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Tito's Yugoslav Movement

By C. L. SULZBERGER

By Special Permission from THE NEw YoRK TrMES, December 21-28, 1943

THE UNITED COMMITTEE OF SOUTH-SLAVIC AMERICANS 1010 Park Avenue, New York 28 , N. Y.

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Mr. C. L. Sulzberger's dispatches from Cairo to the New York Times-December 20-27, 1943-are an im­ portant contribution to the understanding of develop­ ments in embattled . They are reprinted here in the belief that it will be useful to a good many people to have them together. To Mr. Edwin L. James, managing editor of the Times, many thanks for his permission to put the arti­ cles into a pamphlet issued by the United Committee of South-Slavic Americans.

Louis ADAMIC

New York, N . Y., January 20, 1944.

STAMPING GROUND OF THE PARTISAN ARMY

Yugoslavia, where Marshal Tito's forces have been pinning down some seven German army divisions by .

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•, Drawn to Tito By The smell of death Jay heavily in that city from twisted architectural skeletons and human flesh. The bodies of persons slain by the Germans dan­ Gallant Uphill Fight gled from lamp-posts. Sharp bursts of automatic fire occasionally rattled across the bomb-torn squares as the By c. L. SULZBERGER seeds of new rebellious movements stirred in the By Wireless to THE NEw YORK TIMES. wreckage of the old. Today M. Broz as Marshal Tito commands the im­ CAIRO, , Dec. 21-There are now more than mense popular upheaval resulting and serves as the 250,000 men and women organized into approximately political president of its temporary Government which twenty-six divisions fighting a savage war aoa.inst some demands full recognition from the . He of 's best veteran units alono Yuooslavia's sends and receives important military missions to and frontiers. That front stretches approximafely 3b50 miles from abroad. across forests, ravines and snow-covered mountains ranging between the of and the Allies Send Him Supplies forbidding crags separating bleak from Allied aircraft based in are placed at the dis­ and the south. posal of his specific commands. Sizable shipments, Bound together by aspirations for freedom, these which now number thousands of tons of Allied war soldiers, no matter what ideologists may think of them material, are being sent to his troops : guns, munitions, or their leaders, are, as admitted by Prime Minister trucks, uniforms, medicines and special apparatus. Churchill, opposing more enemy divisions than face His army includes a regular officers' corps with spe­ the Fifth and Eighth armies in Italy. As a result of cial insignia, from the rank of noncom to marshal. His their stubborn fight they are receivino American mate­ artillery, made up almost exclusively of captured wea­ rial ·a.nd military , and accomp~nying them are pons, has cannon as large as giant gun howitzers and Amencan and British missions that soon will be joined coastal riB.es. Officers' training schools, medical corps, by one from . ordnance and adjutant generals' departments have They are openly and boastfully influenced by com­ been created within his supreme command. munism. Their chief is a Communist, and the Com­ His government, which includes a political melange munist party, as he declared in a public speech, initi­ ranging from old-line Communists to former right-wing ated and coordinated the peasants in their instinctive reactionaries,* has its own banking system, printing its yearning for liberty. They have proclaimed themselves own money and floating its own interest-bearing loans; for a .federation of the Southern Slav peoples without its own railroad, for which its own tickets are printed; favonng one over the other as do some of their oppo­ its own postal system, its own agricultural department, nents. and its own educational department, seeking to spread This force, which calls itself Yugoslav People's Army literacy among the peasantry. of Liberation, has been in process of formation for two In addition, there is a social organization that has and. a half years. It began with the gradual amalga­ arisen from the fires of national revolution which has mat10n of nationalist and patriotic guerrilla bands and its own churches with chaplains, Catholic, Orthodox their welding together by an underground political and Moslem, attached to fighting units; and theatres movement, fomented by a mixture of Communist and and ballets and hundreds of small newspapers. These democratic party leaders headed by a Croatian metal developments comprise the most interesting people's worker named Josip Broz, who has a Russian Soviet movement that has arisen from this war. It has now background. survived its terrible birth pangs, involving famine, For months M . Broz lived a furtive life in Belorade slaughter, battle and disease to the extent to which b under the eyes of the Gestapo. He sat quietly in a American history has only Valley Forge to offer in corner ?f cafes smoking endless cigarettes with a re­ comparison. volver m pocket, spreading his organization slowly while Nazi police and Serbian collaborationist oen­ ,,. This "political melange" is not a Yugoslav peculiarity. The January 3, 1944, Life magazine contains an article "Conserva­ darmerie hunted the capital's streets for him in s~out tives and Communists in Denmark Join Forces," by John cars mounting machine guns. Scott, who says that is true also in Poland and Norway.-L. A. 4 5

'• This is the story of that movement its victories its was magic. Thousands of peasants in that wide region defeats, its highest points, such as tl~e arrival of' the where his uncle is considered a sainted martyr joined first Allied mission in the midst of a terrible aale-swept the movement when word went about that "Principe's battle, and its nadirs, such as the fearful re~~ats across here." the wasted country~ide, with the rear brought up by M. Popora was captured by the that same thousands of stragglmg wounded, feeding on raw meat year and turned over to the Italians. They shot him. and grass. He died courageously and stiff-backed, shouting, "Long Before commencing to tell this tale the writer wishes live ." to emphasize a desi.re to remain an objective reporter. He has no axe to grmd other than statino the facts and Killed by Germ.an Bomb ?epicting this heroic struggle which nowbis accomplish­ Young Ribar was killed by a German bomb just as mg so much to~~rd win~ing the war. The unhappy the plane he was about to take off to the Middle East aspects of fratnc1dal stnfe that accompanied these on a special military mission was hit last month. With developments cannot be ignored but can only be lamented. him died two British liaison officers and another mem­ ber of Marshal Tito's mission was wounded. Young Ribar's father today is president of the legis­ Nation's Defense Discussed lative assembly. The son was a colonel on Marshal This ... story beings in the period just before 1939, Tito's supreme command. ~h~n, on the eve of the cataclysm, this writer used to Olga Dedier died last June on top of sit m a smoky little hafana, where gypsies Mountain near where she and Vladimir and b~nged tambourmes, called after Slovenia's the writer planned a fishing trip in 1940. As a qualified highest mountain, with a group of young Yugoslav she was a major in the People's Army Medical men. named Jr., Mira Popora, Vladimir Corps. Dedier and ~lobodan Principe, nephew of that famous She was terribly wounded in the arm in the battle Bosman patnot whose assassination of Archduke Franz of Milin Klada while working with her surgical team Ferdinand in 1914 set the world ablaze for the first when the delivered hundreds of successive time. bombing sorties. Marshal Tito was wounded there; a Occasionally the meetings took place in M. Dedier's nerve in his left arm was cut and he cannot yet close home, where Vladimir's handsome and oraceful wife his hand. A captain of the British Mission was killed Olga, . a Cabir:et Minister's daughter, ~sed to cook and Vladimir Dedier was struck in the head by a frag­ Amencan flapJacks, for which her husband had ac­ ment. quired ~ taste during his visit to the , Major Olga Dedier's shoulder was nearly cut off and when his brother, Stephen, was a Princeton under­ for nine days she staggered along, sometimes afoot, graduate.* sometimes on horseback, as the People's army fought ~hese young people used to discuss what they would its way out of encirclement. No medicine was avail­ do m the event of war and they formed a small oroani­ able and blood poisoning set in. On June 19 her left zation called the Anti-Fascist Youth Movement fo~ the arm was amputated in a dreary open field where the Defense of the Country, made up of university stu­ magpies picked its desolate earth for summer seedlings. dents: Sokol patriotic societies, Boy Scouts, etc. They When one of the few available ampules of heart stimu­ occa:10nally engaged in simple drills with a few rifles lant were brought to her, still conscious, she refused, provided for them by sympathetic officers. saying, "Don't give it to me. Save it for those who will !o?ay ~ll but one of this group are dead. Young live." Pnnc1pe died of wounds and typhus late in 1943 while The next day she died. Her husband and one officer commanding Partisan armies from East . He was buried her, digging her grave with knives. This was a fine, tall, thin, sharp-eyed fellow with a head of Iona doubly difficult for Lieut. Col. Vladimir Dedier. While hair. He had a great record for brave1y and his nam~ carrying the 5-year-old child of a Dalmatian com­ mander in his arms he had suffered a broken skull in ~Colonel Dedier's brother Stephen, formerly editor of the which was embedded a fragment of a bomb. Serbian~language paper Slobodna Rec, published in Pitts­ Colonel Dedier took his wife's revolver as a souvenir burgh, is now a soldier in the United States Army.-L. A. -the only one-and with his shattered head walked 6 7

