120 World War Two and the Partisan Struggle
from Cairo to London to celebrate his much-contested wedding to Princess
Alexandra of Greece (according to Serb tradition, one should not marry in
wartime.) At the time, both Churchill and his foreign minister tried to push
him in their direction, initially with poor results. To strengthen British influ-
ence in Yugoslavia, Churchill reckoned above all on the aid in arms and food,
which Tito desperately needed to feed a population that was on the verge of
famine in many parts of the liberated territory. Serbia continued to play an
important role in the prime minister’s calculations as he was still convinced
that it was hostile to the Partisans and that Tito had not accurately gauged the
situation. The marshal had only a few thousand combatants across the river Ibar
at his disposal, whereas Mihailović could count on almost twenty thousand men
and forty-five thousand reservists, aside from Nedić’s forces and other right-
wing troops. From Churchill’s point of view this was not necessarily unfavor-
able, for it offered him the possibility of executing a diplomatic and military
maneuver that would bring the Serbs under Tito’s banner, and Tito eventually
under British influence. The main problem was finding a new president for the
Yugoslav government acceptable both to the king and Tito, popular in Yugo-
slavia and especially in Serbia, and able to carry out the aforementioned deli-
cate operation.^368
It was not easy to find such a man, since all the Serb politicians in exile were
followers of Mihailović and were unwilling to collaborate with the commu-
nists. In the end, Churchill had to accept a non-Serb candidate who was, how-
ever, favored by the Americans and by their secret services: Ivan Šubašić, the
last ban of Croatia, loyal to the dynasty but also openly in favor of Tito and
his movement. In May 1944, on Churchill’s invitation, “the shepherd” (his
code name) came to London from the United States, where he resided, to
begin negotiations for the establishment of a new government. Petar II, ex-
cluded from this operation, obviously felt humiliated as Churchill had already
announced the constitution of the new Yugoslav government in Parliament.
Together with Purić he tried to resist, but abandoned by Roosevelt as well,
was forced to surrender at the end of the month. A new government was thus
created, anomalous in view of the fact that Šubašić held all ministerial posts,
including that of Mihailović, who formally ceased to be minister of war by
royal decree on 8 July 1944.^369
Yugoslavia’s position in postwar Europe was suddenly of immediate concern,
as shown by Churchill’s letter to Eden of 1 April 1944, in which he mentioned,
with pre occupation, the “grandiose Soviet mission” sent to Tito, and Tito’s
decision to send his own military mission to Moscow.^370 While General Veli-
mir Terzić was at its head, the most important personality was Milovan Djilas
who, in his discussions with Molotov and Stalin, could not hide the Yugoslav