[3] On July 7, 1941, while Chetnik forces were still inactive, Josip Broz Tito and the Partisans staged a large-scale uprising in the region between Šabac and Užice, in the Krupanj area of northwest Serbia[4] One Žikica Jovanović Španac shot the first bullet of the campaign on 7 July 1941 – marking the start of armed resistance in occupied Yugoslavia.

[2] The uprising was successful and secured a defensible, self-sustained, independent region, the first of many "free territories" to be established by the Partisans during the course of the war, and was commonly called the "Užice Republic".

On August 14 the Headquarters of the Military Commander in Serbia reported to the OKW that the Partisan forces thus far enjoy no support from the nationalists.

Despite this, the German military forces in the region were deemed insufficient to quell the uprising, which by August 27 had become "more acute" and was rapidly spreading.

Because of this, and since no reinforcements could be expected, the German authorities decided to rely on enlarging Serbian auxiliary forces in order for the "Serbs themselves to crush the communist activity".

[5] By September 1941, after seeing the considerable success of the uprising, and observing its wide, and growing, support among the populace, the Chetniks realized that if they did not join the fight, they would likely forfeit their standing as the leaders of Serbian resistance.

[7] A few days later on September 19, Tito met with Draža Mihailović in order to negotiate an alliance between Partisans and Chetniks, but they failed to reach an agreement.

Tito was in favor of a joint full-scale offensive, while Mihailović considered a general uprising to be premature and dangerous, as he deemed it would trigger reprisals.

[9] Invested by Hitler with total authority and told to "restore order for the longer term in the entire area by the most radical means", Böhme made it clear from the beginning that he intended if necessary to wage war against the whole Serbian population by considering all civilians as enemies.

[13] Tito and Mihailović met again on October 26 or 27, 1941 in the town of Brajići near Ravna Gora in a final attempt to achieve an understanding, but found consensus only on secondary issues.

[16] After more than a month of disagreements and minor collisions, the events culminated on November 1 in a massed Chetnik attack in and around the town of Užice where the Partisans had their headquarters.

[17] Both Tito and Mihailović, however, were still willing to reach a truce, although both were pressed by some of their officers to attack the other as soon as possible; ceasefires alternated with ultimatums, as bloody reprisals between the two resistance movements affected both sides' morals and alienated civilians.

The Partisans allowed them to go free, which political observers have attributed to military foresight, as the Chetniks would continue to attack German forces.

There are indications that Mihailović offered to cease activities in the towns and along the major communication lines, but ultimately no agreement was reached at the time due to German demands for the complete surrender of the Chetniks.

Tito had been surprised by the scale of the uprising, and had found himself managing inexperienced peasant fighters who were reluctant to move away from their towns, or to accept authority and indoctrination.