The Incredible Tito: Man of the Hour

by Howard Fast

  Everything that could not be carried on a man’s back, Tito destroyed. He had over four thousand wounded; they were carried across on rafts. The unwounded crossed over on rafts or waded and swam through the icy waters.

  After crossing the river, Marshal Tito marched his army south, through Herzegovina in the direction of Montenegro. They were desperately short of medical supplies; an epidemic of typhus had struck them. Every day, more and more of the wounded died from blood poisoning. Again their food gave out. They marched through a snow-covered, silent land. Houses were burned-out, empty shells. Villages were deserted. Wolves regarded the spectre-like army, sat back on their haunches and howled. There had been no wolves here for a hundred years. This was the part of Yugoslavia that had been generously left by Hitler to the Italians, and the Fascists had outdone the Germans in savagery. The men looked at the landscape, this face of their native land, set their teeth, and remembered.

  Then their scouts discovered an Italian garrison, and when word was brought back, the Partisans smiled. They attacked in the night; an Italian brigade was annihilated, and once more the Partisans had food, fresh ammunition, artillery and trucks.

  In 1943, much of the 1942 area remained under Partisan control. As there was no established front in this war of movement, all areas are approximate.

  The captured trucks and carts were of inestimable value in transportation of the wounded. It was a point of pride with the Partisans that only forty-five of the original four thousand, five hundred sick and wounded were captured by the enemy despite the hazardous march.

  With the captured Italian equipment, Tito led his Partisans south, through Montenegro to a quiet valley near the Albanian frontier. A warm and gentle spring was coming to Yugoslavia. For the moment, the Partisans had some respite. The wounded lay in the fields, in the warm sun, gathering strength. Marshal Tito employed that time to re-equip his troops, to contact the other Partisan armies, and to arrange for future concerted action.

  THE ALLIES RECOGNIZE TITO

  A POINT should be made here—that the guerrilla bands which Marshal Tito had dispatched southward into Serbia the year before had played havoc with German lines of communication. At the time when the British were sorely pressed at El Alamein in North Africa, Tito had ordered his guerrillas to spare no effort to delay German re-enforcements. The result was that train after train bearing German troops and supplies for Rommel’s army was derailed or blown up, and thereby the Yugoslavs became one of the most important factors in the eventual Allied North African victory.

  Perhaps this more than anything else convinced the British that Mikhailovich was, if not a traitor and Axis collaborationist, at least a straw man, blown all out of proportion by Yugoslav Government in Exile lies. At any rate, the British were fed up and disgusted with the Government in Exile’s incompetence and stupidity. The British contacted Tito and determined to send a military mission to cooperate with him. The mission was landed by parachute on the Piva Plateau in Montenegro.

  THE LIBERATION OF BOSNIA

  IN his headquarters on the Piva Plateau, Tito made final preparation for the German attack—which he knew was coming. Vast re-enforcements had been added to the German Army, for this time they were determined to crush the growing Partisan strength. The German force had been increased to seven Nazi divisions; five Italian divisions were added to that, and with them Ustachi Collaborationists. And this time, Mikhailovich had promised full support to the Germans.

  The British military mission was astounded at Tito’s optimism in the face of the vast array of strength. Here was a force as large as the Eighth Army faced in Africa, larger perhaps, some two hundred thousand enemy troops in all. How did Tito propose to face them with half that number, with no air support and no armor?

  Tito had prepared his tactics. To the north of him, in Bosnia, was a strong Partisan army. He would smash through the Germans, draw them out, join with the Bosnian Partisans, swing around, and strike them again and again, where they least expected it.

  On May 15th, 1943, the combined German-Italian attack was launched—from all directions. It started with intense aerial bombardment, the usual waves of dive bombers, supplemented this time with hourly high-level bombing. This the Partisans had to take; they were still woefully short of anti-aircraft equipment and entirely without an airforce. Then German artillery was brought up and shells by the thousand were pumped into the Partisan positions.

