OSTOJIĆ: OPERATION HALYARD - AN INSUFFICIENTLY TOLD TRUTH

DOBOJ, OCTOBER 3 /SRNA/ - Operation Halyard – an airlift operation in which, 82 years ago, the Ozren Chetnik Corps of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland rescued 60 Allied pilots in the village of Boljanić near Doboj – remains a historical truth that has not been sufficiently told, historian from Doboj Goran Ostojić told SRNA.
Ostojić said that post-war historiography obscured the truth about the Serbian people’s liberation struggle, including the operation to rescue Allied pilots in Boljanić, which, unfortunately, remains little known even on Mount Ozren, where it took place.

He reminded that it was precisely Colonel Cvijetin Todić, commander of the Ozren Chetnik Corps of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, and the residents of Boljanić who made the rescue of Allied pilots possible after they were shot down over territory that was then occupied and under the control of the Independent State of Croatia.

Putting the period in its historical context, Ostojić stressed that the anti-fascist struggle of General Dragoljub Mihailović, commander of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, was a genuine patriotic resistance movement during the Second World War, as evidenced by the general’s posthumous award of the Legion of Merit, the highest US military decoration.

Vaskrsija Janković from Boljanić, who as a boy witnessed that period and heard firsthand accounts from those who lived through it, and later co-authored the monograph Rescue of Allied Airmen, wrote that the first aircraft carrying 15 American airmen took off from the Boljanić airfield on November 1, 1944. A second evacuation, involving 20 rescued Allied airmen, was organized on December 27 of the same year, and the final evacuation took place in late February 1945, when 25 airmen flew out of Boljanić.

According to his account, local residents looked after and fed the Allied pilots and airmen, and members of the Ozren Chetnik Detachment of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland protected them from the Nazis and Ustashas.

The monograph was written out of Janković’s desire to preserve a written record of the events and circumstances surrounding them, given that, as he pointed out, from as early as 1945 it was not advisable to speak about them, let alone write about them, because members of the Ozren Chetnik Detachment and their sympathizers fell out of favour due to ideological differences.

A copy of the monograph Rescue of Allied Airmen, co-authored by Cvijetin Jovanović from Boljanić, was also given to director Radoš Bajić while he was preparing to shoot the film Halyard Heroes.

The 82nd anniversary of Operation Halyard – Airlift will be marked today in the village of Boljanić near Doboj. It was an operation that rescued more than 500 Allied pilots, including 60 in this village. It was the largest operation to rescue American servicemen behind enemy lines in 1944 and 1945.

The commemoration will begin at 11:00 a.m. and is being organized by the Republika Srpska Government Committee for the Preservation of the Traditions of Liberation Wars.