Maclean Mission

rdf:langString Maclean Mission

rdf:langString Maclean, p. 280

rdf:langString Maclean, p. 346

rdf:langString Maclean, p. 448

rdf:langString Maclean, pp. 303-306

rdf:langString Maclean, pp. 324-325

rdf:langString Maclean, pp. 402-403

rdf:langString "We found there was little or no disagreement between us as to the facts. It was common ground that the Četniks, though in the main well disposed towards Great Britain, were militarily less effective than the Partisans and that some of Mihailović's subordinates had undoubtedly reached accommodations with the enemy. I was interested to find that some of those who knew him best, while liking and respecting him as a man, had little opinion of Mihailović as a leader."

rdf:langString "I have seldom met anyone who gave a more vivid impression of mental and physical activity... he had the same tense, strained look as all the Partisan leaders, a look which comes from long months of physical and mental stress... Vitality radiated from his leathery, drawn features... He spoke French like a Frenchman ... the science of warfare had first become a reality to him in Spain, where he had fought for the Republicans, an experience which had left a profound impression on him."

rdf:langString "This makes your job more important than ever. The German position in Italy is crumbling. We must now put all the pressure we can on them on the other side of the Adriatic. You must go in without delay."

rdf:langString "So long as the whole Western civilization was threatened by the Nazi menace, we could not afford to let our attention be diverted from the immediate issue by considerations of long-term policy. We are as loyal to our Soviet Allies as we hoped they were to us. Your task is simply to find out who is killing the most Germans and suggest means by which we could help them to kill more. Politics must be a secondary consideration."

rdf:langString "All had one thing in common: an intense pride in their Movement and in its achievements. For them, the outside world did not seem of immediate interest or importance. What mattered was their War of National Liberation, their struggle against the invader, their victories, their sacrifices. Of this, they were proudest of all, that they owed nothing to anyone; that they had got so far without outside help... With this pride went a spirit of dedication, hard not to admire. The life of every one of them was ruled by rigid self-discipline, complete austerity; no drinking, no looting, no love-making. It was though each one of them were bound by a vow, a vow part ideological and part military, for, in the conditions under which they were fighting, any relaxation of discipline would have been disastrous; nor could private desires and feelings be allowed to count for anything."

rdf:langString "They were mostly very young, with high Slav cheek-bones and red stars stitched to their caps and wearing a strange assortment of civilian clothes and captured enemy uniform and equipment. The red star, sometimes embellished with a hammer and sickle, was the only thing common to all of them... While we sat there, messengers kept bringing in situation reports from nearby areas where operations were in progress. As they delivered their messages, they too gave the clenched-fist salute... In Russia, I had only seen the Revolution twenty years after the event, when it was as rigid and pompous and firmly established as any regime in Europe. Now I was seeing the struggle in its initial stages, with the revolutionaries fighting for life and liberty against tremendous odds."

rdf:langString "'Do you intend, to make Yugoslavia your home after the war?' 'No, Sir.' I replied. 'Neither do I,' he said. 'And, that being so, the less you and I worry about the form of Government they set up, the better. That is for them to decide. What interests us is, which of them is doing most to harm the Germans?'"

rdf:langString The Maclean Mission (MACMIS) was a World War II British mission to Yugoslav partisans HQ and Marshall Tito organised by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in September 1943. Its aim was to assess the value of the partisans contribution to the Allied cause and the means to increase it. It was led by a recently promoted Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean and was first such mission with full authorization and a personal message from Winston Churchill. His memoir of these years forms the final third of Eastern Approaches (1949).