US Airmen Share a Little Known WWII Survival and Rescue Story

YPSILANTI, MICHIGAN (WTOL) - As we celebrate Independence Day, four veterans of World War II want to thank those who kept them safe in enemy territory years ago.

They were recently reunited at the Yankee Air Museum in Ypsilanti thanks to the Experimental Aircraft Association.

These men are called the 'Forgotten 500' in a published book. As more and more people hear the story, however, they're hoping the daring rescue mission and the men behind it will never be forgotten again.

"When they said pull that rip cord, I started to pull the ripcord like a lawnmower. It came up and came out in my hand. Then I thought, 'Now what do I do with this?,'" Curtis Diles, a WWII veteran from Dayton tells News 11.

More than 60 years have passed since these U.S. airmen parachuted out of a plane into hostile territory.

Clare Musgrove of St. Joseph, Michigan tells us, "I had the ripcord in my hand, and I was freefalling. I immediately tried to get into my pack and get the pilot chute' out. When I did, it made a much larger chute,' and my flight afterwards was OK."

"We bombed Ploesti, so the Germans would be penalized for their lack of gasoline. But we paid one terrible price for that because the Germans knew what altitude we would come in," says Arthur "Jibby" Jibilian from Fremont. "They knew the formation we would come in. They had us zeroed in perfectly, and we were like sitting ducks."

For many of these men, the mission was never finished. They died when their planes crashed into the treacherous mountains in the Balkans of Yugoslavia. For the others, they were parachuting into the unknown.

Musgrove tells us, "On my way down, I saw a flock of sheep. When there's a flock of sheep, there's usually people around it. So I made up my mind that when I get down without being injured, that's where I was gonna head."

They landed in German-occupied Serbia, but got help from Serbian resistance fighters led by General Draza Mihailovich, U.S. and British ally.

"Those people had it pretty dog gone rough, and didn't have much to give. But they gave," Carl Walpusk of Moon Twp., Pennsylvania says.

Those Serbians kept the U.S. airmen safe for weeks until the U.S. government got word of the 50 downed soldiers in Yugoslavia. The United States sent in OSS agents on a daring rescue mission known as Operation Halyard.

Fremont's Jibby was one of those men who risked his life. "They asked if I would go as a radioman," he explains, "There wasn't even a heartbeat, and I said certainly."

When he got there, he found not 50 airmen but 250. And the number was growing. "We stayed. What started to be a ten-day mission... we were there for almost six months and brought 500 airmen in."

One-by-one C47s landed on a makeshift runway that the Americans and Serbs built by hand. "We were so pleased that these planes were coming in," Musgrove explains, "This is what we had worked so hard for... getting the airstrip built. It made us so happy."

But when they returned to America, the government said they couldn't share their incredible story. "We weren't supposed to tell them how we got out. I think they wanted to keep that a secret," Walpusk says.

These veterans feel the U.S. didn't give General Mihailovich credit for helping them. By the time the rescue happened, the U.S. and Britain had abandoned Mihailovich as an ally. They say false information was given that he was a traitor and collaborating with the Germans. The U.S. and Britain began siding with communist leader General Josip Tito instead.

Jibby explains, "I don't know why the state department will not admit they made a mistake, that they abandoned Mihailovich. He was voted Man of the Year in 1941 in Time Magazine and hailed as a hero. Then they turned around and called him a collaborator simply to justify favoring Tito."

When the war ended they say Tito put Mihailovich on trial, quickly found him guilty and executed him by firing squad.

The hundreds of rescued airmen were devastated that they couldn't testify at the trial.

"The only thing we ever wanted was to acknowledge that he did help us," Jibby says, "That the Serbian peopled helped us. That he was not a traitor. That we made a mistake in backing Tito. We backed the wrong man."

In 2005 Jibby, Musgrove and a few other airmen presented Mihailovich's daughter with the Legion of Merit. It was awarded posthumously to her father by President Harry Truman.

Jibby tells News 11's Jennifer Boresz, "I just want to say it's great being together with these guys again, and I wish the whole 500 were here today.

