Evacuation of Allied airmen from Yugoslavia

Hello,

I am doing research on American airmen rescued from Yugoslavia during ww2.
I found some informations on this forum, and got some help from Biak whose uncle was one of the rescued airmen.
He also asked me to post something on my research.

I will write short introduction first, since I don't know what might interest forum members.
Feel free to ask question, so we could expand topic.

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Yugoslavia was invaded by axis powers in April of 1941, and divided into several occupied zones by Germans, Italians, Bulgarians and Hungarians.
Shortly after occupation, in almost entire country rebellions started - partly to liberate country, but mainly against terror that started in puppet Independent state of Croatia (NDH, which consisted approximately from today's Croatia and Bosnia).

Main guerrilla forces were Tito's partisans, communist force, and royalist chetniks under colonel Draza Mihailovic.
Although they started uprising together, they quickly started to fight each other, and could not cooperate again against occupying forces until the end of war.

When allies invaded Italy, help could be brought in large quantities, and in somewhat controversial decision, Churchill decided to back communist partisans, instead of chetniks who were recognized from Yugoslav government in London. His decision was allegedly made because partisans were fighting more against Germans, but it was also revealed that Ultra gave evidence of chetnik collaboration with Germans, in fight against partisans.

In same period, MAAF with 15 Army air force was transferred at bases around Foggia in southern Italy, and started bombing campaign across Europe.
Many of it's planes were damaged, and crews had to bail in occupied Europe. Yugoslavia was in good position, since most of the flights fe above it. Crews knew that they could easily find partisans if they reach yugoslav mountains, where guerrillas controlled most of the territory.

Their evacuations were totally different from other such in Europe. Instead of trying to blend in, and travel under disguise to neutral countries, Airmen in Yugoslavia were very quickly taken by guerrillas, and escorted to allied mission that would evacuate them through clandestine airfields, or by sea.

Here are some data i found in my research to illustrate:
(since I am still doing research, data are not precise).
- total of 4200 American airmen fell in Yugoslavia
- of them, 600 were killed in air or during bail out or landing.
Few airmen were killed on ground, and few during escape, maybe 10 or so total.
- 1200 airmen were captured by Germans, NDH ustashe, or Bulgarians.
- around 2400 airmen were rescued by partisans and chetniks.
There is also some 70-80 airmen who fell mainly in Italy and were transferred to partisans.

Some 100 british airmen were rescued as well, with few thousand other men who escaped german camps - French, Italian, Russian, etc.
With them, often on same vessel, were rescued tens of thousand wounded partisans, refugees, etc.


Apart from this, there were airports at Vis island, later near Zadar, where more than 200 damaged planes landed.
Their crew quickly returned to Italy, and planes were mainly repaired and put back to service.

Storis on chetnik evacuations during Halyard mission are recently publicized a lot. It is interesting story, since at the time allied missions were withdrawn, and chetniks collaborated more with Germans. But despite all this, Air Crew Rescue Unit sent Halyard mission to Draza Mihailovic Hq, and they helped to evacuate allied airmen. Some 380 airmen were evacuated by chetniks, and more than 100 more were evacuated by chetniks, but later handed over to partisans who had means to rescue them.

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In research I used primarily documents, since I found that lot of later stories are quite inaccurate, and with little details.
I used combination of MACR - Missing Air Crew Record, which contains basic data on plane and crew, and sometimes description of evacuation, and Escape and Evasion statements, which have more detailed description on rescue.

Escape and Evasion statements of 15 AAF are located in Maxwell AFB on several dozen rolls, unlike ones of 8 AAF which are available online at NARA website. Despite this, I managed to collect 1700 statements, which is approximately 2/3 of all evacuated from Yugoslavia. I am trying to cover other airmen through other sources.

I am working on database in Excel, which will help me lot with statistics, and general overview.
It is big job, since it has almost 4300 names, with some 16 columns each.

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I hope this will be enough for intro. Feel free to ask questions.

 

It is George Freeman, not O'Donnell.

Yes, I read it. It is novel, best known book on subject but not particularly good.
It is based on several interviews and not particularly well researched.

I also read his additional chapter on Redtails and Halyard mission, but it was disappointing.
He failed to find that at least one Redtails airmen was rescued by chetniks, and his story is based on their cover mission to Pranjani airfield, which was not dramatic.

Overall, easy and entertaining to read, but useless for any kind of research.

 

USAAF losses are being input on the "forum member editable" database at: http://lostaircraft.com/
- Long way to go yet.

(Unfortunately Yugoslavia can not be entered as a loss location as it no longer exits as a country. So search for Yugoslavia in "Comments.")

You and all are welcome to contribute!

Advanced Database Search Engine: http://www.lostaircraft.com/database.php?lang=en&mode=search

 

Fred,
my primary search is missing airmen, not aircraft.

In lot of escape statements exact crash place is told, but I did not bother to write it since I don't need it.
For my needs I wrote only nearest town where crew landed, and even that was not easy to find in all cases.

I did make list of american planes that crashed in Yugoslavia.
I have some 380 B-17 and B-24, plus some 150 planes - without Adriatic sea.

 

My father Lt. Verl Lewis was shot down on April 6, 1944. He was found,rescued and evacuated back to is unit in Italy.
I am trying to find more information.

My father,Lt. Verl Lewis and the crew on the B-17 "Banshee" was shot down on April 6,1944. He was rescued and evacuated back to his unit in Italy. I am trying to find more for a story commemorating 75 years of that fateful day.
Any help, appreciated.

 

B-17G service number 42-31831 Banshee lost during bombing mission on Plolesti oil field.