Free Republic

Arthur Jibilian, 86, speaking at the "Forgotten 500 Reunion" 'Lest we Forget' commemoration, Michigan June 17, 2009 Photo by Aleksandra Rebic Back of photograph with personal message from General Mihailovich to Arthur Jibilian in 1944. "To Mr. 'Jibby' Jibilian, an ally and friend in these difficult days in the battle for freedom" American airmen and OSS personnel with General Mihailovich, standing in the center of the photo with his hand over his heart, 1944. Arthur Jibilian is kneeling in the front row in front of General Mihailovich and Captain Nick Lalich. Arthur Jibilian, standing far right, in Pranjani, Serbia, 2004....

General Draza Mihailovich in the hills of Serbia, 1943 The famous bridge over the Drina River in Visegrad, Bosnia Note: The next Mihailovich Rehabilitation hearing is set for March 23, 2012 in Belgrade, Serbia. Aleksandra's note: As we await with great anticipation the official rehabilitation of General Draza Mihailovich we are reminded that on this day, March 13th, in 1946, the Yugoslav communist special security agents (OZNA) loyal to Marshal Josip Broz Tito finally captured the great General in the village of Drazevina near Visegrad in Bosnia. A short time later they publicly announced his capture and their intention to...

***** Charles L. Davis Lieutenant Colonel United States Air Force Born June 8, 1919 in Staten Island, NY Died February 17, 2012 in Falls Church, VA Dates of Service: May 26, 1942 - June 8, 1979 On June 6, 1944 Charlie Davis was in a B-24 and the target was Brazok, Romania when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He parachuted out of the doomed B-24. Was missing in action in Nazi-occupied Serbia from June 6, 1944 until August of 1944. Was saved by the Serbs loyal to and under the command of General Draza Mihailovich.

Edward J. Derwinski Halyard Mission 50th anniversary 1994 Chicago, IL U.S.A. Photo by R. Rebic Aleksandra's Note: Americans and Serbs from all over the United States and Canada gathered together on May 31, 1994 in Chicago to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 'Halyard Mission' rescue operation and pay homage to the American veterans of World War II and the Serbs under the command of General Draza Mihailovich who had saved their lives. The 'Halyard Mission' was the name given to the greatest rescue of American and Allied lives from behind enemy lines in the history of warfare. It was...

Draza Mihailovich and the Chetnik guerrillas reaffirmed their status as comic book heroes in the U.S. during World War II with their appearance in Thrilling Comics, #35, in May, 1943. They were featured in the comic story “The American Crusader Joins the Chetniks”. The eight page script and the letters were by Richard E. Hughes, the pencils and inks by Max Plaisted, who also had created the American Crusader character. The cover, featuring the character Doc Strange, was by Jack Binder, who did the inks and pencils. Thrilling Comics were published by Standard Comics in eighty issues from February, 1940...

Thank goodness for those among us who remain vigilant against the lies... Review: “Tito’s War” by John Brown, World War II History Magazine, November, 2011, Volume 10, No. 7, pp. 54-61. Review by Carl Savich In the November, 2011 issue of the military history magazine "World War II History", published in Herndon, Virginia, an article entitled “Tito’s War” by Australian author John Brown purports to chronicle the conflict in Yugoslavia between Draza Mihailovich’s Chetnik guerrillas and Josip Broz Tito’s Communist Partisans during World War II. This account is fake. It is a phony history of World War II. John Brown...

Major Richard L. Felman U.S.A.F. May 29, 1921 - November 13, 1999 Major Richard Felman and Aleksandra Rebic General Mihailovich's 100th Birthday Celebration April 23, 1993 Chicago, IL U.S.A. He never stopped. It became his mission in life. For 55 years, over half a century, Major Richard L. Felman of the United States Air Force worked ceaselessly to do one thing: to repay a debt of gratitude and to say "Thank You" in a most meaningful way. As we in America just commemorated Veteran’s Day and are getting ready to celebrate our Thanksgiving, it is our turn to remember and...

Aleksandra's Note: Today, July 17, 2011, marks the 65th anniversary of the death of General Dragoljub-Draza Mihailovich, Supreme Commander of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland during WWII. Among the many honors of distinction that can be attributed to General Mihailovich is leader of the first organized and successful resistance to the Nazis in all of occupied Europe. The anniversary of a death can be marked in an infinite number of ways. On this day I've chosen to share the words of Mihailovich himself. It is my hope that those who aren't familiar with who General Mihailovich really was will...

Draza Mihailovich as a civilian There is currently a flurry of activity surrounding the potential finding of the remains of General Draza Mihailovich in Serbia. General Mihailovich, Supreme Commander of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland (JVUO) during World War II and leader of the Ravna Gora freedom fighters against the Nazis and the Yugoslav communists, is a controversial and legendary figure in world history. Much has been written, both true and false, about his WWII military career and life. Very little is known, especially in the English language, about his pre-WWII military career and first 25 years of life....

Aleksandra's Note: Ironically, even though it was Great Britain who betrayed General Mihailovich in the Second World War, it was some of her officers, diplomats, and journalists who were fairest and most effective at pinning down and exposing the truth about what really happened in Yugoslavia during WWII and the British complicity in the consequences of what transpired during and after the war. A number of excellent and honest articles about the Mihailovich tragedy were published in independent British papers during and after his trial at the hands of Tito's Yugoslav communists in 1946. Of those, the following essay by...

