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The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Draws on recently declassified documents and exclusive interviews to recount the dramatic story of a World War II rescue mission in 1944 during which the OSS embarked on a daring scheme to recover more than five hundred airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia. 40,000 first printing.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,052 reviews
October 2, 2024
I'm very biased about this book because my dad, Joseph Peter Hoffman, was one of the forgotten 500. I'm so appreciative to Gregory Freeman for bringing this event to a potentially large audience. My father never spoke much about his experience, but we would hear more about it from the more vocal crew members that he kept in contact with throughout his life. His crew bailed out due to mechanical issues with their plane. One of his crewmates broke his leg during the landing, and he was carried by his crewmates to safety (many miles). These men were bonded with one another in ways that I will never understand.
I had no idea the level of politics that was involved in this entire situation. The beginning of the book was heavy on this politics, but I understand how important it was to giving the rationale for why no one had ever heard about it. I would have enjoyed hearing more about the trials and tribulations of the 500.
My father died a few months before this book was published. I only wish that it had come out a few years earlier.
I had no idea the level of politics that was involved in this entire situation. The beginning of the book was heavy on this politics, but I understand how important it was to giving the rationale for why no one had ever heard about it. I would have enjoyed hearing more about the trials and tribulations of the 500.
My father died a few months before this book was published. I only wish that it had come out a few years earlier.
March 30, 2020
A very disappointing book, as the actual story of the rescue is less than half of this book. The first part is just about the airmen walking through the Yugoslavian mountains, and this gets very boring. Then there is a lot of time spent on the back story of one of the OSS agents that helped them, and although there were more than 500 airmen rescued, only a handful of them are mentioned throughout the story. Not recommendable.
June 17, 2012
The subject matter of this book is very interesting and certainly worthy of learning about. However, I found this author to be maddeningly juvenile in his style of writing. I felt like he was writing to four year olds.
After only a few pages, the author mentioned the first Ploesti raid from North Africa and said it was a high level raid, and that the subsequent raids on Ploesti were low level raids from Italy. I read the book, Ploesti, some years ago which described that first raid in detail. As I remember, after all of the difficulties and miscommunications, the B-24s attacked the oil fields from the north at dangerously low levels and suffered mightily for it.
Another faux pas I noticed early on was that the author stated that the bombers attacking the oil fields of Ploesti flew west (look it up!) to reach the oilfields. It was then that the author's credibility waned quickly. My thought was, "This guy doesn't know what he is talking about."
At one point he describes the U.S. OSS as a bastion of "effete" academics and communists, which may or may not have been true, but which was served up so blithely and without historical context (the Soviets were our allies at the time, after all, and communism wasn't quite the dirty word in the 1930s and early 1940s that it is today) that it made me wonder if I was reading the work of a right-wing ideologue using 70-year old history to advance a more modern, anti-intellectual frame for blaming the Cold War on liberals.
- I wonder if author ever consulted a map or is aware of the fact that North is up on maps. So, the north of Yugoslavia he constantly refers to would put happenings in Slovenia or northern parts of Croatia not in Serbia, east to southeast part of Yugoslavia where it actually happened.
- Military forces and factions operating in Yugoslavia are misplaced all over the place. So, author puts Croatian ustashe in Serbian Belgrade of all places. This is hilarious actually.
- Wrong airplane descriptions and how turrets operate
- Unnecessary and invented reflections of airmen while suspended under canopy. Anyone who ever tried to jump out of an airplane, even worse bail out, knows that things are happening so fast and are so intensive that one simply goes into automatic mode of saving life not contemplating nature and political questions while ground and 50/50 chance of braking limbs or dying are coming at you very fast.
- During WWII the largest free territory in all occupied countries in Europe was in Tito's (partisans) hands stretching over large parts of Yugoslavia. There was even Allied airfield from which British Spitfires operated on island of Vis. Again, taking a look at the map would reveal a fact that all those airmen could have simply marched over to Tito's forces and would be out of Yugoslavia quickly. That is if Mihalovich would allow them or transfer them to Tito's forces instead of using them as bargaining chips with Allies.
- The book constantly treats readers as idiots trying to revision history by claiming that author knows facts better than British or American military of that time and all this by quoting pro chetnik sources exclusively. This simply kills the joy and fun of reading about one spectacular operation. If he stuck and more thoroughly researched technical and military aspects of the operation instead of writing political pamphlet it could have been a good book
- There are many more issues in the book like Mihailovich collaborating with Nazis against partisans, not quoting relevant and official military sources of that time, claiming that all the Serbs were chetniks,etc., etc., taking sides and making arguments instead of giving us facts and letting the reader be a judge and draw conclusions.
There are a number of other little errors, like the fact that the ball turret on the underside of a B-17 did not have hand cranked controls, there was no side hatch on a B-24 (people bailed out through the bomb bay doors), etc. He also claims that Halyard was the biggest air rescue of the war. Wrong. There was a airlift of 1100 airmen from an airport near Bucharest in August, 1944 that happened in THREE DAYS, under mortar fire no less. The jacket copy I remember seeing hailed Freeman as having "20 years of experience as a journalist." Geez, what kind of journalist?
After only a few pages, the author mentioned the first Ploesti raid from North Africa and said it was a high level raid, and that the subsequent raids on Ploesti were low level raids from Italy. I read the book, Ploesti, some years ago which described that first raid in detail. As I remember, after all of the difficulties and miscommunications, the B-24s attacked the oil fields from the north at dangerously low levels and suffered mightily for it.
Another faux pas I noticed early on was that the author stated that the bombers attacking the oil fields of Ploesti flew west (look it up!) to reach the oilfields. It was then that the author's credibility waned quickly. My thought was, "This guy doesn't know what he is talking about."
At one point he describes the U.S. OSS as a bastion of "effete" academics and communists, which may or may not have been true, but which was served up so blithely and without historical context (the Soviets were our allies at the time, after all, and communism wasn't quite the dirty word in the 1930s and early 1940s that it is today) that it made me wonder if I was reading the work of a right-wing ideologue using 70-year old history to advance a more modern, anti-intellectual frame for blaming the Cold War on liberals.
- I wonder if author ever consulted a map or is aware of the fact that North is up on maps. So, the north of Yugoslavia he constantly refers to would put happenings in Slovenia or northern parts of Croatia not in Serbia, east to southeast part of Yugoslavia where it actually happened.
- Military forces and factions operating in Yugoslavia are misplaced all over the place. So, author puts Croatian ustashe in Serbian Belgrade of all places. This is hilarious actually.
- Wrong airplane descriptions and how turrets operate
- Unnecessary and invented reflections of airmen while suspended under canopy. Anyone who ever tried to jump out of an airplane, even worse bail out, knows that things are happening so fast and are so intensive that one simply goes into automatic mode of saving life not contemplating nature and political questions while ground and 50/50 chance of braking limbs or dying are coming at you very fast.
- During WWII the largest free territory in all occupied countries in Europe was in Tito's (partisans) hands stretching over large parts of Yugoslavia. There was even Allied airfield from which British Spitfires operated on island of Vis. Again, taking a look at the map would reveal a fact that all those airmen could have simply marched over to Tito's forces and would be out of Yugoslavia quickly. That is if Mihalovich would allow them or transfer them to Tito's forces instead of using them as bargaining chips with Allies.
- The book constantly treats readers as idiots trying to revision history by claiming that author knows facts better than British or American military of that time and all this by quoting pro chetnik sources exclusively. This simply kills the joy and fun of reading about one spectacular operation. If he stuck and more thoroughly researched technical and military aspects of the operation instead of writing political pamphlet it could have been a good book
- There are many more issues in the book like Mihailovich collaborating with Nazis against partisans, not quoting relevant and official military sources of that time, claiming that all the Serbs were chetniks,etc., etc., taking sides and making arguments instead of giving us facts and letting the reader be a judge and draw conclusions.
There are a number of other little errors, like the fact that the ball turret on the underside of a B-17 did not have hand cranked controls, there was no side hatch on a B-24 (people bailed out through the bomb bay doors), etc. He also claims that Halyard was the biggest air rescue of the war. Wrong. There was a airlift of 1100 airmen from an airport near Bucharest in August, 1944 that happened in THREE DAYS, under mortar fire no less. The jacket copy I remember seeing hailed Freeman as having "20 years of experience as a journalist." Geez, what kind of journalist?
December 29, 2017
I'm afraid I'm going to have to burst a lot of bubbles with this review, because I know a lot of people really enjoyed this book. To be fair, the storytelling style is really gripping and chock-full of well-told war stories. I love war stories, especially when they're true. Problem is, this book is FULL of historical errors major and minor. The only reason I know is because I'm writing an article on Operation Halyard, and have talked to some of the veterans involved, including Tom Oliver and George Vujnovich. They tell me that one of Freeman's major sources, Felman the airman who appears in the book a lot, was a habitual liar and constantly embroidered accounts of the things he witnessed. He was only there barely a couple of months, yet he comes across as though he were the leader of the airmen. The one airman I talked to never even met Felman while there, and they were both there at the same time and were evacuated within days of each other. An example of an error: Freeman claims that Halyard was the largest rescue of downed American airmen. WRONG. There was a much bigger one that happened outside Bucharest in August, 1944 that got 1100 airmen out in three days. Also, Freeman suggests that the airmen participated in building the airstrip near Pranjani. Wrong again. The Serb villagers and the Chetniks soldiers did all the work. Another one: Freeman states that the first slang-coded message sent by the airmen included the latitude and longitude of their location along with a serial number. Wrong again! the airmen sent that info at the request of the 15th Air Force after the Air Force made their first response. And so on, and so on. It's pretty sad that though the jacket copy trumpets Greg Freeman's 20 years of work as a journalist, he did a really sloppy job. Not only that, but it was really obvious that his real intention is not to tell the story of Operation Halyard, but to rehabilitate the reputation of Gen. Mihailovich. What was funny was that when I looked at the OSS' original operational records for Operation Halyard, there was one document from the Air Force that expressed concern that Mihailovich might be using the airmen he rescued "as exhibits" to prove his loyalty and friendliness to the Allies to get back in their good graces. Freeman's whitewash job (which totally ignores evidence that Mihailovich really did collaborate with Axis forces) makes you really wonder if it was true. The last word is this: good yarn, sloppy history.
