Expert witnesses
Sir: Noel Malcolm's article 'How Britain blundered in the Balkans' (11 July) is both accurately researched and timely. It should have been clear to Fitzroy Maclean that Tito was lying to him, as the American, Farrish, dropped in to Tito at the same time, was given figures which halved the number of active Partisans and German divisions in Tito's area of opera- tions, included in Maclean's 'Blockbuster' report to Churchill.
Churchill asked Bletchley to produce a report based on Enigma decrypts about the same time. Then, and thereafter, I wrote a weekly summary for him on all fronts. This was based on translated and untranslated German signals, which are still not avail- able in Public Records. Nevertheless, the Imperial War Museum holds the secret German Staff Diaries which include Order of Battle maps and charts of divisional loca- tions.
These war diaries make it clear, as we knew from Enigma decrypts, that Tito used Allied arms against Mihailovic's royalist forces, invited the Russians into his coun- try, and raced to Trieste and into Carinthia in order to establish an enlarged commu- nist regime.
I believe Noel Malcolm's conclusion that Churchill's romantic acceptance of Tito's disinformation, and the evil post-war anni- hilation by Tito of dissidents, has contribut- ed to the present catastrophic situation in Yugoslavia.
Jean Howard •
II Knightsbridge Court, Sloane Street, London SW I
Previous page
