Dragutin Keserović (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгутин Кесеровић; 21 November 1896 – 17 August 1945) was a Yugoslav Chetnik military commander holding the rank of lieutenant colonel and vojvoda during World War II.D. Trbojević, Cersko-majevička grupa korpusa pukovnika Dragoslava Račića, published 2001. Keserović was likely the most active commander of Mihailović's Chetniks in Serbia.: "Probably the most active Mihailovic commander in Serbia was Keserovic, who, with relatively small forces, ... "Operation Kopaonik" with several Bulgarian battalions and large forces from the SS- " 45 ✓ Division "Prinz Eugen" to wipe out this ..."
Biography 1941 Immediately after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, then-Major Keserović joined the Pećanac Chetniks under the command of Kosta Pećanac, a World War I voivode. In August, Pećanac concluded a collaborationist agreement with the Germans.Keserović then transferred to Draža Mihailović's Chetniks
Representatives of the Chetniks held meetings with representatives of the communist Partisan forces in the village of Bovan and made a plan to attack Kruševac. According to this plan, it was agreed that the date of the attack would be 23 September 1941, that Kruševac would be blocked before the attack, that Keserović and his Chetniks would attack the town from the west and south across Bagdala,and that the communists would attack from the north and east.
According to post-war Yugoslav sources, the Partisan Rasina detachment and the Chetniks' commander Keserović agreed to attack Kruševac together, on 23 September 1941. On 24 September, Keserović's Chetnik detachment attacked German troops in the Kruševac district, killing 23 soldiers. The fighting between attacking rebels and the Axis garrison had lasted for four days when Kosta Pećanac personally, with a large force of his Black Chetniks, came to release the Axis garrison.: "The fighting went on for four days, but Krusevac was too well-defended, and Pecanac himself with a large force of cetniks came to its relief."Post-war Yugoslav sources blamed Keserović for the failure of the attack on Kruševac.:"Напад није успео углавном због издаје Кесеровића и његових четника. " These sources accuse Keserović of attacking the German garrison earlier than agreed and of halting the attack when Partisan communist forces joined the attack. At the end of September, Keserović and Radojević published a printed flyer against Kosta Pećanac and signed it People's Liberation Movement of Chetniks and Partisans (). Pećanac sentenced Keserović and Radojević to death.
1942
According to some sources, Keserović protected a group of Jewish refugees hosted at the beginning of 1942 in the village of Dankoviće on Kopaonik.On 1 February 1942, the non-legalized Chetniks commanded by Keserović captured Aleksandrovac and disarmed some members of local Chetnik garrison which was legalized with Serbian puppet government. The remaining members of local garrison joined Keserović whose forces were chased by multiple detachments of legalized Chetniks until the end of February.
Initially, the headquarters of Keserović's forces was in the village of Kupci, between Kruševac and Brus, and later in the village of Kriva Reka, Brus, on Kopaonik. In August 1942, Mihailović issued his first orders that took a "definite position against the occupying powers". These orders were British-inspired and included orders to prepare to sabotage the railways in occupied Serbia. After these orders, Keserović issued a general direction urging peasants in his area of operations to hide grain, livestock, and fodder from the occupying forces. In August 1942, the joint Axis forces of German and Bulgarian troops attacked Major Keserović's Chetniks on Kopaonik and captured nine members of his headquarters; three of them were members of the British mission and were executed when they were leaving the village of Kriva Reka. In 1942, he maintained communication with Nikolaj Velimirović.:"Немци су, рецимо, евидентирали да је свештеник Миливоје Мандић из Александровца био веза између Влади- ке Николаја и четничких команданата Драгутина Кесеровића и Богдана Гордића." Shortly before Italian capitulation in September 1943, Keserović raided two German railway transports and pushed back German attacks to Mihailović's headquarters.
From 11 to 14 October 1942, the Military Commander in Serbia launched a large-scale Axis offensive against Mihailović's Chetniks under command of Keserović in the region around Kriva Reka on Kopaonik mountain.: "In October 1942, the division took part in its first large-scale military operation, against Serbian forces under one of Mihailovic's commanders, Major Dragutin Keserovic, in the Kopaonik Mountains in the region of Kriva Reka. The operation was a punitive expedition aimed against Mihailović's Chetniks, the chief target of German commanders who wanted to secure control of Serbia before important battles in North Africa.:"For this reason, Mihailovich's detachments became the chief target of the occupying forces. The bloody punitive expedition of October, 1942 in the vicinity of Kriva Reka, where Keserovich's headquarters were located, was an expression of the German commands intention to strengthen its control over Serbia on the eve of the decisive confrontation in North Africa, ...."
