European University Institute Library

Churchill and Tito, Soe, Bletchley Park and supporting the Yugoslav communists in World War II, Christopher Catherwood

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

Churchill and Tito

bibliography

973919811

Christopher Catherwood

Soe, Bletchley Park and supporting the Yugoslav communists in World War II

"One of Churchill’s most controversial decisions during the Second World War was to switch SOE support in Yugoslavia in 1943 from the Cetniks loyal to the exiled Royal Government to backing Tito and his Communist Partisan guerrillas. It led to a Communist regime in Yugoslavia which lasted until Tito’s death in 1980, and the nationalistic sentiments he had suppressed exploding into ethnic violence in the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Until now the story has been that SOE was infiltrated by Communists in Cairo and that Fitzroy Maclean, Churchill’s personal delegate to Tito, was hoodwinked by the Communist leader, and that Churchill was duped into abandoning the royalists. However, the recently deposited papers of Sir Bill Deakin, Churchill's former assistant and an SOE operative in Yugoslavia, reveal that the decision was based upon absolutely solid evidence and in Britain's best military interests. The official history of SOE in Yugoslavia was never written, but Deakin was the main adviser to the person deputed to write it – and Christopher Catherwood was the first person to examine the papers deposited in Washington. These papers reveal that Churchill made his decision based on evidence not just from SOE, but also from MI3, SIS and SIGINT at Bletchley Park. Christopher Catherwood can now demonstrate that one of Churchill’s most significant and consequential decisions of the Second World War was not the terrible mistake that historians have portrayed it."--, Provided by publisher

A truly brief history of the Balkans -- Hail Caesar Britain, SOE and Yugoslavia after 1941 -- A conspiracy in Cairo -- The Bletchley Park sigint unfolds -- M13: the unfolding story -- Bailey and the Mihailovic bombshell -- Mayhem and massacre on the mountain -- The Maclean mission -- Lawrence of Yugoslavia: Slim Farish's adventures -- The real OSS report on Mihailovic -- The shepherd conspiracy -- Churchill, Gettysburg and Yugoslavia, 1945 -- Sample sigint communications