I have better things to do than re-fight WWII with you. My father already did it the first time so that I wouldn't have to (and he was in the US Army).

However, I have read enough to know that Mihailovich, the Chetniks and the Serbs in general were thrown to the wolves (communists) in the name of expediency at Yalta. Read Michael Lees book, "The Rape of Serbia". Michael Lees, a British Officer, was there in Yugoslavia at the time, as was Major Kenneth Greenlees and others, all of whom testify the Mihailovich did NOT collaborate with the Germans.

There is even an American Legion Post here in the US, founded shortly after WWII, that is named after Mihailovich -- the ONLY American Legion Post in the US named after a foreign national! Do you think that WWII vets in their prime would have allowed an American Legion Post to be named after "a Nazi Collaborator?" Nope! Absolutely not!

Seems to me that what your grandfather in the Nazi-backed Ustashi couldn't do to Mihalovich in real life, you are trying to do to Mihailovich's memory. Ironically, you wouldn't have dared tried this crap while the WWII vets were still alive to contradict you.

German Warrant on Draza Mihailovic;, offered a reward of 100,000 gold marks for the capture of Mihailovic, dead or alive, 1943.

Text on the poster says:

100,000 Reich marks in gold award

THE PERSON TO BRING DEAD OR ALIVE BANDIT LEADER DRAJA MIHAILOVICH WILL RECEIVE 100,000 REICH MARKS IN GOLD

This criminal brought the country to its greatest misery. Blunted by his lustful life, he has imagined to be the one to “free” the people. As an English mercenary, this ridiculous bragger has managed to do nothing else but to open the doors to bolshevism and thus help in destruction of all national goods sacred to the people since the ancient times. By doing so, he has disturbed the peace of citizens and peasants, ruined the property, goods and the lives of thousands, and threw the country into indescribable misery and trouble.

THEREFORE, THE BOUNTY OF 100,000 REICH MARKS IN GOLD HAS BEEN PLACED ON THE HEAD OF THIS DANGEROUS BANDIT

The person to prove to have made this criminal harmless, or to surrender him to the nearest German post will not only be awarded by the prize of 100,000 Reich marks, but also by the fulfillment of a national deed, because it will liberate the people and the fatherland from the whip of an inhuman terror.

High commander of German troops in Serbia

I’ll answer your question once one of you guys tries to answer the ones I posed.

Dio, your questions posed are just basic knowledge or comprehension i.e. not analysis, synthesis, or evaluation.

Let me help.

Main Point: What happened was that there was a civil war that broke out within a "wider war." i.e. WW2.

Tito was committed to the seizure of power at the war's end and a socialist revolution. On the other hand, Mihailovic was committed to the restoration of the royal and Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia.

Now, because Mihailovic was confronted by Communists he held talks with the Germans with a view of fighting against their common enemy. The Germans did not like this idea - but it is was the beginning of a relationship that played out across Yugoslavia. For example, in 1943, Tito's subordinates also had discussions with the Germans in Zagreb.

What's particulary important to consider is that despite Mihailovic's offer not to fight the Germans, they turned on him as well, most notably when Simovic (1942) was "declared" the commander of all Yugoslav forces: Note that the British also gave Simovic support as well.

I could certainly go on with this "mess", but what the heck, after all, it is (was) WW2.

Hi Diocletian,

There are a number of issues involved in the Yugoslav arena during WWII as they relate to your questions and challenges as I know that you know.

I’ll just briefly touch on them here and then provide a source for a much broader picture of things that includes “primary sources” - most of them non-Serbian.

General Mihailovich and his forces not only had to fight the Nazi occupiers against tremendous odds — given the lack of supplies, arms, etc. that he had been promised by the Allies but which were diverted to the communist Yugoslav Partisans instead — he and his forces had to constantly defend themselves against Partisan (Tito’s forces) attacks. Tito had no interest in fighting the Germans regardless of all the Partisan propaganda to the contrary. His interest was winning the civil war within Yugoslavia’s boundaries so that he could take over the country after the war and impose his own special brand of communist dictatorship.

