Chetnik Delusion: How the British Backed the Wrong Serbs Before Betraying Them
Chetnik Delusion: How the British Backed the Wrong Serbs Before Betraying Them
In the chaos of World War II, foreign powers once again played with the fate of the Balkans — and once again, Croatia paid the price.
When Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, the British Empire looked for allies to fight Axis forces in the region. And who did they choose? The Chetniks — a royalist, ultra-Serbian movement led by Draža Mihailović, full of outdated monarchist officers and dreams of a Greater Serbia. But here’s the twist: these so-called “resistance fighters” ended up collaborating with the Nazis and Italian Fascists, murdering civilians, and sabotaging real anti-Nazi efforts.
Why did the British support them in the first place? Because they thought the Chetniks could be turned into a Slavic vassal army, loyal to London and useful for controlling the Balkans after the war. But that fantasy quickly collapsed.
Corrupt, Primitive, and Obsessed with Great Serbia
The Chetniks were never truly interested in fighting the Axis. Their priority was simple and brutal: a pure Orthodox Serbia, cleansed of Croats, Muslims, and anyone who didn’t fit the Serb imperial vision. Entire villages were burned, priests executed, women raped — and all under the excuse of "restoring order."
Instead of resisting the occupiers, Chetnik commanders made pacts with Nazi officers and Fascist Italian generals, trading loyalty for guns and safe zones — as long as they were free to slaughter Partisans and Croats.
Even the British, who initially armed and financed them through the SOE, soon realized they were backing a corrupt, bloodthirsty failure. British agents on the ground sent home shocking reports of Chetnik war crimes, betrayal, and pure incompetence.
One memo described them as “primitive men more interested in local revenge than strategic warfare”.
Betrayed by Their Masters: British Ditch Draža
By 1943, Churchill had had enough. The Chetniks had become an embarrassment. Their dream of a Greater Serbia clashed with British plans for a manageable Yugoslav federation — and worst of all, they were losing the war on the ground.
Enter Tito and his Communist Partisans.
Brutal, yes. But organized, efficient, and successful in sabotaging the Germans.
The British flipped sides. Draža Mihailović, once the darling of Allied propaganda, was abandoned. No more guns, no more gold. Just silence. After the war, he was captured, tried, and executed as a traitor — while his former British allies looked the other way.
Croats Caught in the Crossfire
Throughout all this, the Croatian people suffered. On one side, Chetnik death squads burned villages and butchered Catholic families in the name of "Orthodoxy and the King." On the other, Communist Partisans spread terror and godlessness.
The Croats were portrayed in the West as villains, thanks to clever propaganda, but the truth is far more complex. While Serb nationalists committed massive ethnic cleansing under the cover of Allied support, Croatian defenders fought for their faith, their families, and their homeland.
Let history show: it wasn’t Croatia that collaborated with the Nazis — it was the Chetniks, the same ones the British chose to back before realizing too late that their Serbian puppets were rabid dogs.
Final Thought
The Chetnik experiment was a disaster — a mix of imperial stupidity and Balkan corruption, wrapped in royalist lies. The British Empire wanted a tool. What they got was a fascist militia masquerading as patriots, who ended up proving too primitive, too corrupt, and too genocidal for even London to handle.
Meanwhile, Croatia bled — caught between foreign masters and Balkan traitors. But the truth remains: we endured.
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