ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Yugoslav state and the defeat of its army in the brief April War of the 1941 was the most severely felt by Yugoslavia’s Serbs. The Axis occupation meant that the Serbs lost their own state - a state in whose creation during World War I the Serbs had been the greatest contributors. Now they found themselves in a situation where their own biological existence was threatened. In the tragic circumstances of overall disorganisation, a part of the Command of the Yugoslav Army, assisted by the efforts of civilian officials whose will to resist had not as yet been broken, did not wish to reconcile itself with the capitulation without any real resistance. A new chapter in Mihailovic’s career commenced in 1935 when, on 28 May, he was appointed military attache in Bulgaria and, on 6 September, promoted to the rank of colonel.
