Thursday, March 31, 2016

VIDEO / Wiesenthal Center Calls for Sanctions Against Croatian Soccer Fans in Wake of Fascist and Anti-Semitic Chants at Recent Israeli-Croatian Friendly Match / "Simon Wiesenthal Center" March 28, 2016



Simon Wiesenthal Center
March 28, 2016


Jerusalem - The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called for sanctions to be leveled against Croatian football supporters in the wake of numerous fascist and anti-Semitic chants by local fans at the Israeli-Croatian friendly match held in Osijek, Croatia last Wednesday [March 23, 2016].



In a statement issued here by its director for Eastern European Affairs Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that Croatian fans had expressed identification with the Ustasha fascist regime which ruled Croatia during World War II and orchestrated the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascist Croatians.


According to Zuroff:


"Chants of Za dom spremni (Ready for the homeland) and Mi Hrvati! Ustasha, Ustasha! (We Croatians! Ustasha, Ustasha!) clearly express support for a country whose government organized the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of its minorities and political opponents. The fact that no one sought to stop these chants or take any measures against those shouting them, including Prime Minister Orešković, or any of the Croatian ministers or officials of the Croatian Football Association, constitutes a badge of shame for Croatia."


The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Palatino).


For more information, please contact the Israel Office of the Wiesenthal Center:


Tel: 972-2-563-1274 or Tel: 972-50-721-4156. Join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.


VIDEO:
Hrvatska - Izrael 2:0 / FULL / 23-3-2016
Croatia - Israel 2:0 / FULL GAME / March 23, 2016
Posted on You Tube by: "DAJGLE tv"
Published on Mar 23, 2016











https://youtu.be/8f9TWqwkR_Y


http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=8776547&ct=14838803&notoc=1




*****


If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com


*****


Thursday, March 24, 2016

Champion Novak Djokovic and the legacy of the NATO bombing of Serbia March 24 - June 10, 1999


Image courtesy of "Opanak" on Facebook March 24, 2016

Aleksandra's note: Many things could be said in remembrance of the 78 day NATO bombing campaign against America's loyal ally Serbia that began on this day, March 24, in 1999 and lasted until June 10 of that spring. That is a springtime that the Serbians
both in the homeland and throughout the world will never forget. I'll let the world champion Novak Djokovic say it for so many of us.


Many thanks to Vera Dragisich for providing the English translation.


Sincerely,
Aleksandra Rebic
March 24, 2016


*****


To never forget when NATO bombed Serbia 17 years ago on March 24, 1999 with these inspirational words from Serbian hero and legend Novak Djokovic:


"I was just a child in 1999 when NATO was destroying my country without any real basis. I swore to myself that I would defeat that same world in my own way and here I am today. That destruction did not destroy me, nor my people. They did not break our soul and we are yet joyful despite our problems. That is victory."


Novak Djokovic



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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com


*****

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

NEW BOOK! / BETRAYED VALOR: The Unknown Story of the Heroes of Mission Halyard / By Anda Vranjes



"The little known story of the largest rescue mission of World War II…Based on the testimony of hundreds of American Airmen comes a story of bravery, betrayal, and hope… By the summer of 1943, Hitler had ruthlessly occupied most of Europe. Determined to stop him, the Allies are stepping up their attacks on the Romanian Ploesti Oil Fields. For Lieutenant’s O’Donnell and Petrovich of the 15th Air Force, this flight was just one mission closer to ending this God forsaken war. However, when the Nazis attack, tragedy strikes and nothing is ever the same again. Back at the Allied base in Italy, Lieutenant Petrovich refuses to believe that O’Donnell is dead. Fighting his way through a merciless web of deception and governmental red tape, he is desperate to convince the Royal Air Force to approve a seek and find mission. Convinced that a mission would be suicide, they refuse. Stranded in Yugoslavia and unsure of what awaits him, O’Donnell is taken on a journey for miles through the mountains, hills and forests of Serbia. When he arrives, he is shocked at what he finds. Unsure of anything anymore, O’Donnell tries to survive behind enemy lines and finds himself fighting for a cause that he never thought would be his. Surrounded by tens of thousands of Nazis, an evacuation seems impossible and O’Donnell’s time is quickly running out. Based on actual events and one of the best kept secrets of US history, Betrayed Valor tells the story of one of the largest and most daring rescue missions of World War II-Operation Halyard."


