IN July, Tito found himself the nominal leader of a nation in revolt against the Nazis—confronted with the enormous job of pulling all the threads together, of turning this loose mass revolution into a concerted campaign that would eventually drive out the Germans and Italians.
During July and August, Tito remained in Belgrade, operating his Communist headquarters under the very noses of the Nazis, spreading farther and farther the influence of the Liberation Front. The Gestapo had some inkling that a man called Tito was at the head of this business; they even managed to obtain an old picture of him, which they blew up into huge posters. Everywhere in the country, these posters began to appear:
WANTED: TITO!
A reward was offered, a reward so huge that it would make a Yugoslav peasant the equivalent of an American millionaire. Yet strangely, although hundreds of Partisans knew Tito personally, no one betrayed him.
He remained at large in Belgrade. In the cafes he would meet Partisans from all over Yugoslavia, issue instructions, receive reports. In a church, he knelt beside a Slovenian priest who was a Partisan leader in that province. He held a staff meeting in an empty warehouse. He wrote orders that left Belgrade in the baskets of peasant women, under the cloaks of churchmen and in the valises of respectable looking salesmen.
By August, his organizational work had progressed tremendously. All of Yugoslavia was now operating under a single command of the Liberation Front—all, that is, except the Chetniks of General Mikhailovich. And at this time, in several cases, Chetniks and Partisans fought the Germans side by side.
By this time, the Partisans had a flag, a five-pointed star. They wore captured German and Italian uniforms and old Yugoslav army uniforms. In all cases, the insignia was removed and a five-pointed star substituted.
Tito stayed in Belgrade until September. Then, the organizational groundwork done, he left the city and met General Mikhailovich.