Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

World War II Rescued American Airmen Defend Serbs [WARNING-GRAPHIC PHOTOS]
National Committee of American Airmen ^ | April 9, 1999 | Richard L. Felman

Posted on 02/07/2003 6:24:30 PM PST by Karadjordje


US airman under Serbian care


Award for Serbian Chetnik leader Dragoljub Mihailovich


Award for Serbian Chetnik leader Dragoljub Mihailovich


The cover of Time Magazine, May 25, 1942. Their article began: "He clasps the crag with crooked hands...he watches from his mountain walls, and like a thunderbolt he falls."

Open letter—April 9, 1999
To Our Troops In The Former Yugoslavia

"We Found Out The Truth About the Serbs...When We Were Shot Down"
World War II Rescued American Airmen Defend Serbs
By Richard L. Felman

Over 500 MlAs Saved By The Serbian People During WWII

During World War II, we were in the Army Air Corps list as "Missing in Action" in the very same area you are now serving.  If we may, we would like to relay to you a frank, soldier-to-soldier message about our personal experience while there—something which politicians who sent you there have not told you and something which you have not read or seen in the anti-Serb media.

In 1944, the members of our committee were flying bombing missions out of Italy over Southern Europe.  During that time over 500 of us were shot down over enemy-occupied Yugoslavia and saved from certain death by the Serbian people.  Ours was the greatest rescue of American lives from behind enemy lines in history but has been kept under wraps all these years because of pressure from foreign sources. [Emphasis added]

While we were there, those of us who were wounded were given whatever medical supplies they had even at the deprivation of their own troops.   If there was one piece of bread in the house, or one egg, it went to the American airmen while the Serb went hungry.

If there was one bed or one blanket, it went to us while the Serb slept on the bare ground.  No risk of sacrifice was too great to insure our safety and well being.  One experience which is forever seared in my memory is the time a village with 200 women and children was burned to the ground by the Germans because the Serbs would not tell them where they were hiding us.  To this day, I can smell the terrible stench of their burning flesh.  One does not forget such things.

The most incredible part of our rescue was that before each mission, our bomber crews were briefed by the highest levels of American intelligence that if shot down over Yugoslavia, we were to stay away from the Serbian people as they were collaborating with the Germans and "cutting off the ears of American airmen" before turning them over. Only after we were shot down did we find out the amazing thoroughness with which the truth about the Serbs was being distorted. [Emphasis added]

Further compounding this deception is the fact that while the Serbs were our allies in WWII, Croatians and Muslims (who we are favoring today) were allies of the Nazis, shooting at us and responsible for killing many of our fellow American fliers.  In view of the lies we were told about the Serbs during World War II, we could not help but wonder if our foreign policy there today is the same anti-Serb bias we encountered 52 years ago.

Could our career diplomats sacrifice former friends and reward former enemies in the name of political expediency?  Could it be because in the world community there are over one billion Muslims and only 9 million Serbian Orthodox Christians with the same proportionate power in the global economy?  Could it be because the Serbs have no oil wells and no unlimited oil money?

Could it be because the Croatians and Muslims outspend the Serbs 50 to one on lobbyists, media firms and campaign contributions?  Could this be why, "atrocities" are manufactured to make the Serbs look bad while gaining sympathy for their opponents?  Could this be why the Serbs are branded "aggressors" in land they have lived on for over 600 years? 

Could our policy have something to do with the fact there are 540 members of Congress, none of whom are Orthodox Christians?  Could the State Department’s bitter bias, against General Draza Mihailovich, the anti-Communist guerrilla leader who saved us, be based on the fact he was a Serb?

Could these be the reasons the State Department has covered up the truth of our rescue all these years and opposed our petition to express   gratitude for saving over 500 American lives (a petition which is supported by the 8 million veterans of the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign  Wars and the Air Force Association and which has been approved by the United States Senate.)?

Could it be these are the reasons the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has also denied our petition by saying to us here are "ethnic groups in Yugoslavia" who oppose it?

Are we mad?  You can bet your next month’s paycheck that we are mad!  We did not leave our families, risk our lives and watch our buddies get their arms, legs and heads blown off so that "ethnic groups in Yugoslavia" could tell us what we could or could not do in our own country.

Now that the spring thaw has set in, temperatures and tempers will start to rise in the volatile area you now find yourselves.  All we ask is that in your dealings with the local people you be made aware of the eyewitness experience of your fellow comrades-in-arms.  By speaking out now we have nothing to gain except a burning moral passion to tell the truth, a sworn duty to protect our national honor, a patriotic desire to express heart felt gratitude to those on foreign soil who save American lives while they are fighting in defense of our glorious country.