  The Piva Plateau, however, was well situated for defense—high ground, surrounded with canyons and bluff cliffs. For twelve days, the Partisans fought off German attacks, leaving the rocky defiles full of German dead.

  Then, in accord with his plan, Tito began the retreat. In a black night, his army crept through a narrow canyon. He might have gotten out of Piva without a fight, had not a Mikhailovich unit gotten wind of the move and laid an ambush for him. As they fought their way through the Chetniks, Tito pointed out to one of the British observers:

  “Here is an example of Mikhailovich fighting the invaders.”

  For the next four weeks the Partisan Army battled its way northward. Line after line was frantically formed by the Germans to halt the retreat—a retreat which again and again turned into a counter-attack—and each time Marshal Tito broke through. He lost men; his casualties during the defense of Piva and the four-week march were four thousand, but he exacted a toll of twelve thousand from the Germans. The Germans took advantage of the country, the narrow passes, the mountains. They established hundreds of machine gun nests on rocky heights; but the Partisans clawed their way up in the darkness. They took the machine guns with their bare hands and knives, silently, leaping out of the night, turning the hot guns on the defenders. During that battle, a German correspondent reported that the Partisans fought, not like men, but like wild beasts, unafraid of death, appearing suddenly out of the night, attacking and quickly withdrawing.

  At that time, two German divisions were employed against the Allies in Sicily; seven German divisions were being cut to ribbons by Tito’s Partisans.

  At the end of that march, in Bosnia, Tito joined forces with the other large Partisan Army. Together, they turned on the Germans and Italians and launched a fierce counter-attack. This time, it was successful; the Germans were sent reeling back, their proud Wermacht cut to pieces, and the Free Yugoslav radio was able to announce to the world, in July:

  “All of Bosnia has been liberated from the invader.”

  “ANNIHILATED” PARTISANS SLAUGHTER NAZIS

  IT is almost impossible to describe the condition of Yugoslavia in that summer of 1943. Three times battling armies had fought their way up and across the breadth of the land. A road of graves marked where the armies had marched and fought. Half of the country lay desolate, villages abandoned, burned to the ground, leveled by dive bombers. Thousands of Yugoslavs had been murdered by the Germans and Italians—how many thousands no one knew. Murder had become the Fascist sport.

  On the other hand, during this past summer a wave of hope and joy swept through the country. The whole center of the land had been liberated. A great German and Italian army had been decisively defeated. A wave of freedom touched South-Slavs everywhere in the Balkans.

  The first evidence of this was a new outbreak of sabotage. Everywhere in Yugoslavia, men and women and even children rose against the invader. The Germans and Italians turned the cities they still held into armed fortresses, in some cases surrounding them with a wall of barbed wire. German trains were derailed, blown up. When the Germans tried defensive methods, such as preceding their trains with a string of sand-carrying gondolas, the Partisans set relays of mines.

  And during this time, Partisan strength increased immensely. Whole brigades deserted from Mikhailovich’s waning army. Recruits poured in by the hundreds, from the hills, from the cities, from the woods. German and Italian prisoners joined forces with the Partisans, to fight Fascism. German anti-Nazis, escaping across the Austrian frontier, offered to fight in Partisan ranks against Hitlerism
. A whole company was formed of German prisoners, and two other companies were formed by Austrian anti-Nazis. While British and American newspapers told their readers that Mikhailovich’s army numbered 250,000 men, it had actually shrunk to less than ten thousand. Radio Berlin screamed to the world that the Yugoslav Partisans had been annihilated, while the Partisans, holding the whole of Bosnia, went about the work of reconstruction.

  ITALIAN ARMS IN PARTISAN HANDS

  THE surrender of Italy came as a windfall to the Liberation Front. Marshal Tito knew, with the invasion of Sicily, that sooner or later the battered and consistently defeated Italian Fascist army would have to lay down its arms. He made his preparations accordingly, and when the surrender came, he was ready. Partisan troops or emissaries approached Italian garrisons in all parts of Yugoslavia. In each case, they were given one of three choices, to fight the Partisans, to surrender their arms and supplies and leave Yugoslavia, or to join the Partisans in their fight against the Nazis.

