Operation Letica
Operation Letica (Serbo-Croatian: Операција Летица /Operacija Letica) was the code name for the failed assassination attempt on Dušan Letica Serbian fascist minister of finance in the Government of National Salvation a [...] Puppet state during World War II the operation was carried out in Republic Square in Belgrade in the Nazis-occupied territory of Serbia on Tuesday 4 August 1942 by members of the Yugoslav Resistance, Letica was wounded but survived, this led to the massacres killings of civilians and destruction of Belgrade and other cities in Serbia by the Germans and the Belgrade Special Police, and the executions of the plotters on the orders of Milan Nedić and Dušan Letica, all 220 men between over of the ages of 16 18, 36, and 48, were to be executed in Belgrade or were deported to the Banjica concentration camp, the 159 Women and 33 Children were send to concentration camps and died there, Letica was only failed assassination attempt during the Occupation of Yugoslavia
Background
Letica had been a previous Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 24 June 1935 to 5 February 1939, after the Occupation of Yugoslavia in April 1941, he was appointed the Commissioner of Finance in Commissioner Government from 30 April 1941 to 29 August 1941 and by the end of August he was appointed the Minister of finance again in the Government of National Salvation and came a closest associate of Milan Nedić,
Operation
Preparations
The Preparations of the assassination took place in a meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina by Marko Ristić and others members of the Yugoslav National Liberation Resistances Movement decided the mission was to be carried on 7 July 1942 (The First anniversary of the Anti-[...]-Uprising in Serbia in the summer of 1941) but was scheduled on 4 August 1942 because of bad weather, The Operation was given the Code name Letica, which was Dušan Letica last name, by the beginning of January 1942 Marko Ristić, Mirko Tomić, Vasilije Buha , Spasenija Babović, and Nikola Grulović fleeing the country by air to return to Serbia to plan the operation,, the six members were parachuted and landed in Niš, Occupied of Serbia, the Members of the strike team than moved to the Belgrade where the attack would be planned, after there arrival in Belgrade, they contacted Ljubinka Milosavljević another Resistance fighter and other members of the anti-[...] resistance, who helped them during the Planning of the Attack in Belgrade.
Assassination In Belgrade
At 10:40, Letica leaved his house in Belgrade and went to House of the National Assembly of Serbia for a meeting with Nedić, While Ristić ,Tomić, Buha, Babović, Milosavljević and Grulović waited outside for Letica to arrive, at 11:03 a black open-topped Mercedes-Benz W31 was spotted driving with Letica and two other Serbian State Guards, Ristić than was a Black car which he believed that letica was in, at 11:05 he took the first shoot with his sniper, but the first bullet missed than he fired again the second, hitting letica in the Stomach and wounded him, a minute later Tomić stepped in front of the vehicle and killed two of the Serbian State Guard members, Babović, Milosavljević, and Grulović fired at letica but failed to hit him again, after they failed hitting him they ran away from the sense Letica Yelled shoot the bastards, Ristić ,Tomić, Buha Went hiding, by 11:13 assassination attempt was all over.
Capture of the Assassins and Aftermath
Eight days after the assassination attempt on 12 August 1942, Milan Nedić and Dušan Letica ordered the Belgrade Special Police to find, interrogate, torture the assassins and members of the assassination plot and executions of civilians and deported some to the Banjica concentration camp and died there, the Belgrade Special Police located some of the assassins in a Warehouse in Požarevac, The Serbian State Guards traveled there to capture them, as they entered the Building, a gunfight began by Marko Ristić and other members, the fight lasted over 2 Hours, Some of the Partisans committed [...] after the gunfight Marko Ristić surrendered himself to the States Guards and was took back to Banjica Concentration camp for questioning and interrogation and tortured by the Gestapo and the Special Police, on 13 August 1942 Ristić was took to Belgrade for his Trial, the Serbian Fascists found him guilty of the assassination attempt was sentenced to death the following day, on 14 August 1942 before he died he yelled out: "Smrt fašizmu, slobodi naroda, Pokret otpora i Komunistička partija!" which translates to ''Death to fascism, freedom to the people, the Resistance Movement and the Communist Party, just before he was killed by Firing squad, After his Death, Ristić's mother, aunt, sister, and brother, was send to Banjica Concentration camp, After the Liberation of Serbia and the end of World War II they returned to Belgrade, More than 26,000 People were arrested and send to camps, After the war, Letica was put on Trial in Belgrade On 15 August 1945 for his war crimes during the Occupation, on 17 September 1945 he was found guilty of the [...] of Ristić and others and was sentenced to death on 19 September 1945 by firing spuad together with fifteen other [...] Serbian collaborators, in a interview with Jefto Šašić another Yugoslav Partisan fighter in 1981, he claimed that Ristić was behind the assassination attempt and Letica was the mastermind of the [...] of Ristić, Members of the Operation were killed, only one that survived were Spasenija Babović, Ljubinka Milosavljević, and Nikola Grulović. While Mirko Tomić died after being executed in January 1943 five months after the attack took place, Vasilije Buha was arrested the same year when he entered the police ambush in the apartment, Vasilije Buha was shot on 7 September 1944 in Belgrade.