Page 4 of A Call to Home (Women of the Resistance #3)
Lipovo
February 1943
Steve found himself caught up in the middle of a blazing row. He had been summoned to Mihailovic’s operations room to take down yet another message to be sent to the Yugoslav government in exile in London, complaining about the perfidy of the British in not sending the supplies and arms he had been promised. Draza was in the middle of dictating when Major Ostojic burst into the room.
‘I have just received a directive from General Roatta. He requires us to seize the right bank of the Neretva to prevent the Partisans from crossing.’
Mihailovic stood up. ‘An Italian general has no right to give me orders.’
‘That is what I keep saying. We should not be at the Italians’ beck and call. We have allowed ourselves to become completely dependent on them for food, ammunition and other supplies.’
‘And we use what we take from them against our enemies,’ Draza said. ‘This is our chance to wipe out the communists once and for all.’
‘But don’t you see?’ Ostojic protested. ‘He is using our men as cannon fodder. Hitler has ordered him to co-operate in wiping out the communists, but he doesn’t want to risk his own troops, so he wants to use ours.’
‘And as it happens that fits very well with our own plans. We cannot allow Tito and his rabble to move into Montenegro. They must be prevented from crossing the Neretva. We have them trapped. The German divisions are moving in from the north and the west. We can bottle them up between Prozor and the river and finally finish them off.’
‘Even if it means fighting alongside the Italians against our own people?’
‘Those scum are not our own people.’
‘And what is to stop the Germans pressing on into Montenegro?’ Ostojic asked. ‘That is what the Italians are afraid of. The Germans are the real enemy. We should be concentrating our forces against them.’
Mihailovic glared at him. ‘How dare you question my orders? Our first objective must be to eliminate the communist threat. Then we can turn our attention to the Germans.’
‘And by then it may be too late,’ Ostojic retorted. ‘But it is your decision.’
‘I shall send out orders for our troops to be concentrated in Herzegovina to prevent any further advance by the communists,’ Mihailovic said. ‘See that those orders are carried out.’
Steve wrote in his diary:
February 7th
The mood here is increasingly grim. Chetnik units in Herzegovina
have been defeated by the Partisans, with terrible losses. But there is
worse. Durisic, one of the Chet commanders, came to report yesterday,
triumphantly announcing that he has ‘cleansed’ the Sandjak of its Muslim
inhabitants, burning villages and killing men, women and children.
Mihailovic professed to have no prior knowledge of such an action; but
he has made no attempt to call Durisic to account. I am sick to my
stomach at the thought that I am a party to this, however unwillingly.
But what am I to do? I send my reports back to my controllers in London,
for all the good it does, and I know that even if I asked to be
exfiltrated there is no way it could be done.
Arguments between Mihailovic and his second in command grew more and more bitter.
‘The Italians have gone back on their commitment to provide transport,’ Ostojic announced. ‘We cannot get our troops into position – I told you we should not trust them. If the Germans break through, we shall be wiped out. The Italians are our enemies as much as the Nazis! We should turn on them, disarm them, and use their arms to create lines of defence from Sarajevo to Mostar.’
‘No!’ retorted Mihailovic. ‘All our efforts must be to defeat the communists. We must force the Italians to provide more support, even if we must resort to blackmail.’
In the midst of these violent disagrements the Chetnik leaders and the British representatives were invited to the christening of one of the children of the Mayor of Lipovo. The slivovitz flowed freely, and many toasts were drunk. When he was asked to speak, Mihailovic launched into a diatribe against the British. His flashing eyes and wild gestures left no room for doubt about the strength of his anger and disillusionment.
‘Our main enemies,’ he declared, ‘are Tito, the Ustashe, the Muslims and the Croats. When we have dealt with them, we can turn our attention to the Germans. But how can we be expected to fight when our so-called allies prove faithless? The British promised us support. They promised supplies of arms and ammunition. So far we have received only two air drops. Never has the term Perfidious Albion been more appropriate. They are holding the King and the legitimate government hostage in London; meanwhile the BBC suggests in its broadcasts that the real opposition to Hitler is in the hands of that criminal Tito. We have no alternative but to turn to the Italians for support.’
Colonel Bailey listened in silence and then he rose to his feet. With a nod to his colleagues, he led the way out of the room.
Mihailovic stared after them. ‘See! The British curs slink away. They have no answer.’
But Steve, who had listened with growing alarm, could see in his eyes that he knew he had made a serious error. As soon as he could get away, he headed for the British HQ. At the door he met Freddy Barton.
