The young lieutenant noticed that the gun's hits did more damage than expected,
as dark clouds of smoke continued to emerge from the aircraft.
Although scattered through the region, the German AA guns still posed a threat
to the American bomber formations in Yugoslavia.
The bombing of the objectives was successful, but the cost to pay was the loss of some B-24 bombers
that caught the fire of the Anti-Aircraft guns.
One of those unfortunate B-24's was commanded by Lt. Thomas Oliver and his crew.
He growled as he felt the ruggedness of the aircraft's controls and a sudden convulsion
of the B-24. The third engine was now gone. The crew was not returning to Italy airborne anymore.
It was time to retrieve, he thought. He hit the crew alarm button and yelled
through the intercom, (QUOTE): "Bailout, everybody! Bailout!"
AA fire intensified as well as the smoke floating around the ship.
The crew began to exit the B-24 without hesitation.
Lt. Oliver let go of the wheel in a furious dash and ran for the escape hatch.
Next thing he was parachuting to the unknown, watching how his warhorse, his B-24,
slammed the ground and exploded in bursts of flames and debris.
He was nervous about what was going to happen next.
He had just landed in enemy territory, where everything could go sideways
with militias that patrolled the area fighting for both the Allies and the Axis during World War II.
It was a coin flip that could end his life anytime. Fortunate for him,
he landed on top of a farm where a generous Serbian family offered him shelter.
But not all of his men would receive the same fate.
He had to gather them up in the unknown territory.
Like him, other 500 airmen had found themselves parachuting into a combat zone
where they did not know their faiths.
They all thought their fate was sealed. They had lost hope.
But little they knew that the US Air Force, through the Office of Strategic Services,
the precursor of the CIA and Special Forces, was preparing an ambitious classified operation
to save all the men lost behind enemy lines.
Operation Halyard was formed, and it had one purpose only: No man left behind.
German Oil Refineries
As World War II raged across the world,
the once seemingly invincible Third Reich began steadily losing ground on all fronts.
First, it was Africa, then Russia. As the Eastern Front grew in proportion, the oil
refineries Germany had outside of Russia became increasingly important for the war industry.
When their grip on Russia became unstable, Germany was forced to rely on the petroleum resources it
had on other territories, such as the various oil refineries located in Ploesti, Romania. This is
where Lt. Oliver and other Allied forces began bombing missions in the first months of 1944.
These bombing missions were an attempt to destroy Germany's precious petroleum resources
at its disposal to feed its industry.
American bombing crews stationed in Italy would go on bombing missions in Hungary,
Slovakia, Romania, and other Balkans regions.
But the most crucial objective was Ploesti, as it supplied 35 % of the Reich's petroleum.
In April 1944, during a ferocious raid by the Fifteenth Air Force,
the plant was severely damaged.
In August 1944, the base would be destroyed at the cost of 350 bombers and its crews.
Many of these men would find themselves lost in Serbia
and other countries with a strong Axis presence.
Some Allied soldiers were aided by the local population.
Others were taken as POWs by militias who supported the Axis.
In Serbia, the American aviators were often rescued by friendly forces of
the Chetnik guerilla army under the Command of Gen. Draza Mihailovich.
More than 500 airmen had been found roaming in Mihailovich's territory since January 1944.
The rest were not so lucky.
A Rescue Behind Enemy Lines
Initial attempts of contacting US personnel of the situation proved unsuccessful.
Still, word got around to Mirjana Vujnovich,
a Serbian employee of the Yugoslav embassy in Washington, DC.
She contacted her husband, George Vujnovich, who happened to be an operations officer at an OSS
station in Italy. He immediately contacted Nathan Twining, the general of the Fifteenth Air Force,
and other OSS leaders in Bari, Italy, to conceive a rescue operation.
Members of the Office of Strategic Services agreed that to extract the aviators, they would need to
first send behind enemy lines a team of special operators to organize and contact the Chetniks.
Then, to extract the men, they would need to build an airstrip for the rescue aircraft to land.
That was the only possible way to remove the men in a combat zone under German control.
It was not going to be easy, as the construction would garner the local population's attention.
There was a high risk of being spotted by the German garrisons in the vicinity,
including the occasional German air patrols that surveyed the areas.
Many things could go wrong, but no American was going to be left behind.
There was, however, one particular problem with the operation,
and it did not involve the Axis but the British Allies.
Shifting British Politics
Vujnovich's plan
was not seen with good eyes by the British.
First of all, Yugoslavia fell under the British sphere of influence.
They were in charge of conducting any Allied covert operations in the zone.
And they were not fond of the idea of Americans getting into their zone,
even if that involved the very Rescue of British aviators.
Secondly, the plan involved Mihailovich and his Chetniks' support,
whom the British had dropped in favor of his Communist rival, Josip Broz, also known as Tito.
