On Sunday, 28th of this present month, will occur the fourth anniversary of the day when the gallant people of Serbia, rather than submit to the studied and ignoble exactions of a prearranged foe, were called upon by the war declaration of Austria-Hungary to defend their territory and their homes against an enemy bent on their destruction. Nobly did they respond. So valiantly and courageously did they oppose the forces of a country ten times greater in population and resources that it was only after they had thrice driven the Austrians back and Germany and Bulgaria had come to the aid of Austria that they were compelled to retreat into Albania. While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken. Though overwhelmed by superior forces, their love of freedom remains unabated. Brutal force has left unaffected their firm determination to sacrifice everything for liberty and independence.
It is fitting that the people of the United States, dedicated to the self-evident truth that is the right of the people of all nations, small as well as great, to live their own lives and choose their own Government, and remembering that the principles for which Serbia has so nobly fought and suffered are those for which the United States is fighting, should on the occasion of this anniversary manifest in an appropriate manner their war sympathy with this oppressed people who have so heroically resisted the aims of the Germanic nations to master the world. At the same time, we should not forget the kindred people of the Great Slavic race--the Poles, the Czechs and Jugo-Slavs, who, now dominated and oppressed by alien races yearn for independence and national unity.
This can be done in a manner no more appropriate than in our churches.
I, therefore, appeal to the people of the United States of all faiths and creeds to assemble in their several places of worship on Sunday July 28, for the purpose of giving expression to their sympathy with this subjugated people and their oppressed and dominated kindred on other lands, and to invoke the blessings of Almighty God upon them and upon the cause to which they are pledged.
Woodrow Wilson, President
The White House, July 1918
Unfortunately, within 20 years time, the world was at war again. During the hell that Hitler brought to Europe and the world, those nations that stood against such hatred driven aggression were both big and small, rich and poor, yet, it can be said, each was great in spirit and deeds. Here in the States, as I am sure happened in other nations as well, gung-ho boys lied about age and even pretended to be older brothers or cousins to join the cause. On the surface there was a clear defined enemy in Hitler and the Nazis. The need to defeat the Axis powers was a palatable one. Every citizen of the world seemed to know the dire consequences if there were no victory. There are several 'simplistic' actions that aided in the eventual defeat of Hitler's Nazi Germany. First, Hitler's own arrogance blinded him to the limits of his military resources and assets. Second, Hitler was not able to engage any enemy in a two-front scenario, instead he was the one trying to win on several fronts against several enemies. How did this happen? Hitler believed he could conquer both east and west at the same time, however, the western front was a battle fought mostly by the French and Brits with the inclusion of the Americans with the D-Day invasion. On the eastern front he fought the Russians, whose will to resist he greatly underestimated, he did understand the numbers as well as the disadvantage of fighting in winter. His answer to overcome the minor issues with Russia was to cut through the Balkans thus forcing Russia into a 2 front war, west and south. In order to achieve this the German Army had to accomplish something that it had been unable to do in WWI, defeat the Serbs. Hitler's solution was to use Bulgaria to this end. History does tell us just how well that worked out for Hitler, so I will not retell that story. However, I will refer to one that is little known to even students of history, that is of the Forgotten 500.
The fact that Hitler was soundly defeated was not the fault of an incompetent or impotent military, on the contrary, it many ways the Big 5 powers spent the war playing catch up with German technology and weapons designs. No, what defeated Hitler was that those fighting against him were fighting for something larger than themselves, whereas, especially by the end of the war, most Germans were merely trying to get out alive.The fight for the air was especially brutal. Allied pilots faced high mortality rates and even higher chance of being shot down and captured. Just such was the fate of over 500 Americans over Serbia/Yugoslavia during the war. Unknown to the American airmen was that politicians and intelligence community had already decided that Serbia/Yugoslavia would be a future enemy after the war. Thus American airman were warned about the brutal Serbs that would as soon kill them as look at them. The reality that a very lucky 500 Airmen discovered couldn't have been further from the briefings they received pre-mission. The reality that America never told its fighting boys or their public was the lengths to which regular Serbs went to not only rescue and hide downed Allied personnel but to care for them, not only when it was maybe inconvenient, but also fatal.
While we were there, those of us who were wounded were given whatever medical supplies they had even at the deprivation of their own troops. If there was one piece of bread in the house, or one egg, it went to the American airmen while the Serb went hungry.
If there was one bed or one blanket, it went to us while the Serb slept on the bare ground. No risk of sacrifice was too great to insure our safety and well being. One experience which is forever seared in my memory is the time a village with 200 women and children was burned to the ground by the Germans because the Serbs would not tell them where they were hiding us. To this day, I can smell the terrible stench of their burning flesh. One does not forget such things.
So on this Memorial Day, as one American who knows, I want to thank, not only the men and women that wore the uniform of the US, but also those whom wore other uniforms or no uniforms that helped, aided, and stood side by side with the US in her past times of struggle. May we one day return to our honor and also to our truth! Veliki hvala Srbiji!