Operation Kopaonik was part of a larger plan of the Axis forces to disarm Chetnik units.: "Ова акција SS дивизије "Принц Еуген" је била повезана са разоружањем четничких одреда. Војни заповедник Србије предао јој је и списак од 24 четничка официра .....Међу њима се налазио и Кесеровић." The Military Commander in Serbia prepared a list of 24 Chetnik officers to be arrested by the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen, one of them being Keserović.: "Војни заповедник Србије предао јој је и списак од 24 четничка официра .....Међу њима се налазио и Кесеровић." Keserović was probably the most active commander of Mihailović's Chetniks in Serbia.: "Probably the most active Mihailovic commander in Serbia was Keserovic, who, with relatively small forces, ... "Operation Kopaonik" with several Bulgarian battalions and large forces from the SS- " 45 ✓ Division "Prinz Eugen" to wipe out this ..." This operation was the first large-scale engagement of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen under command of Artur Phleps, who personally commanded the Axis forces during Operation Kopaonik. The SS division had three regiments: two infantry and one artillery regiment. The German forces were also supported by several Bulgarian battalions of 1,000 men, and 300 men from the Russian Protective Corps. Keserović was informed about the attack and successfully retreated units of his detachment.: "Keserović je, izgleda, bio obavešten o ovom napadu pa se sa svojim odredima povukao"
1943
In January 1943, Axis forces launched Case White, a combined strategic offensive aimed at destroying the Yugoslav Partisan resistance in the neighboring Independent State of Croatia. Two corps of Chetniks were sent from occupied Serbia to support Chetnik formations that had participated on the Axis side in the offensive and had been defeated by the Partisans following the latter's crossing of the Neretva River. These corps were led by Keserović and Predrag Raković and totaled 2,000 men. By early May 1943, Mihailović became aware of the German intention to capture him and decided to return to German-occupied Serbia. Based on his orders, the two corps of Chetniks led by Keserović and Predrag Raković came from German-occupied Serbia to the area of Bijelo Polje in the Italian governorate of Montenegro to escort him back to Serbia.:"У оваквој ситуацији, Михајловић је решио да се врати у Србију; позвао је Раковића и Кесеровића да га у Санџаку прихвате."
In 1943, the British sub-mission was established in Keserović's headquarters.:"...to the British sub-mission established in 1943 with Major Dragutin Keserović, Mihailovićs commander in the Kopaonik area..." According to Chetnik officer Milan Deroc, the name of the British Liaison Officer (BLO) at Keserović's headquarters was Major Bob Wade.:"Major R.P. (Bob) Wade became Keserovic's British Liaison Officer (BLO)." By mid-1943, the differences between the British and the Chetniks had become "too serious and too pervasive". Almost without exception, the British reports were unfavorable to the Chetniks as a fighting force. The Chetniks too were unhappy with the British. Keserović issued directives to a brigade under his control to keep information from a British liaison officer visiting his area of operations, and to provide no information to him about the actual situation, but to provide only a positive perspective on the Chetniks, and to discount the Partisans as a resistance force in occupied Serbia.
Chetnik had clashed with Serbian Volunteer Corps in Kruševac region during 1943. As an retaliation for killing around 10 Chetniks in a region, Keserović's men killed 15 members of Serbian Volunteer Corps and 5 members of local quisling administration on July 28 1943.
According to the German Foreign Office representative for the Balkans, Hermann Neubacher, Keserović concluded a formal "armistice agreement" with the Germans in his area of operations in the German-occupied territory of Serbia in late 1943. Such agreements were negotiated by at least four other senior Chetnik commanders in the occupied territory at this time. These agreements ensured that the Chetniks in these areas were safe from the Germans while they continued to fight the Partisans, provided with limited ammunition by the Germans, provided with medical assistance, including having their wounded treated in German hospitals, allowed freedom of movement, and allowed to forcibly recruit manpower in their areas of responsibility. These agreements also required the affected Chetniks to cease operations against the collaborationist puppet regime in the occupied territory, and effectively neutralized these Chetniks as far as the Germans were concerned. On 30 November 1943, Keserović reported to Mihailović that the Germans had offered him cooperation, arms, and ammunition, which he allegedly refused. He denied having any connection with the Germans.
1944 One of the elite Chetnik military units which would bear the biggest burden of defense from Tito's advancing communist forces was the Rasina-Toplica Corps Group, commanded by Keserović. This unit was established on 11 May 1944 by the Chetnik Supreme Command.
Number of deserters in Keserović's troops was large, so Keserović issued an ordered on in June saying soldiers who don't put enough effort should be brought to military court and those who desert should be executed on the spot. In July, the Germans initiated Operation Trumpf against the Partisans in the southern parts of German-occupied Serbia. This was a combined operation with Bulgarian troops, Serbian quisling formations, and Chetnik forces commanded by Radoslav Račić. Račić's Fourth Group of Shock Corps from western Serbia were reinforced by the Rasina-Kopaonik Group of Shock Corps commanded by Keserović. The total Chetnik forces involved in this operation exceeded 10,000 men (arguably the largest concentration of Chetnik troops in Serbia during the whole period of war), and the Chetniks were supplied with ammunition and some arms by the Germans.