When Two Worlds Collide: The Allied Downgrading Of General Dragoljub “Draža” Mihailović and Their Subsequent Full Support for Josip Broz “Tito” A thesis submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Jason Alan Shambach Csehi December, 2009 Thesis written by Jason Alan Shambach Csehi B.A., Kent State University, 2005 M.A., Kent State University, 2009 Approved by Solon Victor Papacosma , Advisor Ken Bindas , Chair, Department of History John R. D. Stalvey , Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….iv Prelude…………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1…………….………………………………………………………………....11 A Brief Overview of the Existing Literature and an Explanation of Balkan Aspirations Chapter 2.........................................................................................................................32 Churchill’s Yugoslav Policy and British Military Involvement Chapter 3….……………………………………………………………………………70 Roosevelt’s Knowledge and American Military Involvement Chapter 4………………….………………………………………………...………...101 Fallout from the War Postlude….……………………………………………………………….…...…….…131 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….….142 iii Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis could not have been attained without the help of several key individuals. In particular, my knowledgeable thesis advisor, S. Victor Papacosma, was kind enough to take on this task while looking to be on vacation on a beach somewhere in Greece. Gratitude is also due to my other committee members, Mary Ann Heiss, whose invaluable feedback during a research seminar laid an important cornerstone of this thesis, and Kevin Adams for his participation and valuable input. A rather minor thank you must be rendered to Miss Tanja Petrović, for had I not at one time been well-acquainted with her, the questions of what had happened in the former Yugoslavia during World War II as topics for research seminars would not have arisen. Though a relative unknown in the realm of academia, I think it is fitting to thank the fine English gentleman Mr. Steve Harris for his numerous historical writings. Were it not for his popular pieces, my observance of history would have been impeded and I would have developed a different affinity for the discipline. These acknowledgements would be incomplete without noting several friends. Mrs. Sarah Zabić and Ms. Jelena Stevanović deserve much recognition for their insight in regard to the inner workings of Serbia, the legacy of communism in the country, and the popularity of the Četniks and their star-crossed leader, General Mihailović. Mrs. Jenni Nikolin, a true Orthodox Serb if there ever was one, receives accolades as well for iv informing me of obscure, era-correct news stories and pieces of information about the Nationalists. Mrs. Jeanne Ruscoe Smith and Mr. John Stoker, the Writing Center directors at the Kent and Ashtabula Campuses, respectively, should also be thanked for keeping me as a tutor since I was an undergraduate, as I was never able to secure a graduate assistantship within the department. As perhaps the most important fringe benefit of this position, I was able to use the offices during closed hours as a place in which to find solace and solitude whilst penning this work and many others. I would like to thank Miss Tzu-Wen Riva Chen and Miss Ya-Nan Ariel He, who hail from Taiwan, for their warm and close friendship as we each worked diligently on our theses. I would also like to thank several family members. Although they now dwell in Heaven, I will take a moment to thank Elizabeth Wagner (née Shambach) and Dorothy Wert (née Wagner), my great-grandmother and grandmother, for taking the time to see that I had a proper Christian education during my formative years; this fostered my interest in history and the desire to learn more. Moreover, I will thank my mother, Kathryn Csehi Boggess (née Guess), for constantly nagging me to pursue higher education as the filthy lucre of the labor force constantly beckoned. My sister Heather and my brothers Travis, Lance, and Marshall also deserve to be mentioned as they have realized their responsibility as adults and have decided to take care of certain affairs during my absence from home. I’d also like to recognize my nieces and nephews for providing a welcome distraction when I was back from school. v Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank the Almighty Creator, the Holy Trinity, for making me with the qualities that I possess. It is for Him and His glory that I make this journey through life and without Him, the completion of this thesis most definitely would not have come to pass. vi Prelude Oftentimes, studies of the repercussions from the manner in which the First World War ended center on the policies that befell the German Empire. An overlooked aspect of the conflict was the circumstances surrounding of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, formally known as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes until 1929, which coalesced around the Kingdom of Serbia in 1918 when the Great War ended. Serbia’s