Chetniks.

This is coolbert:

Perhaps one of the most egregious treacheries of World War Two [WW2], a war full of treachery, was the backstabbing inflicted upon the Chetniks.

The Serb patriot resistance fighters opposed to the Nazi invader of their homeland.

With the Nazi invasion and conquest of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1941, remnants of the Yugoslavian army took to the hills, under the command of Colonel [General] Mihailovitch. This remnant formed the nucleus of an ethnic Serb resistance [guerrillas] that WAS recognized by the legitimate, duly elected Yugoslavian government exiled in London. The Chetniks WERE the legitimate resistance movement to the German Nazi invader. A resistance movement loyal to the democratic government of Yugoslavia and King Peter [the Yugoslavian head of state exiled along with the Yugoslavian government].

For most of World War Two [WW2], the Chetniks DID conduct an effective campaign of guerrilla warfare upon the German invader. Caused the Nazi forces a lot of pain. Diverted Nazi troops for Yugoslavian occupation duty that could have been used better elsewhere. This WAS so!!

And yet, ever since the end of WW2, the Chetniks have been vilified and described as "German collaborators" and "pro-Nazi Quislings"

[In the movie "Force Ten from Navarone", the Chetniks are portrayed in exactly this manner. Pro-German collaborators who act in a vile manner toward a small force of allied commandos on a secret mission in German occupied Yugoslavia.]

How can this be?? That patriots that fought with courage on the side of the allies became to such low repute. And are still regarded by conventional histories in such a manner.

The answer in a nutshell is plain and simple communist treachery.

Communist treachery emanating from the echelons of British Special Operations Executive [SOE], British MI6, and the BBC.

SOE - - British war time special operations executive. Responsible for sabotage, guerrilla warfare, etc.

MI6 - - British secret service. Civilian intelligence agency, peacetime and wartime.

BBC - - British Broadcasting Corporation.

According to Chapman Pincher:

"General Draja Mihailovitch, the Yugoslav guerrilla leader during the Second World War who was executed as a traitor in 1946, was accused of being a quisling by his Communist political opponents. He led a force of about 150,000 royalist resistance fighters known as Chetniks, many of them Yugoslav Army troops, against the German occupation forces, inflicting heavy losses on them, rescuing hundreds of American Airmen, and working closely with British intelligence and sabotage officers. Communists led by Josip Broz, who called himself Tito and had been trained in Russia, were also opposing the Germans but, when defeat of the Axis became inevitable, they were more concerned to defeat the Chetniks so that they would be the dominant military force in Yugoslavia and be able to impose a peacetime Communist regime with Tito as dictator.

The British were mainly responsible for air-dropping supplies to the both the Chetniks and the partisans, but Winston Churchill and the other British war leaders were induced to abandon Mihailovitch and support Tito only . . . . British Communist agents of influence sealed the fate of the Chetniks, the loyal troops of the Yugoslav Army and their leader Mihailovitch and ensured that Yugoslavia would become a Communist dictatorship . . . The best known traitor among them being Major James Klugmann, a desk officer in the Yugoslav section of Cairo headquarters, which controlled not only communications with the resistance movements but supplies as well . . . He and others ensured that Mihailovitch was starved of supplies. Urgent messages from British officers with the Mihailovitch's forces, which should have reached London, were stifled; and false messages, concocted to prejudice Mihailovitch's position, were sent to London and even to Churchill himself. Both SOE and MI6 falsely slanted their intelligence reports to convince London that Mihailovitch was collaborating with the Germans instead of fighting them, while promoting all the Partisans claims as true, which often they were not. At the same time the Yugoslav section of the BBC angled its broadcast as to give major credit to Tito, deliberately playing down the substantial achievements of the Chetniks. British officers in Yugoslavia complained to the BBC that Tito was being falsely credited with attacks which had been made the by the Chetniks, but with no results."

Backstabbing at it's worst. It is now widely known after the fact that both British and American intelligence agencies [MI6, SOE, OSS] were heavily infiltrated from the start by communist agents. A wide variety of calamities suffered by U.S. and British intelligence agencies after WW2 can be attributed to these treacherous and vile persons.