About the author: Born in Northwest Indiana to Serbian immigrant parents, Anda was exposed to the events of Mission Halyard at an early age. Fascinated with history she is convinced that we need to understand our past to make a better future. She hopes her books inspire her readers to learn more. Anda and her family currently reside in Arizona where she is proud to call herself a soccer mom.


Available on Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/Betrayed-Valor-Heroes-Mission-Halyard/dp/1619844338/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456099441&sr=1-1&keywords=betrayed+valor





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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com


*****

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

KNJIGA / Mladomir Ćurčić, „Parastos u Klisuri – Zločinci sa potpisom žrtve“ / "Savremena Istorija" Mart 2016



Udruženje „Dragačevo – Jovan Bojović“ iz Dragačeva u saradnji sa izdavačem „Grafoplast plus“ iz Užica nedavno je objavilo knjigu Mladomira Ćurčića „Parastos u Klisuri – Zločinci sa potpisom žrtve“. U naslovu  knjige pomenut je događaj iz novije istorije starog srednjovjekovnog manastira Svetih Arhangela Mihaila i Gavrila iz atara sela Dobrače, poznatog i kao manastir Klisura, koji će izazavati veliku pažnju ne samo poznavaoca prošlosti ovog kraja, ne samo onih „neobaveštenih# već i onih koji su tu prošlost kreirali i uklopili u ideološke okvire posleratne istorije.


Manastir Klisura, smešten u klisuri reke Moravice,na sredokraći između Arilja i Ivanjice, sagrađen  krajem XII i početkom XIII vijeka u doba Nemanjića, imao je burnu prošlost. Palili su ga i Turci i Austrougari, devastirali i bugarski okupatori, ali je manastir  odolevajući svim nedaćama iz prošlosti opstao do  danas u svoj svojoj lepoti, kao luča, svetleći put  novim naraštajima.


Polazeći od  jednog događaja koji se desio  29. juna 2014. godine u porti ovog manastira kada je u prisustvu episkopa Šumadijskog Jovana (Mladenovića), tada administratora Žičke eparhije osvećena dvodelna spomen ploča sa imenima stradalih meštana sela Dobrača u ratovima od Karađorđevog vremena do završetka Drugog svetskog rata, Mladomir Ćurčić je pokrenuo lavinu, koja je više od sedamdeset godina tinjala u srcima retkih, ali istinoljubivih ljudi ovoga kraja.


Deo  ploče ispisane imenima stradalih dobračana od Prvog srpskog ustanka do kraja Prvog svetskog rata  nije predmet ove knjige, već onaj drugi, koji se odnosi na stradanje dobračana tokom Drugog svetskog rata. Na ovom spisku iznad koga stoji natpis „Pali za otadžbinu“ su imena 53 osobe, među kojima ima pripadnika Vojske Kraljevine Jugoslavije, civila, partizana, pripadnika JVuO, Srpske državne straže i tzv. NOV, odnosno Jugoslovenske armije.


Ovaj spisak, koji autor podrobno  analizira  ne bi bio nesvakidašnji na ovim našim prostorima i našoj stvarnosti u kojoj je u  glavama prosečnog čoveka sve pomešano upravo pod parolom „Pali za otadžbinu“, da se na spisku osvještanom u porti manastira Klisura, ne nalaze i oni koji su direktno ili indirektno učestvovali u najvećoj pohari ovog manastira od turskih vremena i koji su tokom tog  rata ubili 22 mještana ovog sela.