Mihailovich and his forces also had to contend with the terrible Nazi reprisal policy against the civilian population. Tito did not care about civilian casualties. Mihailovich did care. For every action that the Chetnik forces took against the Germans, the Germans would take the lives of their civilian supporters and burn their homes and rampage their villages. Mihailovich had to literally evaluate the benefit/cost ratio of every single action that he was to take against the Germans. He did so because he had a conscience.

Another issue, of course, is the horrendous, unprecedented Croatian massacres perpetrated on the Serbian population living within the boundaries of the NDH - The Independent State of Croatia, which after April 10, 1941, when the Croats enthusiastically welcomed the Nazi occupiers whom they viewed as their “liberators”, included the Krajina area of Croatia and all of Bosnia and Hercegovina. The Italian forces were the primary occupiers of the areas in Croatia mainly populated by the Serbs. Chetnik forces in certain areas made accomodations with the Italian occupiers indeed (”accomodation” being vastly different in character than “collaboration”) to save their own people from the Croatian Ustashe. The Italians were, to say the least, considerably more “humane” than were the Croats.

General Mihailovich, and I say this unequivocally and with complete conviction, was NEVER a collaborator nor was he guilty of the alleged crimes he was accused of by the Yugoslav communists.

Since you are interested in “Primary Sources” and I’m certainly not a “Primary Source”, I would like to offer the following link to a Blog that provides a wealth of testimony fron primary sources who were there, who saw it, who lived it, and who survived it, unlike General Mihailovich.

Because Tito did win, and only with the assistance of the Allies who had abandoned and betrayed Mihailovich, he was able to dictate that NONE of those sources would be allowed to testify at Mihailovich’s “trial” for “collaboration” in Belgrade in 1946. Because the witnesses were not allowed to testify in Belgrade, a “Commission of Inquiry” was formed in New York City after Mihailovich was captured by the communists and they took the testimonies there. These testimonies are quite illuminating, to say the least, and they will address the questions and challenges that you pose.

The Commission of Inquiry postings begin with the entry of February 4, 2007 on the “The Legacy of General Mihailovich”.

This Blog also contains other information - such as addressing the myth of the “Battle of Neretva” which you have brought up in this thread as well.

Here’s the link for anyone who is interested:

http://ravnagora.blogster.com

Diocletian, I know that ultimately no “facts” or testimony will change your mind, but I do think it’s disingenuous of you to keep repeating communist propaganda, especially considering that you being of Croatian heritage surely are not a big fan of the whole “Yugoslav” concept. I don’t want to take cheap shots, but I have to honestly say that it always makes me smile when I hear anyone of Croatian heritage accuse Serbs of being “Nazi collaborators”. That takes an awful lot of hubris.

You pose valid questions and challenges that us “Mihailovich supporters” constantly have to deal with. Yugoslavia, especially during WWII, was one tangled web, and much of it had to do with how the Allies handled things there. Who knows what would have happened had their been no Allied intervention there at all.

I’m glad for the Allied forces, though, that ended up in Yugoslavia, because their testimonies speak volumes about who the players were in Yugoslavia and the true nature of their intentions and their actions.

The Blog I’ve referred you to also contains German testimonies about General Mihailovich and his forces. The Nazis knew better than anybody just who was collaborating and who wasn’t. According to them, Mihailovich was no collaborator, and they had NO REASON whatsoever to lie, while other factions in Yugoslavia had plenty of reason to lie.

I know I won’t change your mind, Diocletian, but I hope I’ve at least addressed some of your challenges adequately.

Ravnagora

Mihailovic's forces (those directly under his control) stopped fighting the Germans by the end of 1941. The Partisans didn't begin to receive weaponry until much later than that.

Tito had no interest in fighting the Germans regardless of all the Partisan propaganda to the contrary.

Neither did Mihailovic, as evidenced by Chetnik actions after 1941. The plan was to lay low and wait for an Allied landing in Dalmatia or an Allied approach on the old Yugoslav border and then begin a rebellion. In the meantime, Chetniks within Nedic's Serbia were to fight the Communists and take part in the collaboration security services under Nedic until the time for rebellion was to arrive.

