New Approaches in 1944

"Third Front" established by Jan 1, 1944

• not only in Italy, but in also in Yugoslavia
• Yugoslav Partisans organized Nov. '42 by Croatian Josib Broz Tito who was communist, pro-Stalin
• this front did not include the Serbian Chetniks of Col. Mihailovich who had been supported by the British until the Allies switched to Tito after Sept. 1943, due to the British belief that the Chetniks did not help minorities (Croats, Slovenes), stayed in mountains and did not fight Germans, and believed some joined the Italians and Germans to fight against the Partisans. Yet Mihailovich helped hundreds of American fliers who crashed in Yugoslavia, and provided 8000 troops to build and defend a runway for the C-47 cargo planes that rescued 500-750 airmen, including Major Richard L. Felman, in Op. Halyard that began in August 1944.
• Tito and his National Liberation Army led a mostly Serbian resistance against the pro-German Ustashe government of the German-created state of Croatia with its extermination camp at Jasenovac and a Balkan holocaust that killed 750,000 Serbs, Jews, Gypsies by 1945. The Muslims in Bosnia cooperated with the Ustashe in Croatia.
• in 1943, Tito engaged 10 German divisions - map Time 1944/1/3
• in 1943-44, the "German Iron Ring" held the Aegean - map Newsweek 1943/11/29
• The Greek resistance movement ELAS was second only to Tito in fighting the Germans in the Aegean, a role denied by the film Captain Corelli's Mandolin based on the novel by Louis de Bernieres
• in 1944, Tito gained support of FDR & Churchill, was helped by Foggia air base map
• in Nov, 1944, the Soviet army liberated Belgrade and recognized Tito's new socialist Yugoslavia federal state that included the republics of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia (including Herzegovina), Macedonia and Montenegro and the autonomous regions of Vojvodina and Kosovo within Serbia
• "First Movies Of Gen. Tito Of Yugoslavia," Universal 17-305 newsreel, 6/22/44 on DVD53
• "Free Greeks Hail Allied Deliverance," Universal 17-343 newsreel, 11/02/44 (2) on DVD54
• "Strife Torn Greece Gets Food Relief," Universal 17-355 newsreel, 12/14/44 92) on DVD54

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The war in Italy and the peripheral strategy of the early war would fail to achieve victory. New approaches for the European war in 1944 would include expansion of the air war and the CBO, more supplies to Stalin through the Iran and Mideast Lend-Lease routes, expansion of bases and air routes in South America and Africa, the Presque Isle base, more aid to resistance groups in Yugoslavia and Greece, the buildup for D-Day and the invasion of France, the application of the strategy of attrition, the development of new weapons such as the B-29 and the Manhattan Project, greater use of women and Native American and African American soldiers, the improvement of troop morale with Betty Grable, and Glenn Miller, and Irving Berlin, and the establishment of USO centers such as the North Platte Canteen.

Links:

• The Black Book film 2007

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