June 8, 2020
A very inspiring story about how a few men's refusal to give up hope resulted in the rescue of many. I'd read another book about the rise of Tito and it was chilling to see how he didn't mind slandering his rival and taking credit for the good he'd done in order to take power; it was also sad to see that Yugoslavia would fall to unrest and a totalitarian government simply for lack of good leadership.
I'd have enjoyed it even more without the frequent profanity and with the addition of a bibliography for further reading/more research.
I'd have enjoyed it even more without the frequent profanity and with the addition of a bibliography for further reading/more research.
August 29, 2025
What an amazing book about 500 airmen behind enemy lines during WW2. Only a daring rescue attempt could save them.
July 17, 2015
Whilst this is a good yarn and provides some interesting back stories I felt it lacked substance.
The book descends into Brit and communist bashing where some of the facts are tenuous and at best circumstantial.
Following my own further research of the subject it's clear the author had been somewhat lax on his grip of the facts generally and totally ignores evidence that Mihailovich really did collaborate with Axis forces.
A good tale ruined by factual errors and a political agenda.
The book descends into Brit and communist bashing where some of the facts are tenuous and at best circumstantial.
Following my own further research of the subject it's clear the author had been somewhat lax on his grip of the facts generally and totally ignores evidence that Mihailovich really did collaborate with Axis forces.
A good tale ruined by factual errors and a political agenda.
Read
February 27, 2022I am sure it is a great book. I can tell good research and history. It just isn’t my kind of book.
February 1, 2024
― “One of the last untold stories of World War II is also one of the greatest. It’s a story of adventure, daring, danger, and heroics followed by a web of conspiracy, lies, and cover-up.”
― Gregory Freeman, The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Most Americans, including those who frequently read about World War II, are likely unaware of Operation Halyard, the heroic mission to rescue downed U.S. airmen from Nazi occupied Serbia during the closing months of the war. This daring operation remained largely unknown for six decades afterward. This is especially surprising given that Operation Halyard was the largest and most successful rescue mission of American aircrews in our nation’s history. Now, drawing on recently declassified documents, author Gregory Freeman brings this heroic mission into the light of day.
After the Allies established bases in Bari and Brindisi in southern Italy during the second World War, they used those bases to bomb targets in southeastern Europe. Starting in 1942, the Allies sought to interrupt production of the Ploeisti oil fields in Romania. These oil fields supplied the German war machine with nearly a third of their fuel supplies—fuel that was needed to continue the war. The missions were hazardous, and the losses were heavy. The route of flights from Italy to Romania flew directly over what is now Serbia, but was then part of Yugoslavia. The airmen were forced to bail out of damaged planes; each of those bombers held ten people. To the great relief of the downed airmen, they were welcomed by the overwhelming generosity of Serbian people located in small, isolated mountain villages. Serbian peasants hid the downed men, at considerable risk to themselves. The crews were fed from the peasants’ meager food supplies and given overnight accommodations before being escorted onward, away from German-occupied areas. Over time, hundreds of crewmen were hidden in these mountain villages. Their next mission was to find a way to get word out that they were still alive and how to get back to their base to fight again.
The mountain villages were also where General "Draza" Mihailovic and his fellow resistance fighters, the “Chetniks,” were active. When the Germans attacked Serbia, Yugoslavia was a monarchy. The government fled and Mihailovich commanded what was left of the Yugoslav Army. He and his men went into the hills and became a resistance unit. As the people of Yugoslavia were facing the ordeals of World War II, they were also involved in a civil war. They were fighting each other as much as they were fighting the Germans. Mihailovich and his men were also fighting Marshal Josip Broz Tito. Mihailović was vehemently anti-communist and wanted to reestablish the Yugoslav monarchy under a democratic framework. Tito’s Partisans were allied with the Soviet Union and envisioned a communist future for Yugoslavia. However, the Allies backed Tito, incorrectly believing erroneous reports that Mihailovich was collaborating with the Nazis.
After decoding a radio message from the downed airmen, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which handled the intelligence and special operations of the United States Army during the second World War, sent in four agents. These agents went to ground for months in the Yugoslav countryside. They soon learned that, like the Serbian peasants, Mihailovich and his anti-communist partisans had protected the downed airmen for months. But how were they to get hundreds of airmen out of Yugoslavia? The list of challenges and potential problems seemed endless, not the least of which was to evade capture until the rescue could be organized. The OSS agents and Mihailovich decided that they would build an airfield near the village of Prajani in southwest Serbia, a hilly region not easily accessible to German forces. The airmen, weakened by months with little food, would have to build an airstrip long enough for Douglas C-47s without any real tools, and without detection, in the heart of Nazi-occupied territory. Finally, the C-47s would have to fly in and out over a region held by heavily armed Germans. To keep the weight down on the aircraft using the short runway, the agents decided to carry just 12 men out per mission, meaning there were more than 40 such missions to Italy. Over the course of four months, more than 500 U.S. airmen were airlifted out of Serbia, the largest rescue operation of American airmen in history. Not one airman was lost.
It is truly an amazing story—that the mission was totally successful, without a single loss. And Freeman’s tale is gripping. As it turns out, the airmen were not “forgotten;” it’s their story that was forgotten—at least until now. I thoroughly enjoyed Freeman’s account about this lesser-known chapter of the war. Unfortunately, however, the author seems to have a bias in favor of Mihailovic. He fails to mention crimes that he and the Chetniks committed against Croats and Muslims.
― Gregory Freeman, The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Most Americans, including those who frequently read about World War II, are likely unaware of Operation Halyard, the heroic mission to rescue downed U.S. airmen from Nazi occupied Serbia during the closing months of the war. This daring operation remained largely unknown for six decades afterward. This is especially surprising given that Operation Halyard was the largest and most successful rescue mission of American aircrews in our nation’s history. Now, drawing on recently declassified documents, author Gregory Freeman brings this heroic mission into the light of day.
After the Allies established bases in Bari and Brindisi in southern Italy during the second World War, they used those bases to bomb targets in southeastern Europe. Starting in 1942, the Allies sought to interrupt production of the Ploeisti oil fields in Romania. These oil fields supplied the German war machine with nearly a third of their fuel supplies—fuel that was needed to continue the war. The missions were hazardous, and the losses were heavy. The route of flights from Italy to Romania flew directly over what is now Serbia, but was then part of Yugoslavia. The airmen were forced to bail out of damaged planes; each of those bombers held ten people. To the great relief of the downed airmen, they were welcomed by the overwhelming generosity of Serbian people located in small, isolated mountain villages. Serbian peasants hid the downed men, at considerable risk to themselves. The crews were fed from the peasants’ meager food supplies and given overnight accommodations before being escorted onward, away from German-occupied areas. Over time, hundreds of crewmen were hidden in these mountain villages. Their next mission was to find a way to get word out that they were still alive and how to get back to their base to fight again.
The mountain villages were also where General "Draza" Mihailovic and his fellow resistance fighters, the “Chetniks,” were active. When the Germans attacked Serbia, Yugoslavia was a monarchy. The government fled and Mihailovich commanded what was left of the Yugoslav Army. He and his men went into the hills and became a resistance unit. As the people of Yugoslavia were facing the ordeals of World War II, they were also involved in a civil war. They were fighting each other as much as they were fighting the Germans. Mihailovich and his men were also fighting Marshal Josip Broz Tito. Mihailović was vehemently anti-communist and wanted to reestablish the Yugoslav monarchy under a democratic framework. Tito’s Partisans were allied with the Soviet Union and envisioned a communist future for Yugoslavia. However, the Allies backed Tito, incorrectly believing erroneous reports that Mihailovich was collaborating with the Nazis.
After decoding a radio message from the downed airmen, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which handled the intelligence and special operations of the United States Army during the second World War, sent in four agents. These agents went to ground for months in the Yugoslav countryside. They soon learned that, like the Serbian peasants, Mihailovich and his anti-communist partisans had protected the downed airmen for months. But how were they to get hundreds of airmen out of Yugoslavia? The list of challenges and potential problems seemed endless, not the least of which was to evade capture until the rescue could be organized. The OSS agents and Mihailovich decided that they would build an airfield near the village of Prajani in southwest Serbia, a hilly region not easily accessible to German forces. The airmen, weakened by months with little food, would have to build an airstrip long enough for Douglas C-47s without any real tools, and without detection, in the heart of Nazi-occupied territory. Finally, the C-47s would have to fly in and out over a region held by heavily armed Germans. To keep the weight down on the aircraft using the short runway, the agents decided to carry just 12 men out per mission, meaning there were more than 40 such missions to Italy. Over the course of four months, more than 500 U.S. airmen were airlifted out of Serbia, the largest rescue operation of American airmen in history. Not one airman was lost.
It is truly an amazing story—that the mission was totally successful, without a single loss. And Freeman’s tale is gripping. As it turns out, the airmen were not “forgotten;” it’s their story that was forgotten—at least until now. I thoroughly enjoyed Freeman’s account about this lesser-known chapter of the war. Unfortunately, however, the author seems to have a bias in favor of Mihailovic. He fails to mention crimes that he and the Chetniks committed against Croats and Muslims.
June 18, 2008
If you are a WWII buff this is a must read. The incredible, untold story of the rescue of over 500 US and Allied pilots from Yugoslavia over just a few weeks. Many personal stories and the heroism of the Yugoslav (primarily Serbs)people and how they gave us their food and shelter to feed and house these fliers. An important part of this book is the role of Communists in the US and British Armies and the OSS and British Secret Service and how they influenced the relationship between the US, Great Britian and Yugoslavia. It was their influence that allowed the US and British governments to support Tito and his communists that led to his eventual rise as the head of post-war Yugoslavia. Very enlightening and somewhat frustrating at the role these moles played. And, what is really frustrating is that it was know they were communists, but the enemy at the time was facists Germany and Italy.
June 4, 2018
Audio #59
I knew nothing of this secret mission. I had never heard of the save from Yugoslavia. This was very impressive.