Na ovom spisku je i ime „narodnog heroja“ dobračanina Milosava Mića Matovića, koji po rečima autora „nije ruinirao hramove, crkve i manastire ni u Rusiji, ni u Grčkoj ili Južnoj Americi, pa da mi ne znamo ni detalje niti razloge njegovih postupaka. Nije to  radio čak ni u drugim delovima Kraljevine Jugoslavije... Mićo je to uradio u svom selu. Uradio je to da bi dokazao i sebi i drugima, da manastir Klisura nije deo njegove duhovnosti. Učinio je to pred svedocima, svojim drugovima kako bi im pokazao koliko je duboka njegova nova vera. Uradio je sve suprotno od, kako smo videli većine lica koja se nalaze na spomen-ploči.“


Događaj od 9.decembra 1941. godine, kada su partizani oskrnavili manastir Klisuru, kada su ga opljačkali, kada su silovali pa ubili iskušenicu Đenadiju Đorđević je početak priče Mladomira Ćurčića, o srpskoj goglgoti, koja na žalost traje i danas, a čiji epilog je postavljanje spomen ploče i njeno sveštanje u porti manastira Klisura 29. juna 2014. Ovaj čin je dokaz koliko smo daleko od vremena kada će zločinci poput Viktora Zevnika, Dragog i Radiše Mihailovića, kao direktnih izvršilaca  zločina, poput naredbodavaca kakav je bio Mićo Matović, bar i formalno odgovarati pred sudom istorije.


Priča o stradanju manastira Klisura ni ovim događajem se ne završava, jer se ona nastavlja u posleratnom teroru komunističke vlasti, oduzimanjem ogromnog zemljišnog  manastirskog kompleksa o čemu Mladomir Ćurčić piše  do detalja navodeći i imena onih, koje je država nagradila oduzetom zemljom. Njegov istraživački pristup je za svaku pohvalu i može poslužiti kao primer mladim istraživačima, koji će, nadamo se, nepristrasno, daleko od vremena događaja ispisivati stranice srpske istorije, prikazujući pobedu internacionalnog komunizma kao najveći srpski poraz u istoriji – veći i od kosovske katastrofe.


Mladomir Ćurčić je hrabar i beskompromisan istraživač, koji je ovom knjigom ponudio na uvid javnosti  jedan detalj, koji samo potvrđuje generalnu sliku naše stvarnosti.








Redakcija
www.savremenaistorija.com




*****


If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com


*****


Позивам Вас да заједно погледамо изложбу „27. март – узроци и последице“ у петак, 25. марта [2016], са почетком у 18:00. Народни музеј Ниш




Драги пријатељи,

"Српски народ је 27. марта 1941. године однео велику победу и дао највећи допринос у сламању Сила осовина и победи уједињене антифашистичке коалиције у Другом светском рату. Исти догађај померио је немачки напад на Совјетски Савез за тачно пет недеља што се касније испоставило као пресудно за пораз на Источном фронту.

"Позивам Вас да заједно погледамо изложбу „27. март – узроци и последице“ историчара кустоса Народног музеја у Нишу Небојше Озимића и Ивана Митића у Галерији „Синагога“, у петак, 25. марта, са почетком у 18:00."


Александар Динчић
na Facebook.




*****

If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra,
please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

*****

Saturday, March 19, 2016

REMEMBERING PLOESTI / [What led to the great Halyard Mission Rescue Operation of 1944] / "National Review" August 3, 2013


Waves of Consolidated B-24 Liberators flying over the Concordia Vega oil refinery after dropping their bomb loads on the oil cracking plant, Ploesti, Rumania, 31 May 1944. Photo courtesy of www.local.gov [The Library of Congress]
 
One of the most famous images of World War II shows The Sandman [a B-24 Liberator], piloted by Robert Sternfels, as it emerges from a pall of smoke during the TIDALWAVE mission August 1943. Photo courtesy of ww2today.com

Aleksandra's Note: Essential to the story of the great WWII Halyard Mission Rescue Operation of 1944 is the significance of "PLOESTI" in Romania. The American and Allied Airmen who were sent on the bombing missions to take out Hitler's primary supply of oil in 1943 and 1944 were among the bravest men in the military forces. High up the sky with the enemy down below meant that at any moment the planes could be shot down and the airmen in those planes along with them. Where they would end up falling, if they survived at all, would be critical to their survival and their future.