Winston Churchill himself--furious after the American Command decided to support Operation
Anvil, the invasion of southern France, instead of an amphibious assault on the Balkans--condemned
Mihailovich's passive attitude towards the Germans.
Nonetheless, in July 1944,
after a meeting with President Roosevelt regarding the operation's approval, he ordered the
British to cooperate if they wished to continue receiving American support on the Italian front.
Thus, Operation Halyard was born, but relations with the British were more fractured than ever.
Vujnovich, the creator of the plan, was replaced by cv , a Serb American, to lead the team instead
because Churchill despised Vujnovich for his inclinations towards Mihailovich and not Tito.
The 3-man team of OSS officers was composed of Musulin,
Sgt. Mike Rajacich, who was also Serb American, and radio operator Arthur Jibilian.
The infiltration drop was set for July 15 in Mihailović's headquarters at Pranjani. Still,
ongoing issues with British pilots, who were flying over Tito's territory, made it impossible
until August 2, when the team of 3 decided to make the drop with an American aircraft.
Operation Halyard Begins
Once the 3 OCC officers parachuted in a dark, cold night into Pranjani,
the Serbians were filled with joy when they spotted Musulin because they knew him of old.
The 3 officers were then quickly overwhelmed by the more than 200 aviators who surrounded them.
They expected no more than 100 missing airmen.
For the aviators, the arrival of the rescue team turned their hopes of Rescue into a reality.
Lt. Oliver recalls (QUOTE):
"It was a tremendous thrill to see them coming in
because we knew that things were underway to get us out of there."
Musulin's OSS team quickly got to work the next day. With the generous help
of the Chetniks and Mihailovich, they began the construction of the airstrip.
More than 200 aviators and some 300 villagers began working rapidly.
Although they only had farming tools at their disposal, work advanced flawlessly.
A 700-yard-long swath was hacked out on a narrow plateau halfway up the neighboring mountainside.
An additional clearing of 75 feet was added later
to give the C-47 Rescue more space for a successful landing.
On August 8, 1944, after 6 long days of work, the airstrip was finished.
The OSS team radioed Command for extraction. It was time to get the men out.
The Rescue begins
The next day, the team and the survivors were left in total fear and confusion
when a German Stuka and two JU-52 cargo planes flew over the airstrip.
For several intense minutes, the men and the villagers,
hiding in the woodline, shook in fear as they saw the Axis aircraft's shadows crossing the field.
The OSS team thought their operation was compromised, and the Germans were there to
bomb the field… Tense seconds passed before the German plane finally disappeared on the horizon.
Luckily, a herd of cows had crossed the field simultaneously,
giving the look of a recently plowed field from 1000 feet.
Late at night that same day, at 10PM, Musulin and his men heard the C-47s approaching.
In the sky, they saw 4 aircraft approaching. When the first aircraft landed,
they were notified that the other two had returned to base for engine problems.
Only 48 men were gathered for the first extraction—12 per plane.
Protecting the airstrip stood 4000 of Mihailovich's First Ravna Gorski Corps,
deployed around Pranjani against any German attack.
As the men began to board the C-47s, hundreds of Serb villagers
and Chetniks who had sheltered the Allies gathered at the airstrip to bid farewell.
Seconds before takeoff, sources recall that a very emotive moment took place as (QUOTE):
"The side doors of the planes swung open to reveal the rescued airmen unlacing their boots
and holding them up for the villagers to see."
In a final act of gratitude, the airmen tossed their boots and flight jackets out to the Serb
villagers—many of them just humble farmers who barely had clothing and proper footwear.
The Americans were amazed by their hospitality and humility.
Next morning, at 8AM, to everyone's joy,
6 more C-47s appeared in the sky escorted by more than 30 P-38s and P-51s fighter planes.
After taking off, 6 aircraft arrived to extract the remaining airmen 30 minutes later.
Just like the night before, the soldiers gave their boots
and jackets to the humble people that sheltered them for months.
272 Allied aviators made it back to Italy during the first 2 days.
Among the American aviators, there were British, French, Italians, and even Russians.
The operation would continue to go on for another 6 months, until December 1944.
More than 500 men were safely extracted from Yugoslavia.
There was not a single casualty during the operation.
An Honorable Man
During the last extraction, OSS operatives offered Mihailovich to evacuate him.
Still, he declined, preferring to share his people's fate instead.
In March 1946, Mihailovich was captured and sentenced to death by his Communist foe in Tito.
His execution took place in July 1946, and his remains were buried in an unmarked grave.
American Veterans and former airmen that were saved thanks to Mihailovich were outraged when
news reached the US about his death. It was an unfair death to a man that saved many lives.
In 1948, under pressure by military personnel, President Truman awarded a posthumous secret
Legion of Merit to Mihailovich for his contributions to Operation Halyard.
The citation read, (QUOTE): "Through the undaunted efforts of his troops,
many United States airmen were rescued and returned safely to friendly control."