Mission Greenwood–Rootham was a World War II Special Operations Executive (SOE) expedition to the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Chetniks) in Homolje district of Eastern Serbia near the border with Romania. The group was led by Major Erik Greenwood, Major Jasper Rootham and included Sergeant W. Anderson (W/T), Sergeant C. E. Hall (RAF) (W/T), Lieutenant E. "Micky" Hargreaves and a Royal Yugoslav Army (RYA) officer code-named "Arlo".
Purpose
While Operation Bullseye delivered permanent British presence at Chetniks' headquarters of Colonel Draža Mihailović, this expedition was a sub-mission to his regional headquarters. In this case, to a strategically important location, able to monitor and disrupt shipping on Danube (transporting Romanian oil crucial for the war effort), Belgrade–Salonika railway (used for supply of German troops in North Africa) and Bor copper mines—the largest in Europe.
Arrival and initial activities
The group arrived in two separate trips. Greenwood, Anderson and "Arlo" flew from Derna airfield and were parachuted in mid-April 1943. Due to bad weather, Rootham, Hall and Hargreaves abandoned the first two attempts and were finally successful on 21 May, landing at Homolje Mountains.
British ambition for chetniks' engagement was in the acts of sabotage and undermining German war efforts. The strategy meant that they would be supplied with explosives, medical equipment and similar, while they were asking for light-machine guns and ammunition, boots, uniforms and wireless accessories. The discrepancy of intentions between two allied armies became obvious very early in the engagement and grew ever-wider.
In the following few weeks, the mission visited local commanders in the region, passing through Vlaole and Gornjane. On 31 May, en route to Deli Jovan, they encountered a young wireless enthusiast who made the very first radio contact between Mihailović and the British naval monitoring station in Malta in August 1941, thus starting the chain of events.
Throughout the period, the lack of four-engine long-range aircraft and trained crew, unpredictable weather over the Mediterranean, general bureaucracy and feeling of a 'side-show' meant that flights were fewer and cargo continued to consist of explosive and medical supplies, rather than small arms and ammunition. This raised suspicions of the hosts and frustration of the visitors.
On 15 June, three additional soldiers were parachuted. David Russell and his W/T operator Nicolae Turcanu who had a mission to get to Romania (Operation Ranji) as well as a Polish army officer called "Nash," who was to engage with Polish POWs escaped from the Bor mines.
Summer
On 26 June, Rootham observed German-uniformed Slovak soldiers attack the village of Rudna Glava, and saw civilians fleeing across the fields with their life belongings and livestock. The local Serb commander asked him to report to the BBC that 150 civilians were killed. Rootham disputed the number, and the officer reduced it to seventy. Later that year, when passing through the village itself, Rootham had asked about the number of casualties in the incident and was told that five people were killed then.
Shortly afterwards, he also realised that instead of engaging German or Bulgarian troops, local chetnik commander was fighting the partisans. Rootham considered this a clear violation of the agreement and stated that "the arms which we supplied were to be used for fighting the Germans and not for keeping in cold storage or for civil war".
Autumn and winter
On 21 August, while waiting for an aircraft drop, the group came very near German soldiers spending the night in Crnajka. Chetnik commander had over 60 troops at his disposal and could have ambushed them but decided to withdraw instead. On 26 August, Germans set houses in Crnajka on fire as they were leaving. Rootham was upset that the enemy was let go unscathed, while their host, obeying his High Command, failed to engage and was fearful of reprisals.