Operation Airlift, known in the US as Operation Halliard, was a large-scale Allied evacuation of airmen during World War II in Yugoslavia.
Source: US Air Force
The mission was the largest Allied air rescue operation conducted behind enemy lines during World War II. More than 500 allied airmen were evacuated.
Their planes were attacked and shot down after they flew to bomb the Romanian oil fields under German occupation and the pilots saved themselves and landed in the territory of western Serbia.
From August 1944 to February 1945, the Serbian population and the Yugoslav army in the homeland secretly transferred downed airmen to Pranjani in Serbia, where with the help of local peasants and Americans in the mission, an improvised airport was built that facilitated the non-evacuation of the allied forces.
“They did their best and put their lives on the line to save the Americans and their allies,” said Sergeant Gunnery Laureano Perez, commander of the US Embassy’s marine security detachment in Belgrade, as he laid a memorial wreath during a ceremony in Pranjani a few years ago.
American site Marines the report from the ceremony says that the forces under the command of General Dragoljub Mihailović protected the surviving pilots.
The constructed airstrip made it possible for the Allies to be successfully transferred by air to Italy.
“Shortly after Operation Halliard, the communist Yugoslav government arrested and executed Mihailović as a wartime collaborator. President Truman posthumously awarded Mihailović the Legion of Merit, the highest award ever given to a foreign citizen by the US government. The award was not physically presented to Mihailović’s family until 2005.” one report said.
In the New York Times article about the surviving veteran of Serbian origin, Djorž Vojnović, who was one of the organizers of the action, they remind that it was the veterans who came into contact with Mihailović’s daughter and presented the award in Serbia.
What is Operation Halliard? The action for which Truman decorated Draža Mihailović also took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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After several successful evacuations, the operation continued on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina when, under pressure from partisan forces, the Supreme Command of JVuO moved to eastern Bosnia. On Mount Ozren, a new airfield near the village of Boljanić, near Doboj, was built from October 22 to November 1, 1944. The head of the American military mission, Colonel Robert McDowell, went to Italy from this airfield on November 1, 1944. Captain John Milodragović and lieutenant Michael Rajačić went with them. On December 27, 1944, Captain Nik Lalić also flew to Italy from the airfield in Boljanić, as did radio and telegraph operator Artur Džibilijan.
In September of last year, Boljanić marked the 78th anniversary of these events Wreaths were laid by the then Serbian member of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik, and the President of Republika Srpska, Željka Cvijanović, as well as representatives of the US Embassy in BiH, the “Halijard” Foundation, and the Embassy of Great Britain.
(WORLD)