I knew nothing of this secret mission. I had never heard of the save from Yugoslavia. This was very impressive.
November 27, 2007
This is based upon the audio download from www.audible.com
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
Wow, this is another example of why these men are known as the “greatest generation”. This book was non-stop action that script writers could only hope to come up with.
Kudos to Patrick Lawlor in his narration. I also enjoyed him in another worthy read/listen The Colony The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai. He is quickly becoming another of my favorite readers.
This is the story of downed pilots in Yugoslavia and their life with the Yugoslav peasants as they helped to hide these airmen from the Germans. Simultaneously, the story of the internal struggle for power in Yugoslavia between Tito and Mihailovich was played out along with the Allies’ analysis of which of these two was their greatest ally. Even though Mihailovich was the one who was responsible for assisting in the rescue of these men, history shows that the Allies threw their support to the communist Tito—helping communism gain a foothold in Eastern Europe that would last more than 40 years.
I was surprised to learn of the way the British (intentionally or not) sabotaged the American efforts to rescue their men. This information was jaw-dropping. In the end, Mihailovich was abandoned and not acknowledged by America for nearly 60 years.
On Veteran's Day in 1979, Ronald Reagan wrote of Mihailovich, “I wish it could be said that this great hero was the last victim of confused and senseless policies of western governments in dealing with Communism."
"Thus, the fate of General Mihailovich is not simply of historic significance -- it teaches us something today, as well. No western nation, including the United States, can hope to win its own battle for freedom and survival by sacrificing brave comrades to the politics of international expediency."
He further stated, ". . .it has been demonstrated beyond doubt that both freedom and honor suffer when firm commitments become sacrificed to false hopes of appeasing aggressors by abandoning friends."
Words that still have meaning today.
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
Wow, this is another example of why these men are known as the “greatest generation”. This book was non-stop action that script writers could only hope to come up with.
Kudos to Patrick Lawlor in his narration. I also enjoyed him in another worthy read/listen The Colony The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai. He is quickly becoming another of my favorite readers.
This is the story of downed pilots in Yugoslavia and their life with the Yugoslav peasants as they helped to hide these airmen from the Germans. Simultaneously, the story of the internal struggle for power in Yugoslavia between Tito and Mihailovich was played out along with the Allies’ analysis of which of these two was their greatest ally. Even though Mihailovich was the one who was responsible for assisting in the rescue of these men, history shows that the Allies threw their support to the communist Tito—helping communism gain a foothold in Eastern Europe that would last more than 40 years.
I was surprised to learn of the way the British (intentionally or not) sabotaged the American efforts to rescue their men. This information was jaw-dropping. In the end, Mihailovich was abandoned and not acknowledged by America for nearly 60 years.
On Veteran's Day in 1979, Ronald Reagan wrote of Mihailovich, “I wish it could be said that this great hero was the last victim of confused and senseless policies of western governments in dealing with Communism."
"Thus, the fate of General Mihailovich is not simply of historic significance -- it teaches us something today, as well. No western nation, including the United States, can hope to win its own battle for freedom and survival by sacrificing brave comrades to the politics of international expediency."
He further stated, ". . .it has been demonstrated beyond doubt that both freedom and honor suffer when firm commitments become sacrificed to false hopes of appeasing aggressors by abandoning friends."
Words that still have meaning today.
May 15, 2016
Excellent history book of a forgotten events that should be remembered
I was fascinated with this World War 2 book. There are many unsung heroes that history forgot. This book shows that kind people do good when no praise or recognition is given. The failure of the government to acknowledge this war hero was very sad.
I was fascinated with this World War 2 book. There are many unsung heroes that history forgot. This book shows that kind people do good when no praise or recognition is given. The failure of the government to acknowledge this war hero was very sad.
May 28, 2020
A quick read that often read like a novel, this book was very engaging and informative. I had never heard of this story before now, and I hope others discover it too, because it’s incredible. Honestly, it should be made into a movie (keep it PG-13 or under, please!), because this story needs to be shared time and time and time again. It’s definitely a keeper for me.
Content: profanity, expletives, nudity (not graphic), alcohol, tobacco
Content: profanity, expletives, nudity (not graphic), alcohol, tobacco
February 24, 2011
The Forgotten 500 tells an interesting yet largely unknown story of World War 2. During countless Allied bombing runs of Germany, hundreds of downed airmen found themselves caught behind enemy lines in Axis-controlled Yugoslavia. Once on the ground, many of these airmen found themselves caught in the middle of yet another conflict between warring factions of Serbians: the Royalist Chetniks led by Draza Mihailovic and the Communist Partisans led by Tito. Each fought the Germans, but with different means and different aims while also battling for control of post-war Serbia. Freeman's history focuses on airmen protected by Mihailovic.
It is difficult to do brief justice to this excellent history, but Freeman focuses on several concepts/themes:
1. The moving, self-sacrificing service rendered sincerely by the Serbian people to the downed American airmen;
2. The formation of the OSS and its eventual plan to evacuate 500 downed airmen from the Serbian village on Pranya
3. The dark machinations and conspiracy by pro-Communist elements in the OSS and the British secret intelligence to betray Mihailovic and to favor the pro-Communist Partisans in the Serbian Civil War. Mihailovic would be "black-balled" by the Allies and sold out to Tito even while he and his rebels risked their lives to save the Allied airmen.
What interested me most was the author's description of the creation and identity of the OSS and the level of Moscow-controlled infiltration of the British intelligence service. His account of the rescued Americans desperate attempts to clear Mihailovic's name and rescue him from his post-war fate was pretty sad.
It is difficult to do brief justice to this excellent history, but Freeman focuses on several concepts/themes:
1. The moving, self-sacrificing service rendered sincerely by the Serbian people to the downed American airmen;
2. The formation of the OSS and its eventual plan to evacuate 500 downed airmen from the Serbian village on Pranya
3. The dark machinations and conspiracy by pro-Communist elements in the OSS and the British secret intelligence to betray Mihailovic and to favor the pro-Communist Partisans in the Serbian Civil War. Mihailovic would be "black-balled" by the Allies and sold out to Tito even while he and his rebels risked their lives to save the Allied airmen.
What interested me most was the author's description of the creation and identity of the OSS and the level of Moscow-controlled infiltration of the British intelligence service. His account of the rescued Americans desperate attempts to clear Mihailovic's name and rescue him from his post-war fate was pretty sad.
February 1, 2022
After the Allies had established a strong presence in Italy they began bombing the petroleum and refining fields in Romania, which was a major resource to the German armies. However, the oil fields of Ploesti were heavily guarded and bombing missions to the site were dangerous, and the crews of the B-17s and B-24s often sustained heavy damage. Those who survived long enough to bail out over Yugoslavia were lucky to avoid the Germans. They were even luckier if they were found by the forces of General Draza Mihailovich, the Chetniks, who would shelter and assist them even at their own peril. Eventually, over a hundred airmen were gathered with the Chetniks in the mountain village of Pranjane when a daring plan to rescue them was hatched. In spite of Communist (and British!) meddling and resistance, over 500 airmen were eventually rescued although the facts of the operation were kept secret for political reasons.
This was a very entertaining and inspiring history of Operation Halyard, and very readable as well. It's not a scholarly history, so those less-familiar with WWII history need not worry about being in over their heads in military details. It's also often a frustrating read, as we see the restrictions and even obstacles that the British placed upon any rescue operations which were prompted mostly by Communist moles within the vaunted British intelligence organization. If not for a very few Serbian-Americans within the OSS (the American precursor to the CIA), all those men would presumably have been left to die in the mountains. It's also shameful to read of the way the Americans and British turned their backs on Gen. Mihailovich, and allowed Tito to seize control of Yugoslavia and eventually put the man on trial under false charges and execute him - while our government silently stood by. My only complaints are that the book doesn't feel very balanced: you get only one side of the story without any thoughtful examination of political motives. (I'm not saying there was any good reasons for why the government acted so shamefully, but it would have been nice to read something that didn't sound so biased.) I also question the accuracy of some details, but they're minor and nothing that makes this anything less than a very enjoyable and heroic story.
This was a very entertaining and inspiring history of Operation Halyard, and very readable as well. It's not a scholarly history, so those less-familiar with WWII history need not worry about being in over their heads in military details. It's also often a frustrating read, as we see the restrictions and even obstacles that the British placed upon any rescue operations which were prompted mostly by Communist moles within the vaunted British intelligence organization. If not for a very few Serbian-Americans within the OSS (the American precursor to the CIA), all those men would presumably have been left to die in the mountains. It's also shameful to read of the way the Americans and British turned their backs on Gen. Mihailovich, and allowed Tito to seize control of Yugoslavia and eventually put the man on trial under false charges and execute him - while our government silently stood by. My only complaints are that the book doesn't feel very balanced: you get only one side of the story without any thoughtful examination of political motives. (I'm not saying there was any good reasons for why the government acted so shamefully, but it would have been nice to read something that didn't sound so biased.) I also question the accuracy of some details, but they're minor and nothing that makes this anything less than a very enjoyable and heroic story.
August 22, 2016
The Forgotten 500
A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book “The Forgotten 500” written by Gregory A. Freeman
I purchased this book on Amazon in a paperback edition. It was recommended to me by a fellow lover of history.
I am so glad I read this book, which I unhesitatingly give Five Stars as a rating. This book is well written and follows a logical story line. I have an Uncle (now deceased) who flew missions over Yugoslavia during World War II and had many great stories. By the time I read this book he was gone so I could not ask him about his knowledge of the thousands of downed crews over this area.
It is a story about real people both in the Army Air Corps., the OSS, the partisan leadership both pro the Soviet Union and Pro the other Allies fighting the Nazi’s.
The brave crews who flew bombing missions over the former Yugoslavia, suffered great losses in life and many survived after bailing out in the mountainous areas. They were trained on what to do and warned about partisans who were pro Soviet Union and those that were sympathetic to the Nazi’s and what precautions they should take after landing in these territories. How they negotiated these hurdles depended upon the training and instincts of the individual airmen. They were warned against falling into the hands of one faction led by General Draza Mihailovich and believed that the partisan General Josip Broz Tito was the better of the two partisan factions and supported by British intelligence. The opposite was the reality and because of the post was politics it was Mihailovich who was tried as a war criminal. The rescue of most of the surviving air crews was truly facilitated by Mihailovich and his cooperation with the OSS.