King Peter I Karađorđević1 had come to power in June 1903 upon the assassination of King Alexander Obrenović and his queen, Draga.2 Peter I reigned during and after the events precipitated by Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination. Prince Aleksandar, his second son, served as regent during his declining health from 1918, when the Serbs oversaw the union of the South Slavs with the formation of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes,3 and came to full power in 1921 upon his father’s natural death. Divisive national issues contributed to an unstable domestic policy that caused Aleksandar to suspend the kingdom’s constitution in 1929. He directed the creation of a dictatorship, which resulted in oppression of his political opponents, particularly non-Serbs within the kingdom. The king had suspended the constitution in order to quell the 1 Pronounced, “Kara-george-avich.” 2 L.S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453 (New York: New York University Press, 2002), 454. 3 Walter R. Roberts, Tito, Mihailovich, and the Allies, 1941-1945 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1973), 6. 1 2 political instability within Yugoslavia.3 That same year also saw the name of the country change from the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.4 In particular, the Croat minority did not take kindly to the rule of the Serb- dominated kingdom. Religious divisions contributed heavily to the animosity between the two groups; Serbs are Eastern Orthodox while the Croats are staunchly Roman Catholic, as are the Slovenes. These tensions culminated in the assassination of Aleksandar on October 9, 1934, shortly after he landed by boat in Marseille, France for a state visit to advance discussions on forging a Franco-Yugoslav alliance. The Ustaša,5 a Croatian separatist group that would subsequently come to be in league with the Axis forces against the Serbs during the Second World War, was eventually found to be responsible for the tragedy. An assassin, Vlado Chernozemski, had been sent from the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), a terrorist group that was then active against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.6 This act displayed the discontent that unwilling subjects of the Yugoslav crown harbored for the monarchy. Since Peter II, Aleksandar’s son, was but nine years old and thus not of age at the time of the 3 Ibid., 624. 4 Ibid., 619. 5 “Ustaša,” Serbo-Croatian for “insurgent,” according to Stevan K. Pavlowitch in Hitler’s New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 2. It is transliterated as “Ustasha,” “Ustashe” and “Ustahi” in other sources. Stavrianos also notes on page 629 in Balkans that spellings include “‘Ustasha’ for the singular and ‘Ustashi’ for the plural.” 6 Stavrianos, Balkans, 653. 3 assassination in 1934, a regent, Prince Paul, Alexander’s cousin, was given power until Peter II became old enough to rule.7 The Second World War commenced with the German blitzkrieg invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. During the escalation of World War II, the German war machine pressed west into the Benelux states and France, extending its tentacles, and nations fell as if they were dominoes to the seemingly overwhelming might of the enemy. As the Panzer divisions brought about death and destruction, resistance in occupied territories was initially scant. By early 1941, Yugoslavia was encircled by Axis forces: Hungary and Germany to the north, Bulgaria and Romania to the east, and Italy, which had invaded Greece, to the west and south. Finding itself in a quandary, the Yugoslav administration had no choice but to submit to an ultimatum and join the Tripartite Pact by the deadline of March 25, 1941.8 German Chancellor Adolf Hitler commented at the signing of the Pact that “the Yugoslavs acted as if they were at a funeral.”9 Upon hearing news of the pact, however, the Yugoslavs protested, declaring it illegitimate. Yugoslav military officers executed a non-violent coup on the night of March 26 and declared that Prince Peter was old enough to become king. Furious upon learning of the defiance of the Yugoslavs, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to begin an air campaign and to assault Yugoslavia “with merciless 7 Ibid., 629. 8 Pavlowitch, Disorder, 12. 9 Quoted in Joachim von Ribbentrop, The Ribbentrop Memoirs (trans. Oliver Watson), (London, Great Britain: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1954), 143. 4 brutality,”10 although the new Yugoslav government had agreed to keep with the tenets of the March 25 pact.11 And so on April 6, 1941, Operation PUNISHMENT commenced, as Hitler had claimed “atrocities against the German minority, [and so the German military] attacked at dawn with no ultimatum or declaration of war.”12 Consequently, the Yugoslav army, having been routed in short time because of ill-preparedness, became largely ineffective and its ranks were greatly reduced or captured by the Germans; in any case, the Yugoslavs would have been little match against the seasoned Wehrmacht.