Vojislav Lukačević

Lukačević was born in 1908 in Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia to a wealthy banking family.

At one point, he was employed by the French civil engineering company Société de Construction des Batignolles.

He attained the rank of captain in the reserves of the Royal Yugoslav Army before World War II.

After the outbreak of World War II, the government of Regent Prince Paul of Yugoslavia declared its neutrality.

Despite this, and with the aim of securing his southern flank for the pending attack on the Soviet Union, Adolf Hitler began placing heavy pressure on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to sign the Tripartite Pact and join the Axis.

When the Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, Lukačević became a leader of Chetniks in the Sandžak region and joined the movement of Draža Mihailović.

While the Chetniks were an anti-Axis movement in their long-range goals and did engage in marginal resistance activities for limited periods, they also pursued almost throughout the war a tactical or selective collaboration with the occupation authorities against the Yugoslav Partisans.

They engaged in cooperation with the Axis powers to one degree or another by establishing modi vivendi or operating as auxiliary forces under Axis control.

After some delay, the Yugoslav government conditionally signed the Pact on 25 March 1941.

Two days later a bloodless coup d'état deposed Prince Paul and declared 17-year-old Prince Peter II of Yugoslavia of age.

Following the subsequent German-led invasion of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav capitulation 11 days later, Lukačević went into hiding in the forests.

He soon returned to Belgrade, where he became aware of the activities of Draža Mihailović.

He then left the capital with some other officers and soldiers to form a Chetnik detachment in the Novi Pazar area of the Sandžak region.

On 16 November 1941 Muslim forces from Novi Pazar and Albanian forces from Kosovo attacked Raška and quickly advanced toward the town.

They were commanded by Aćif Hadžiahmetović.

The situation for the defenders became very difficult, so Lukačević personally engaged himself in the defence of the town.

On 17 November they stopped the advance of Hadžiahmetović's forces and forced them to retreat.

On 21 November Lukačević took part in the attack of Chetnik forces on Novi Pazar.

In the summer of 1942, Lukačević and his Chetniks fought the Partisans in Herzegovina.

In October Lukačević personally leads a unit in wider operations against remnants of Yugoslav Partisans in Srez of Pljevlja.

In caves near village of Dobrilovana, his unit kills 2 and captures 12 communists.

Captured ones are handed over to Chetnik command in Kolašin.

These operations almost completely eliminate partisan presence in Pljevlja region.

In December 1942, Chetniks from Montenegro and Sandžak met at a conference in the village of Šahovići near Bijelo Polje.

The conference was dominated by Montenegrin Serb Chetnik commander Major Pavle Đurišić and its resolutions expressed extremism and intolerance, as well as an agenda which focused on restoring the pre-war status quo in Yugoslavia implemented in its initial stages by a Chetnik dictatorship.

It also laid claim to parts of the territory of Yugoslavia's neighbors.

At this conference, Mihailović was represented by his chief of staff, Major Zaharije Ostojić, who had previously been encouraged by Mihailović to wage a campaign of terror against the Muslim population living along the borders of Montenegro and the Sandžak.

The conference decided to destroy the Muslim villages in the Čajniče district of Bosnia.

In January and February 1943, while under the overall command of Major Pavle Đurišić, Captain Lukačević and his Chetniks participated in several massacres of the Muslim population of Bosnia, Herzegovina and the Sandžak.

Immediately after this, Lukačević and his Chetniks participated in one of the largest Axis anti-Partisan operations of the war, Case White, where they fought alongside Italian, German and Croatian (NDH) troops.

The following November, Lukačević concluded a formal collaboration agreement with the Germans and participated in a further anti-Partisan offensive, Operation Kugelblitz.

On 3 January 1943, Ostojić issued orders to "cleanse" the Čajniče district of Ustaše-Muslim organisations.

According to the historian Radoje Pajović, Ostojić produced a detailed plan which avoided specifying what would be done with the Muslim population of the district.

Lukačević himself collaborated extensively with the Italians and the Germans in actions against the Yugoslav Partisans until mid-1944.

In February 1944, Lukačević travelled to London to represent Mihailović at the wedding of King Peter of Yugoslavia.

After returning to Yugoslavia in mid-1944, and in anticipation of an Allied landing on the Yugoslav coast, he decided to break with Mihailović and fight the Germans, but this was short-lived, as he was captured by the Partisans a few months later.

After the war, he was tried for collaboration and war crimes and sentenced to death.

Vojislav Lukačević (Војислав Лукачевић; 1908 – 14 August 1945) was a Serbian Chetnik commander in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during World War II.

At the outbreak of war, he held the rank of captain of the reserves in the Royal Yugoslav Army.

He was executed in August 1945.