Two resistance movements emerged to combat the NDH and the Axis occupiers—the royalist Serb Chetniks, led by Colonel Draža Mihailović, and the multi-ethnic, communist Yugoslav Partisans, led by Josip Broz Tito. Jezdimir Dangić was a gendarmerie officer prior to the outbreak of World War II. In 1940, he was appointed to lead the gendarmerie detachment in the Yugoslav royal palace. During the invasion of Yugoslavia, he was responsible for escorting King Peter II to Nikšić Airport as he left the country. Dangić then returned to Belgrade and was in the city when it was occupied by the Germans. He obeyed the summons of Milan Aćimović, head of the first Serbian puppet government, to serve in the gendarmerie of the Serbian quisling state and did so until mid-August. When news reached him of the Ustaše massacres of Serbs in Bosnia, he sought permission to travel there and escort his family and relatives to safety. In the summer his request was approved, and he travelled via Mihailović's headquarters at Ravna Gora. Early on, Mihailović designated Dangić as one of three men who were to succeed him as leaders of the Chetnik movement in the event of his death or capture. Like Mihailović, Dangić sought to avoid conflict with the Germans and began to pursue a policy of "self-defence against the Ustaše and revenge against the Croats and Muslims". In August 1941, Dangić was sent by Mihailović to eastern Bosnia to take command of the Chetnik detachments in the region and bring them under Mihailović's control. He collected a group of Bosnian Serbs and crossed the Drina River into the NDH, arriving in eastern Bosnia on 16 August. In the beginning, his operations were directed primarily against the Ustaše and the Bosnian Muslim population of the area. By early September, Dangić had established himself as the leader of all Chetnik groups in eastern Bosnia. In late November 1941, Major Boško Todorović reached an agreement with Lieutenant-Colonel Castagnieri, commander of the Italian garrison in Goražde, regarding the Italian evacuation and hand-over of the town to the Chetniks.