Charles Armstrong (British Army officer)

In July 1943 Armstrong was appointed Brigadier in command of the SOE sponsored Military Mission to the Chetniks, a Serbian nationalist and royalist force led by General Draža Mihailović, and one of the principal resistance movements in Axis occupied Yugoslavia.[8] According to some sources, he was carefully selected for this mission because of his lack of political contacts or skill.[9] Together with members of his mission, Armstrong parachuted into Yugoslavia at the end of September 1943.[10] Before he was dispatched to Chetnik headquarters, a previous member of British mission with the Chetniks, Colonel Bailey, advised him that the Chetniks were angry and that Mihailović "won't hear of British anymore".[11] The United Kingdom had provided substantial supplies to Yugoslav Communist forces who opposed the Chetniks, while the BBC repeatedly gave the Communist forces credit for the anti-Axis actions of Chetniks, especially during September and October 1943.[12] For example, when Chetniks attacked the German garrison in Prijepolje on 11 September, killed 200 German soldiers and captured the town, the BBC credited Tito's Communist Partisans with the victory.[12]

Less than a week after Armstrong arrived at Chetnik headquarters he, Albert Seitz, head of the USA Mission with the Chetniks, and Hudson saw a successful Chetnik attack on Višegrad and the destruction of the railway bridge across Drina.[13] Armstrong and Seitz took part in the Chetnik action against Axis controlled units protecting the railway bridge over Drina in Višegrad.[14] At the beginning of October 1943, based on Armstrong's instructions, Mihailović and his Chetniks organized an attack on Višegrad and during the battle captured the town and destroyed the railway bridge across the river Drina on the Sarajevo-Užice railway.[10] This bridge was the longest bridge in Axis occupied Yugoslavia destroyed by rebel guerillas.[15] In this attack about 2,500[16] Chetniks killed about 350 Ustaše and German soldiers and captured a lot of ammunition and arms.[17] Before the Chetniks stormed into Višegrad, they first destroyed four smaller bridges in Mokra Gora.[12] The bridge in Višegrad was destroyed with help of British sappers commanded by British Major Archie Jack.[18] British media, including the BBC, credited Yugoslav Communist Partisans for this successful action by the Chetniks.[12] In spite of protests, including from Kenneth Pickthorn and officials of the Yugoslav government in exile in London, the BBC did not make any corrections.[12]

After the capture of Višegrad, the Chetniks also captured Rogatica on 14 and 15 October and killed more than 200 Axis soldiers.[12] The BBC again credited Communist forces with this success.[19] In November 1943 the Chetniks attacked Axis positions at Nova Varoš and Kalna, and both actions were again attributed to Communists by the BBC.[20] Archival evidence, published in 1980 for the first time, confirms that some actions against Axis carried by Mihailović and his Chetniks with Armstrong were mistakenly credited to Tito and his Communist forces.[21] Armstrong sent an angry protest to the BBC insisting on the publication of correct information, to no avail.[18] Mihailović was enraged.[22]

Some authors blame the persistent misreporting of BBC and attribution of successful Chetnik anti-Axis actions to Communists on a supposed strong network of Soviet spies in the BBC and the British Ministry of Information.[23] This misreporting changed British public opinion and even influenced some high-ranking officials.[24] But Churchill's reason was the evidence of Ultra decrypts from the Government Code and Cipher School in Bletchley Park (which he read; they were secret until the 1970s) that Tito's Partisans were a "much more effective and reliable ally in the war against Germany"; see Yugoslavia and the Allies.

Almost as soon as he reached Chetnik headquarters, the relation of British mission toward Mihailović significantly deteriorated and tensions between American and British mission began to develop,[13] with Armstrong seen as blatantly anti-OSS.[25]

Armstrong inherited his predecessor’s (Colonel Bailey) task to convince Mihailovic to increase his anti-Axis activities without providing him with adequate supplies.[13] Armstrong and Albert Seitz, who headed the American Mission with the Chetniks, took part in the Chetnik action against Axis controlled units protecting the railway bridge over Drina in Višegrad.[14] Armstrong confirmed that Colonel Bailey insisted that Chetniks should not disarm Italians in the valley of river Lim and to avoid conflict with Partisans with final consequence that the Chetniks were forced to leave this valley.[26] Until December 1943 the British army delivered only 30 tons of arms to Chetniks and 18,000 tons to the Communist Partisans, who used many British arms to attack Chetniks.[27]

Poor Mihailovic had not got the weapons to fight the Germans with all their modern weapons: his supply depended on what his forces could capture. I remember particularly two air-drops at my HQ, one consisted mainly of gumboots [rubber boots], the other of office equipment.

— Charles Douglas Armstrong[28]

Armstrong refused to participate in the Ba Congress held between 25 and 28 January 1944 because he was dissatisfied with the refusal of the Chetniks to follow British requests to perform two sabotages against the Germans.[29] Armstrong insisted that Chetniks should destroy bridges over river Morava and river Ibar near Raška as condition for his participation at the Congress.[30]

Leaving Yugoslavia, Armstrong returned to England and, in June 1944, took command of the British Airborne Liaison Unit to the Polish Parachute Brigade.[5] He remained in the UK for the remainder of the war.[3]