Fortunately for hundreds of these brave men, they ended up landing on Nazi occupied territory that happened to be filled with the Chetnik forces of Serbian General Draza Mihailovich and the Serbian people loyal to them.

"Remembering Ploesti", an article published in National Review in August of 2013, provides the context in which one of the greatest and most heroic stories of World War Two happened.

Sincerely,
Aleksandra Rebic
March 2016

*****

National Review
By Robert Zubrin
August 3, 2013

Remembering Ploesti
 
It underscores the importance of liberating America’s potential to produce transportation fuels.
 
This week [August, 2013] marks the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Army Air Corps raid on Ploesti, Romania, one of the most heroic episodes in the history of military aviation.

As a result of the twin victories of the Soviets at Stalingrad and of the British at El Alamein in November 1942, the Germans lost their bids to seize either the oil fields of the Caucasus or those of the Middle East. The fuel resources of the Third Reich were thus drastically limited, with the principal supports being the synthetic-oil facilities at Leuna in central Germany and the Romanian oil fields at Ploesti. If these were knocked out, the Nazis would lose their ability to wage mechanized warfare, and their empire would be doomed to rapid collapse.
 
General Carl Spaatz, of the U.S. Army Air Corps, was the first high-ranking Allied officer to perceive this German weakness, and he started to push for what became known as “the Oil Plan.” But Spaatz was up against the British — who believed that air power could be used to greatest effect in breaking enemy morale through assaults on cities — as well as other American officers who saw greater merit in hitting targets such as aircraft factories, ball-bearing plants, hydroelectric dams, and transport centers. Going around the normal channels, however, Spaatz managed to gain the direct support of President Roosevelt, who approved his plan to launch one very daring raid on Ploesti.
 
So, on August 1, 1943, the U.S. Army Air Corps launched 177 B-24 Liberator bombers from airfields in Benghazi to hit the Romanian oil refineries. Because the round-trip distance to the target and back was over 2,000 miles, no fighter escort was possible, and the bombers came in alone, at treetop level. Waiting for them were over 200 scrambled German fighters and a network of hundreds of defensive positions equipped with 88-millimeter anti-aircraft guns, all manned and ready.
 
Seeing this reception committee, the raid’s commander, Brigadier General Uzal Ent, is reported to have said, “If nobody comes back, the results will be worth the cost.”
 
Assailed by the swarming fighters, the Liberators, flying at altitudes as low as 30 feet, dodged among the refinery smokestacks to deliver their loads while taking fire from flak guns firing down on them from the surrounding hillsides. As the oil tanks exploded, more planes were lost flying through the flames. The havoc on the ground was incredible. In less than half an hour, 40 percent of Ploesti’s capacity was destroyed. But only 89 of the Liberators made it home.
 
The heavy losses experienced at Ploesti deterred the Americans from trying again — for a while. But by the spring of 1944, the Army Air Corps had the P-51 Mustang, a fighter equipped with drop tanks that gave it the range needed to protect Allied bombers striking targets deep within Germany. With this capability in hand, Spaatz set his sights on Leuna.
 
At last, the general got his wish. On May 12, 1944, the Army Air Corps struck the Farben synthetic-fuel plants with a devastating 935-bomber attack. With that one raid, the German fuel position collapsed. It was a deathblow to the Reich.
 
In his memoir, Inside the Third Reich, the Nazi minister of armaments and industry, Albert Speer, provides a compelling inside view of the collapse of Hitler’s empire following the Farben raid. Here is what he says:
 
"I shall never forget the date May 12. . . . On that day the technological war was decided. Until then we had managed to produce approximately as many weapons as the armed forces needed. . . . But with the attack of nine hundred and thirty-five daylight bombers of the American Eighth Air Force upon several fuel plants in central and eastern Germany, a new era in the air war began. It meant the end of German armaments production.
 
"The next day, along with technicians of the bombed Leuna Works, we groped our way through a tangle of broken and twisted pipe systems. The chemical plants had proved to be extremely sensitive to bombing; even optimistic forecasts could not envisage production being resumed for weeks. . . .
 
