Velimir Piletić

Velimir Piletić was a Yugoslav military officer best known as commander of the Chetnik forces in eastern Serbia (the Krajina and Mlava Chetnik Corps) during World War II.

World War II
In May 1941, Piletić organized guerilla rebels in eastern Serbia, initially without any connection with other former Yugoslav officers who did the same thing in other parts of Serbia. The headquarter of his forces was in Gornjak Monastery. After establishing his headquarter in the Gornjak Monastery, Piletić established connection with rebels in Belgrade and Banat. Colonel Pantić who was in Belgrade at that time, sent Captains Pejčić and Avezić with five Yugoslav aviation officers, including Colonel Lazar Dabetić.

Mihailović offered to Piletić to lead Chetniks in Montenegro (Montenegro, Boka and Sandžak), which Piletić refused requesting command over Chetniks of Bosnia, which was refused by Mihailović as already given to Boško Todorović. Mihailović appointed Piletić as commander of all Chetniks in Eastern Serbia.

Chetnik-Partisan negotiations of 1941
Piletić, who was Major at that time, participated with three other Chetnik delegates in negotiations about cooperation between Chetniks and Partisans, held in Belgrade on 8 September 1941 as delegate of Mihailović. Chetnik delegation was led by Colonel Branislav Pantić while Partisan delegation was led by Blagoje Nešković, Đuro Strugar and person with conspirative name "student". According to Marković and Marjanović, this person was Vojo Nikolić.

The Chetnik delegates tried to convince Partisans to stop with offensive activities against Axis forces. The negotiations ended without any because Chetniks failed to convince Partisans to cease their activities against occupying Axis forces.

Struggle against Communists and Fascists
To better organize struggle against Communists and Fascists, Chetniks organized two Corps in eastern Serbia. One of them was Krajina Chetnik Corp. According to the Partisan sources, Krajina Chetnik Corp operated on the territory of Counties of Jabukovac, Kladovo, Donji Milanovac and Golubac, as the biggest and best equipped Chetnik corp in Eastern Serbia.

Cooperation with Red Army
Piletić was appointed to the position of representative of the Chetnik Supreme Command for Romania, under the pseudonym "Popesku". Piletić initiated contacts with the bishop of Timișoara (Temišvar). Robert McDowell emphasizes that Piletić was warmly and enthusiastically greeted in Romanian headquarters of the Red Army in Craiova.

At the beginning of September 1944, Piletić and his Chetniks attacked German marine troops that retreated trough Đerdap and captured 80 German soldiers. According to historian Dinčić, Chetniks and Romanians exchanged officers for communications and agreed joint actions against the German fleet. Dinčić emphasizes that Piletić's ultimatum to German command to surrender all their ships within 24 hours forced them to sink all 220 ships of the German Black Sea fleet which retreated over Danube trough Đerdap.

Initially, the Krajina Chetnik Corps and Red Army established friendly contacts and in joint actions captured the Western Morava Valley and Kruševac. Piletić explained in his interview given to McDowell that he and other Chetniks that accompanied him were captured only after they left the meeting with Red Army General Staff and went to sleep. Piletić further explained to McDowell that they were not captured by Red Army, but by former Ustaše unit (Croatian Legion) under command of former Ustaše General Marko Mesić forcibily mobilized by Soviets when it was captured after the Battle of Stalingrad and since then formally part of Yugoslav Communist armed forces. Mesić and his men killed all Chetniks except Piletić who was sent to Lubianka Prison. Piletić managed to escape to Austria while he was transported by train to Belgrade, based on the request of new Yugoslav communist government which wanted to put him on trial. The Allies placed him in the St Johann im Pongau refugee camp.

Post-war period
After the trial organized in Paris, Piletić was released of all charges. Piletić became active in Serb emigrant circles which included Nikola Kavaja. According to some sources, Piletić was member of the Serbian Liberation Movement Fatherland (Српски ослободилачки покрет Отаџбина).