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With the S.O.E. in Yugoslavia January 1944 Part one.
By adrose
People in story: Lt.Lambshead,Essex Reg, Serg.Ron Mansfield East Surreys Serg.Tim Bowers HAARA, Corp.Bill Pavitt Essex Reg L/Bdr.Alan Rose,HAA RA TA Gnrs.Sam Tolman;Jack Jelley;Tom Pearman;Pte's.'Knobby Hawkins;Peter Daines;'Sqiz' Squse;'Jock' MacDonald Seaforth Highlanders,
Location of story: The Island of VIS, Yugoslavia.

We were members of the Raiding Support Regiment (the RSR). As its name implies we were formed to--Raid and Support. Raid and support guerrilla bands in the countries occupied by the enemy. Individuals from the Foreign Office having been given His Majesty's Commission had been working in various Balkan countries since the war began. Now, 1943, with it becoming evident that the tide of war was turning former allies of Nazi Germany were showing signs that they wished to get off that particular 'band-wagon' so as people finally decided on their true allies, resistance began to hot up. S.O.E., in its wisdom, decided that it would be good idea to foster this by importing trained troops. Troops already trained on the more sophisticated weapons of war. Because they had to simply rely on native muleteers to transport their meagre gear, and who, of course, performed this task quite efficiently, they assumed that, what would become a mule-train of some eighty or ninety animals could move about the hinterland as freely and as easily as their group of two or three.

The hinterland in this case, meant a journey of some days, over, at first hills, then mountains, sometimes above the snow line, the troops still in Tropical Kit! Yes, we were trained in our skills, whether it is gunnery, Infantry tactics, Machine guns, a wide spectrum of military skills were collected at our base in Palestine in the winter of 1943. There was perpetrated the first and fundamental mistake. We were asked which battery we would like to serve.

The Regiment was made up of Five Batteries, 'A' Battery were equipped with .303" Heavy Vickers machine guns and Spandau's; 'B' with 3" Mortars; 'C' Battery with .5" Browning M/g's; 'D' Battery with 47/32 mm Anti-tank Guns; And 'E' Battery with 75 mm Howitzers.
So the advantage of having fully trained troops was wantonly thrown away at the outset, for you had people who, fed up with their old weapons opted for these new novelty jobs. So before even starting to train us on guerrilla war we had to be trained on these new weapons first. My mates, instead of being 'posted' to 'E' Battery, that is the 75 mm Howitzers, where their skills would be fully utilized, picturing the little bombs of the mortar comparing it with the 84 lb ammo they were used to handling, opted for 'B' Battery. There were two teams in our Section, the others were Essex lads (infantry), and so having some experience on mortars, albeit the little two inch ones, so for them, it wasn't to bad. But us Artillery blokes had to get used to an entirely different method of hitting the target. Which basically consisted of virtually smothering it.

With Christmas behind us we were at first tied up with getting fit enough to march long distances, once again the infantry boys came out on top, for us gunners hadn't stepped outside our gun-pits for months. Our leg muscles virtually atrophied! Then there was our 'Jumps' Yes, we may have to parachute into our operational zone so off to Ramat David we went for a fortnight, those who succeeded in completing the required seven, including a night jump, passed their test and received the enormous increase of two shillings a day in their pay.
Then more training, up to the snow in Lebanon this time we had to learn to Ski!! No such luck for my section. It appeared that Tito of Yugoslavia needed a conference with the British Military Mission to sort out how Yugoslavia would be run when the Germans withdrew, so Col. Churchill (no relation!) was delegated to sort things out with him. The Island of Vis, just one of the hundreds which made up the island chain of Dalamatia, was a sort of H.Q., and we were already occupying it (though the Germans occupied all the rest). There, special guards were needed and we were given this somewhat doubtful honour. So in January we were off first of all boarding the S.S. Princess Catherine at Suez, then off up the Suez Canal to Malta, Bari in Southern Italy, then to our temporary base at Mollfetta. Having got ‘ tooled up’, we sailed off in a LCT landing on the island of Vis. Our mortar position had not been mapped out for us, so we stayed at the Fish Factory for a few days during which we had the interesting task of guarding German prisoners that had been captured by the Commandos during their recent raid on HVAR. This was a much bigger island (one which I was to visit on holiday in 1994!)

There was a mystery. One of the Germans was heard saying that they knew that the raid was coming off. How? Was the question that needed an answer? The Germans would not talk freely, after many tricks had been tried and failed to elicit the required information the Commandos decided on tougher tactics. The prisoner who had talked was isolated from his pals in a cell of the old building in which they were kept; it was our job to take him at intervals up to the room used for interrogation. These intervals were spaced oddly. Sometimes we'd take him up only to bring him, after a few words, straight down again. He'd then go off to sleep, from which we'd wake him a few minutes later telling him that he couldn’t expect to sleep all day. As he was in total darkness he had no way of knowing what time it was. After a few days of this he finally told us that his informant was his Yugoslav girl friend. She was taken out and shot. The end for him wasn’t much different as during the air raid mentioned above the house in which the prisoners were kept was destroyed. A few days later we were sent to our action site further inland.
(To be continued)

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