"After I had taken measure of the consequences of the attack, I flew to Obersalzberg, where Hitler received me in the presence of General Keitel. I described the situation in these words: “The enemy has struck us at one of our weakest points. If they persist at it this time, we will soon no longer have any fuel production worth mentioning. Our one hope is that the other side has an air-force general staff as scatterbrained as ours.”
 
Speer’s wish was not granted. The Americans kept at it. On May 28, they hit Leuna again, and on the following day they blasted Ploesti to pieces. More raids followed. Again, Speer: “On June 22, nine-tenths of the production of airplane fuel was knocked out; only six hundred and thirty-two metric tons were produced daily. . . . On July 21, . . . we were down to one hundred and twenty tons’ daily production — virtually done for. Ninety-eight percent of our aircraft-fuel plants were out of operation.”
 
The consequences of the fuel cutoff were felt quickly. In 1944, Nazi Germany actually produced 39,807 military aircraft and 22,100 tanks. But they were nearly useless for lack of fuel.
 
Speer says: “In July, I had written to Hitler that by September all tactical movements would necessarily come to a standstill for lack of fuel. Now this prediction was being confirmed.” He goes on to describe how the Luftwaffe was virtually grounded, and even training new pilots had become impossible because there was no fuel for flight practice.
 
“Meanwhile,” Speer continues, “the army, too, had become virtually immobile because of the fuel shortage. At the end of October, I reported to Hitler after a night journey to the Tenth Army south of the Po. There I encountered a column of a hundred and fifty trucks, each of which had four oxen hitched to it. . . . Early in December, I expressed concern that ‘the training of tank drivers leaves much to be desired’ because they ‘have no fuel for practicing.’ General Jodl, of course, knew even better than I how great the emergency was. In order to free seventeen and a half thousand tons of fuel — formerly the production of two and a half days — for the Ardennes offensive, he had begun withholding fuel from other army groups on November 10, 1944.”
 
The hoarding didn’t do them any good. The last German attempt at Blitzkrieg warfare, known to Americans as the Battle of the Bulge, ended in a total debacle when the First SS Panzer division failed in its attempt to seize the American fuel depot at Stavelot, and the entire offensive ran out of gas right on the battlefield.
 
Imperial Japan was also brought to its knees by fuel deprivation. While the Japanese did manage to capture the huge oil fields of the Dutch East Indies in early 1942 and to bring them into operation despite considerable wrecking done by retreating Allied forces, by 1943 the Japanese could no longer move the oil effectively from Indonesia to Japan, as the result of the sinking of their tanker fleet by U.S. submarines. This created extreme fuel shortages in the Japanese home islands and made it impossible to train new pilots adequately. The results were naval disasters, including the lopsided engagement known to Americans as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, in June 1944, in which the Japanese lost 273 planes against 29 for the Americans, and the even more catastrophic destruction of the Imperial fleet at Leyte Gulf in October.
 
Their navy all but gone, the Japanese were helpless against the American advance. Their garrisons isolated, one island fell after another. Then, on August 6, 1945, a single American bomber arrived over the city of Hiroshima. Although Japan had produced over 11,000 aircraft during 1945, the Enola Gay needed no fighter escort, for none of the Japanese planes had any fuel with which to fly. One bomb was dropped, and in an atomic flash the city was destroyed. After the attack on Nagasaki three days later, Japan surrendered.
 
This brings us to the present day.
 
America currently faces a foe whose power rests almost exclusively on its control over oil. It is the revenue from oil that is allowing Saudi Arabia to finance the global propagation of the Islamofascist movement as well as the purchase of ownership and influence in many Western corporations and governments, including our own. It is revenue from oil that is providing Iran with the wherewithal to develop the nuclear weapons that will give its Hezbollah terrorists — who are now expanding their operations to the Western Hemisphere — the capacity to slaughter millions of people. It is our dependence on the oil controlled by such enemy powers that is preventing us from undertaking effective action against them. It is their control over oil vital to us that allows the Islamists to laugh in the face of our complaints, as they teach terrorism, sharpen their nuclear knives, and call for our doom.
 
