MIKHAILOVITCH-AND OTHERS.

Evening Star, Issue 25032, 26 November 1943, Page 2

MIKHAILOVITCH-AND OTHERS.

It will not cheer the Germans, oppressed by Berlin's calamities, overweighted on their eastern front, aud uncertain whether invasion will come first from the west or from the Balkans, to hear that General Mikhailovjtch, the Yugoslav leader, has now gained control of the whole of Montenegro. The ©lack Mountain State we know; its people have been famous for their devotion to freedom. Lying' north of Albania, it has a seaboard on the Adriatic. Of General Mikhailovitch we shall know more before the war is ended; Mr ¥. A. Voigt, writing in the ' Nineteenth Century,' does not hesitate to call him "one of the greatest figures in the Second World War." When the Yugoslav army disintegrated following the German and Bulgarian assaults it was he who drew together the remnants to form the nucleus of a new force of resistance. By tho patriot Government which was formed m London he was given the position of War Minister, which he still holds. The Germans professed at first to treat him cheaply as a mere bandit and the odds against Mikhailovitch seemed overwhelming, but the forces at his command grew steadily and the exit of the Italians from the war gave them new advantages. His armed followers, the Ohetuiks, along with peasant insurrectionists, the Partisans, with whom they are now co-operating better after earlier difficulties, have greatly extended their range of harrying and control, and the whole Dalmatian coast, which stretches north from Montenegro, has been made a region of peril for the Germans. The guerrillas, without tanks or heavy artillery, cannot seize key areas, which include the cities, but they can isolate them to no small extent, playing havoc with communications. Last month it was reported that these irregularsGeneral Mikhailovitch's forces are really regulars—were operating under the direct control of General Maitland Wilson, whose officers had spent weeks at their headquarters, and, according to Vichy advices, 'Russian staff officers also were assisting their plan of campaign. On the coastal strip it is the Partisans who appear to have been most active, including, it is stated, many thousands of Italians who had gone over tn their ranks, as well as Italian munitions. General Mikhailovitch was delaying his main Wows till thev could be synchronised with an Allied landing. "Partisan operations were reported this week to have extended to the Banat. which is Hungarian territory. When the Yugoslav-

movements arc considered in conjunction with sabotage in North Jtaly and in other occupied territories, point is given to the judgment which has been expressed that there is no " fortress Europe." "In the end, inner Europe cannot be a citadel for the Germans; it can only be a trap."