Now that you have been sent to foreign soil and asked to risk your lives we feel you should know the truth and not be "suckered in" by the rhetoric of highly paid public relations firms, foreign lobbyists and self-serving politicians who know absolutely nothing of the region’s history.

We might also add that had it not been for the Serbian people, Air Force General Donald J. Smith, our chairman and one our rescued airmen, would not have survived the war and been able to dedicate 40 years of honorable service to his country.

Had it not been for the Serbian people, technical Sgt. Curtis "Bud" Diles, another of our airmen, would not be alive today in Dayton, Ohio, enjoying retirement with his four children and 12 grandchildren.

There are hundreds of us with stories just like those.   Some of the greatest testimony to the many sacrifices made on our behalf us the many thousands of American children who are alive today solely because the Serbian people saved over 500 of their grandfathers during World War II.  Some of them could very well be serving with you today in Bosnia. 

I was one of three rescued American airmen who returned last year to the former Yugoslavia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of victory in Europe with the people who saved us and to visit the cow pasture that  served as a landing strip from which we were rescued.  The most moving  experience of our sentimental trip was being cheered by over 50,000 Serbs who gathered at a mountain top to welcome us and who kept chanting "USA, USA".

As American military men, we have a proud tradition of "duty, honor and country" to uphold and a fierce sense of loyalty to those with whom we fought side by side in combat.  We never forget their kindness nor do we return their battlefield sacrifices for us by bombing their women and children.  The Serbian people helped us when we were desperate and in trouble. Now that the situation is reversed we can do no less.

Please keep these untarnished truths in mind as you now serve our country and all it stands for, and may God bless you all as we pray for your safe return.

This war will not last long.  If for no other reason, it appears the US Forces are already running low on missiles.  And, Clinton’s blustering threats of "escorting the Albanian Kosovars back to their home" is silliness.

So far Clinton’s war has failed to even find ONE of Milosevic’s mobile units to shoot at.  How does he plan on personally escort back the reported 1,000,000 Albanians his spokespersons claim have fled the country?   The Serbs tied up 10 divisions of Hitler’s Crack troops—even after they lost the war.

If he continues the kind of bombing he conducted last couple of nights, he is going to lose the humanitarian war on CNN.  Pictures of mothers and newborn premature babies being evacuated from the hospital 100 yards from the Interior Ministry’s spectacular blaze, a father on the street being interviewed saying it was "easy for Clinton to drop bombs on the children from the skybut we will see what kind of man he is when he comes to our soil" or the flames from a residential area hit in last night’s bombing raids, are far more dramatic and horrifying than watching Albanian refugees who are riding trains to the border and walking across.

Pictures of bombs on civilian targets.  So far this week, over 1000 people are reported to have died so far in the bombing raids. That is a far higher death toll than Christiane Amanpour has been able to muster up in her drive to sell the Albanian side to a jaded, suspicious American public.

The world is seeing the results of the bombs.  The effort to portray the Serbs, as US News and World Report does in its April 12, 1999, issue on "Balkan Hell" as crazed killers is largely verbal so far.

Stories of "summary executions," US News and World Report noted, were hard to "prove" but are "quite credible given the Serbs’ vicious record.  These stories are being challenged by those, such as Col. Felman, USAF Ret., who have had personal experiences with the Serbs.

We are in a whole new kind of warfare, folks, and it appears that Milosevic has pretty much won it. It already sounds like the Clinton administration is trying to figure out who it can blame for the debacle.

Redacted for inclusion on this site.   Contact information:

Richard L. Felman Major USAF (Ret), President
National Committee of American Airmen
Rescued by General Mlhailovich, Inc.
PO Box 17478
Tuscon, Arizona 85731

DISCLAIMER: The content of this message is the sole responsibility of the originator. Posting of this message to the POW/MIA E-MAIL NETWORK © list does not show AIIPOWMIAI endorsement. It is provided so you may make an informed decision. AIIPOWMIAI is not associated in any capacity with any United States Government agency or entity, nor with any non-governmental organization.  Advocacy And Intelligence Index For Prisoners Of War/Missing In Action, Inc.1220 Locust Avenue, Bohemia, Long Island, New York 11716-2169 USA Voice: (1-516) 567-9057 Fax: (1-516) 244-7097 TDD: (1-516) 244-6996 E-mail: AIIPOWMIAI@aol.com (Bob Necci) andi@earthlink.net (Andi Wolos) Website: http://www.aiipowmia.com/