In World War II, we controlled the oil. In this war, the enemy does. This is an unacceptable situation, because it places our fate in the hands of people who want to kill us. In World War II, we had no compunction about destroying the Nazi fuel-making facilities at Ploesti and Leuna, or about systematically sinking the Japanese tanker fleet, because we didn’t need their oil. As we have seen, those attacks were incredibly effective in breaking the enemy’s power. On May 12, 1944, the day of the Leuna raid, the Third Reich ruled an empire comprising nearly all of continental Europe, with a collective population and industrial potential exceeding that of the United States. A year later, it did not exist. Once Japan’s tanker fleet was sunk, the collapse of its empire was almost as fast. Today we are confronted by an enemy without a shadow of the armaments of the Axis; all the Islamist countries have is oil. Were we to destroy that power, they would be left with nothing at all. But we can’t hit them where it would truly hurt, because our economy needs their oil to survive.
 
During World War II, the United States produced twice as much oil as the entire rest of the world put together. That is why our side won. Today we produce one-twelfth as much. That is our crucial, and potentially fatal, strategic weakness. It cannot be remedied by government programs to spy on American citizens. It can be remedied only by fully liberating America’s potential to produce liquid transportation fuels, both by increasing oil production and by opening the market to methanol, which can be readily made from our vast coal and natural-gas resources.
 
The crux of the matter comes down to this: Do we want to win, or lose? The issue at stake in energy security is not whether the price of gasoline will be $3 per gallon or $5 per gallon, or which fuel gives off more or less carbon dioxide emissions, or whether requirements that cars give consumers fuel choice conform to pure free-market principles. The issue is who will determine the future of humanity. Do we want to have the enemy’s fate in our hands, or do we want to leave ours in theirs?
 
Such is the lesson of Ploesti.
 
 
— Robert Zubrin is president of Pioneer Energy and the author of Energy Victory. His latest book, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism, was published in 2012 by Encounter Books.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/355074/remembering-ploesti-robert-zubrin


*****

If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

*****

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

General Mihailovich becomes a dead man walking in March of 1946 as his journey to martyrdom and eternity begins.

General Draza Mihailovich
Belgrade 1946


The famous bridge over the Drina River in Visegrad, Bosnia
Photo: Creative Commons

Aleksandra's note: 70 years ago, on the night of March 12-13, 1946 near Visegrad in Bosnia, the town made famous by Ivo Andric's classic novel "The Bridge on the Drina" published in 1945, the most decorated Serbian military officer and leader of the first successful uprising against the Nazis in all of occupied Europe was finally captured by the Yugoslav communist special security agents (OZNA) loyal to Marshal Josip Broz Tito after a long manhunt. A short time later the Yugoslav communists publicly announced the capture of General Draza Mihailovich and their intention to place him on trial for "War Crimes" and "High Treason". He was imprisoned in Belgrade, Serbia to await the trial that would begin on June 10th that same year. Those who are familiar with the life story of this great man know how it all turned out. It is my belief that General Mihailovich, on this night in March of 1946, already knew how it would all turn out - that he was a dead man walking. But perhaps he continued to retain faith until the very end that there would be a good and just outcome. There was good reason for hope.


In Patriot or Traitor: The Case of General Mihailovich, historian David Martin describes what happened in the West upon news of the great General's capture:


"When General Draza Mihailovich was captured by a specially trained Communist unit in March of 1946 and it was announced that he would be brought to trial on charges of treason, a nationwide citizens' movement began in America which engaged in a desperate effort to seek justice for Mihailovich. The movement reached from grass-roots level to the clergy, union leaders and community organizations, to the halls of Congress and the editorial sanctums of the nation's major newspapers.


"At the heart of the entire effort and coordinating activities on a national plane was the "Committee for a Fair Trail for Draza Mihailovich". Working independently but directly under its auspices was the "Commission of Inquiry"...Paralleling these two efforts was that of the "National Committee of American Airmen to aid General Mihailovich and the Serbian People", which helped to bring the facts to the American people through hundreds of newspaper articles and interviews."