" eighteen hours to regain the main army. He is now in sirable and after his release lived in constant fear of a Middle Eastern hospital to which he was flown to arrest. save his life by an operation at Marshal Tito's own On April 20, 1941, the "Slovenian front" was cre- request. His wife's gun is by his bedside. ated. In May Marshal Tito secretly wen~ to Belgrade When popular anger at Yugoslavia's weakling gov­ and met the senior Ribar, former President of the ernment broke out in the coup d'etat on March 27, Yugoslav Parliament and other national leaders. A pro­ 1941, and smashed the brief ties with the Axis, these gram was drafted and secret pro~lamations issue.cl. The young people and their small movement organized manifestos began to appear on city walls, warnmg the demonstrations. Colonel Dedier, who was a former Germans they had better get out. foreign correspondent in Spain, London, Scandinavia Digaina in their vineyard Colonel Dedier's group and Poland for Belgrade's biggest paper, Politika, pre­ receiv:d Marshal Tito's proclamations and prepar~d pared a new publication, the first issue of which was for action. In June when the Nazis attacked Russia, ready for circulation . On that day the war the Partisans began their active fight. broke out and Belgrade was destroyed by German There are many people who emphasize this date. as bombers. proof that Marshal Tito had no interest in Yugosl.avia's defense until the Communist homeland was besieged. Partisans claim otherwise. They admit extensive Com­ Hides All Arms Possible munist influence on their movement, especially in the Colonel Dedier joined the army as a volunteer in early days. But they point out that to be.gin ~he Soviet Sarajevo the day of capitulation. When news of the campaign Hitler altered the Yugoslav situation, offer­ surrender came he and fifty soldiers decided to hide as ing advantages for the guerrilla strategy of at.tack. many arms as possible and return to their home districts The major portion of the garnsons were to organize resistance. He went back to Belgrade with withdrawn. Communist Yugoslavs saw the opportune two grenades picked up in the last minute of confu­ moment to induce the people to arise on the basis of sion. He worked in a vineyard belonging to his father­ their almost mystical faith in Russianism. Finally they in-law near the German airfield at across the saw at last the Anglo-Soviet alliance formed as fact. river from Belgrade conferring with friends disguised Communists Strike First as common laborers. The Communists struck first. Peasant units led by At that time Hitler began to ful{ill the anti-Slav Belarade intellectuals touched off the uprising around pledges made in his book, Mein Kampf. Hundreds of , historic center of Serbian rebellions. Taking were shot in a mass slaughter. Latent antipathies part was the son of General Mikhailovitch. 1:1~ f?ught between Orthodox Serbs and Catholic were en­ with the Partisans for several months before JOimng or couraged in Ustashi massacres and Chetnik retribution being captured by his father's troops; that story is not from mountain units organized already from the de­ clear. feated army by Gen. Draja Mikhailovitch. The Valjevo insurrection began July 5 and the ~rst At the end of that first April M. Broz, under the German was slain by a reporter named Jovanovitch nom de guerre of Tito, utilizing his hard-won experi­ who later was killed while leading a . ences as a Communist organizer and politicial refugee Actions started elsewhere. In Belgrade the Young from the Belgrade gendarmerie, began to try to form Communist Leaaue members, including young Mik­ out of the chaos some kind of united front. During hailovitch, burn~d thousands of copies of the new he had been in the Austrian Army, de­ German-run paper Novo Vreme. Fifteen more youths serted in Russia where he fought in a Yugoslav bat­ were shot. In the telephone exchange w~s talion. blown up. In eighty German truckloads of 011 After the revolution he became a Communist. His and munitions were dynamited. first wife was a Russian woman. Their son, Zharko, Durina these days Colonel Dedier was editing a se­ who lost an arm in the battle for Moscow, was deco­ cret dail~ paper with Olga and their little daught~r. rated a hero of the . The paper was distributed in a perambulator, copies In the mid-twenties he returned to oraaniz­ hidden in the baby's clothing. ing the metal workers in the Zagreb railway ~hops. At that time a well-known patriot, named Alexander For some years he was imprisoned as a political unde- Rankovitch, was saved from a prison hospital when a 8 9

