The mythologization of the Halyard Mission has been going on for a long time now. Today, it is one of the founding myths on which the statehood of the Republic of Serbia rests. It shapes the national memory of World War II. In such a constellation, the Serbian Orthodox Church has already taken its place of honor, as well the Radicals, and the cockade is made center of the new heraldry. The Chetniks are rehabilitated to such a degree that a drop of Chetnik blood in the family line makes one a kind of royalty. If you are originally from Pranjan, the village of Ba or from Ravna Gora, the world is your oyster; you can get a free education, guaranteed employment in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or a career as a diplomat spreading myths about small, liberty-loving Serbia which saved American pilots in 1943/44 thanks to the Ravna Gora movement of Draza Mihailovic. The number of rescued pilots is no longer important, because the myth has long since outgrown the facts, so we’ve managed to turn about three hundred rescues – far less than the rescue actions the Partisans had, who at the time had over 130 airstrips in the liberated territory – into state commemorative rituals that integrate the entire national community around the legacy of Chetnik warfare.
The Halyard Mission has finally been adapted into film, directed by Rados Bajic, whose two monumental series about the present and past of Serbia recommended him for the job: Selo gori, a baba se ceslja and Ravna gora. With these projects, Bajic tried to show the evolutionary path of the Chetniks from the use of cold weapons in World War II to the modernization of the Serbian countryside at the beginning of the XXI century. This journey from slaughter to plowing brought Bajic into the modern age with a single quantum leap, which also took the Chetniks from outhouses on the Morava to modern toilets. The next logical step was the adaptation to the screen of the founding myth of that community, which found its sources in the oral traditions of collaborators in the villages around Ravna Gora.
It turned out that the arrival of an American diplomat, former pilot John Cappello, to Serbia, was key to recognizing the potential of a story that would overcome animosity towards the USA, created after the NATO bombing of the FRY in 1999. It was necessary to find some kind of historical common link with Serbia, which was now on a new course of Chetnik historical revisionism. Delighted by the Chetnik legends about the rescue mission, Capello founded the Halyard Mission Foundation and began organizing the promotion of this story in Serbia and America. He set himself the ambitious goal of finding the descendants of the rescued American pilots and connecting them with the descendants of the Chetniks who rescued their fathers and grandfathers. Setting maximum expectations is always good, since it often guarantees success. Thus, Capello created several exhibitions, mainly in military institutions, such as the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in North Carolina, where visitors can learn about the facts of this operation, but also see some artifacts such as Draza’s golden ring with an engraved skull, or learn something about Serbia, and then take a group photo with three raised fingers. For the most part, the exchange of knowledge proceeded spontaneously and without much delving into historical facts and their meanings.
Finally, the Halyard Mission has become a mandatory commemoration for the state. Every year in September, the highest state leadership goes to Galovica Polje near Pranjani to pay tribute to the Chetniks who participated in that rescue mission. President Vucic made his modest contribution to the whole matter by diverting 70 million dinars for the construction of the Memorial Complex. But the Halyard myth keeps growing and transcending borders. What kind of Serbian myth would it be if it existed only in Serbia and not in other Serbian territories. Fortunately, a certain Vaskrsija Jankovic from the village of Boljanic near Doboj appeared and managed to rescue from the prison of the Yugoslav peoples the story about the rescue of American pilots on the soil of Bosnia, 60 of them, as he wrote in his book Saving Allied Pilots (Narodna biblioteka Petrovo, 2016). Namely, he witnessed those events as a boy and then described everything beautifully, especially how it was forbidden to talk about the rescue operation on Ozren under communism, because censorship reigned until 1998, when the patriots were finally allowed to put up a memorial plaque with information about the events of World War II.
This year, once again, on October 3, government representatives from Serbia and Republika Srpska went to Ozren near Doboj to pay tribute to the Ozren Chetnik brigade and its commander Cvjetin Todic, who managed the aforementioned operation. Milorad Dodik himself was surprised because he had never heard of that story before. He was countermanded by the special envoy of the President of Serbia, Minister of Culture Maja Gojkovic, who is much more deeply connected to these Chetnik myths, partially through the Serbian Radical Party, partially through family tradition. At the commemoration of the 79th anniversary of Operation “Air Bridge”, also known as the Halyard Mission, she said: “it is a great thing that today we can freely say that the Serbian people of Ozren and Doboj, Pranjani and other places in Serbia and Republika Srpska, by participating in this operation, stood on the better and more just side of humanity”. On that occasion, she did not fail to mention the upcoming film Heroes of Halyard, which will be shown soon. As it turns out, it is the second most important film production in Serbia, after Dara of Jasenovac by Predrag Antonijevic. These films, both Oscar contenders, represent the highest reach of the state’s artistic projects, which are not subject to artistic criticism, just as the historical events they deal with must not be reexamined by the methods of modern historiography, but must be unquestioningly accepted and developed, just as the mythical surrender is accepted.
Considering the strong myth-making potential of the Halyard Mission among the political elite, I wouldn’t be surprised if some new Vaskrsija appears in the coming years, testifying to the presence of myths about Halyard on the soil of Montenegro or northern Kosovo. Works are in progress.
Translated by Marijana Simic
Peščanik.net, 20.12.2023.
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