Just as OSS Radioman Arthur "Jibby" Jibilian of the Halyard Mission rescue operation wondered for the duration of his life "if General Mihailovich ever knew how hard we tried to help him," I wonder the same.


It is my hope that General Mihailovich never lost his hope and faith. It is my hope that despite all that the Yugoslav Communists and their disciples did to make sure that all outside efforts to exonerate Mihailovich would never see the light of day in Belgrade, somehow the General was aware of those efforts and that this awareness filled his heart with optimism. At the very least, I hope he did indeed know, regardless of the outcome, how much he was loved and appreciated, both in his homeland and throughout the freedom-loving world.


Like him, many of those who fought so hard on his behalf are gone now. And like him, their legacies live on in all of us who have continued to fight the good fight and will continue to do so for the rest of our lives.


Just as this is the 70th anniversary year of the capture and death of General Mihailovich in 1946, so it is the 75th anniversary of his legendary uprising against the Nazis in the spring of 1941. We will be marking both anniversaries by remembering the legacy of both events and making sure that the glory and the sacrifice are never forgotten.


Sincerely,
Aleksandra Rebic
Chicago, IL
March 2016


*****


If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com


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У ноћи између 12 и 13 марта 1946, у околини Вишеграда, на превару, ухапшен је Ђенерал Драгољуб Дража Михаиловић, најодликованији српски официр у историји и први који је подигао устанак у окупираној Европи.



"У ноћи између 12 и 13 марта 1946, у околини Вишеграда, на превару,ухапшен је Ђенерал Драгољуб Дража Михаиловић, најодликованији српски официр у историји и први који је подигао устанак у окупираној Европи. Од стране Озне и СРПСКИХ КОМУНИСТА и изрода,ухапшен, на монтираном процесу суђен и стрељан на још увек непознатој локацији. Не требамо за све кривити Тита,нас, ову земљу, народ, границе су затрли СРБИ КОМУНИСТИ. Ђенерал Дража живеће вечно."


 Марјан Манић
na Facebook.


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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra,
please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com

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Friday, March 04, 2016

Lt. Col. James M. Inks (USAF): American Military Forces treated as prisoners by Tito's Partisans / The Chetniks treated us like free men and allies.


Aleksandra's Note: In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the martyrdom of General Draza Mihailovich this year, 2016, I post this testimony by an American airman who spent time with both General Draza Mihailovich and his Chetniks and with Tito's Yugoslav Partisans in Nazi occupied Yugoslavia during WWII. It is my hope that this will generate interest in the diary of Lt. Col. James M. Inks that describes an American WWII veteran's first-hand experience with the factions on the ground in Yugoslavia. EIGHT BAILED OUT is one of the true stories that finally saw the light after being "classified".
 
Sincerely,
Aleksandra Rebic


Lt. Col. James M. Inks (USAF)
1921-2004

“I am honored that I should be included editorially in the observance of a memorial year for Draza Mihailovich, and pleased that I may once again pay tribute to a great man, whom I shall never forget. Pleased also for the opportunity to again expose the vile, contemptible, and inhumane treatment of the General by his captors, who, then and now, consider themselves worthy to participate with dignity in the community of nations. The mockery of Draza’s trial and his subsequent murder shall forever mark the Federative Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia as a Federation of Swine, abysmally ignorant of the basic concept of human rights and dignity. Our only solace can be that those responsible will receive their just reward at the hands of the Almighty. May this eventual consequence rest heavily on their minds during their mortal lives.”

Lt. Col. James M. Inks
United States Air Force (Ret.)

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YUGOSLAV MILITARY ATTACHE QUESTIONS CAPTAIN OF THE U.S. AIR CORPS ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCES IN WORLD WAR II YUGOSLAVIA AND LT. COL. JAMES M. INKS RESPONDS.

