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HEINRICH HIMMLER ISSUES ORDER TO DESTROY DRAZA MIHAILOVICH
Excerpt from Britain, Mihailovich and the Chetniks 1941-42
By Simon Trew
“While the Chetniks in Serbia were rebuilding their strength, the Communist-led guerrillas were losing what little remained of their own. The last of the Partisan odreds on the right bank of the river Drina was driven into Bosnia in March, while in the same month Bulgarian troops, legalized Chetniks and other Nedic forces dealt their detachments near Leskovac a heavy blow. By June there were only 852 Partisans in the whole of the country and after an offensive against the survivors in southern Serbia during July, barely 500 remained. However, although the near-destruction of his rivals could only be a source of satisfaction for Mihailovich, it did of course mean that the enemy’s attention was more and more likely to be turned towards dealing with his own organization. Certainly, by mid-summer 1942 the Germans were becoming increasingly worried by the revival of Chetnik strength and the potential threat that the latter represented. On July 17 Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsfuhrer-SS, wrote to one of his colleagues:
‘The basis of every success in Serbia and in the entire southeast of Europe lies in the annihilation of Mihailovich. Concentrate all your forces on locating Mihailovich and his headquarters so that he can be destroyed. Any means may be used to achieve this end. I expect the smoothest cooperation between all agencies concerned, from the Security Police and Security Service to all other branches of the SS and police. The head of the SS and police Meissner has already received instructions from me in this regard. Please let me know which clues we already have of Mihailovich’s whereabouts. Please inform me weekly about the progress of this action.’”
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