Draža Mihailović

As Allied intelligence credited the Partisans with greater anti-Axis activity and documented Chetnik ambiguities, London and subsequently the Allies shifted their military and political support towards Tito.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Mihailović's forces cooperated with the American OSS and Allied aircrews to hide, protect and evacuate hundreds of airmen shot down over occupied Yugoslavia.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Command responsibility

Allied reports and historical scholarship describe a strategy in which Tito and the Partisans became the immediate enemy, while forces were preserved for a later campaign against the Axis. A reported February 1943 speech identified the Partisans among his priority enemies.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

The British government warned the Yugoslav government-in-exile that its support for Mihailović might be reconsidered unless he changed his policy towards the Italians and other resistance movements.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Following Yugoslavia's collapse, Mihailović organised royalist units around Ravna Gora that became the core of the Chetnik movement. The strategy aimed to preserve forces, avoid large-scale German reprisals and await an Allied offensive, quickly leading to disagreements with Tito's Partisans, who favoured active insurrection.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

After a brief period of local cooperation against the Axis, Mihailović's forces and the Partisans entered into armed conflict. Anti-communism became a major focus of the royalist movement's military strategy.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

German minutes of the Divci meeting record a discussion between Mihailović and representatives of the German command. The Germans recalled that an offer had been made to fight the communists alongside the Wehrmacht and Nedić's organisations; Mihailović emphasised his priority of containing communists and preserving his forces.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

A document frequently attributed to Mihailović's command sets out aims of territorial homogenisation and removal of non-Serbian elements. It is often cited in debates concerning Chetnik ethnic policy.

State of the evidence

Disputed