  In only a few isolated cases did the Italians resist the Partisans. In Slovenia, for example, six Italian divisions surrendered their arms and were escorted to the Italian border. In Croatia, three Italian brigades went over to the Partisans. In parts of Serbia, Germans reached the Italians first and disarmed them, but there were some instances where the Italians fought off the Germans and joined the Partisans.

  Never before had such a quantity of arms and supplies come into Tito’s hands. He had enough tanks to equip an entire tank brigade. For the first time, he had an ample supply of antiaircraft guns and heavy artillery. Howitzers, siege guns, and even a few pieces of coastal artillery fell into his hands. Armored cars and an armored train. Locomotives. Great stores of food. Several thousand machine guns. Tommy guns. Millions of rounds of ammunition, and whole dumps of artillery shells.

  Tito did not pause or rest on his laurels. With the captured arms and the added recruits, he launched a heavy attack on the Dalmatian coast. Striking hammer blows, he liberated almost all of Dalmatia, and then drove north into Istria. He cleared all of this neck of land except Trieste of the enemy, and in one place smashed across the border into Italy. From there, he swung east-ward and liberated Slovenia. In Slovenia, the people rose to join him, and in a matter of weeks almost all of that province was cleared of Germans. By late September, 1943, two-thirds of Yugoslavia was in the hands of the Liberation Front.

  The Germans attempted counter-attacks. Panzer units that slashed into Slovenia were cut off and destroyed; and at that time, Russian pressure was growing. The Germans could not afford a full scale Yugoslav offensive against Tito’s strengthened forces. Allied troops were hammering at them in Italy and the air attacks from the British Isles were assuming huge dimensions.

  In addition, American and British liaison with Tito had been tremendously improved. The Yugoslav Government in Exile could no longer make its lies hold water, and only the diehard reactionaries in the American Press still praised Mikhailovich. Now, when Tito undertook a military action, flights of American and British planes supported him. Rumor had it that varied supplies were being transported by the Allies across the Adriatic in small boats.

  THE PROVISIONAL DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT

  AT this juncture, the Yugoslav Liberation Front took a historic step. A Congress was called at Jajce, in the heart of Bosnia. There, delegates from every part of Yugoslavia met. In a large hall that was formerly a gymnasium, peasant leaders and working class leaders, priests and Communists, old political leaders and young military men sat side by side. It was fitting that they should meet there, in one of the oldest and loveliest Yugoslav towns, under the picturesque castle of old King Tvtkas.

  The town had a festive air; this was free Yugoslav soil. Here was a school, a hospital, even a college hastily set up. Everywhere flags hung, most of them homemade, the American flag, the British, the Soviet flag, and the Partisan battle banner with its single five-pointed star.

  Here, on December 4th, 1943, Marshal Tito proclaimed a provisional democratic Yugoslav government, and disowned the government in exile. The Free Yugoslavia Radio told the world that 140 elected delegates had met in a parliament representative of free Yugoslavia. Dr. Ivan Ribar was announced as the head of this government, and General Joseph Broz (Tito) was elevated to the rank of Field Marshal and made chairman of a new committee for national defense.

  As might be expected, the Yugoslav Government in Exile screamed with rage, disowned Tito and the Liberation Front, and hysterically told the world that they were still the legal rulers of Yugoslavia. By this time, however, both Britain and the United States were too weary to listen. Tito and his men were killing Germans; the Partisans had driven the enemy from two-thirds of the land—and they had proved that the people of Yugoslavia supported them. Yet only a few days before this goes to press, the Yugoslav Government in Exile announced, with complete contempt for the truth, that Mikhailovich’s army numbered 250,000 men—waiting for an allied invasion to attack the Germans.

  Actually, Mikhailovich has ceased to be a factor in Yugoslavia—except for a certain nuisance value to the Germans. He harries the Partisans when he can; he is no longer strong enough to oppose them directly.