" group of young patriots broke into the jail, killed two Dedier Talks With Tito Gestapo men and whisked him off in a horse-drawn Colonel Dedier met Marshal Tito the first time with lorry, hiding his bruised and beaten face in a handker­ Youno Ribar in a public garden. Marshal Tito was chief. M. Rankovitch is high in the Partisan movement introduced only as a "very big man in our movement." now. He oave Colonel Dedier a brief lecture on how to Olga Ninchitch Humo, daughter of the former derail trains. That same July a bulletin from the Par­ Yuooslav foreion Minister [Momchilo Ninchitch, one tisans' supreme command was P11:blished on wall b b 1 1 . of the most reactionary po iticians in exi e; now m posters. It was signed by Marshal Tito. . . London], was freed from a Sarajevo jail, where she In Auoust Colonel Dedier was ordered to JOID a had been sentenced to death, by the good-will of a detachme~t near . With a change to his Czech Gestapo interpreter who died the next day for best clothes, and kissing his child good-by, he traveled his act. Today she is an interpreter for British officers openly in a train compartme1".t filled with Na~i officer~, attached to Marshal Tito's supreme command. and descended on the outskirts of free Partisan tern­ tory at Gorni-Milanovac, where 600 men. under Law­ Revolution Spreads yer Reja Nedelkovitch controlled the region. They did not don uniforms until they captured ~00 Revolutionary moves, big ar.d little, spread. Marshal from German trucks. They specialized in smashmg Tito drew up special operational plans for five Partisan lorries blockino roads and cutting railways. detachments in Serbia. In raids for firearms gendarm­ In Auoust' theb Supreme Cornmand was reorganize. d erie stations were ransacked. Aimed with two cartridge­ to embra~e all Yuooslavia, and mobile headquarters for less rifles, a group from Kragujevac held up ten gen­ Serbia were estabhshed. Marshal Tito remained in Bel­ darmes and stole their rifles and revolvers. Today that 0orade until September. same detachment has swollen to a brigade equipped At this time General Mikhailovitch had head­ with captured Axis tanks. quarters at Ravna Gora. One of his detachments under On July 13 a large uprising erupted in Montenegro an orthodox priest, Vlado Zechevitch, fought with the and swiftly the whole of the titanic little ex­ Partisans aoainst the Germans, with joint messes and a cept three main towns was freed of Italians. Montene­ unified co~mand at Valjevo. The Chetniks served grins have always said ''Together we and the Russians under the Yuooslav Bao bearing the picture of King b b ~ . are 200,000,000," and now they arose to prove their Peter, the Partisans under a Yugoslav bearmg a fighting spirit. Major Arbo Jovanovitch of the regular big five-pointed star.* . . . Yugoslav General Staff joined the movement there Marshal Tito twice visited General Mikhailovitch at with Colonel Savo Orovitch. Major Jovanovitch was a Ravna Gora in October, proposing a joint command former pupil at the War College of General Mikhailo­ for all, according to the Partisans. They say General vitch, studying among their subjects guerrilla tactics. Mikhailovitch refused to acknowledge the Croat Bos­ Today as major general he is Marshal Tito's Chief of niaks as members of Yugoslavia, as the result of a fifth Staff, and heads the operational and intelligence de­ column element among them during the brief war that partments of the supreme command. spring. Croatian workers, encouraged by communist organ­ That autumn a mission from the Yugoslav Govern­ izers, commenced a campaign, resulting in the ment in Exile, with two officers, a sergeant and an slaughter of hundreds by Gestapo and Ante Pavelitch's English liaison captain, arrived at Montenegro en r~ute Ustashi. They began to join thousands of Serbs dwell­ to General Mikhailovitch. It passed through Partisan ing in that province who had fled to the forest to escape territory and the seroeant0 joined the Tito movement. massacres fostered by the Nazis. On Oct. 26, 1941, Marshal Tito and General Mik- At this time Marshal Tito was still hiding in Bel­ grade. Carrying a revolver and wearing dark glasses "' From an article on the by Wallace Rey­ he used with poker face to watch German scout cars burn in the Montreal Standard: "When a Partisan handed me cruising by at snail's pace slowly swinging machine a metal star as a souvenir he told me what is behind it. 'It's only a coincidence,' he said, 'that we have the .same emblem guns from side to side. When a face believed wanted as the Soviet army. Ours goes back to the Liberatmn movement by the Gestapo was spotted, short bursts sounded forth of 1848 aoainst and . The star IS Damca, the 0 sharply. morning star, w h'IC h IS. ways re d'". 10 11

•. hailovitch signed a treaty at Ravna Gora, under which, Tito and his soldiers lived on meat often uncooked, among other things, the Partisans agreed to furnish herbs and grass. But they broke through the Nazi ring 5,000 rifles and 500,000 cartridges from their stores in and, quickly reassembling, started a counter-, cut­ their headquarters at Uzice, which contained an arms ting the important Sarajevo-Mostar railway and, join­ factory and 25,000,000 dinars, according to Marshal ing with a detail of Krajina Partisans, liberated west Tito supporters. Bosnia and . At this time the first Partisan air force was proudly Yugoslav Ranks Split formed when three planes were de­ Shortly thereafter the open dispute between the serted to the Partisans. For a very brief period of glory Chetniks and Partisans began and General Mikhailo­ they satisfied themselves with strafing Nazis and drop­ vitch attacked Marshal Tito's Uzice stronghold. Ef­ ping hand-grenades, until one plane was shot down by forts to end the civil war resulted in negotiations at flak and others destroyed on the ground by German Chachak Nov. 22. In the middle of negotiations Mar­ Stukas. shal Tito telephoned to Colonel Dedier that four Ger­ By the end of 1942, after a series of swift assaults man divisions were moving toward Uzice and that a and forced marches, Marshal Tito had liberated large joint command must immediately be arranged. The chunks of Slovenia, Croatia, Kordun, , Gorski, move failed, as the Germans bombarded Uzice fero­ Cattaro, west Bosnia and much of . ciously. Colonel Dedier, previously wounded by the explosion of the timebomb, was lying in bed when a ' People's Army Established wall fell in on him. Only his huge physique preserved For the first time at the town of Bihac in Novem­ his life. Another bomb exploded in the Uzice bank's ber, 1942, an "Anti-Fascist Assembly for the People's gold vault, where the arms factory was situated, and Liberation in Yugoslavia," or "Avnoj," met, creating 112 were killed. executive and legislative set-ups for governing the As the German tanks drove into the town Marshal liberated areas but not assuming any title as govern­ Tito had been conferring with an English captain at­ ment. Simultaneously, the Partisans created the "Peo­ tached to General Mikhailovitch who had driven in ple's Army of Liberation" on a formal basis from the for a radio set left behind previously. The two of them previous loose guerrilla detachments. A regular system drove out one end of the town as the German tanks of officers was instituted. The political idea of unity of came in the other. As the road ahead was being all Yugoslav peoples was emphasized despite terrible bombed and strafed they rolled into a ditch together Ustashi massacres of Serbs and reprisal sallies of Chet­ when a tank appeared 200 yards away. They slipped niks against the Croats and . In Dalmatia over a wall and ran. That night at Zlatiber, almost Orthodox Serbian brigades fought for the Catholic twenty miles distant, Colonel Dedier and other dis­ Croats against the Serb Chetniks. couraged staff officers sat about candles in a peasant Early in 1943 the Germans mounted a big new of­ house when Marshal Tito stumbled in exhausted, and fensive with four crack divisions plus Italians and sank down saying only "Well!" and again "Well!" Ustashi, and some Chetnik units simultaneously but Although his Uzice headquarters was gone Marshal independently attacked. Terrific aerial bombardments Tito again set about organizing a patriotic movement and strafings were loosed against the People's Army, and as the peasants fled from enemy retribution it which had neither fighter protection nor anti-aircraft spread slowly. Slobodan Principe organized detach­ artillery. ments in East Bosnia. Mira Popora led an uprising in Around the Bihac area and in Croatia and Lika Mar­ Hertegovina. shal Tito left the First Bosnian Corps of four divisions, Marshal Tito went to Foca in Bosnia and remained and the First Croatian Corps of four divisions, and there until May, 1942, building his movement until with five of his best divisions- the First, Second, Third, ousted by another German offensive. Behind him in Seventh and Ninth- began to fight a terrible retreat Serbia he left small Partisan detachments for purely southward more than 200 miles into Montenegro. guerrilla activity. In Bosnia he kept with him two With him he took 4,500 wounded rather than risk Serbian brigades, two Montenegrin brigades and one their capture. from Sanjak. The full tale of this retreat remains to be told. Snow These were surrounded in a Nazi attack. Marshal whipped up by a terrible "bora" wind bit into the 12 13

