimitrije Ljotić . In June 1941, following

36084-427: Was no real interest in considering the needs of the non-Serb peoples of Yugoslavia. The practical outcome of the congress was the establishment of a single political party for the movement, the Yugoslav Democratic National Union (Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslovenska demokratska narodna zajednica , JDNZ), and an expansion of the CNK, however the congress did nothing to improve the position of the Chetnik movement. Beyond

36278-439: Was not a homogeneous movement, it was led by Draža Mihailović . While it was anti- Axis in its long-term goals and engaged in marginal resistance activities for limited periods, it also engaged in tactical or selective collaboration with Axis forces for almost all of the war. The Chetnik movement adopted a policy of collaboration with regard to the Axis, and engaged in cooperation to one degree or another by both establishing

36472-520: Was officially sanctioned. Immediately following the end of World War I and the formation of the new state, there was widespread unrest. Pro-Bulgarian sentiment was rife in Macedonia, which was referred to as South Serbia by the Belgrade government. There was little support among the Macedonian populace for the regime. Extensive measures were undertaken to " serbianise " Macedonia, including closing Bulgarian Orthodox Church schools, revising history textbooks, dismissing "unreliable" teachers, banning

36666-403: Was seen as a way of garnering intelligence. Birčanin was instructed to gather information on harbor facilities, troop movements, mining operations and Axis communications in preparation for an Allied invasion of the Dubrovnik coast scheduled for 1943, an invasion that never eventuated. In the following months of 1942, General Mario Roatta , commander of the Italian 2nd Army, worked on developing

36860-558: Was the right place at the right time. Both Churchill and F.D. Roosevelt were there, on their return journey from Tehran. Maclean and Deakin went to the Prime Minister's villa out by the Pyramids. He was still in bed, "smoking a cigar and wearing an embroidered dressing-gown" and questioned Maclean if he had parachuted wearing a kilt, before moving onto more a pressing issue of Yugoslav fight. Churchill confirmed that he had read Maclean's report and together with all other available information had discussed it with Stalin and Roosevelt. Finally,

37054-426: Was though each one of them were bound by a vow, a vow part ideological and part military, for, in the conditions under which they were fighting, any relaxation of discipline would have been disastrous; nor could private desires and feelings be allowed to count for anything." The movement was led by a group of young army officers and revolutionaries: Arso Jovanović (36), Tito's CoS , former Royal Yugoslav Army officer,

37248-511: Was to be in charge of supply logistics and Gordon Alston (25), an intelligence officer. The security was assigned to Sgt Duncan, Cpl Dickson (Scots Guards) and Cpl Kelly (Seaforth Highlanders) and communication to two wireless operators. Just before the departure, they were joined by an American Major Linn "Slim" Farish (41), who claimed that he could build aerodromes. It was decided to leave two officers, David Satow and Sgt Charlie Button behind as rear-link and supply support. In early-Sep 1943,

37442-432: Was to make an ideal base for future supplies. From Vis, the Navy Motor Launch took him to southern Italy. By 5 Nov 1943, Maclean had reached Cairo and realised why he was summoned at this time. Large British delegation including the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden , the Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Alexander Cadogan and others were there on their way back from Moscow in preparation for the Tehran Conference . He handed

37636-412: Was to meet up with the three British officers who had already been posted with the partisans for some time and collate their feedback. Anthony Hunter was a Scots Fusilier who commanded a patrol of LRDG in Croatia . Major Jones was a Canadian officer, who joined the British army before being posted in Slovenia . Finally, Bill Deakin (30), who arrived to Tito's HQ as part of the Operation Typical at

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