The book was intense in its presentation and the reader will be pleasantly surprised at how fast a read this book is. The book also outlined some of the struggles and brave risks taken by members of the OSS.
I gave this book five Stars and highly recommend its reading.
A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book “The Forgotten 500” written by Gregory A. Freeman
I purchased this book on Amazon in a paperback edition. It was recommended to me by a fellow lover of history.
I am so glad I read this book, which I unhesitatingly give Five Stars as a rating. This book is well written and follows a logical story line. I have an Uncle (now deceased) who flew missions over Yugoslavia during World War II and had many great stories. By the time I read this book he was gone so I could not ask him about his knowledge of the thousands of downed crews over this area.
It is a story about real people both in the Army Air Corps., the OSS, the partisan leadership both pro the Soviet Union and Pro the other Allies fighting the Nazi’s.
The brave crews who flew bombing missions over the former Yugoslavia, suffered great losses in life and many survived after bailing out in the mountainous areas. They were trained on what to do and warned about partisans who were pro Soviet Union and those that were sympathetic to the Nazi’s and what precautions they should take after landing in these territories. How they negotiated these hurdles depended upon the training and instincts of the individual airmen. They were warned against falling into the hands of one faction led by General Draza Mihailovich and believed that the partisan General Josip Broz Tito was the better of the two partisan factions and supported by British intelligence. The opposite was the reality and because of the post was politics it was Mihailovich who was tried as a war criminal. The rescue of most of the surviving air crews was truly facilitated by Mihailovich and his cooperation with the OSS.
The book was intense in its presentation and the reader will be pleasantly surprised at how fast a read this book is. The book also outlined some of the struggles and brave risks taken by members of the OSS.
I gave this book five Stars and highly recommend its reading.
November 3, 2018
I highly, highly, highly recommend this book. I've read a lot of WWII books and even though I like them, I tend to get sick of them. What the Jewish people under Hitler was unimaginable and horrific. I am amazed by their stories. However, I appreciate that this book covers a completely different aspect of the war.
I had no idea that Romania played any part in WWII. I learned that Romania had oil refineries that the Germans took over for fuel supply. The Allies sent missions to bomb those oil refineries. In the course of this action several hundred men jumped out of their planes being shot down by the Germans and became stranded in Yugoslavia. This book uncovers the struggles those men faced to get out of enemy territory. It was the biggest successful rescue mission, but the story was hidden by the State Department for political reasons.
The reason the State Department covered up this story from the public says a lot about history and slander. The book raises lots of issues with politics, trust, and how history is written and taught. It also exhibits heroism, humanity, and how love breaks the bounds of culture and language.
I had no idea that Romania played any part in WWII. I learned that Romania had oil refineries that the Germans took over for fuel supply. The Allies sent missions to bomb those oil refineries. In the course of this action several hundred men jumped out of their planes being shot down by the Germans and became stranded in Yugoslavia. This book uncovers the struggles those men faced to get out of enemy territory. It was the biggest successful rescue mission, but the story was hidden by the State Department for political reasons.
The reason the State Department covered up this story from the public says a lot about history and slander. The book raises lots of issues with politics, trust, and how history is written and taught. It also exhibits heroism, humanity, and how love breaks the bounds of culture and language.
November 20, 2016
O.K. Znam ja da istoriju pisu pobednici, ali nakon ovakvih knjiga se zapitam kog to Diznilenda smo mi istoriju u skoli ucili....?
January 30, 2019
Fab must-read! As another reviewer said—this is a nonfiction book that reads like a novel. Suspenseful, uplifting real-life story . . . (Why is there not a movie about Operation Halyard?)
March 2, 2009
When I asked author Gregory Freeman what drew him to the story of ‘Operation Halyard’, he didn’t hesitate:
“My interests as an author usually lead me to stories of heroism and sacrifice that went unrecognized for too long, and the story of Operation Halyard fits the bill perfectly. I was drawn to the idea that not only was this an amazing tale of intrigue and bravery, but it had been purposefully hidden from the American people for decades. A dramatic story is one thing; a dramatic story that has been kept secret is even more intriguing. The story of Operation Halyard is one of the last great stories of World War II and it is high time that the American people learn about the heroic sacrifice of Draza Mihailovich and the Serbian people.”
There are men who fight for their country who are truly a personification of dedication, determination, courage and heroism. Some of them we come to know, and their names are immortalized in our historical consciousness. There are others who most people never hear of and their deeds never become legend, though they deserve to be known and remembered and permanently included in the historical record. The Forgotten 500 by author Gregory Freeman is a new and important book that not only introduces the public to such men, but explains why they and their rescuers deserve a prominent place in history. This book is a celebration of human fortitude and integrity and is so much more than just another book about World War Two.
‘Heroes’ has become an all too common term in this day and age, to the point that heroism has become trivialized. Gregory Freeman reminds us what true heroism is really all about, the kind of heroism that can, and should, leave us in awe. He doesn’t just tell us, he shows us. That would have been enough to make this a valuable book in any library, but Freeman strove for more and has accomplished it. He was bothered by the fact that these heroic acts that he had discovered had not only been virtually ignored, but were actually deliberately suppressed as if they never happened. His research led him to painful discoveries that he could not help but include in this story of heroism, and the light that he sheds on the dark side of ‘Operation Halyard’ makes The Forgotten 500 not only a valuable book, but an essential one. Just as he reminds us of the great things that men in the worst situations are capable of, he also exposes the lengths taken to cover up acts that should have been widely heralded as triumphant examples of the human spirit but instead were sacrificed to the manipulations of political expediency. We owe both the dead and the living to move, once and for all, ‘Operation Halyard’, possibly the greatest rescue of American lives from behind enemy lines in the history of warfare, from being a mere footnote in history to being a shining example of what men of integrity are capable of. Mr. Freeman, with The Forgotten 500, is paying the long overdue debt.
During the second half of World War Two, hundreds of American airmen were sent on dangerous missions over Europe during which their job was to cripple the oil production that was feeding the Nazi war machine. Freeman describes in vivid detail the nature of these missions and by tapping the memories and experiences of the airmen and faithfully capturing them on the pages of The Forgotten 500 he paints a graphic picture of what was endured by these patriots who did their job and followed their orders regardless of the retaliation that was sure to follow. These missions would cost many of their lives. Those who survived the Nazi retaliations had to bail out of their planes over foreign territory in order to get a shot at survival and they did so, not knowing what their fate would be. Their desperation landed them in the hills of Yugoslavia, mainly in Serbia, enemy occupied territory that was, luckily for them, also the land of General Draza Mihailovich, his Chetnik forces, and the peasants who were loyal to them. When they landed in the hills and forests of Serbia, the airmen were now among freedom fighters, loyal above all else, to the democratic Allies, though they did not know it as they fell. Among the hundreds who fell, most were Americans.
Once on the ground these men were soon found by the Serbian peasantry and it was these strangers who spoke a foreign language on foreign soil who would shield them, soothe their wounds, feed them, house them, and protect them, even at the sacrifice of all that they owned and even their lives. The fallen airmen would soon learn that their benefactors were acting on the orders of General Draza Mihailovich, the Serbian hero, who in the beginning darkest moments of the war, had been heralded as being a legendary warrior for the whole free world, but who, in recent times, had been abandoned by the very democracies to whom he had been so loyal. Though he had been abandoned and left to the wolves, both the Yugoslav communists who were bent on destroying him and everything his organization stood for, and the Germans who continued to view him as their primary enemy in Yugoslavia, Mihailovich, upon learning of the fallen airmen, gave out the order to do whatever necessary to protect them, heal them, and in the ensuing months, evacuate them to safety regardless of the cost to himself. This man, whom the airmen had been told to avoid, would end up being the man who would save them. In cooperation with American OSS personnel, whose struggles and ultimate triumphs are faithfully recorded by Freeman as ‘Operation Halyard’ came to fruition over the course of 1944, General Mihailovich and his forces would prove just how profound ‘doing the right thing no matter what’ is.
Though this story has been competently tackled by other historians and authors genuinely interested in doing justice to the events of 1944 in enemy occupied Serbia, this story has never been appropriately publicized in the western world because it has not been “politically correct” to do so. It has remained a taboo theme in many political and publishing circles which has dismayed and frustrated so many of the veterans of ‘Operation Halyard’, both the rescued and their rescuers, for decades. Many spent the duration of their postwar years striving to right this wrong. Many have since passed away without ever experiencing the contentment of seeing justice done and a debt repaid. Mr. Freeman and his publishers, with The Forgotten 500, may well be the catalyst for finally changing all of this. When one becomes familiar with the obstacles that have been pervasive in getting this story told over the last six decades, one cannot help but appreciate the courage and the fortitude that it took to produce and publish this book. As much as I admire Freeman’s talent for telling a great true story as it deserves to be told and for his attention to detail that makes this story come alive on the pages, I admire his publishers even more. Instead of dismissing this story, they have chosen to bring it out in the light, thus vindicating all of those both on this side of the world and on the other who lived this story.
The heroic details of the bombing missions and the subsequent bailouts over enemy occupied territory and the great rescue evacuations that followed in 1944 are the “easy part” of this story. Author Freeman didn’t settle for the easy part. In The Forgotten 500 he delves into the more complicated tangential issues that cannot be ignored in the telling of the story of the Halyard Mission.
A primary such issue is that in the name of political expediency, enforced by both the Yugoslav postwar regime and the British, the Americans stayed silent about this chapter of the great heroism of their own sons and the selfless sacrifices of their rescuers. Not only did they stay silent, they kept it silent. Classified.
Another difficult issue that Freeman addresses is the abandonment of General Mihailovich by the Western Allies to whom he had been so loyal. British spies and traitors, such as James Klugmann, had a role in the story that was pivotal, even though he was not directly involved in ‘Operation Halyard’. It takes an astute researcher to piece together the relevant collateral elements of the ‘Halyard’ story that make the deeds of the rescuers all the more extraordinary. Freeman clearly did his research in piecing together the often convoluted chain of events that led to the Allied abandonment of Mihailovich. For that, any serious student of World War Two history should be grateful.