'• ragged army. Hunger was with them day and ni~ht. Italianske sluoa"-"Ohb Chetniks, servants of the Ital­ Their diet was raw meat and leaves. Mass hallucma­ ians, you cannot save the Italian railways from destruc- tions drove the troops desperate. At one stage an entire tion." And sometimes they plodded along in silence. battalion fancied it saw in the distance a vast castle, At Jablanica during a battle 300 typhus cases had with warm smoke pouring out of chimneys. lain in a tunnel open at both ends. The stench within Again a whole brigade, imagining it smelled cooking was indescribable. The tunnel entrances were covered food, rushed up to a barren field kitchen with battered by enemy positions l,500 yards away. The Italians mess tins. shelled constantly with 115 mm. howitzers. It was im­ At Prozor and Imotski in southwest Bosnia the Peo­ possible to cook such food as existed because by day ple's Army, forcing a passage southward, at~acked an? smoke and by night fire gave their position away to wiped out an Italian purge , captunng quanti­ low-flying German bombers pounding the roof. It was ties of arms and clothing. impossible to bury the dead stretched yellow and March was a savage month, cold and cheerless. The blocked in the passage-way. Germans commenced a new offensive from the north Most of the regular army already had fought way and Col. Gen. Alexander von Loehr flew down from ahead. Marshal Tito sent back the Sixteenth Croat Belgrade to assume command. Three Nazi divisions Brigade which forced a path through, and that night took part, including the Thirty-sixth Grenadiers sent the sick were evacuated. from . Another reorganization was required. Marshal Tito, In a desperate strategic position, Marshal Tito as­ who had staged a surprise by throwing in fourteen cap­ sembled all available munitions and started a counter­ tured tanks at the battle of Prozor, was forced to aban­ attack. Despite continual Luftwaffe bombardment, in don them and thirty remaining lorries and heavy one day the People's Army fired 3,000 captured Italian artillery in the . In his rear the Chetniks were howitzer shells and drove back the Nazis. drafting peasant levies, telling them they had to fight Marshal Tito's headquarters was situated in a small the Turks who were invading the country. mill. After studying maps he ordered a surprise cross­ ino- of the Neretva River, swollen by spring freshets, Levies Join Partisans in~ending to drive into Hercegovina and Bosnia. With Sometimes these levies deserted to the Partisans his troops were still more than 4,000 wounded. As far when they saw their cap and badges. There as the Neretva they were transported in Italian trucks were scenes where cousins and even brothers embraced and wagons. But there all heavy equipment was aban­ in effusive Slav fashion. doned to achieve the crossing; howitzers, tanks and These new Chetnik levies were clean shaven in con­ trucks were blown up and dropped in the raging trast to General Mikhailovitch's veterans, who in ad­ stream. dition to their black hats and skull and crossbones in­ The river was forced and behind the tattered army, signia wore long fierce beards. When Chetnik units protected by two divisions, came 2,000 limping and were defeated these veterans used to rush to villages wounded l 500 on their mountain ponies and hun­ calling for scissors to cut off their beards because they dreds mo~e ~n man-borne stretchers. They had hardly knew death would be their fate if the Partisans caught any medicine. Many were suffering from a terrible them. Marshal Tito used to say after a victory "There typhus epidemic. Even the stretcher cases had rifles will be plenty of beards in the forest tonight." lain beside them and fought when able to. On the The People's Anny had extended its control across verge of starvation, they marched across the stark Sanjak and down to the Albanian border at this time. snowbound landscape filled with burned-out houses. The second Dalmatian brigade had forced its way as a As they strode along they sang that deep-throated spearhead, crossing the swollen River in daylight lilting Slav air which may become the Partisan's na­ in a surprise attack under cover of a fog aboard rafts tional anthem. "Oj Sloveni," it goes, "yosh shte zhivi"­ swiftly hewn by Montenegrin woodsmen. "Oh , you are still alive." In Montenegro Marshal Tito had a short period for Or they sang an air about their leader "Druzhe Tito, regrouping and healing of the wounded. Only forty· ljubicice bela"-"Comrade Tito, Oh White Violet, the five of the original 4,500 were captured by the enemy whole of our youth follows you." Or sometimes they although hundreds had died of fever and cold from sang a bitter, sarcastic marching refrain "Oj Chetnici sleeping in open snowswept fields, often without cover 14 1.5

