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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.