July 13, 1946

Dear Lt. Inks:

I have learned that you parachuted from your plane on the 28th of July, 1944, near Podgorica, Yugoslavia and that you were liberated by the Partisans April 26, 1945, and returned to your base. As the military attaché to the Yugoslav Embassy in Washington, your experiences and impressions regarding this matter, interest me very much and I would appreciate it very much if you would inform me in detail about your experience. I am especially interested in your impressions of our units and the various parts of the country through which you passed, their treatment towards you, what observations you can make concerning the enemy and how you happened to be liberated by the Partisans and returned to your authorities. I would like to know how you were received by the various units in Yugoslavia and how they treated you.

Anticipating a quick reply to my inquiries, accept my sincerest regards and my congratulations on your safe return to your home and to your loved ones after all you have gone through in this horrible war.

Sincerely yours,

Colonel Mihovil Tartalja
Military and Air Attache
Yugoslav Embassy

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LT. COL. JAMES M. INKS of the USAF REPLIES:

July 17, 1946

Colonel Mihovil Tartalja
Military and Air Attache
Yugoslav Embassy


Colonel Tartalja:

At dawn this morning, July 17, 1946, the Partisans took the life of the greatest man yet to show his face in the political situation of Yugoslavia. Yes, General Mihailovich was truly a great man. His honesty, integrity and straight-forwardness was in direct contract to the slinky and crafty Partisans that I was unfortunate enough to come in contact with.

I am writing this at your request, and my views are my own and are not to be interpreted as to represent those of the army or my government, however, you can rest assured that I am going to do my utmost to expose this monstrosity of a crime that your government has just this morning committed.

I spent months in Yugoslavia and came in contact with all of the factions there. I lived with General Mihailovich for three months and learned a great deal about the man and his ways of accomplishing things. I jumped in the same fox-holes with his Chetniks, when American and English planes bombed and strafed them on Tito’s information that Germans were there. True, the Chetniks were not openly fighting the Germans in the last year of the war, but they were powerless to do so. However I witnessed and took part in numerous skirmishes with the Germans, which we were forced to give the Partisans credit for.

As for the treatment by the different groups, the Chetniks treated us like free men and allies. They gave us food that should have normally gone to their underfed troops. They gave us guns and ammunition and money and allowed us to do just about anything we were physically able to. After we were captured by the Partisans, we were treated as prisoners and certainly not like allies. They took our guns and ammunition from us, kept us with their prisoners, and even forced us to carry wounded Partisans off the field of battle under fire.

I kept an accurate account of what happened to me and my comrades while we were in Yugoslavia. This has recently had its secret classification removed by the army and is now cleared for publication. I hope in the near future to have it before every citizen in the United States, in one of our popular magazines and you can rest assured that I will leave nothing out that reflects my contempt for your present form of Government. Furthermore, several hundred other American airmen are not going to forget General Mihailovich and I sincerely hope that we see to it that you are reminded forcefully of the supreme injustice that you have committed against him.

JAMES M. INKS
Captain, Air Corps
U.S.
July 17, 1946


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Lieutenant Colonel James M. Inks of the United States Air Force flew 135 combat missions during twenty years of his distinguished military service. His Liberator bomber was forced to go down in Yugoslavia in July of 1944 as he was flying his 43rd mission, last mission during World War II. Inks and his fellow airmen would stay in Yugoslavia for 10 ½ months after being rescued by the Chetniks. He witnessed firsthand what was going on in Yugoslavia as he traveled with the Chetniks. Three of those 10 ½ months were spent directly with General Mihailovich near Loznica. Lt. Col. Inks would learn much about both the General and his forces and kept a diary during his time in Yugoslavia. This diary would later be published in book form in 1954. Eight Bailed Out, published by W.W. Norton & Company, New York, is the story of an American airman’s experience in World War II Yugoslavia among the people who were fighting not just for their lives against the Axis occupier but for the integrity and future of their nation after the war.
 
The preceding was published in “Tributes to General Mihailovich” a memorial commemoration of the Mihailovich legacy on the 25th anniversary year of his uprising against the Nazis and the 20th anniversary year of his death. Windsor, Ontario, 1966.
 
 
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If you would like to get in touch with me, Aleksandra, please feel free to contact me at ravnagora@hotmail.com
 
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