The Grand Alliance (34 page)

208

cage with a tiger, hoping not to provoke him while
steadily dinner-time approaches.

At the end of January, 1941, in these days of growing anxiety, Colonel Donovan, a friend of President Roosevelt, came to Belgrade on a mission from the American Government to sound opinion in Southeastern Europe.

Fear reigned. The Ministers and the leading politicians did not dare to speak their minds. Prince Paul declined a proposed visit from Mr. Eden. There was one exception. An air force general named Simovic represented the nationalist elements among the officer corps of the armed forces.

Since December his office in the air force headquarters across the river from Belgrade at Zemun had become a clandestine centre of opposition to German penetration into the Balkans and to the inertia of the Yugoslav Government.

On February 14 Cvetkovic and Markovic obeyed a summons to Berchtesgaden. Together they listened to Hitler’s account of the might of victorious Germany and to his emphasis on the close relations between Berlin and Moscow. If Yugoslavia would adhere to the Tripartite Pact, Hitler offered, in the event of operations against Greece, not to march through Yugoslavia, but only to use its roads and railways for military supplies. The Ministers returned to Belgrade in sombre mood. To join the Axis might infuriate Serbia. To fight Germany might cause conflict of loyalty in Croatia. Greece, the only possible Balkan ally, was heavily engaged with Italian armies of more than two hundred thousand men, and was under the menace of imminent German attack. English help seemed doubtful, and at the best symbolic. In order to help the Yugoslav Government to reach a satisfactory decision, Hitler proceeded with the strategic encirclement of their country. On March 1 Bulgaria adhered to the Tripartite Pact, and the same evening German motorised elements reached the Serbian frontiers.

The Grand Alliance

209

Meanwhile, to avoid provocation, the Yugoslav Army remained unmobilised. The hour of choice had now struck.

On March 18 Prince Paul left Belgrade on a secret visit to Berchtesgaden, and under dire pressure undertook verbally that Yugoslavia would follow the example of Bulgaria. On his return, at a meeting of the Royal Council and in separate discussion with political and military leaders, he found opposing views. Debate was violent, but the German ultimatum was real. General Simovic, when summoned to the White Palace, Prince Paul’s residence on the hills above Belgrade, was firm against capitulation. Serbia would not accept such a decision, and the dynasty would be endangered. But Prince Paul had already in effect committed his country.

From London I did what I could to rally the Yugoslavs against Germany, and on March 22 I telegraphed to Doctor Cvetkovic, the Yugoslav Premier.

22 March 41

Your Excellency: The eventual total defeat of Hitler
and Mussolini is certain. No prudent and farseeing man
can doubt this in view of the respective declared
resolves of the British and American democracies.

There are only 65,000,000 malignant Huns, most of
whom are already engaged in holding down Austrians,
Czechs, Poles, and many other ancient races they now
bully and pillage. The peoples of the British Empire and
of the United States number nearly 200,000,000 in their
homelands and British Dominions alone. We possess
the unchallengeable command of the oceans, and with
American help will soon obtain decisive superiority in
the air. The British Empire and the United States have
more wealth and more technical resources and they
make more steel than the whole of the rest of the world
The Grand Alliance

210

put together. They are determined that the cause of
freedom shall not be trampled down nor the tide of
world progress turned backwards by the criminal
dictators, one of whom has already been irretrievably
punctured. We know that the hearts of all true Serbs,
Croats, and Slovenes beat for the freedom, integrity,
and independence of their country, and that they share
the forward outlook of the English-speaking world. If
Yugoslavia were at this time to stoop to the fate of
Rumania, or commit the crime of Bulgaria, and become
accomplice in an attempted assassination of Greece,
her ruin will be certain and irreparable. She will not
escape, but only postpone, the ordeal of war, and her
brave armies will then fight alone after being surrounded and cut off from hope and succour. On the other
hand, the history of war has seldom shown a finer
opportunity than is open to the Yugoslav armies if they
seize it while time remains. If Yugoslavia and Turkey
stand together with Greece, and with all the aid which
the British Empire can give, the German curse will be
stayed and final victory will be won as surely and as
decisively as it was last time. I trust Your Excellency
may rise to the height of world events.

But on the evening of March 24 Cvetkovic and Markovic crept out of Belgrade from a suburban railway station on the Vienna train. Unknown to public opinion and the press, they signed the pact with Hitler at Vienna on the next day. When the returned Ministers laid before the Yugoslav Cabinet the text of the pact three colleagues resigned, and rumours of imminent disaster swept through the cafes and conclaves of Belgrade.

I now sent instructions to Mr. Campbell, our Minister in Belgrade.