Freeman writes:
“Not until 1997 would the world understand that the switch of allegiance was orchestrated largely by a Soviet operative who convinced the British that Mihailovich could not be trusted… Communist moles had infiltrated both the OSS and the SOE, working to besmirch the name of Mihailovich to promote the postwar Communization of Yugoslavia under Tito…Klugmann, who was closely associated with the infamous British traitors known as the Cambridge Five,…was principally responsible for sabotaging the Mihailovich supply operation and for keeping from London information about how much Mihailovich forces were fighting the Germans and how much success they were having.”
James Klugmann, a devout communist and ultimately a traitor to his country of Great Britain, is among the many collateral players in the Mihailovich story and Freeman doesn’t shy away from exposing his role in influencing the misguided British policy that would have tragic consequences for General Mihailovich and ultimately the fate of Serbia itself.
Freeman writes:
“The recently declassified files reveal that, for instance, Klugmann had great influence over Colonel Sir William Deakin, the senior intelligence officer in Yugoslavia…”
It was Deakin who was mainly responsible for convincing Churchill to switch sides from Mihailovich to Tito. In this endeavor he was greatly supported by Fitzroy Maclean, who became the chief of the British mission at Tito’s headquarters. Freeman explains who these people were and just how strongly they influenced the disastrous British policy in Yugoslavia during the war. The author could have determined that this was all material for another separate story, but he chose to include it in this one, The Forgotten 500, because he understood from the very beginning that there was more to ‘Operation Halyard’ than met the eye. He competently weaves politics and the story on the ground together in such a way as to give the reader the big picture. Freeman, unlike many historians, is able to see the forest, not just the trees.
He understood, too, the significance of Mihailovich’s integrity in rising above and beyond the betrayal perpetrated upon him and his people.
“Klugmann and his fellow traitors may have been driving the efforts to defeat Mihailovich from abroad, but there were many more British officials who unwittingly helped them along the way…Meanwhile, Mihailovich and the peasants in the hillsides who were loyal to him watched over the downed American boys with a stoic determination. Their abandonment by the Allies would not cause them to abandon these young men who were helping them to fight back the Nazis.”
In the summer of 1944, because of destructive but successful British political manipulations, it was no longer ‘politically correct’ for the Allies, including the Americans who deferred to the British in policy relating to the Balkan sphere, to deal with Mihailovich in any way. Yet, there were now hundreds of downed Allied fliers, most of them Americans, who were being protected by Mihailovich and his men and had to be evacuated. This presented quite a political dilemma. Thanks to the efforts of American officers such as George Vujnovich and George Musulin, an ACRU organization (Air Crew Rescue Unit) was created and it was decided to send Musulin to the hills of Serbia, accompanied by Mike Rajachich and OSS radio operator Arthur Jubilian, to run the evacuation operation that would come to be known as the ‘Halyard Mission’.
It was going to be a rescue attempt unlike any ever attempted by the OSS or anyone else, and indeed that’s exactly what it turned out to be. Over the course of several months in 1944, hundreds of Allied airmen would be evacuated and not one would be sacrificed. All, without exception, would make it back to their homes and their families alive. Not one American would be turned over to the Nazis, even though the Germans were offering substantial rewards to the local natives to give them up. Though the Allies had turned their back on General Mihailovich, he refused to turn his back on them.
Gregory Freeman describes the evacuations in vivid detail and with the due well-deserved respect that is appropriate given the magnitude of the obstacles that were faced, both politically and on the ground, to make Halyard a success. The reader is put in the middle of it all as an observer and the reader cannot help but wonder how it was possible to keep such a magnificent true story in the darkness for so long.
The reader will also be struck by the irony of the concentrated attempts that were made by Allied officials to sabotage this rescue operation, a rescue operation that was intended to save the lives of their own boys. In The Forgotten 500 Gregory Freeman makes sure that the irony is not lost on the reader.
Freeman writes:
“Musulin, Rajacich, and Jibilian soon realized that the British were not just unenthusiastic about the mission. They were actively sabotaging it, or at least that’s how it appeared to the American team.
The outright hostility of the British was made evident on the next attempt to jump into Pranjane, a few days later. Musulin learned that on the first attempt, when there were no ground signals, the problem actually was that the pilot had flown to the wrong coordinates. They were in the wrong place, so that explained why there was no welcoming party. Knowing that, Musulin wanted to double-check the coordinates soon after they took off on their third attempt to go rescue the airmen. He went forward and asked the pilot to confirm their destination. The pilot read out the coordinates he intended to take the men to and, as soon as he checked the spot on his own map, Musulin exploded in anger.
‘That’s Partisan territory!’ he yelled. ‘Where the hell did you get those coordinates?
The pilot, visibly intimidated by the large and very angry American, explained that he had been briefed on the mission by his British superior and he was just following orders…”
The mission was aborted. Then Freeman writes:
“The three Americans were astounded that British had so completely fouled up their efforts to get into Pranjane, but they still had a hard time believing that their tea-sipping allies were actually trying to sabotage Operation Halyard…”
They didn’t give up, however, and eventually, everything was in place, despite the obstacles, and the series of evacuations would proceed. Success, pure and complete, was achieved.
Freeman doesn’t just capture the events of ‘Operation Halyard’, he is able to capture the essence of General Mihailovich as well. He describes the impression that Mihailovich left on the Americans, such as on OSS radioman Arthur Jibilian:
“Like every other American who met Mihailovich personally, however, Jubilian was taken by the way a man of such simplicity could at the same time give such an impression of grandeur. Jibilian and the other Allied soldiers were most impressed by Mihailovich’s sense of dignity in the face of extreme hardship and insurmountable odds and the humble way he received accolades from his followers, consistently coming away with the same unshakable impression that they were standing in the presence of greatness.”
The drama of ‘Operation Halyard’ would end in December of 1944, and due to the perseverance of men with the names of Vujnovich, Musulin, Petrovich, Rajachich, Lalich, Jibilian and others, it would end as a virtually perfect success story in the face of almost insurmountable odds. Every downed airman survived. General Mihailovich, however, would not share their fate. His life would come to an end a year and half later, when he was executed by the Yugoslav communists. The airmen whom he had saved were left to their tears, devastated by the news, and many would dedicate the rest of their years to vindicating Mihailovich, his Serbian people, and to seeking justice for the man to whom they felt they owed their very lives. Many in the Allied world who were following the capture, trial, and execution of Mihailovich, were left to wonder “how it could have been allowed to happen.” Gregory Freeman’s The Forgotten 500 goes a long way in shedding light on “how could this have been allowed to happen.”
Freeman does not accept the fact that “it was allowed to happen.” With the publication of The Forgotten 500 he is doing his part to make things right. Given the truths contained in this book, I wondered who Gregory Freeman was. He accommodated my curiosity with the following response:
“As you probably know already, I am not of Serbian descent and have no personal connection to this story at all. Instead, I was drawn to the opportunity to bring some measure of justice to a hero and local Serbs who risked their lives for my country and who ultimately were betrayed by history. I wrote this book because that wrong should be made right, not just for Mihailovich and the Serbian community, but for the American public as well. After all, we can't say "thank you" if we don't know what they did.”
I highly recommend The Forgotten 500, not just to my American and Serbian friends, but to anyone interested in historical accounts that are not tarnished with propaganda, lies, and political correctness. I also recommend this book to anyone who is inspired by a great story about great people who did great things. Those of us who know the “Halyard” story and its significance will smile with satisfaction. We should, indeed, be pleased. It’s about time.
Aleksandra Rebic
Note: To learn more about The Forgotten 500 and author Gregory Freeman, please visit www.gregoryafreeman.com
“My interests as an author usually lead me to stories of heroism and sacrifice that went unrecognized for too long, and the story of Operation Halyard fits the bill perfectly. I was drawn to the idea that not only was this an amazing tale of intrigue and bravery, but it had been purposefully hidden from the American people for decades. A dramatic story is one thing; a dramatic story that has been kept secret is even more intriguing. The story of Operation Halyard is one of the last great stories of World War II and it is high time that the American people learn about the heroic sacrifice of Draza Mihailovich and the Serbian people.”
There are men who fight for their country who are truly a personification of dedication, determination, courage and heroism. Some of them we come to know, and their names are immortalized in our historical consciousness. There are others who most people never hear of and their deeds never become legend, though they deserve to be known and remembered and permanently included in the historical record. The Forgotten 500 by author Gregory Freeman is a new and important book that not only introduces the public to such men, but explains why they and their rescuers deserve a prominent place in history. This book is a celebration of human fortitude and integrity and is so much more than just another book about World War Two.
‘Heroes’ has become an all too common term in this day and age, to the point that heroism has become trivialized. Gregory Freeman reminds us what true heroism is really all about, the kind of heroism that can, and should, leave us in awe. He doesn’t just tell us, he shows us. That would have been enough to make this a valuable book in any library, but Freeman strove for more and has accomplished it. He was bothered by the fact that these heroic acts that he had discovered had not only been virtually ignored, but were actually deliberately suppressed as if they never happened. His research led him to painful discoveries that he could not help but include in this story of heroism, and the light that he sheds on the dark side of ‘Operation Halyard’ makes The Forgotten 500 not only a valuable book, but an essential one. Just as he reminds us of the great things that men in the worst situations are capable of, he also exposes the lengths taken to cover up acts that should have been widely heralded as triumphant examples of the human spirit but instead were sacrificed to the manipulations of political expediency. We owe both the dead and the living to move, once and for all, ‘Operation Halyard’, possibly the greatest rescue of American lives from behind enemy lines in the history of warfare, from being a mere footnote in history to being a shining example of what men of integrity are capable of. Mr. Freeman, with The Forgotten 500, is paying the long overdue debt.