•, and always without blankets. When spring came it was was here that one British officer was killed and another a usual sight in the fields to see dozens of the rave­ wounded. It was here that Major Olga Dedier was nously sick lying in furrows nibbling at newly sown severely wounded. seeds. Their staple dish was grass at 9 A M . and later Hungry and desperate, the Partisans drove on with chunks of meat, often uncooked. All day they were their offensive, exacting 12,000 German casualties and bombed, suffering tremendous casualties. losing 4,000, which Nazi propaganda b0osted to 50,- 000. Colonel Dedier, a huge, strong fellow, was carry­ Nazis Launch Fifth Attack ing a 5-year-old child in his arms when his skull was During the month of April Marshal Tito organized broken by a bomb fragment as he was walking beside a new corps in and another in Bosanska Kra­ old Ivan Ribar, riding on a bedraggled white horse. jina, while the Germans prepared a fifth offensive to Shell and bomb fragments were clipping off leaves and destroy him. Seven Nazi divisions and five of Italians branches of fresh summer foliage. as well as U stashi troops were employed. The enemy Colonel Dedier spat on a leaf, slapped it on his devised a new strategy, no longer marching in large broken head and continued. Shortly after a woman columns with vulnerable transport, but specializing in bandaged his head. A few days later British planes small units with heavy automatic weapon firepower dropped sulfanilamide tablets, and by chewing ten which could only be supplied from the uncontested daily Colonel Dedier saved his life. They were too late air. After careful concentration a sudden attack was for Olga's blood poisoning, and she was buried beside launched from all sides May 15-as the Axis was ex­ the peak she had often practiced on when she was an pelled from Tunisia. international ski competitor. Colonel Dedier wiped off This action took place on the high Piva plateau in the knife with which his wife's grave had been quickly Montenegro, surrounded by declivities and steep can­ dug and, clasping her gun as a solitary souvenir, ig­ yons. A British military mission-the first to Marshal noring a fever and his aching head, he marched on for Tito-was scheduled to arrive and before breaking out eighteen hours. Marshal Tito lost three days waiting for them. Gales All Bosnia was liberated again just at the time the were so stiff that the first time planes bearing ­ Germans were announcing that the Partisan movement troops neared the position the weather was too abom­ had been wiped out. That was in July when there inable for them to land. were two Nazi divisions in Sicily and seven against Finally, May 27 they arrived: Six of them jumping Marshal Tito. Winding from end to end of Yugoslavia into a terrific, slanting wind amid i:he steady humming was a long road of unmarked graves. But the move­ and flashing of artillery rumbling through the black ment that had grown by dogged persistence began to mountains which give the province its name. Marshal receive hundreds of new cohorts from ravaged areas. Tito began his forced retreat prior to a counter-offen­ Homeless women and children flocked to it. When the sive. People's Army entered the historically famous town of As the march commenced bullets from Chetnik am­ beneath the ancient castle of King Tvrtka of bush whizzed by Marshal Tito and he said to a nearby Bosnia beside a placid lake, some thousands of black­ British officer, "This is the way Mikhailovitch fights garbed peasant women clustered pitifully behind. the invader." They were looking for salt they had done without During forty days of steady fighting Marshal Tito for more than a year and for which their systems swung his troops northwestward, breaking through craved. In Jajce is a small chemical factory. Beside it sixty kilometers of prepared German positions. Each were vast piles of salt. The miserable horde of women­ height approached held enemy machine guns, mortars folk scrambled to it like animals and on all fours began and field artillery, and the country is a mass of heights. licking it. Marshal Tito always was in the front line. They came from an unbelievable, tortured hinter­ On June 9 the People's Army fought its way through land of burned-down houses. The peasants had lived a narrow passage a little more than a mile wide at the in makeshift shelters with jerry-built roofs. Whenever mountain of Milan Klada, on the Bosnian border. The they heard the Germans were coming they destroyed Luftwaffe bombed and strafed all day on a scientifically roofs themselves and hid in the fields to avoid pillaging geometric basis. It was here that Marshal Tito was of what looked like might be their home. wounded and lost the partial use of his left hand. It Across this landscape marched and counter-marched 16 17

•, polyglot armies: Germans, Italians, Bulgarians, Croat requested a half hour in which to think. Colonel Domobranci, Ustashi, Serbian fascist troops of the gov­ Dedier greeted troops standing about with "Viva ernment and Chetniks and Partisans. Italian Libera," and they hailed back, "Partizana bono." Along the Belgrade-Zagreb railway, once Europe's The colonel agreed to surrender, and three how­ main thoroughfare to the East, moved slow chugging itzers, forty mortars and many machine guns were Nazi grain convoys, warily looking out for saboteurs. taken over just half an hour before the first Nazi tank Traveling only by day and at reduced speed, they were showed up. preceded by armored trains pushing ahead of the loco­ After gaining vast new material resources Marshal motive carloads of sand. Planes flew overhead and on Tito swiftly liberated the entire Dalmatian coast ex­ either side were tree trunks. cept Zara and Sebenico where the Germans dropped Special Partisan demolition squads laid their mines paratroops and the First Partisan tank brigade to be carefully against these. During the early months they organized drove up to the outskirts of . The had only a few mines, usually rebuilt from enemy people of Slovenia arose in mass with spades and pick­ bombs that failed to explode and in which holes were axes, destroying bunkers and barbed wire. drilled for the fuse. Now they had large stores of mines of their own manufacture and special Allied-sent Nazi Panzer Units Fail chargers. Hundreds of yards of mines were buried by The Germans rushed Panzer units, including night and playing complex chargers like a piano Parti­ Tigers, into Slovenia, but aside from destructive raids san engineers blew up mine after mine engulfing Ger­ they generally were ineffective. man convoys. Tracks were littered with rotting goods. Following enormous new strength taken from the Neither side could remove the twisted locomotives. defeated Italians Marshal Tito felt strong enough for All stations were burned down. decisive steps in the military and political sphere and During this period after June the counter-offensive summoned delegates to an "Avnoj" congress which met "of Marshal Tito's movement swelled enormously from in picturesque Jajce. The word Jajce in Serbian implies to Slovenia. Liaison with guerrillas in masculinity and with this meeting the Partisans Albania, Greece, , Rumania and Italy was boasted they had emasculated the enemy. established. Jajce normally is a placid, beautiful town of stone and wooden houses and cobbled street set below old Italian Troops Disarmed King Tvrdko's castle under a waterfall beside a lake By the time the capitulation of Italy arrived the Par­ linking the Pliva and Vrbas rivers. tisans were strong enough for swift action and several There in a large gymnasium across from a fortress fascist divisions-six in Slovenia alone-were disarmed during late November, 1943, those decisions were and most of the troops sent back to Trieste. Some units taken crystallizing the movement about which the joined Marshal Tito's forces. world has been reading lately. At this time Colonel Dedier as a member of "Avnoj" Speaking among a galaxy of homemade American, was sent by Marshal Tito to Croatia accompanying two British, Soviet and Partisan , sketches of Marshal members of the Supreme Command. While crossing Tito and Premier Stalin, President Roosevelt and the Zagreb- railway they heard excited firing and Prime Minister Churchill, Ivan Ribar and the dele­ learned of the surrender of the Italians. Near by was gates formulated their program, which has both ex­ an important Italian garrison. cited and perplexed the world. There Marshal Tito After posting a man on a slight rise with a machine revealed his identity as humble Josip Broz after re­ gun Colonel Dedier with three wearing ceiving news that the last members of his family except British battledress dropped from a parachute and a his second wife, Herta, who is with his army, had been bandaged head surmounted by a cap with a red star slain in occupied areas. He was awarded the title of entered the barracks demanding the colonel who Marshal of the People's Army. arrived haughtily with folded arms. This is the history of the desperate and incredible Speaking French, Colonel Dedier said, "Don't be a suffering of the popular movement against a back­ damned fool. You have three choices; fight with us, ground of misery so manifold that few can yet be aware join the Germans or leave your arms with us." A Nazi of what large areas of Europe look like today. It is a reconnaissance plane cruised over as the Italian colonel tale that the world has not yet heard, because the 18 19

