ABSTRACT
Heroic myths of liberation, whether in Western or Eastern Europe, are all very well, but they don't provide a very sound basis for military planning either today or in the future. In the mystified version, which the leaders cherish, the struggle was a straightforward liberation war against the foreign occupier; the demystifiers saw it instead as part of a many-sided and singularly bloody civil war. The long, hard fighting was marked by acts of almost superhuman self-sacrifice and endurance and many gave their lives rather than desert the long column of wounded soldiers and civilians who had taken their side. The vast mass of them certainly believed that they were fighting for the liberation of their country. Though many wartime legends have been punctured, singularly little has been written or said to pierce the glamour surrounding the Yugoslav Partisans.