During the second half of World War Two, hundreds of American airmen were sent on dangerous missions over Europe during which their job was to cripple the oil production that was feeding the Nazi war machine. Freeman describes in vivid detail the nature of these missions and by tapping the memories and experiences of the airmen and faithfully capturing them on the pages of The Forgotten 500 he paints a graphic picture of what was endured by these patriots who did their job and followed their orders regardless of the retaliation that was sure to follow. These missions would cost many of their lives. Those who survived the Nazi retaliations had to bail out of their planes over foreign territory in order to get a shot at survival and they did so, not knowing what their fate would be. Their desperation landed them in the hills of Yugoslavia, mainly in Serbia, enemy occupied territory that was, luckily for them, also the land of General Draza Mihailovich, his Chetnik forces, and the peasants who were loyal to them. When they landed in the hills and forests of Serbia, the airmen were now among freedom fighters, loyal above all else, to the democratic Allies, though they did not know it as they fell. Among the hundreds who fell, most were Americans.
Once on the ground these men were soon found by the Serbian peasantry and it was these strangers who spoke a foreign language on foreign soil who would shield them, soothe their wounds, feed them, house them, and protect them, even at the sacrifice of all that they owned and even their lives. The fallen airmen would soon learn that their benefactors were acting on the orders of General Draza Mihailovich, the Serbian hero, who in the beginning darkest moments of the war, had been heralded as being a legendary warrior for the whole free world, but who, in recent times, had been abandoned by the very democracies to whom he had been so loyal. Though he had been abandoned and left to the wolves, both the Yugoslav communists who were bent on destroying him and everything his organization stood for, and the Germans who continued to view him as their primary enemy in Yugoslavia, Mihailovich, upon learning of the fallen airmen, gave out the order to do whatever necessary to protect them, heal them, and in the ensuing months, evacuate them to safety regardless of the cost to himself. This man, whom the airmen had been told to avoid, would end up being the man who would save them. In cooperation with American OSS personnel, whose struggles and ultimate triumphs are faithfully recorded by Freeman as ‘Operation Halyard’ came to fruition over the course of 1944, General Mihailovich and his forces would prove just how profound ‘doing the right thing no matter what’ is.
Though this story has been competently tackled by other historians and authors genuinely interested in doing justice to the events of 1944 in enemy occupied Serbia, this story has never been appropriately publicized in the western world because it has not been “politically correct” to do so. It has remained a taboo theme in many political and publishing circles which has dismayed and frustrated so many of the veterans of ‘Operation Halyard’, both the rescued and their rescuers, for decades. Many spent the duration of their postwar years striving to right this wrong. Many have since passed away without ever experiencing the contentment of seeing justice done and a debt repaid. Mr. Freeman and his publishers, with The Forgotten 500, may well be the catalyst for finally changing all of this. When one becomes familiar with the obstacles that have been pervasive in getting this story told over the last six decades, one cannot help but appreciate the courage and the fortitude that it took to produce and publish this book. As much as I admire Freeman’s talent for telling a great true story as it deserves to be told and for his attention to detail that makes this story come alive on the pages, I admire his publishers even more. Instead of dismissing this story, they have chosen to bring it out in the light, thus vindicating all of those both on this side of the world and on the other who lived this story.
The heroic details of the bombing missions and the subsequent bailouts over enemy occupied territory and the great rescue evacuations that followed in 1944 are the “easy part” of this story. Author Freeman didn’t settle for the easy part. In The Forgotten 500 he delves into the more complicated tangential issues that cannot be ignored in the telling of the story of the Halyard Mission.
A primary such issue is that in the name of political expediency, enforced by both the Yugoslav postwar regime and the British, the Americans stayed silent about this chapter of the great heroism of their own sons and the selfless sacrifices of their rescuers. Not only did they stay silent, they kept it silent. Classified.
Another difficult issue that Freeman addresses is the abandonment of General Mihailovich by the Western Allies to whom he had been so loyal. British spies and traitors, such as James Klugmann, had a role in the story that was pivotal, even though he was not directly involved in ‘Operation Halyard’. It takes an astute researcher to piece together the relevant collateral elements of the ‘Halyard’ story that make the deeds of the rescuers all the more extraordinary. Freeman clearly did his research in piecing together the often convoluted chain of events that led to the Allied abandonment of Mihailovich. For that, any serious student of World War Two history should be grateful.
Freeman writes:
“Not until 1997 would the world understand that the switch of allegiance was orchestrated largely by a Soviet operative who convinced the British that Mihailovich could not be trusted… Communist moles had infiltrated both the OSS and the SOE, working to besmirch the name of Mihailovich to promote the postwar Communization of Yugoslavia under Tito…Klugmann, who was closely associated with the infamous British traitors known as the Cambridge Five,…was principally responsible for sabotaging the Mihailovich supply operation and for keeping from London information about how much Mihailovich forces were fighting the Germans and how much success they were having.”
James Klugmann, a devout communist and ultimately a traitor to his country of Great Britain, is among the many collateral players in the Mihailovich story and Freeman doesn’t shy away from exposing his role in influencing the misguided British policy that would have tragic consequences for General Mihailovich and ultimately the fate of Serbia itself.
Freeman writes:
“The recently declassified files reveal that, for instance, Klugmann had great influence over Colonel Sir William Deakin, the senior intelligence officer in Yugoslavia…”
It was Deakin who was mainly responsible for convincing Churchill to switch sides from Mihailovich to Tito. In this endeavor he was greatly supported by Fitzroy Maclean, who became the chief of the British mission at Tito’s headquarters. Freeman explains who these people were and just how strongly they influenced the disastrous British policy in Yugoslavia during the war. The author could have determined that this was all material for another separate story, but he chose to include it in this one, The Forgotten 500, because he understood from the very beginning that there was more to ‘Operation Halyard’ than met the eye. He competently weaves politics and the story on the ground together in such a way as to give the reader the big picture. Freeman, unlike many historians, is able to see the forest, not just the trees.
He understood, too, the significance of Mihailovich’s integrity in rising above and beyond the betrayal perpetrated upon him and his people.
“Klugmann and his fellow traitors may have been driving the efforts to defeat Mihailovich from abroad, but there were many more British officials who unwittingly helped them along the way…Meanwhile, Mihailovich and the peasants in the hillsides who were loyal to him watched over the downed American boys with a stoic determination. Their abandonment by the Allies would not cause them to abandon these young men who were helping them to fight back the Nazis.”
In the summer of 1944, because of destructive but successful British political manipulations, it was no longer ‘politically correct’ for the Allies, including the Americans who deferred to the British in policy relating to the Balkan sphere, to deal with Mihailovich in any way. Yet, there were now hundreds of downed Allied fliers, most of them Americans, who were being protected by Mihailovich and his men and had to be evacuated. This presented quite a political dilemma. Thanks to the efforts of American officers such as George Vujnovich and George Musulin, an ACRU organization (Air Crew Rescue Unit) was created and it was decided to send Musulin to the hills of Serbia, accompanied by Mike Rajachich and OSS radio operator Arthur Jubilian, to run the evacuation operation that would come to be known as the ‘Halyard Mission’.
It was going to be a rescue attempt unlike any ever attempted by the OSS or anyone else, and indeed that’s exactly what it turned out to be. Over the course of several months in 1944, hundreds of Allied airmen would be evacuated and not one would be sacrificed. All, without exception, would make it back to their homes and their families alive. Not one American would be turned over to the Nazis, even though the Germans were offering substantial rewards to the local natives to give them up. Though the Allies had turned their back on General Mihailovich, he refused to turn his back on them.
Gregory Freeman describes the evacuations in vivid detail and with the due well-deserved respect that is appropriate given the magnitude of the obstacles that were faced, both politically and on the ground, to make Halyard a success. The reader is put in the middle of it all as an observer and the reader cannot help but wonder how it was possible to keep such a magnificent true story in the darkness for so long.
The reader will also be struck by the irony of the concentrated attempts that were made by Allied officials to sabotage this rescue operation, a rescue operation that was intended to save the lives of their own boys. In The Forgotten 500 Gregory Freeman makes sure that the irony is not lost on the reader.
Freeman writes:
“Musulin, Rajacich, and Jibilian soon realized that the British were not just unenthusiastic about the mission. They were actively sabotaging it, or at least that’s how it appeared to the American team.
The outright hostility of the British was made evident on the next attempt to jump into Pranjane, a few days later. Musulin learned that on the first attempt, when there were no ground signals, the problem actually was that the pilot had flown to the wrong coordinates. They were in the wrong place, so that explained why there was no welcoming party. Knowing that, Musulin wanted to double-check the coordinates soon after they took off on their third attempt to go rescue the airmen. He went forward and asked the pilot to confirm their destination. The pilot read out the coordinates he intended to take the men to and, as soon as he checked the spot on his own map, Musulin exploded in anger.
‘That’s Partisan territory!’ he yelled. ‘Where the hell did you get those coordinates?
The pilot, visibly intimidated by the large and very angry American, explained that he had been briefed on the mission by his British superior and he was just following orders…”
The mission was aborted. Then Freeman writes:
“The three Americans were astounded that British had so completely fouled up their efforts to get into Pranjane, but they still had a hard time believing that their tea-sipping allies were actually trying to sabotage Operation Halyard…”
They didn’t give up, however, and eventually, everything was in place, despite the obstacles, and the series of evacuations would proceed. Success, pure and complete, was achieved.
Freeman doesn’t just capture the events of ‘Operation Halyard’, he is able to capture the essence of General Mihailovich as well. He describes the impression that Mihailovich left on the Americans, such as on OSS radioman Arthur Jibilian:
“Like every other American who met Mihailovich personally, however, Jubilian was taken by the way a man of such simplicity could at the same time give such an impression of grandeur. Jibilian and the other Allied soldiers were most impressed by Mihailovich’s sense of dignity in the face of extreme hardship and insurmountable odds and the humble way he received accolades from his followers, consistently coming away with the same unshakable impression that they were standing in the presence of greatness.”
The drama of ‘Operation Halyard’ would end in December of 1944, and due to the perseverance of men with the names of Vujnovich, Musulin, Petrovich, Rajachich, Lalich, Jibilian and others, it would end as a virtually perfect success story in the face of almost insurmountable odds. Every downed airman survived. General Mihailovich, however, would not share their fate. His life would come to an end a year and half later, when he was executed by the Yugoslav communists. The airmen whom he had saved were left to their tears, devastated by the news, and many would dedicate the rest of their years to vindicating Mihailovich, his Serbian people, and to seeking justice for the man to whom they felt they owed their very lives. Many in the Allied world who were following the capture, trial, and execution of Mihailovich, were left to wonder “how it could have been allowed to happen.” Gregory Freeman’s The Forgotten 500 goes a long way in shedding light on “how could this have been allowed to happen.”