Karadjordje


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: airman; balkans; campaignfinance; flyboys; kia; mia; mihailovic; mihailovich; pilots; ploesti; pow; serbs; truman; us; usaaf; usaf; yugoslavia
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-162 next last

1 posted on 02/07/2003 6:24:31 PM PST by Karadjordje
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Karadjordje
Wow, interesting read!
2 posted on 02/07/2003 6:26:17 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIvan
Bump, Ivan.
3 posted on 02/07/2003 6:52:59 PM PST by xJones
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xJones
Back then (1999) I took part in an anti-intervention demonstration in Washington, D.C. Although I was completely soured by the way the left hijacked the demonstartion for their own purposes, I did meet and get to talk to a number of Serbian-Americans. Their anguish that their adopted country was doing this to their homeland was real and heart rending. I recall one man in particular. He was about my father's age, and he was holding a sign on which he proclaimed to be an ex-Partisan who had taken part in one of the rescue operations mentioned in the article above. "60 years ago, I helped save hundreds of American airmen's lives. Why are you bombing my grandchildren?" he asked me. I had no answer.

We may have choosen the wrong side in that fight. We may have been wrong to have chosen sides at all.

VietVet
4 posted on 02/07/2003 7:36:15 PM PST by VietVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: VietVet
It was done under Clinton's presidency, which means no thought went into it.
5 posted on 02/07/2003 7:40:40 PM PST by xJones
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Karadjordje
GOD BLESS THE PEOPLE OF SERBIA who have been there for the USA in the past...And who know what it is to fight a war on terror... And to the people of our armed services who endured the hardship of capture..God be with you for you have been with him.. AND To clinton for fighting the wrong enemy in kosovo TO SHAME SLICKSTER TO SHAME!
6 posted on 02/07/2003 7:43:44 PM PST by DAPFE8900
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Karadjordje
Croatians are mostly Roman Catholic. Given your last name, you probably know that. Except for Venezuela, not too many Roman Catholics have oil.

Why did we stop the nice Orthodox Serbs from butchering Muslims? Maybe if you think about it for a while, you'll figure it out.
7 posted on 02/07/2003 8:02:08 PM PST by CobaltBlue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CobaltBlue
They did NOT butcher any muslims...there was a civil war in 1991 and the Serbs gave as good as they got and rightly so....

NO muslims or NO croats saved ANY AMERICAN pilots in WWII...NEVER, not one.

In fact, the croats were nazis...some folks say they still are...the muslims, were nazis too and.... well....9/11 showed their muslim "true love" of AMERICANS!!

SERBS SAVED AMERICANS DURING WWII...WHILEST THE CROATS AND MUSLIMS GOOSE-STEPPED ALL AROUND WITH THEIR NAZI FRIENDS!!

SERBS SAVED AMERICANS FROM NAZI CROATS AND MUSLIMS!! HUZZAH!!!!HUZZAH FOR THE SERBS!!

8 posted on 02/07/2003 10:06:32 PM PST by crazykatz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Karadjordje; CobaltBlue; MarMema
THE LAST SERMON OF A GERMAN CLERGYMAN

Friedrich Griesendorf, who died in 1958, was a very educated man. He was, at one time, a court clergyman for the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II (1888-1918).

After World War II, he was a pastor in the Eversburg church parish where a camp of Serbian prisoners of war was located. Before retiring, he delivered these lines to his German parishioners:

"Our country lost the War. The English, Americans, and Russians won. Maybe they had much better equipment, larger armies, better leadership. In reality, it was an explicit material victory. They took that victory.

However, here among us is one nation that won another much more beautiful victory, a victory of the soul, a victory of the heart and honesty, a victory of peace and Christian love. They are the Serbs.

We knew them earlier, some a little and some not at all. But we all knew what we did in their homeland. We killed hundreds of the Serbs, who defended their country, for one of our soldiers who represented the occupier- the oppressor. And not only that, we looked favourably when others shot at the Serbs from all sides: the Croatians, the Italians, Albanians, Bulgarians, and Hungarians.

Yet we knew that among us in the prisoner of war camps were 5000 Serbian officers, who earlier were the elite of the society and who now resembled living skeletons, exhausted and spent from hunger.

We knew that among the Serbs smoldered the belief, 'He who does not revenge is not sanctified.'