[for instance, the personal secretary of Wild Bill Donovan, head of the U.S. OSS, was a known traitor and communist secret agent who pass a LOT of stuff to the Soviets during WW2. Some would say, NOT A LOT, HE PASSED THEM THE BARN DOOR, THE LOCK AND THE KEY TO SAME AND THE DEED!!!!!]

[it is also interesting to note that during the time BBC news was being slanted in favor of Tito over the Chetniks, the arch-traitor Guy Burgess was an employee of British Broadcasting, and did play a role, in determining what news was to be played, and what was not. Was this traitor working for the Soviets involved in slanting of the news in favor of Tito?? Who knows??]

Click here to see an excellent web site about the Chetniks. Details the many falsehoods that have been told over the years about these allies of the western powers.

Click here to see another site about the Chetniks. Has an interesting photo which "shows" Chetniks and German officers together. Used as proof by Tito that the Chetniks did collaborate with the Germans. Such photos are obvious forgeries, Tito's boys able to produce whatever forged evidence is needed to smear the Chetniks.

[this last site contains a LOT of fabrications and misinformation repeated about the Chetniks over the years.]

It should be realized that the entire Balkan region was a hotbed of intrigue during WW2. You DID have a number of competing factions vying for power in the same region. Within what Yugoslavia alone you had:

The Serb resistance to the German invasion [the Chetniks].

The communist resistance to the German invasion [the "partisans" of Josef Broz [Tito]].

The Croatian Ustaschi [Croat collaborators that DID fight with the Germans.].

Bosnia Muslims that did fight with the Germans as well.

And this in Yugoslavia alone!!

[personal comment: You tend to have this type of situation manifest itself when insurrections/partisan/guerrilla warfare/rebellion take place. Competing factions all fighting in the same territory at the same time against the same enemy, or, against one another from time to time. Factionalism. Competing forces vying for power within the same territory. Modern day Iraq is the same. You have the local Sunni rebels, the foreign interventionists, Shia, Kurd, etc. Either fighting against or for American forces or against one another. Each hoping to have the final say and emerge from the conflict as the dominant power when the fighting concludes.]

The Chetniks at one time another DID have to fight the various competing factions AS WELL as the German invader!! This does NOT make for a happy circumstance.

With the disavowal of the Chetniks by the British and support henceforth rendered to the communist partisans, followed by the post-war occupation of Yugoslavia by the Soviet Red Army, the fate of the Chetniks was sealed.

Doomed!!

Tito, consolidating power, went after the Chetniks with a vengeance. Many Chetniks met with death, fighters AND their families both. Those fortunate not to be ensnared by Tito fled to the west. Colonel Mihailovitch was tried and executed as a collaborator, despite protestations from the western allies.

[it is interesting that during the Vietnam War, Tito was held up as the archetype of the communist dictator that was more nationalist than doctrinaire communist. Tito was presented in NOT such a bad light. A somewhat benevolent communist dictator that REALLY cared for his people. A man the U.S. government could accommodate and reason with. Some opponents of the Vietnam War felt that Ho Chi Minh was a communist of the same type as Tito. These anti-Vietnam War opponents suggested that Ho could be reasoned with as Tito could be reasoned with. Neither Tito or Ho WERE benevolent dictators that could be reasoned with!! Witness the behavior and brutal treatment of Tito toward the Chetniks!! Need one say more??!!]

Click here to see a web site that details the barbarism of Tito. The benevolent dictator that could be reasoned with.

We can see with the fate of the Chetniks as a perfect example of the adages, "history is written by the victor!!" and "truth is the first victim of war!!". History in the case of the Chetniks was stood on it's head, upside down . An unfortunate history that makes for sad reading. One can accept defeat. But one does not have to accept defeat coupled with downright lies and misrepresentations and treachery on an absurd level of malevolence. This sort of stuff is just downright depressing. Makes you really wonder about the extremes people will engage in to gain and maintain power. Perhaps it is power, not money, that is the root all evil??!!

[Many ex-Chetniks settled in the United States. A particularly large ethnic enclave exists in the northwest area of Indiana. There is a Chetnik assembly hall and campground located on U.S. 30 just across the border from Illinois. I imagine interviews with Chetnik survivors could produce some rather interesting blog material!! This would be an interesting topic for further investigation!!]

coolbert.