Freeman does not accept the fact that “it was allowed to happen.” With the publication of The Forgotten 500 he is doing his part to make things right. Given the truths contained in this book, I wondered who Gregory Freeman was. He accommodated my curiosity with the following response:
“As you probably know already, I am not of Serbian descent and have no personal connection to this story at all. Instead, I was drawn to the opportunity to bring some measure of justice to a hero and local Serbs who risked their lives for my country and who ultimately were betrayed by history. I wrote this book because that wrong should be made right, not just for Mihailovich and the Serbian community, but for the American public as well. After all, we can't say "thank you" if we don't know what they did.”
I highly recommend The Forgotten 500, not just to my American and Serbian friends, but to anyone interested in historical accounts that are not tarnished with propaganda, lies, and political correctness. I also recommend this book to anyone who is inspired by a great story about great people who did great things. Those of us who know the “Halyard” story and its significance will smile with satisfaction. We should, indeed, be pleased. It’s about time.
Aleksandra Rebic
Note: To learn more about The Forgotten 500 and author Gregory Freeman, please visit www.gregoryafreeman.com
July 5, 2024
I was lucky enough to get this book as a surprise Christmas gift from my daughter’s friend.🎄 Thanks Allison! From beginning to end this book went from a 4 to a 4 1/2 to a 5 for me as I realized the real life drama unfolding of trying to rescue these abandoned airmen, plus the monumental mistakes and coverups the allies committed through this chapter of the war. It reads like a 40’s version of the deep state. Despite the frustration and anger of reading some of this, there is an incredible spirit of brotherhood, perseverance, and a never give up attitude that permeates the book. Long a state secret, it’s a story long overdue being told. Would make an incredible movie.
March 29, 2023
Started off slow but greatly increased my interest as I read on.
April 19, 2024
How beautifully tragic (Mihailovich). Of all the WW2 stories I've read, I'd never heard of this one. I wish there was more than 5 stars to give. What an absolute pleasure it was to read this and I'll remember this story for the rest of my days. Truly incredible.
April 6, 2020
A great read for those that love history, especially involving the US and an event that was disturbingly kept a secret for many, many years. During WWII when the Germans were occupying Yugoslavia, hundreds of American soldiers were shot down during a bombing campaign. At the time, there were two sectors of Yugoslavia. One was in support of Russia, also fighting the Germans. The other was a group of rebel Serbs doing their best to keep the Germans out along with communist Russia. These US soldiers landed near the Serb group who immediately took them in, fed them, and sheltered them from harm. Unfortunately, the British was opposed to this group and convinced the US to do the same. The story tells how the US finally realized the Serbs were helping and staged a plan to rescue more than 500 soldiers. Yet, for many years it would still not recognize the Serb leader and kept the rescue a little known event. It is a heart-wrenching story of how injustices occur and how much red tape there is in any government.
May 30, 2013
LOVED this book!!! I know my grandfather went through something similar to this and it makes me want to research his past and see if he was one of these men!!!! Great great great read, thoroughly enjoyed learning about such brave men.
January 24, 2014
Excellent! L am a little obsessed with World War II books. This one reads like a fiction novel. Such a great story about the rescue mission that went on in Yugoslovia, and the politics behind it.
January 11, 2021
Amazing read!
This story is incredible. It should continue to be told and should have been told 70 years ago. This book should be required reading for history classes.
This story is incredible. It should continue to be told and should have been told 70 years ago. This book should be required reading for history classes.
April 30, 2023
The tagline of this book a little oversold the content as Freeman emphatically declares it to be “the greatest rescue mission of World War II,” ignoring Dunkirk in the background throwing up its hands in indignation. The ‘ultimate, final, epic, and awesome’ verbiage can’t actually disguise the fact that the story mostly involved agents coming up with a nerve-wracking plan and then that plan being carried out successfully with almost no problems. Freeman simply giving away the plan and final success in the first chapter undermines his attempts to maintain suspense later.
The Forgotten 500 refers to the number of pilots forced to bail out in Yugoslavia towards the end of the war. They were sheltered by Yugoslavian rebels hiding out in the mountains and fighting the Germans, and the Allies sent in a team of spies to plan an escape for all 500 at once. Their incredibly risky final plan involved all of the airmen and the Yugoslavian peasants building an airstrip with their bare hands and then Allied pilots flying cargo planes in shifts to land, pick up the pilots, and ferry them back to Italy. In the dark. With a runway just barely long enough to land on. This is a very cool idea for a mission and it is extraordinary that it worked so well, but unfortunately for Freeman’s efforts to write a book about it, the plan worked without a hitch and all 500 pilots made it out. The small amount of drama makes for a short story. In order to eke out a book-length narrative, Freeman includes seven different pilots' accounts of their mission, their bailout, and their trek through Yugoslavia to join the rebel leader to help plan their way out. All of the stories were very similar and really only one or two should have been included to give an idea of their experiences to the reader.
When Freeman moves on to describing the agents assigned to the task of planning the rescue and the formation of the OSS, the story got a lot more interesting. Two of the men were Serbian-Americans who had themselves barely evaded the Nazis early in the war, complete with hair-raising narrow escapes, and who had then been recruited by the OSS to be spies in Yugoslavia because they spoke the language. It was fascinating reading about their dual identities as American patriots and Serbian descendants and how that affected their passion for rescuing these downed pilots. The politics surrounding the formation of the OSS and the misinformation spread by Communist spies that disparaged the Serbian rebel helping the American pilots was supremely interesting as well.
And thus we come to the real purpose of this book. This is an interesting story and it deserves to be at least a footnote in high school history curriculums, but the rescue was shrouded in secrecy for many years, at first to keep the escape route open for other pilots until the end of the war, and it got lost amidst other great and/or tragic stories from WWII. The men, their plight, and the heroic agents and rebel fighters who rescued them were all alike forgotten. Freeman attempts to rectify this by writing this story, but not primarily to wow audiences or to remind them of who the pilots are, but instead to bring attention to the accomplishments of one man. The mission was kept secret long after WWII mainly in order for the Allies to cover up their political and espionagical (is that a word?) mistakes during the war. Mihailovich, the pro-democracy freedom fighter, was in a double war against the Germans and the Communist faction trying to take over his country. The Allies, fooled by Communist elements in their own intelligence ranks, were convinced that Mihailovich was a Nazi collaborator and could not be trusted so they threw their support behind the Communists instead, despite Mihailovich’s attempts to get in contact with them about the downed airmen. After the war, the Allies kept the rescue and Mihailovich’s involvement a secret in the interest of preserving relations with now-Communist Yugoslavia and covering their own mistakes in the war. In consequence, Mihailovich died in obscurity with none of the grateful airmen able to help him from the States. This is the real purpose of Freeman’s high-flown language of “greatest, most audacious, and overall awesome rescue, etc.” All of his hype is an attempt to right an injustice long past and purposely forgotten: that a staunch Ally in the War was allowed to die to preserve appearances.
This is not the type of story that needed an in-depth account to hash out all the details, nor could it be turned into a riveting Hollywood movie. This is more the type of interesting account that could be looked up on Wikipedia. However, the story around the rescue, of the agents involved and the injustices done, makes for a fascinating look at the moments of history that we allow to simply die. Hundreds of men were rescued, the experience profoundly impacted them for the rest of their lives, but because it was planned and carried out with minimal problems and had no significant effect on the war it didn't make news. Furthermore, because it was politically efficacious, the contributions of many participants were hushed up and credit was never officially given to them. What great accomplishments deserve a place in history? And who will be unjustly forgotten?
The Forgotten 500 refers to the number of pilots forced to bail out in Yugoslavia towards the end of the war. They were sheltered by Yugoslavian rebels hiding out in the mountains and fighting the Germans, and the Allies sent in a team of spies to plan an escape for all 500 at once. Their incredibly risky final plan involved all of the airmen and the Yugoslavian peasants building an airstrip with their bare hands and then Allied pilots flying cargo planes in shifts to land, pick up the pilots, and ferry them back to Italy. In the dark. With a runway just barely long enough to land on. This is a very cool idea for a mission and it is extraordinary that it worked so well, but unfortunately for Freeman’s efforts to write a book about it, the plan worked without a hitch and all 500 pilots made it out. The small amount of drama makes for a short story. In order to eke out a book-length narrative, Freeman includes seven different pilots' accounts of their mission, their bailout, and their trek through Yugoslavia to join the rebel leader to help plan their way out. All of the stories were very similar and really only one or two should have been included to give an idea of their experiences to the reader.
When Freeman moves on to describing the agents assigned to the task of planning the rescue and the formation of the OSS, the story got a lot more interesting. Two of the men were Serbian-Americans who had themselves barely evaded the Nazis early in the war, complete with hair-raising narrow escapes, and who had then been recruited by the OSS to be spies in Yugoslavia because they spoke the language. It was fascinating reading about their dual identities as American patriots and Serbian descendants and how that affected their passion for rescuing these downed pilots. The politics surrounding the formation of the OSS and the misinformation spread by Communist spies that disparaged the Serbian rebel helping the American pilots was supremely interesting as well.