26 March 41

Do not let any gap grow up between you and Prince
Paul or Ministers. Continue to pester, nag, and bite.

Demand audiences. Don’t take NO for an answer. Cling

The Grand Alliance

211

on to them, pointing out Germans are already taking
the subjugation of the country for granted. This is no
time for reproaches or dignified farewells. Meanwhile,
at the same time, do not neglect any alternative to
which we may have to resort if we find present Government have gone beyond recall. Greatly admire all you
have done so far. Keep it up by every means that occur
to you.

Direct action, if the Government capitulated to Germany, had been discussed for some months in the small circle of officers around Simovic. A revolutionary stroke had been carefully planned. The leader of the projected rising was General Bora Mirkovic, commander of the Yugoslav Air Force, aided by Major Knezevic, an army officer, and his brother, a professor, who established political contacts through his position in the Serb Democrat Party. Knowledge of the plan was confined to a small number of trustworthy officers, nearly all below the rank of colonel. The network extended from Belgrade to the main garrisons in the country, Zagreb, Skoplje, and Sarajevo. The forces at the disposal of the conspirators in Belgrade comprised two regiments of the Royal Guard, with the exception of their colonels, one battalion of the Belgrade garrison, a company of gendarmes on duty at the Royal Palace, part of the antiaircraft division stationed in the capital, the air force headquarters at Zemun, where Simovic was chief, and the cadet schools for officers and non-commissioned officers, together with certain artillery and sapper units.

When during March 26 the news of the return from Vienna of the Yugoslav Ministers and rumours of the pact began to circulate in Belgrade, the conspirators decided to act. The signal was given to seize key points in Belgrade, and the The Grand Alliance

212

royal residence, together with the person of the young King, Peter II, by dawn on March 27. While troops, under the command of resolute officers, were sealing off the Royal Palace on the outskirts of the capital, Prince Paul, knowing nothing or too much of what was afoot, was in the train bound for Zagreb. Few revolutions have gone more smoothly. There was no bloodshed. Certain senior officers were placed under arrest. Cvetkovic was brought by the police to Simovic’s headquarters and obliged to sign a letter of resignation. Machine guns and artillery were placed at suitable points in the capital. Prince Paul on arrival in Zagreb was informed that Simovic had taken over the Government in the name of the young King, Peter II, and that the Council of Regency had been dissolved. The military commander of Zagreb requested the Prince to return at once to the capital. As soon as he reached Belgrade, Prince Paul was escorted to the office of General Simovic. Together with the other two regents, he then signed the act of abdication. He was allowed a few hours to collect his effects, and, together with his family, he left the country that night for Greece.

The plan had been made and executed by a close band of Serb nationalist officers without waiting upon public opinion.

It let loose an outburst of popular enthusiasm which may well have surprised its authors. The streets of Belgrade were soon thronged with Serbs, chanting, “Rather war than the pact; rather death than slavery.” There was dancing in the squares; English and French flags appeared everywhere; the Serb national anthem was sung with wild defiance by valiant, helpless multitudes. On March 28 the young King, who by climbing down a rain-pipe had made his own escape from Regency tutelage, took the oath in Belgrade Cathedral amid fervent acclamation. The German Minister was publicly insulted, and the crowd spat on his

The Grand Alliance

213

car. The military exploit had roused a surge of national vitality. A people paralysed in action, hitherto ill-governed and ill-led, long haunted by the sense of being ensnared, flung their reckless, heroic defiance at the tyrant and conqueror in the moment of his greatest power.

Hitler was stung to the quick. He had a burst of that convulsive anger which momentarily blotted out thought and sometimes impelled him on his most dire adventures.

In a cooler mood, a month later, conversing with Schulenburg, he said, “The Yugoslav
coup
came suddenly out of the blue. When the news was brought to me on the morning of the twenty-seventh I thought it was a joke.” But now in a passion he summoned the German High Command. Goering, Keitel, and Jodl were present, and Ribbentrop arrived later. The minutes of the meeting are found in the Nuremberg records. Hitler described the Yugoslav situation after the upheaval. He said that Yugoslavia was an uncertain factor in the coming action against Greece (“Marita”), and even more in the

“Barbarossa” undertaking against Russia later on. He deemed it fortunate that the Yugoslavs had revealed their temper before “Barbarossa” was launched.

The Fuehrer is determined, without waiting for possible loyalty declarations of the new Government, to make all preparations in order
to destroy Yugoslavia
militarily and as a national unit.
No diplomatic inquiries will be made nor ultimatums presented. Assurances of the Yugoslav Government, which cannot be trusted anyhow in the future, will be “taken note of.” The attack will start as soon as the means and troops suitable for it are ready.