His interest was winning the civil war within Yugoslavia’s boundaries so that he could take over the country after the war and impose his own special brand of communist dictatorship.

Much like Mihailovic and his Chetniks. One need only look at the Moljevic Plan draw up in 1942 by Stevan Moljevic (one of Draza's righthand men) to see what was in store for non-Serbs in a future "Yugoslavia".

Mihailovich and his forces also had to contend with the terrible Nazi reprisal policy against the civilian population. Tito did not care about civilian casualties.

Correct. Tito sought reprisals to radicalize the peasantry against the Germans/Italians/etc.

Mihailovich did care. For every action that the Chetnik forces took against the Germans, the Germans would take the lives of their civilian supporters and burn their homes and rampage their villages. Mihailovich had to literally evaluate the benefit/cost ratio of every single action that he was to take against the Germans. He did so because he had a conscience.

Not much of a conscience when it came to Partisan villages, Croatian, Muslim, or Albanian villages, that's for sure.

That's quite the hyperbole! Yes, there were massacres, but they differed little from what the Serbs had done for the previous century and a half to others in the region. Nor did the massacres happen in a vacuum. The massacres were horrendous, no doubt about it...but many were tit for tat, and others had nothing to do with the Ustashe but were the continuation of old feuds such as the massacres of Serbs in Eastern Hercegovina in the summer of 1941 by the Muslims.

The Italian forces were the primary occupiers of the areas in Croatia mainly populated by the Serbs. Chetnik forces in certain areas made accomodations with the Italian occupiers indeed (”accomodation” being vastly different in character than “collaboration”) to save their own people from the Croatian Ustashe. The Italians were, to say the least, considerably more “humane” than were the Croats.

You can call it accomodation all you want. The fact of the matter is that it was direct collaboration. The Chetniks in these zones (apart from Montenegro) never, ever fought the Italians, accepted weapons from the Italians, and took orders from the Italians. The main figure here was Dobroslav Jevdjevic, a former member of Parliament in Belgrade who was Mihailovic's political liason in Hercegovina and Dalmatia. Ilija Trifunovic-Bircanin was another one. Both men were protected from the Ustashe by Italian guards for example.

General Mihailovich, and I say this unequivocally and with complete conviction, was NEVER a collaborator nor was he guilty of the alleged crimes he was accused of by the Yugoslav communists.

Mihailovic approved first of the collaboration with the Italians in regards to the Chetniks under Djujic in Dalmatia/Lika, the Hercegovina Chetniks, and later the Montenegrin Chetniks. He then later approved of collaboration with the Germans (1943) and by 1944 his small band that he directly controlled was accepting weapons from the Germans.

I can also mention the collaboration between Major Dangic (the head Chetnik of Eastern Bosnia) and the Germans in late 1941.

Diocletian, I know that ultimately no “facts” or testimony will change your mind, but I do think it’s disingenuous of you to keep repeating communist propaganda

How can German documents from Germany and Italian documents from Italy be "communist propaganda"? Did Tito occupy Rome and Berlin and forge the documentation?

I don’t want to take cheap shots, but I have to honestly say that it always makes me smile when I hear anyone of Croatian heritage accuse Serbs of being “Nazi collaborators”. That takes an awful lot of hubris.

No, all it takes is knowing the facts.

The Serbs of Dalmatia, Lika, and Western Bosnia never fought the Axis and collaborated from the get-go>

The Chetniks of Montenegro at first fought the Axis but began collaboration as early as 1941 (Coastal Montenegro) and as late as 1942 (Pavle Djurisic of Eastern Montenegro).

The Chetniks of Eastern Bosnia began collaboration with the Germans in December 1941.

The Chetniks of Serbia stopped active resistance by late 1941 and began collaboration in stages.

Those are the facts.

Except, of course, that the German documentation shows that Mihailovic ended up collaborating by the end.

Secondly, you're playing the trick of referring to the small band directly under Mihailovic, leaving out the Chetniks of Montenegro, Eastern Bosnia, Hercegovina, Western Bosnia, Dalmatia, and Lika i.e. the overwhelming number of Chetniks.

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