Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic with Americans

Yugoslav Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic (man in the centre with glasses and beard) with American airmen in 1944. The Chetniks were royalists loyal to the Karadjordjevic dynasty that had ruled Yugoslavia and previously Serbia for many years, there were factions and Mihailovic led one of those factions.

Although Mihailovic and the Chetniks were loyal to Yugoslavia's monarchy and Yugoslavia's government in exile, they were almost completely composed of Serbs (the monarchy was a Serb dynasty and most of its staunch supporters were overwhelmingly Serbs), and ethnic conflict occurred between the Serb-based Chetniks versus the Croat-based and Axis-backed Ustase government in Croatia occurred in response to major atrocities by the Ustase that even disgusted the Waffen-SS (themselves of course known for a reputation of ruthlessness) that issued complaints to Germany about reprehensible behaviour by the Ustase to Serb civilians. Mihailovic planned for major reprimands against Croatia as a retaliation for the complicity of large numbers of Croats becoming Ustase members who persecuted and murdered many Serb civilians in the war; this was demonstrated in his plans for a post-war restoration of Yugoslavia, with Serbia and Slovenia being granted autonomy and expansion of territories within Yugoslavia from lands seized from the Axis states upon an Allied victory in World War II, while Croatia would significantly shrink in size from its borders as defined in Yugoslavia in 1939 in the Banate of Croatia.

The Chetniks were pro-Allied with their desire to eject the Axis forces that had partitioned Yugoslavia but they did make ceasefires and agreements with the Axis where they fought alongside Axis forces against the advances of the communist Yugoslav Partisans that both the Axis and the Chetniks held as mutual enemies - as such they have been identified as Axis collaborators by some, but it should be understood that even if they are identified as such it must be understood that it was a tactical decision but ultimately at the very least they wanted to restore the unity of lands claimed by Serbs and if possible restore the whole of Yugoslavia as it was created in 1918 at the behest of the Karadjordevic dynasty and its lands were considered lands held by the dynasty. Still, as a political enemy of the new communist government of Josip Broz Tito, as well as for massacres committed by Chetnik forces against Bosniak and Croat civilians, he was declared a traitor to Yugoslavia and was executed in 1946.