We were truly afraid of the revenge by these Serbian martyrs. We were afraid that after our capitulation they would do what we did to them.

We imagined that tragedy and visualized our children floating dead in canals, or being roasted in the local bakery. We imagined murder, plunder, rape, demolition and destruction of our homes.

However, what happened? When the barbed wires were torn down and 5000 living Serbian skeletons found themselves free in our midst, those skeletons caressed our children.

Only now can we understand why our greatest poet, Goethe, studied the Serbian language.

Only now can we comprehend why the last word for Bismarck, on his deathbed, was - Serbia.

That kind of victory is more sublime than a material victory. It seems to me that only the Serbs could win such a victory, being brought up in their St. Sava's spirit and epic poetry, which our Goethe loved so much.

This victory will live for centuries in the souls of us Germans. I wanted to dedicate my last clergyman's sermon to that victory and the Serbs who won it."

9 posted on 02/07/2003 10:11:41 PM PST by crazykatz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Karadjordje
Sadly, Major Felman died in 1999....November, I believe.
10 posted on 02/07/2003 10:13:48 PM PST by crazykatz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: VietVet
I was there as well...I think I saw that sign or one like it, as well.
11 posted on 02/07/2003 10:16:03 PM PST by crazykatz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: crazykatz
Crazy, indeed, and crude revisionism. Some Serbs collaborated with the Nazis, some Croats and Bosnians fought the Nazis.

Worse, Serbs wanted, and many still want, to "cleanse" "Greater Serbia" of "racially inferior" Hungarians, Croats, Jews, Albanians, Catholics and Muslims.

Milosovic is a war criminal. I hope he's executed.
12 posted on 02/08/2003 8:51:28 AM PST by CobaltBlue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: CobaltBlue
Do you know David Binder?

No, ok he is an American jounalist who writes for the US Paper New York Times.

Read now what he writes about the serbs:


"David Binder

Thoughts About Serbs

Chicago - June 25, 2000

I have been thinking about Serbs for almost six decades - not every day, to be sure - but more and more in the last 30 years.

The first time I became aware of the people called Serbs was in 1942. Here in Illinois. I was 11 years old and I was already passionately interested in the course of World War II. My father was the foreign editor of The Chicago Daily News and his whole activity was devoted to the war. My brother had enlisted in the Army Air Force and my sister was soon to join the Navy. One day in the corner drugstore I picked up a comic book called War Comics and the main story in it was about the Chetniks of Draza Mihajlovic fighting the Nazis in Serbia and their bravery and self-sacrifice in battling the better armed Germans. I was dazzled. There was Col. Mihajlovic with his beard and wire-rimmed glasses. Here were people inside occupied Europe who dared for the first time to resist the mighty war machine of Hitler... not in France, not in Poland, not in Czechoslovakia, not in Holland, not in Scandinavia, but in Yugoslavia, in the Balkans. I talked with my father about those brave Serbs. Later in the war I read a bit about Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans. But it was Draza's Serbs who remained most vivid in my memory. ..."

read complete article (<- Click)

Oh yes, I believe you, Major Felman is a disgusting liar.

And also US journalist Binder is a disgusting liar.

I believe you, because you are a Muslim Albanian or perhaps a Muslim Bosnian (full of envy), like Clinton did it.

Karadjordje

13 posted on 02/08/2003 10:41:20 AM PST by Karadjordje
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: CobaltBlue
BlueCobalt will now turn from blue into green - he will get green with envy.



President Harry S. Truman


"General Dragoljub Mihailovich distinguished himself in an outstanding manner as Commander-in-Chief of the Yugoslav Army Forces and later as Minister of War by organizing and leading important resistance forces against the enemy which occupied Yugoslavia, from December 1941 to December 1944. Through the undaunted efforts of his troops, many United States airmen were rescued and returned safely to friendly control. General Mihailovich and his forces, although lacking adequate supplies, and fighting under extreme hardships, contributed materially to the Allied cause, and were instrumental in obtaining a final Allied victory."

President Harry S. Truman, March 29, 1948

Karadjordje

14 posted on 02/08/2003 10:57:09 AM PST by Karadjordje
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Karadjordje
Karadjordje:

Excellent...excellent...I think old colbalt(tropi-jack@ss) turned just plain PUTRID GREEN...like the smoldering carcass' of those disgusting Croats....

THAT COMMIE:tito; THAT FASCIST: ante pavlic and THAT NATIONALIST-SERB HATING,COMMIE: trudjman!!!!

