Russia at war 1941-1945

given de facto recognition to Tito. Simic, the Yugoslav Ambassador had declared himself a Titoite some time before, and when two members of the Yugoslav Embassy, returning

to Moscow, were met by the Embassy car flying the Tito flag with the red star, they

ordered the chauffeur to take it down. This he refused to do, and told the two diplomats they could walk into Moscow for all he cared. It is not recorded how they reached town, but they refused to accept the Embassy's fait accompli, and stayed for some days at the Hotel National, whereupon they were recalled by the Royal Government.

On the same day as the announcement of Stalin's meeting with the Yugoslav generals, an interview, given by Tito to the A.P. was prominently published in the Soviet press. Tito explained that 50,000 square miles and five million people were under his jurisdiction; he asked for UNRRA help, and for the recognition of the National Liberation Committee as the Government of Yugoslavia. A few days later Lieut.-Gen. Milovan Djilas published a long article in the Russian press on the four years of the war of liberation in Yugoslavia.

In the course of it he violently denounced Mihailovic. He also commented on Stalin's shrewdness and clarity of vision, and his hatred of empty phrases:

He takes a problem and you can just see him polishing it and sharpening it. He did not ask us a single irrelevant question, and he answered our questions remarkably quickly and to the point. He has an excellent knowledge of Yugoslavia and her

personalities, and he interprets these men with remarkable correctness and

shrewdness.

[ In retrospect Djilas was to paint a very different picture of Stalin in his Conversations with Stalin, published in 1962.]

Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia—the future was taking shape.

Chapter VI THE RUSSIANS AND THE NORMANDY LANDING

Officially, relations continued to be excellent between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies at the time of the Normandy Landing. Only a few days before, the American

shuttle-bombing bases in the Ukraine had come into operation. Flying Fortresses started coming in from Italy after dropping their bombs on Debrecen, Ploesti and other

Hungarian and Rumanian targets; and then flying back to Italy and dropping more bombs on the way.

It was strange to see there, at Poltava and Mirgorod, in the heart of the Gogol country, those hundreds of G.I.'s eating vast quantities of American canned food—spam, and

baked beans and apple-sauce —drinking gallons of good coffee, making passes at the

giggly Ukrainian canteen waitresses, and commenting flatteringly on the Ukrainian

landscape, which was "just like back home in Indiana or Kentucky". Many of them, it is true, had serious doubts about the usefulness of these shuttle-bombing bases, and thought them more in the nature of a political demonstration of "Soviet-American solidarity", or as a precedent which might come in useful in the Far East if and when...

Judging from General John R. Deane's account, [ The Strange Alliance.] the Russians had never been very keen on the whole idea and had been difficult and obstructive for months before the bases actually came into operation in early June 1944.

Soon afterwards, in a surprise night raid on the principal (Poltava) base the Germans destroyed forty-nine out of the seventy Flying Fortresses on the ground.

[Two Americans and thirty Russians were killed in this raid, mostly by anti-personnel mines with which the Germans had peppered the airfield before dropping their heavy

bombs.]

My own impression at the time was that the Russians were extremely embarrassed at

having failed to protect the base effectively with either fighters or anti-aircraft guns but that they were, on the whole, relieved when, before very long, these American bases were scrapped altogether, despite the enormous effort and money that had been sunk into them.

The very idea of American air bases on Soviet soil somewhat went against their grain; nor did they care for the idea of the Ukrainians in a war-devastated part like the Poltava Province (Poltava itself had been completely destroyed) being able to observe at close quarters the "high living" of the American G.I.'s, with their P-X, and their enormous meals.

The shuttle-bombing bases came into operation only a few days before the Normandy

Landing. I happened to be at the Poltava base when the news broke, and immediately

flew back to Moscow, arriving there in the afternoon of June 6.

The first wave of excitement over the Second Front had subsided, but people were happy.