Draža Mihailović

Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић, known to his supporters as Uncle Draža (Чича Дража); 26 April 1893 – 17 July 1946) was a Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. A staunch royalist, he retreated to the mountains near Belgrade when the Germans overran Yugoslavia in April 1941 and there he organized bands of guerrillas known as the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army. The organisation is commonly known as the Chetniks, although the name of the organisation was later changed to the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland (JVUO, ЈВУО).

Founded as a royalist/nationalist Serb resistance movement, it was the first Yugoslav resistance movement to be formed, followed shortly by Josip Broz Tito's Partisans. Initially, the two groups operated in parallel, but by late 1941 began fighting each other in the attempt to gain control of post-war Yugoslavia. Many Chetnik groups collaborated or established modus vivendi with the Axis powers. After the war, Mihailović was captured by the communists. He was tried and convicted of high treason and war crimes by the authorities of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, and executed by firing squad in Belgrade. The nature and extent of his responsibility for collaboration and ethnic massacres remain controversial. On 14 May 2015 Mihailović was rehabilitated after a ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation, the highest appellate court in Serbia.