" limited radio facilities in this island of resistance can The leader of the mission was Colonel Ribar, son of be devoted only to the most salient facts. It is an indi­ President Ivan Ribar of Marshal Tito's temporary gov­ cation of the sort of developments that may well be ernment. anticipated in many continental countries before this Two other Partisan officers are in a Middle Eastern war ends. hospital. They are Lieutenant Colonel Dedier, an im­ portant member of Marshal Tito's staff as well as a Deputy, whose brother, Stephen, is an American citi­ zen and a Princeton graduate, and Lieut. Col. Tito's Aides Visit Allies Milentije Popovitch of Serbia, who played an import­ ant role in organizing an officers' schooling system for In Egypt the Partisan army. Colonel Velekit represented the mission in the offi­ cial exchange between the Allies and Marshal Tito. Full Accord Reached in Non-Political Talks on Last May the British sent their first liaison of two Military Aid for Yugoslavs officers and four other ranks to the Partisans. One of these officers has since been killed; the other has been By c. L. SULZBERGER wounded· and has received the Distinguished Service Order. Early last fall, Brigadier MacLean went as chief By Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. of the Allies' mission. A separate American mission, CAIRO, Egypt., Dec. 20-A military discussion be­ headed by a major, functions under him in liberated tween a special mission sent to Egypt by Marshal Tito territory. (Josip Broz), commander of the Yugoslav People's Marshal Tito's mission has been established in head­ Army of Liberation, and the Anglo-American staffs has quarters at Alexandria, a considerable distance from been taking place in Alexandria, it was announced Cairo, since the latter city serves as the capital of King tonight. Peter's emigre government. The Partisans have de­ The official statement added that the talks had re­ manded that the Allies withdraw their recognition of sulted in full agreement. Marshal Tito's military mis­ King Peter's Government. sion and the British and American leaders engaged Colonel Velekit has received full honors as chief of in talks of an entirely non-political nature designed the mission and has been received by Lieut. Gen. Sir to facilitate the Allies' policy of supporting "all ­ Henry Maitland Wilson, commander in chief in the slav forces resisting the enemy in Yugoslavia" and a Middle East, as well as by other high British and Amer­ concord has been reached on "details in carrying out ican officers. The principal purpose of his trip is to dis­ 11 cuss certain types of equipment desired by Marshal this policy 1 it was stated. Marshal Tito's mission arrived here recently accom­ Tito and potential operations such as air support. He panied by Brig. Fitzroy H. R. MacLean, chief of the especially emphasized the need for more anti-aircraft Allied liaison mission to Marshal Tito's headquarters. and anti-tank guns. Other requirements, such as This represents the first official contact of the Yugo­ medicinal supplies and special technical equipment, slav Peoples' Army with the outside world. Anglo­ have been shipped in large quantities in the past three American officers have been attached to Marshal Tito's months, although they have by no means satisfied local supreme command for some months. requirements. The Partisans still badly need blankets, Marshal Tito's mission includes two well known uniforms and boots, as well as volunteer medical Partisan officers, Lieut. Col. Vladimir Velekit, head of officers. the Adjutant General's department in Marshal Tito's supreme command, and Lieut. Col. Miloje Miloje­ vitch, one of the two living holders of the highest decoration of the People's Army-People's Hero of Yugoslavia. The journey of the Partisan delegates was hazardous in the extreme. The leader of their mission was killed en route and Colonel Milojevitch, who had been wounded ten times before, was wounded again. 20 21

.. gun taken from the Italians at Ogulin. Tito's Forces Lack Adequate The most common field piece they possess is a Supplies 75-mm. mountain gun, a number of which were seized from the Yugoslav Army stores. They also have some 37-mm. and 47-mm. Skoda anti-tank guns taken from Arms, Planes, Food, Clothes and Medicines Are the enemy and a few German 88's. The most import­ Needed to Carry on Fight ant heavier weapons at present are the 81-mm. Ger­ man mortars.

TROOPS WELL DISCIPLINED Lack Anti-Aircraft Guns The Partisans have hardly any ack-ack. Their Schools Set Up to Train Men Now Battling 18 weapons are mainly those captured from the enemy. Enemy Divisions in Yugoslavia Since Marshal Tito has no aviation, the enemy needs very few anti-aircraft guns, thus presenting limited By c. L. SULZBERGER amounts available for capture by the Partisans. By Cable to THE New YORK TIMES. Likewise because of the Partisans' lack of tanks the Germans have scarcely any heavy anti-tank guns in the CAIRO, Egypt, Dec. 23-Adolf Hitler has now con­ area and the Partisans are unable to build up their centrated up to eighteen German divisions in Yugo­ supply of these. Their fuel is entirely captured stock. slavia as garrison forces, guards for the vital Balkan A favori~e infantry weapon is a fifteen-pound weight supply lines and especially as an offensive army de­ submachme gun holding twenty cartridoes in a maga­ signed to crush Marshal Tito's People's Army of Lib­ zine-an old Yugoslav army weapon. Generally the eration before the Allied invasion of Europe. Partisans manufacture their own grenades and land These Nazi troops are opposed by an ill-fed, poorly mm es. equipped and ill-housed army of 250,000 men and Each corps has a salvage organization belonging to women, supplied almost entirely with material they the Economic Department of Marshal Tito's supreme have managed to capture from the enemy. command, which runs the salvage of food and cloth­ Yet that army of twenty-six divisions is at present ing under Lieut. Col. Mitar Vujevitch, a former cap­ withstanding with success the sixth major offensive tain in the regular army quartermaster's corps. against it by Axis forces. And Allied liaison officers say The People's Army is as poorly garbed as it is badly that if the United Nations could send them sufficient armed. What uniforms the army has-and not all weapons Marshal Tito's forces alone could drive out troops by any means have uniforms-are mixed: Ger­ the Germans and open a gateway to the Danubian man, Italian, Ustashi, Hungarian, Bulgarian, B~itish Valley. battledress, Domobran and old Yugoslav, all marked The difficulties of supplying the People's Army, with a red star. however, are manifold, though the United Nations Many makeshift outfits are made from discarded have sent in some supplies, the greater part of which cloth. Lieut. Col. Vladimir Velekit, chief of Marshal is made up of captured Axis stores from North Africa Tito's mission to the Middle East, wears a shirt made and Sicily. from an Allied parachute and his trousers were made Marshal Tito's army needs everything to carry on from an old Yugoslav Army overcoat. its battle-arms, planes, anti-tank and anti-aircraft The lack of clothing among civilians is incredible. artillery, food, clothing ,shelter and medical supplies. Seven-year-old Luka, a Serbian peasant boy who has Regular soldiers now are moderately well equipped been virtually adopted by some Allied liaison officers, with riBes and automatic small arms but they are very typifies the conditions today. When first seen by the deficient in artillery. The mortar is their favorite Allied officers he had only one shoe, which he had heavier weapon because of its mobility. The largest been wearing for months. The Partisans used to order divisional artillery pieces yet seen by Allied military him to shift the shoe from foot to foot since it was missions are 105-mm. captured Italian howitzers, al­ shapeless and thus each foot got equal treatment. though the Partisans claim a few large coastal artillery Luka was playing in the fields when the Ustashi pieces as well as a mammoth 280-mm. German siege murdered his family and he was found alone in the 22 23