‘The Skipper’s not at all pleased,’ he remarked.
‘I’m not surprised,’ Steve replied. ‘Can I see him?’
‘Go ahead,’ Barton said. ‘But I should put your tin hat on before you go in.’
Steve found the British colonel pacing about the small room where he had set up his office. Bill Hudson was stoking a small blaze in the fireplace. With them was a newcomer, Captain Kenneth Greenlees, who had been dropped by parachute a few days earlier as an aide de camp to Bailey.
‘What a bloody mess!’ Bailey exclaimed. ‘What the hell does he expect? He refuses to stir a muscle against the Nazis and then he complains because we aren’t giving him weapons to slaughter his own people.’
‘He doesn’t see them as his own people,’ Steve said. ‘They are Croats and as far as he is concerned all Croats are communists and therefore a threat to the return of the legitimate government.’
‘I know all that,’ Bailey retorted. ‘He made his priorities perfectly clear. But the original offer to give him arms was to fight the Germans. He’s the one who has broken the agreement.’
Steve nodded unhappily. ‘I understand that but I’m afraid he won’t see it that way. So, what happens now?’
‘He can stew in his own juice for a bit,’ Bailey said. ‘I shall refuse to have any contact with him. Kenneth, I’m appointing you as my deputy. You can liaise between us. If Mihailovic wants to communicate with me, he will have to do it through you.’
Next day, Steve was ordered to present himself before Mihailovic. The Chetnik leader regarded him with brooding anger. ‘You were seen yesterday slinking off to Bailey and his crew. I need to know where your loyalty lies. Are you with us or with them?’
Steve’s heart thumped as he struggled to formulate a reply. ‘I am an American, as you know, and a member of the British Royal Air Force. The British and the Americans are sacrificing men and money to fight the Nazis. My loyalty is to anyone who is fighting in the same cause.’
Mihailovic growled. ‘That doesn’t answer my question. You attached yourself to me when I decided to go to the mountains rather than surrender.’
‘I did it because I thought that you were a leader who could inspire resistance to the Germans.’ He paused for half a second before continuing, ‘But now you seem more interested in establishing your idea of a Greater Serbia.’
Mihailovic raised an eyebrow. ‘And Greater Serbia will be free of all enemy elements, including Germans, communists, Muslims, Croats… but we must choose our battles. If we try to attack the Germans directly we shall lose. I am waiting for the Allies to open their Second Front. As soon as they land on our shores we will rise up in their support, but not until then.’
‘But meanwhile you are expending the arms and ammunition they sent to murder innocent civilians.’
‘You sound like Bailey.’ Mihalovic’s face was red with fury. ‘To hell with you, then! Traitor! Get out of my sight!’
Cairo
Leo excitedly opened a letter sent from Sasha in London. They tried to write to each other regularly, but letters often went astray so this would be a rare treat. But her mood was quickly dampened by its contents.
What are your people playing at? I have just had a meeting with Jovanovic and he is incandescent with fury. He tells me that your man in Montenegro is proposing that the country should be divided between Mihailovic and his Chetniks and this communist Tito. This would give most of Slovenia to the communists and there is no guarantee that when the war is over they would be prepared to hand it back to the legitimate government. In essence, this would mean that Peter is deprived of half his kingdom. Sir George Rendel, the ambassador to our government, has been told that this idea is totally unacceptable, and I have no doubt that Mr Churchill will agree, so there is no danger of it being put into practice but I am left with grave suspicions that there are elements amongst your colleagues at the Balkan Desk who are pro-communist and would encourage such an idea. Please promise me that you will not allow yourself to be influenced! With Alix apparently fighting for the communists I am very much afraid for the unity of our family.
Jovanovic was the Prime Minister of the Yugoslav government in exile, so Leo understood Sasha’s concerns. She sat down at once to compose a letter assuring him that she had had no part in the idea of partition and nor had anyone else in the Cairo office. But she was relieved when the following morning Davidson called a meeting.
‘Well, Bailey’s little scheme has been shot down in flames. Our government can’t be seen to ditch King Peter like that and anyway strategically it doesn’t make sense. If there was an Allied landing on the Dalmatian coast, we might find ourselves facing a hostile communist force. And there’s the danger that we might be facilitating the formation of a communist block including Hungary and Austria.’
‘Well, that’s a relief,’ Deakin said. ‘It was a non-starter from the outset.’
Leo too breathed a sigh of relief, but not for purely strategic reasons.