Shadows on the Mountain : The Allies, the Resistance, and the Rivalries That Doomed WWII Yugoslavia

by Kurapovna, Marcia

• ISBN13: 9780470084564
• ISBN10: 0470084561
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-02
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

An in-depth look at a crucial, little-known WWII episode-the failed Allied policy in Yugoslavia and its ramifications in the Balkans and beyondWinston Churchill called it his biggest wartime failure-the shift of British and U.S. support from Yugoslavia's Dra_a Mihailovi_ and his royalist resistance movement to Tito and his communist partisans. This book illuminates the complex reasons behind that failure through the incredible story of the largest single rescue of Allied airmen from behind enemy lines in WWII history, a rescue executed, incredibly, with minimal support from the U.S. and none from Great Britain. Recounts an unknown chapter of WWII history and the single largest rescue operation of the war Starting with Serbia's triumph and tragedy in WWI through civil war in Yugoslavia during WWI, focuses on the history of the Balkans, a tragically misunderstood part of the world Sheds new light on the OSS-SOE relationship and manipulations of intelligence that profoundly altered policy decision-making Reveals how failed Allied policy set the stage for Yugoslavia's breakup in the 1990s Details the wartime camaraderie of unlikely warriors who became fast friends, comrades, outcasts, and heroes in executing the rescueWritten with the drama of a novel and the insight of serious history, Shadows on the Mountain is essential reading for anyone interested in World War II, European history, and the Balkans.

Author Biography

Marcia Christoff Kurapovna is a former international affairs correspondent with an academic background in East European history. She has lived in and reported from southeastern Europe, Cairo, London, New York, and Washington, D.C. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal Europe, the International Herald Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, the Economist, and Foreign Affairs. She is now a full-time writer and lives in Vienna, Austria, with her fiancé, Dr. Johannes Eltz.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Prologue The Blue Graveyard	p. 1
Lawrence of Yugoslavia: An Allied Awakening inside a Civil War	p. 32
The Mountain at Dawn	p. 48
Lawrence of Yugoslavia II: Into the Partisan-Chetnik Quagmire	p. 79
The Balkan Prize	p. 101
Allied Rivals, Allied Destruction	p. 120
A Mission (Nearly) Impossible	p. 139
Legends of Blood and Honor: The Sad, Strange End of the British-Mihailović Relationship	p. 161
Their Brother's Keeper: The Downfall of Soviet-Tito Relations	p. 191
Night into Death into Day	p. 208
The Unknown Soldier	p. 217
The Red Graveyard	p. 232
The Politics of Surrender	p. 252
Epilogue The Mountain at Twilight	p. 269
Notes	p. 273
Index	p. 310
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