·. ruins of his home by the Partisans. Now the Allies are However, the soldiers have the right to criticize their sending in a special bundle, including sweaters and officers after a battle. The following incident demon­ shoes, for their young friend. strates that type of discipline. When first seen by the Allied officers the boy, like Last Summer, a Partisan battalion, accompanied by most Yugoslavs, was suffering from a lack of food that an Allied liaison officer, came upon a large jua of is causing acute misery. shlivovitza while encamped near a farm. After drink­ The Nazis are carrying out deliberate plans to starve ing it up they danced the kolo in a field. When they the Partisans this winter. They have already burned resumed the march the commander was evidently the highlands and ravaged the villages and they are somewhat tipsy. A junior officer stepped out and trying to hold the main towns in the battle areas. By ordered his superior to hand over his rifle and step January there will be very little to eat in liberated into the ranks. No word of protest was made. The Yugoslavia. junior officer then assumed command, reposted Army rations are not fixed but depend on available machine-gun squads and gave a brief lecture on how stocks. One Allied officer in Yugoslavia was forced to the Partisan Army should behave. exist on three apples for twenty-four hours last sum­ A special course is given to officers and men in mer-and he was considered well treated. Generally artillery work and anti-tank fighting. Before the efforts are made to provide two meals daily, including People's Army captured its first anti-tank guns men meat and occasionally a small amount of flour or pota­ were trained to leap on small Italian tanks with long toes. During the best periods about twenty-four ounces poles, prying off the caterpillar treads and rendering of bread daily are allotted as the biggest ration. them helpless. Several tanks were captured in this way Yet despite these hardships the People's Army is at a great cost in life. fighting bravely, courageously and in good order. Special tactics have been devised to fit the various Allied liaison officers describe the Partisan discipline situations. Whenever possible, wooden bridges are as "perfect." burned instead of blown up, to conserve explosives. Marshal Tito has instituted a system of military Special shock groups have been organized to attack schools for officers. When the movement began, few enemy airfields like the "Special Air Service" of the ranking officers were in it, most of them fighting the . Germans remaining with Gen. Draja Mikhailovitch. Their task is to destroy Nazi planes on the ground This was one of the original sources of trouble between since this is about the only way the Partisans have of the Partisans and Chetniks during the days when they getting at the Luftwaffe except for Allied fighter sup­ were negotiating for unity, since General Mikhailo­ port. vitch's regular army colonels refused to recognize as A curious type of fighting prevails in Yugoslavia. thei! equal the Partisan colonels who had been non­ The Partisans have absolutely no fear of being sur­ coms or lieutenants in the Yugoslav Army. rounded since that is their normal state. Originally the head of Marshal Tito's officers school­ The Nazis are constantly seeking out mobile shock ing system was Lieut. Gen. Savo Orovitch, a former detachments, ferreting them out in the mountain Army officer who once fought with General Mikhailo­ gulches with a "starch" army in cooperation with vitch, but General Orovitch has now been transferred planes equipped with small bombs. Swift fighters and as Chief of Staff for the region. Col. Branko bombers often are useless in some of this terrain and Poljanac now heads the schools. the Germans have taken a leaf from the Russian book Several of these have been created, the first being employing this type of plane with some success'. for the Croatian headquarters, the next in Slovenia Bombs from a "starch" killed youna Ribar and two and Montenegro. Generally, young officers or the best British officers when they were abou~ to take off with common soldiers are sent there for a training course Marshal Tito's mission to the Middle East. of two to three months. Regular Army officers serve as instructors. Tito Strategy Is Attach Generally speaking, Marshal Tito's main strategy is Men May Criticize Officers to attack whenever possible and elude the enemy by The status of officers is clearly recognized with a forced marches when outnumbered by the enemy. The separate officers' mess for units larger than a company. Partisans claim German prisoners say they have never 24 25

•, seen such fierce attacks. The People's Army generally Some Domobranci Ustashi have been captured as employs mortars, automatic weapons and a few rifles many as five times, each time leaving a rifle behind. on its swift raids. Speed in movemept is emphasized Unwarranted ill-treatment of prisoners is punished. and the Second Serbian Brigade once covered forty­ The Fifth Battalion of the Second Serbian Brigade £.ve miles in eighteen hours. Although the Partisans of Marshal Tito's .Army is now made up half of cap­ have no , except for a small unit, as much as tured Domobranci and half of captured Chetniks. possible of their transport, including mountain guns, Marshal Tito's idea is to rebuild men rather than shoot is strapped on ponies. them, if possible, according to his officers. Marshal Tito's divisions usually contain between five and ten thousand soldiers. Divisional commanders hold Some Germans Join Partisans ranks between major and colonel. Divisions generally Hun.dreds of ltalia.ns now with the Partisans mainly include three or four brigades. Special separate shock are assigned to memal tasks, such as leading horses. detachments exist for tough work and there are home­ Gerrn'!ns usually are shot. However, there is one Ger­ guard units called "odred." m~n company in the People's Army made up of Major Gen. Arso Jovanovitch, Chief of Staff, heads p~isoners and deserters from many Yugoslav minorities. the operational and intelligence departments; Colonel Field Marshal von Steiner's driver deserted and joined Gojko Nikolitch heads the Medical Department; Lieut. the Partisans. Marshal Tito's army also has a Czecho­

Col. Vladimir Velekit heads the adjutant general's slovak brigade and a Hunaarian0 battalion composed of section. Vojvodina settlers. Political commissars are attached to each unit from a company to a corps. They are instructed not to fol­ low any party line but to explain the Partisan move­ ment's program. However, many of them are Com­ munists and several are women. They have no military authority although they fight, but they reserve the right to criticize officers and tactics after a battle. Each brigade ,is supposed to have a chaplain-an Orthodox priest for the Serbs and , a Catholic priest for the Croats, Dalmatians and Slo­ venes, and Moslems for the . They are said to wear a cross with a red star on the hatband or a star crescent, but no Allied liaison officer this cor­ respondent has talked with has seen the insignia, al­ though the chaplains' existence has been confirmed. There are scarcely any Jews in the army, since most of them were slaughtered by the Axis. However, 300 of a group liberated from a concentration camp on the island of H var joined one brigade.

