The Serbs against the Wehrmacht by Miloslav SAMARDZIC

Anyone wishing to give an accurate description of combat operations by the Yugoslav Army (a.k.a. “Chetniks“) against the Nazis faces two main challenges.

First, the need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that such operations took place. That may sound absurd as scores of books have been published on the subject since 1990, but it is still possible to find deniers, despite for example the fact that British and American sources confirm that there was an attack on Višegrad on October 5 ^th , 1943 and that the Axis forces were defeated.

The other, greater, challenge was to locate German documents. Some were translated and published in Yugoslavia. But those which were not in favor of the Yugoslavian communist official History were not brought in. Thus, the author had no other choice than ask the German Bundesarchiv directly, with the aid of translators.

As Germans referred to Chetniks anywhere in Yugoslavia as “Serbs”, and Churchill used the terms “Serbian Chetniks” and “Croatian partisans”, the title – “The Serbs against the Wehrmacht” – was written by itself.

Highlights of ‘THE SERBS AGAINST THE WEHRMACHT’ include:

• All battles between Chetniks and Nazis during WW2 are briefly listed with dates, locations and casualties.
• Description in detail of those battles referenced in newly discovered German documents.
• The in-depth analysis of German losses in WW2 in the Balkans
• German reports on Chetnik sabotage and diversions aimed at disrupting supply of Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Miloslav Samardzic (born in 1963) is a journalist from Serbia. He was editor-in-chief of “Pogledi”, once a news magazine in Yugoslavia with more than 200,000 copies in circulation and now an esteemed publisher of History books. Through “Pogledi” he the first in Socialist Yugoslavia published positive articles about multipartism and claimed “the abolition of the Law protecting dictator Tito’s cult” (in 1988). Rapidly it became the main opposition media, following the restoration of the multi-party system in 1989.
In 1990 “Pogledi” was the first to tackle the crimes of communism during and after WWII in Yugoslavia. Hence, Samardzic was indicted for defamation more than 100 times but was always acquitted.

After WWII-era documents were declassified in Serbia, he started to research number of archives and produced a five volume “ General Draza Mihailovich and the global History of the Chetnik Movement ” book published in Serbian, the most documented History of WWII in Yugoslavia on 3,500 pages and 8,000 footnotes, which was a bestseller with over 150,000 copies sold.

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This book can also be ordered in bookshops in all English-speaking countries (but the price might be higher), and for exemple in France at FNAC