Allied POW's taken in yugoslavia post war.

[jerijerod]

Hi everyone,

My granddad once told me that whilst he was in the Allied occupation force in Austria he and his patrol were caught on the boarder by communist partisans and arrested. One of the patrol had geleignite tape for demolitions and they were deemed as saboteurs.
They were taken away and tortured, he would not say more on the subject and never spoke of it again but i know he had some horrific scars on his back and would never take his shirt off or go swimming.

Does anyone have any information on this? He died recently and i was unable to ask him further details and as a long shot i thought i'd throw this to the group.

Cheers guys

Chris

[John W. Howard]

Hello Chris:
The only other reference to postwar troubles with Yugoslav partisans that I remember was in David Hackworth's book ABOUT FACE. When he was a young soldier in Italy, he and his patrol had some very tense encounters with Yugoslav Partisans. Apparently the partisans had a very real interest in controlling Trieste and US troops were sent to prevent any problems. So an hostile encounter with Yugo partisans on the Austrian border seems reasonable to me. There was a lot of pressure brought to bear on the Allies by the Communists during the occupation of Austria post-war. One of US General Mark Clark's shining moments was his no-nonsense approach to that pressure as leader of the occupation. Keep us posted on what you find; I for one would be very interested. Best wishes.

[jerijerod]

Cool thanks for the title i'll see if i can amazon it. Going to get some time at Kew and see if they have any records of it. Shouldn't be classified or anything, I hope!
Cheers
Chris

[ghp95134]

Cool thanks for the title i'll see if i can amazon it. Going to get some time at Kew and see if they have any records of it. Shouldn't be classified or anything, I hope!
Cheers
Chris

Chris, the book has been digitized. Go HERE. Bottom of p.35 and p.36 mentions some "nickle-and-dime" small-scale guerilla conflicts perpetrated by the "Jugs" around 1947.

--Guy

[jerijerod]

Thanks will do