Women Play Important Role Women play an important role and about 50 per cent of the Second Croatian Corps is said to be women. They have suffered heavy casualties, but fight bravely, although they learn slower than men. Partisan treatment of captured prisoners varies ac­ cording to their nationality and past record for bru­ tality. Each brigade has its own court-martial and cap­ tured Ustashi and Chetniks receive immediate trial. The result generally is that the prisoner either joins the Partisans or is liberated, leaving his weapons behind. 26 27

'• Rail Line Marks Tito's satellite and puppet states, marked over with the Parti­ san star, are used. Economy Regarding money, there is considerable confusion between the various sorts of currency prevailing; but the Minister of Finance has established parity between Partisans' 120-Mile Route, With One Train, the old and the kuna of the present Illustrates .Yugoslav Freedom Effort Croatian state and has fixed the lira exchange rate of one lira to eight kunas or dinars. POSTAL SYSTEM WORKS Internal loans have been floated by the Partisan Government to a total now of 500,000,000 dinars. Carrying 3 per cent interest, the loans have been over­ So Does Regulated Currency Plan - Theatre subscribed by the people, who are anxious to invest in Thrives in People's Army Area something they feel has a guarantee of post-war values.

Theatrical Performances Given By c. L. SULZBERGER

By Wireless to THE NEW YoRK TrMES. An unusually extensive amount of theatrical enter­ tainment exists in the liberated territory. Last Septem­ CAIRO, Egypt, Dec. 27-Winding for 120 miles ber, only four miles from the Croat capital of Zagreb, across mountainous sections of Yugoslavia freed by the 2,000 peasants gathered for a big Partisan theatrical People's Army of Marshal Tito (Josip Broz) runs the performance. only Partisan railway. It links with Jajce and Some of the Belgrade and Zagreb theatres' best Vakuv. actors are now with the Partisans, including names The ingenuity shown in keeping this enterprise well known to Yugoslavs, such as Affrich, Mila Ve­ functionina is representative of the fashion under lichkovich and Nikola Popovitch. 0 which the economic system of Marshal Tito's Provi­ One of the biggest performances held so far was on sional Government operates. the latest Nov. 7 anniversary of the Bolshevist revolu­ One locomotive manufactured from parts of eight tion in Russia. Gogol's "Revizor" was produced in Jajce that had been destroyed serves as traction power for with Marshal Tito and leaders of the British military the few pieces of rolling stock gathered by the Parti­ mission sitting in the front row. sans. The train runs once daily and seeks to maintain Several ballet groups also keep going. It is a curious a regular timetable. note that most of the actresses' costumes are made of Movement orders for those riding on the train are Allied parachute silk. especially stamped, "Liberated Territory"; many pas­ The greatest problem of the civil authorities involves sengers appear to travel without any other ticket. Oc­ food. Separate committees supervise the villages, dis­ casionally messages are delivered to the locomotive tricts and areas into which the liberated territory is driver by energetic horsemen who catch up with his divided. They care for refugees from villages destroyed chugging train. by the Nazis-communities wiped out to an extent that The economy functioning in the Tito territory is has leveled differences between poor and rich in by and large similarly makeshift. Because of the im­ Yugoslavia. permanence forced by war. The general idea is to save as much as possible of the limited goods available and Crops Raised Where Possible to make the most of little. Thus, although on import­ Although the country is normally exceedingly rich, ant occasions, such as the fall of Kiev to the Russians, it has been hard to harvest crops. However, in some plenty of sporadic shooting marks a celebration, such districts last autumn the bread ration was held steady enthusiasm is usually forbidden, to conserve ammuni­ at 750 grams daily. tion. The women and children keep the fields ploughed. Postal and fiscal systems have been established by A large and increasing acreage in the liberated territory the . The postoffices see to the is sown, sometimes under hazardous circumstances. In delivery of letters by courier, even in Nazi-occupied southern Krajina last summer a brigade one night se­ territory. Yugoslav stamps, as well as those of Axis cretly scattered seeds 200 yards from German bunkers. 28 29

•. The Tito government se~ks to collect the largest THE UNITED COMMITTEE OF possible amounts from the harvest for general distribu­ SOUTH-SLAVIC AMERICANS tion. Special banners are awarded to the localities pro­ viding the largest harvest contributions to the central INCORPORATED authorities. President: One of the hardest problems for a long time was the Lours AnAMIC obtaining of salt. The salt shortage was greatly alle­ viated when the People's Army captured 1,800 carloads Vice Presidents: in Dalmatia and divided it up. ZLATKO BALOKOVIC ETBIN KRISTAi'< The Partisans are seeking to get a school system ZAR.KO M. BuNCICK PETER PEFF going and wipe out the peasant illiteracy, but this is SMILE VovnANOFF obviously very difficult during the combined civil and Executive Secretary: war. REV. STRAHIN} A MALETICH Treasurer: M. J. BOGDANOVICH Group Secretaries: PETER RADICH ]ANKO RoGELJ MIR.KO MARKOVICH VICTOR SHARENKOFF GEORGE PIRINSKY Honorary Members: SAv A KosANOVICH FRANO PETRINOVIC DR. IvAN SuBASICH Members: IvAN BuTKOVICH MIR.Ko KuHEL VINCENT CAINKAR JOHN LADESICH IvAN DosEFF ANTHONY LucAs REv. NIKOLA DRENOVAC ANTHONY MINERICH MICHAEL EVANOFF REv. DAvrn NAKOFF REv. V01sLAV GACHINOVICH BLAGOVEST POPOFF Miss NEVENA GELIASKOVA BLAGOY POPOFF REv. EMIL GLOCAR DR. GEORGE POPOFF PETER GRIGOROFF Mns. MARIE PmsLAND N1coLA KovAcHEFF DR. c. N. STOYCOFF GEORGE KovACEVICH JOSEPH ZALAR PURPOSES 1. To promote the dynamic unity of Americans of South-Slavic origin and background behind the United States' and the United Nations' war against the Axis, and behind the post­ war plans and operations - the latter particularly as they pertain to the South-Slavic peoples. 2. To speak in the interest of the South-Slavic peoples who, under the Axis which they are fighting, cannot fully speak for themselves to the American people and the rest of the world.

Additional copies of this pamphlet are available at 10¢ each for less than ten copies; 10 copies for 75¢, 15 for $1, 25 for $1.50, 50 for $3, 100 for $5. When ordering, make checks payable to the "United Committee of South-Slavic Ameri­ cans" and send the orders to 1010 Park Avenue, New York 28, N . Y. 30 31

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