And thus we come to the real purpose of this book. This is an interesting story and it deserves to be at least a footnote in high school history curriculums, but the rescue was shrouded in secrecy for many years, at first to keep the escape route open for other pilots until the end of the war, and it got lost amidst other great and/or tragic stories from WWII. The men, their plight, and the heroic agents and rebel fighters who rescued them were all alike forgotten. Freeman attempts to rectify this by writing this story, but not primarily to wow audiences or to remind them of who the pilots are, but instead to bring attention to the accomplishments of one man. The mission was kept secret long after WWII mainly in order for the Allies to cover up their political and espionagical (is that a word?) mistakes during the war. Mihailovich, the pro-democracy freedom fighter, was in a double war against the Germans and the Communist faction trying to take over his country. The Allies, fooled by Communist elements in their own intelligence ranks, were convinced that Mihailovich was a Nazi collaborator and could not be trusted so they threw their support behind the Communists instead, despite Mihailovich’s attempts to get in contact with them about the downed airmen. After the war, the Allies kept the rescue and Mihailovich’s involvement a secret in the interest of preserving relations with now-Communist Yugoslavia and covering their own mistakes in the war. In consequence, Mihailovich died in obscurity with none of the grateful airmen able to help him from the States. This is the real purpose of Freeman’s high-flown language of “greatest, most audacious, and overall awesome rescue, etc.” All of his hype is an attempt to right an injustice long past and purposely forgotten: that a staunch Ally in the War was allowed to die to preserve appearances.
This is not the type of story that needed an in-depth account to hash out all the details, nor could it be turned into a riveting Hollywood movie. This is more the type of interesting account that could be looked up on Wikipedia. However, the story around the rescue, of the agents involved and the injustices done, makes for a fascinating look at the moments of history that we allow to simply die. Hundreds of men were rescued, the experience profoundly impacted them for the rest of their lives, but because it was planned and carried out with minimal problems and had no significant effect on the war it didn't make news. Furthermore, because it was politically efficacious, the contributions of many participants were hushed up and credit was never officially given to them. What great accomplishments deserve a place in history? And who will be unjustly forgotten?
January 9, 2016
Book Review – The Forgotten 500 by Gregory A. Freeman
While historical in nature, this book reads like a novel. If you have an interest in World War Two, you will not be bored.
My friend Kate knew that I enjoyed reading about World War Two and gave me this book for Christmas. When I read the back of the book to learn what it is about all I could think of was; this is amazing why haven’t I heard about this before?
The Forgotten 500 is the story of how General Draza Mihailovich’s Chetnik’s and the people of Pranjane rescued and offered sanctuary to allied air crews that had been shot down during bombing raids and how the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) initiated Operation Halyard to rescue these aircrews. This operation involved the aircrews, Serbia peasants and the Chetnik’s building an airstrip in the mountains of Serbia with only simple hand tools. The US Army Air Corp then flew in C-47’s to transport these aircrews, most often as few as twelve at a time, back to their bases in Italy over a six month period. The operation was never discovered by the Nazi’s even though they had troops garrisoned with a few miles of the village that was the site of the airstrip.
It should be noted that the British tried to sabotage Operation Halyard in several ways; using everything from simple diplomatic delaying tactics to allegedly trying to parachute OSS operatives into the middle of a major battle where they would most likely have been killed before reaching the ground. This was the greatest rescue mission of World War Two, yet it is a story that was virtually unknown until recently due to the political intrigue that is part of the story. The operation was classified and those who took part as rescuer or rescue were told to say nothing about it. The Forgotten 500 chronicles all of this.
During world war two there were two separate resistance forces in Yugoslavia fighting the Nazi’s as well as one another. The royalist forces; Yugoslavia was a monarchy before World War Two, were led by General Draza Mihailovich. This group was called the Chetniks. The Partisans were communists and were led by Josip Broz Tito, who would become the Communist dictator of Yugoslavia after World War Two.
Prior to this book, most of what I had read about the Chetnik’s essentially claimed that they were collaborator’s’ with the Nazi’s. In fact, if you Google “Chetnik” today, the bulk of the references still refer to them unfavorably. Allied air crews were specifically told that if they were shot down they should avoid the Chetnik’s. They were even told that the Chetnik’s would either torture them, kill them or turn them over to the Nazi’s. Clearly that was not the case, as the Chetnik’s cared for, in some cases for months, the over 500 men rescued as part of Operation Halyard. The Serbs not only hid these men but they shared their meager food and medical supplies with them as well, knowing that if the Nazi’s discovered them, they would all be shot. Without assistance from the Serb’s most of these men would have perished.
According to the book, the allies’ anti-Chetnik position was a result of communist moles within British intelligence who were working to promote Tito’s ascendency. They wanted Tito and his Partisans to look like heroes and the Chetnik’s to look like villains. Even after the OSS gained approval for Operation Halyard, the British still tried to sabotage the effort. Much of this was not known until the declassification of records long after the war, which is why this story is not more well-known.
The animosity between the Chetniks and the Partisans continued after the end of World War Two. Backed by USSR and the Red Army Toto assumed leadership of Yugoslavia. In 1946, General Draza Mihailovich was captured by Tito’s forces and charged with treason and collaborating with the Nazi’s during World War Two. He was convicted in what most considered to be a sham trial, and executed two days later. While the airmen rescued by Mihailovich and his Chetnik’s tried to intervene and testify for the General, they were unsuccessful.
Finally, due in part to the rescued airmen, and at the urging of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, President Truman posthumously awarded General Draza Mihailovich with the Legion of Merit-Chief Commander in 1948. This is the highest recognition the USA awards for service to the USA by a foreign national. The citation that went with the award stated; “General Draza Mihailovich distinguished himself in an outstanding manner as Commander-in-Chief of the Yugoslavian 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.
Unfortunately, the US State Department insisted that the award could be detrimental to our relationship with Yugoslavia. The award was classified as SECRET, so only President Truman and a few others even knew of its existence until 1967 when it was finally made public. In 1997, the British government declassified records that a Soviet mole in British Intelligence, James Klugmann, was responsible for convincing the British to abandon Mihailovich in favor of Tito and more of this story became available.
As I mentioned earlier, if one searches on the internet today with the terms “Chetnik” or “General Draza Mihailovich” they will find a great deal of conflicting information. It is clear from the story presented in The Forgotten 500 that General Draza Mihailovich, the Chetnik’s and the people Serbian people did a great service to the USA during World War Two and deserve our thanks. Thank you!
For more information check out - http://www.teslasociety.com/500_2.htm
While historical in nature, this book reads like a novel. If you have an interest in World War Two, you will not be bored.
My friend Kate knew that I enjoyed reading about World War Two and gave me this book for Christmas. When I read the back of the book to learn what it is about all I could think of was; this is amazing why haven’t I heard about this before?
The Forgotten 500 is the story of how General Draza Mihailovich’s Chetnik’s and the people of Pranjane rescued and offered sanctuary to allied air crews that had been shot down during bombing raids and how the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) initiated Operation Halyard to rescue these aircrews. This operation involved the aircrews, Serbia peasants and the Chetnik’s building an airstrip in the mountains of Serbia with only simple hand tools. The US Army Air Corp then flew in C-47’s to transport these aircrews, most often as few as twelve at a time, back to their bases in Italy over a six month period. The operation was never discovered by the Nazi’s even though they had troops garrisoned with a few miles of the village that was the site of the airstrip.
It should be noted that the British tried to sabotage Operation Halyard in several ways; using everything from simple diplomatic delaying tactics to allegedly trying to parachute OSS operatives into the middle of a major battle where they would most likely have been killed before reaching the ground. This was the greatest rescue mission of World War Two, yet it is a story that was virtually unknown until recently due to the political intrigue that is part of the story. The operation was classified and those who took part as rescuer or rescue were told to say nothing about it. The Forgotten 500 chronicles all of this.
During world war two there were two separate resistance forces in Yugoslavia fighting the Nazi’s as well as one another. The royalist forces; Yugoslavia was a monarchy before World War Two, were led by General Draza Mihailovich. This group was called the Chetniks. The Partisans were communists and were led by Josip Broz Tito, who would become the Communist dictator of Yugoslavia after World War Two.
Prior to this book, most of what I had read about the Chetnik’s essentially claimed that they were collaborator’s’ with the Nazi’s. In fact, if you Google “Chetnik” today, the bulk of the references still refer to them unfavorably. Allied air crews were specifically told that if they were shot down they should avoid the Chetnik’s. They were even told that the Chetnik’s would either torture them, kill them or turn them over to the Nazi’s. Clearly that was not the case, as the Chetnik’s cared for, in some cases for months, the over 500 men rescued as part of Operation Halyard. The Serbs not only hid these men but they shared their meager food and medical supplies with them as well, knowing that if the Nazi’s discovered them, they would all be shot. Without assistance from the Serb’s most of these men would have perished.
According to the book, the allies’ anti-Chetnik position was a result of communist moles within British intelligence who were working to promote Tito’s ascendency. They wanted Tito and his Partisans to look like heroes and the Chetnik’s to look like villains. Even after the OSS gained approval for Operation Halyard, the British still tried to sabotage the effort. Much of this was not known until the declassification of records long after the war, which is why this story is not more well-known.
The animosity between the Chetniks and the Partisans continued after the end of World War Two. Backed by USSR and the Red Army Toto assumed leadership of Yugoslavia. In 1946, General Draza Mihailovich was captured by Tito’s forces and charged with treason and collaborating with the Nazi’s during World War Two. He was convicted in what most considered to be a sham trial, and executed two days later. While the airmen rescued by Mihailovich and his Chetnik’s tried to intervene and testify for the General, they were unsuccessful.
Finally, due in part to the rescued airmen, and at the urging of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, President Truman posthumously awarded General Draza Mihailovich with the Legion of Merit-Chief Commander in 1948. This is the highest recognition the USA awards for service to the USA by a foreign national. The citation that went with the award stated; “General Draza Mihailovich distinguished himself in an outstanding manner as Commander-in-Chief of the Yugoslavian 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.
Unfortunately, the US State Department insisted that the award could be detrimental to our relationship with Yugoslavia. The award was classified as SECRET, so only President Truman and a few others even knew of its existence until 1967 when it was finally made public. In 1997, the British government declassified records that a Soviet mole in British Intelligence, James Klugmann, was responsible for convincing the British to abandon Mihailovich in favor of Tito and more of this story became available.
As I mentioned earlier, if one searches on the internet today with the terms “Chetnik” or “General Draza Mihailovich” they will find a great deal of conflicting information. It is clear from the story presented in The Forgotten 500 that General Draza Mihailovich, the Chetnik’s and the people Serbian people did a great service to the USA during World War Two and deserve our thanks. Thank you!
For more information check out - http://www.teslasociety.com/500_2.htm
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