General Draza Mihailovich Major Richard L. Felman, USAF ***** Aleksandra's Note: The following memoir was first published in 1964 by Major Richard L. Felman of the United States Air Force. It is his personal true story of his extraordinary experiences during World War Two. It is also the story of the great Serbian patriot and Western Ally General Draza Mihailovich and the Serbs who saved the lives of over 500 Americans who were shot down over Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia in 1944. In honor of Memorial Day 2011 it's worthwhile to revisit this moment in history. As much as his story honors...

"Real Heroes" 1942 "What Kind of Man is a Hero?"By George J. Hecht, President and Publisher "Real Heroes" Comics and Founder of "Parents Magazine""Does War make heroes? On first thought you say, 'Yes, of course, war makes heroes.' And in a way it is true. A great many famous men would never have been known as heroes if war had not brought them fame. But on the other hand, the uniform does not make the man. He has to have the stuff inside him, before he puts on that uniform....Most of the "Chetniks" in Mihailovich's growing army of guerrilla fighters...

Aleksandra' Note: The following text is from historian David Martin's excellent book "Web of Disinformation", which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to understand why we need court hearings, actual legal proceedings, to officially "rehabilitate" General Draza Mihailovich, a man who never should have been in need of "rehabilitating". The next court hearing is to take place in Belgrade, Serbia on January 28th of this year, 2011.General Mihailovich was executed by the communists in Belgrade, Serbia on July 17, 1946 after one of the phoniest trials in the history of mankind and officially declared "persona non grata" based on the...

Testifying at the January 28, 2011 hearing regarding the Rehabilitation of General Draza Mihailovich will be historian Slobodan Markovic, president of the Commission for finding the hidden graves of those killed by the communists after September 12, 1944 in Yugoslavia. Entered into evidence at the hearing will be recently declassified documents originating from the British Foreign Office regarding the trial and execution of General Mihailovich. To date, the remains of General Mihailovich, who was executed by the communists on July 17, 1946 in Belgrade, have not been found. "...Of all the dirt thrown at Mihailovich for more than a year,...

During World War II, the OSS liaison officer to Josip Broz Tito’s Communist Partisans was American agent Major Linn “Slim” Farish. Farish’s accounts helped decisively to switch Allied support away from Draza Mihailovich and to Tito. But who was Farish and how credible were his reports? New evidence from the Venona decrypts reveal that he may have been an agent allegedly working for Soviet intelligence. British Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean of the Special Air Services (SAS), a special forces unit of the British Army, referred to him in Eastern Approaches (1949) as “my American chief of staff”. Was Linn Farish, like...

Operation Halyard was managed by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services’ Nick Lalich (front row, third from left) and radio operator Arthur Jibilian (back row, second from left). For U.S. airmen trapped in Yugoslavia during World War II, building a secret airstrip was their only way out.On Clare Musgrove’s first mission over Ploesti, Romania, he and the crew of his U.S. Army Air Forces bomber were certain to be shot at. Romania supplied the oil the Nazi war machine desperately needed for its tanks, trucks, and aircraft. While the Germans vowed to protect the flow of oil from Romanian wells...

If it weren’t for 95-year-old George Vujnovich receiving his long-overdue Bronze Star last month — a full 66 years after he helped launch the incredible, yet thoroughly overlooked Halyard rescue mission in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia in the late summer of 1944 — then perhaps Paul Seery’s thoughts would be elsewhere this Veterans Day. Tom Connolly and his crew celebrate on Italian soil after being rescued from Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia in late December of 1944. Also pictured are OSS agents George Vujnovich and Nick Lalich.Instead, they are fixed firmly on the memory of his old friend and former coworker at Emerson and Cuming,...

The World War II Memorial, Washington, D.C. Photo above by 2009 Awesomephotograph.com World War II Memorial, Washington D.C. Photo above by Randy Santos Aleksandra's Note: Years ago, in the 1970s, a movement was born to establish a monument on the grounds of Washington, D.C. to honor General Draza Mihailovich. This movement was initiated by American WWII veterans out of gratitude for all that this Serb commander did for the Allied forces that were shot down over Nazi occupied Yugoslavia and were rescued, taken care of, and returned home without a single loss of life courtesy of General Mihailovich, his...

Aleksandra's Note: Major Felman of the USAF is a very familiar name to many of you who visit this site. Many of you knew him personally, like I did, and counted him as a valued and dear friend. In honor of Veteran's Day and the 11th anniversary of Major Felman's passing just a couple of days after that holiday in 1999, I'm sharing one of the letters he wrote and sent out far and wide in the spring of 1996 regarding U.S. Policy in the Balkans, specifically the policy towards the Serbs. Although this letter was written 14 years ago,...

Halyard Mission veterans Major Richard Felman and Lt. Col. Milton Friend of the USAF reunite at the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Halyard Mission in Chicago, IL U.S.A. May 1994. This celebration was included in the week long 50th Anniversary commemoration of D-Day. Photo by Aleksandra RebicAleksandra's Note: As the legal proceedings to historically "rehabilitate" General Draza Mihailovich and elevate him to his proper place and standing are set to resume in Belgrade, Serbia on October 29, 2010, I wanted to share a never before published photo of two great Halyard Mission veterans who reunited at the wonderful 50th anniversary...