  THE BATTLE CRY IS “LIBERTY”

  TODAY, in Yugoslavia, the war goes on. The front stretches four hundred miles, from the German border in the north to Albania in the south. And along this front, 250,000 men of the Partisan Army battle the Germans. There, in Yugoslavia, are crack German divisions, some of the few remaining panzers, so sorely needed on the Russian front, assault troops, badly wanted in Italy, and seasoned Wermacht fighting men whom Adolf Hitler would dearly prize on the French coast. Here, in the grim mountains, in the deep forests, and on the wooded hills, the battle goes on—day and night.

  Here men fight for the dignity and the freedom of all people; here Communists and non-Communists stand shoulder to shoulder—enacting together one of the most glorious and courageous dramas the world has ever seen. And leading them is a man of such stature as the storied heroes of old—Tito.

  They will fight on until the battle is won, until a new and free and proud Yugoslavia stands again among the family of nations. And their battlecry echoes across the world:

  DEATH TO ALL FASCISTS!

  LIBERTY TO THE PEOPLE!

  —THE END—

  A BIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD FAST

  Howard Fast (1914-2003), one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century, was a bestselling author of more than eighty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. Fast's commitment to championing social justice in his writing was rivaled only by his deftness as a storyteller and his lively cinematic style.

  Born on November 11, 1914, in New York City, Fast was the son of two immigrants. His mother, Ida, came from a Jewish family in Britain, while his father, Barney, emigrated from the Ukraine, changing his last name to Fast on arrival at Ellis Island. Fast's mother passed away when he was only eight, and when his father lost steady work in the garment industry, Fast began to take odd jobs to help support the family. One such job was at the New York Public Library, where Fast, surrounded by books, was able to read widely. Among the books that made a mark on him was Jack London's The Iron Heel, containing prescient warnings against fascism that set his course both as a writer and as an advocate for human rights.

  Fast began his writing career early, leaving high school to finish his first novel, Two Valleys (1933). His next novels, including Conceived in Liberty (1939) and Citizen Tom Paine (1943), explored the American Revolution and the progressive values that Fast saw as essential to the American experiment. In 1943 Fast joined the American Communist Party, an alliance that came to define—and often encumber—much of his career. His novels during this period advocated freedom against tyranny, bigotry, and oppression by exploring essential moments in American history, as in The American (1946). During this time Fast also started a family of his own. He married Bette Cohen in 1937 and the couple had two children.

  Con
gressional action against the Communist Party began in 1948, and in 1950, Fast, an outspoken opponent of McCarthyism, was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Because he refused to provide the names of other members of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, Fast was issued a three-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress. While in prison, he was inspired to write Spartacus (1951), his iconic retelling of a slave revolt during the Roman Empire, and did much of his research for the book during his incarceration. Fast's appearance before Congress also earned him a blacklisting by all major publishers, so he started his own press, Blue Heron, in order to release Spartacus. Other novels published by Blue Heron, including Silas Timberman (1954), directly addressed the persecution of Communists and others during the ongoing Red Scare. Fast continued to associate with the Communist Party until the horrors of Stalin's purges of dissidents and political enemies came to light in the mid-1950s. He left the Party in 1956.

  Fast's career changed course in 1960, when he began publishing suspense-mysteries under the pseudonym E. V. Cunningham. He published nineteen books as Cunningham, including the seven-book Masao Masuto mystery series. Also, Spartacus was made into a major film in 1960, breaking the Hollywood blacklist once and for all. The success of Spartacus inspired large publishers to pay renewed attention to Fast's books, and in 1961 he published April Morning, a novel about the battle of Lexington and Concord during the American Revolution. The book became a national bestseller and remains a staple of many literature classes. From 1960 onward Fast produced books at an astonishing pace—almost one book per year—while also contributing to screen adaptations of many of his books. His later works included the autobiography Being Red (1990) and the New York Times bestseller The Immigrants (1977).