Parachutes, Patriots and Partisans: The Special Operations Executive and Yugoslavia, 1941-1945

Front Cover
Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2003 - History - 297 pages

Based on impressive research and new evidence, this history of the secret British wartime agency, the Special Operations Executive, in wartime Yugoslavia argues that SOE actions achieved little military advantage for the Allies and exacerbated the developing civil war among the forces of monarchist Drazha Mihailovic, Tito s partisans, and other guerilla groups. Heather Williams tracks SOE relations with the British Foreign office, policy-makers, and military high command; the Yugoslav guerrilla movements and exiled Yugoslav government; other secret organizations, and the American Office of Strategic Services, examining how rivalries among these players influenced the future of Yugoslavia.
Copublished with C. Hurst & Co, Publishers Ltd., London
The Wisconsin edition is for saleonly in North and South American, U.S. dependencies, and the Philippines.

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Contents

Something in the Balkans
17
Return to Occupied Yugoslavia
39
One SOE Officer and no Supplies
59
Propaganda Wars
82
Yugoslavia from SideShow to Centre Stage
103
Contacting the Partisans
127
Tuning up the Balkans
150
Two Brigadiers and Equal
167
Ditching Mihailović or Throwing Out the Baby with
190
From Illusion to Reality
218
Conclusion
243
Notes
255
Sources consulted
271
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Heather Williams teaches modern history at the University of Southampton.