Now, more about WWII..

GOD ALREADY KNOWS WHAT CRIMES THE CROATIAN-NAZIS DID AT JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP....

MOST OF THOSE NASTY CROATIAN WAR CRIMINALS FROM WWII MAY HAVE ESCAPED EARTHY JUDGEMENT WHEN THEY RAN TO ARGENTINA, CHILE, BRAZIL, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, THE USA AND OTHER PLACES....

They may have grandchildren running around saying that the Croats did not willingly ally themselves with Hitler or that Jasenovac Camp existed only as a "work camp" and NOT the death camp it really was. BUT THE TRUTH IS:

THOSE CRIMINALS HAVE NOT ESCAPED GOD'S ETERNAL JUSTICE!!

OLD blue-green colbalt should... READ IT AND WEEP BIG TEARS....your croatian-nazis countymen/women have NOT escaped ETERNAL HELL FIRE!! tropi-jack/blue colbalt should pray for those criminals still alive.... that they ask GOD'S forgiveness, instead of denying their part in the HOLOCAUST!

And, colbalt wants Slobo hung....what a joke!! colbalt never suggested ANY disgust with Croatian nazis!! Like I said, some folks think the Croats still have a sizeable neo-nazi population. Hmmmmmmmmmm, do you think cobalt KNOWS any of them?????

15 posted on 02/08/2003 11:54:03 AM PST by crazykatz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: CobaltBlue
READ IT AND TURN A DEEPER SHADE OF PUTRID GREEN!!

"General Dragoljub Mihailovich distinguished himself in an outstanding manner as Commander-in-Chief of the Yugoslav Army Forces and later as Minister of War by organizing and leading important resistance forces against the enemy which occupied Yugoslavia, from December 1941 to December 1944.

Through the undaunted efforts of his troops, many United States airmen were rescued and returned safely to friendly control. General Mihailovich and his forces, although lacking adequate supplies, and fighting under extreme hardships, contributed materially to the Allied cause, and were instrumental in obtaining a final Allied victory."

President Harry S. Truman, March 29, 1948

16 posted on 02/08/2003 11:57:47 AM PST by crazykatz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: CobaltBlue
READ IT AND TURN A DEEPER, DEEPER, SHADE OF PUTRID GREEN!!

"General Dragoljub Mihailovich distinguished himself in an outstanding manner as Commander-in-Chief of the Yugoslav Army Forces and later as Minister of War by organizing and leading important resistance forces against the enemy which occupied Yugoslavia, from December 1941 to December 1944.

Through the undaunted efforts of his troops, many United States airmen were rescued and returned safely to friendly control. General Mihailovich and his forces, although lacking adequate supplies, and fighting under extreme hardships, contributed materially to the Allied cause, and were instrumental in obtaining a final Allied victory."

President Harry S. Truman, March 29, 1948

17 posted on 02/08/2003 11:59:08 AM PST by crazykatz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: CobaltBlue
CobaltBlue wrote:
"Worse, Serbs wanted, and many still want, to "cleanse" "Greater Serbia" of "racially inferior" Hungarians, Croats, Jews, Albanians, Catholics and Muslims."

Do you know the famous spech of Slobodan Milosevic at the Kosovo field in 1989?


No? Here you are...


"Serbia has never had only Serbs living in it. Today, more than in the past, members of other peoples and nationalities also live in it. This is not a disadvantage for Serbia. I am truly convinced that it is its advantage. National composition of almost all countries in the world today, particularly developed ones, has also been changing in this direction. Citizens of different nationalities, religions, and races have been living together more and more frequently and more and more successfully."

Slobodan Milosevic, 28 June, 1989

read complete speech of Slobodan Milosevic (<- Click)

Surprised?

Karadjordje

18 posted on 02/08/2003 12:16:01 PM PST by Karadjordje
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Karadjordje
What a pointless argument you're making. One doesn't judge people by their words, but by their deeds. Especially politicians. Talk is cheap.
19 posted on 02/08/2003 12:30:12 PM PST by CobaltBlue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: crazykatz
Good for General Mihailovich, but that doesn't refute the fact that many Serbs were fascists and Nazi sympathizers. Not all, of course.


In America, we don't judge people by their religion. We judge them by their actions.

Nor do people get a "pass" on all future wrong-doing because they had an ancestor who did the right thing in the past.

20 posted on 02/08/2003 12:32:52 PM PST by CobaltBlue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-162 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson