Description
Object description
British officer served with Special Operations Executive in Yugoslavia, 9/1943-5/1944; served with Headquarters, Special Operations Executive in Bari, Italy, 6/1944-5/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of operations as officer with Special Operations Executive in Yugoslavia, 9/1943-5/1944: background to parachuting into Cacak, Yugoslavia, 9/1943; opinion of accusations against Draza Mihailović as traitor to Allies up to 1943; restraints on Draza Mihailović's activities; sources of support for Yugoslav Partisans in Headquarters, Special Operations Executive in Cairo, Egypt; German attitude towards Chetniks; German-Yugoslav Partisan links; attempts to discredit Fitzroy Maclean; opinion of left wing and anti-Chetnik influences in British Broadcasting Corporation; amassing of arms by Yugoslav Partisans; Chetnik attacks on German forces; relations between Chetniks and British; east-west cultural divide in Yugoslavia; story of Bill Bailey's meetings with Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Chequers regarding Yugoslavia.
REEL 2 Continues: Prime Minister Winston Churchill's attitude towards Yugoslavia; British attempts to have Draza Mihailovic replaced as Chetnik leader; nature of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's meeting with Bill Deakin and Fitzroy Maclean in Cairo, Egypt; opinion of 'doctoring' of agents' reports from Yugoslavia; story of his evacuation by air from Yugoslavia, 30/5/1944. Recollections of period as officer with Headquarters, Special Operations Executive in Bari, Italy, 6/1944-5/1945: discovery of inaccurate wall map showing territory held by Yugoslav Partisans in Yugoslavia; meeting with James Klugmann; German attitude towards various Yugoslavian guerrilla groups; sequence of events leading to division of spheres of influence in the Balkans between Western Allies and Soviet Union; background to end of Chetnik forces in Yugoslavia, spring 1945. Recollections of operations as officer with Special Operations Executive in Yugoslavia, 1943-1944: German and Croatian Ustashe reprisals against civilian population.
REEL 3 Continues: Draza Mihailović's reaction to atrocities against Serbs and the effect on Chetnik activity; geographical areas of Chetnik and Yugoslav Partisan support; story illustrating affiliations of Slovenian Home Guard; contrasting personalities of Josip Tito and Draza Milhailović freedom of movement of agents with Chetniks; meaning of term Chetnik; treatment of Yugoslav Partisan and Chetnik captives; attitude of Yugoslav Muslims towards political situation; contrast between arms dropped to Yugoslav Partisans and Chetniks.
REEL 4 Continues: Chetnik treatment of Italian prisoners of war; opinion of British repatriations of Yugoslavians from Austria, 1945; story of American pilot's evidence on lack of collaboration by Draza Mihailović; Draza Mihailović's character; opinion of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's confusion over Yugoslavia; reaction to news of Draza Mihailović's trial; prior recollection of his childhood friendship with Donald Maclean.
