大象传媒

Message 1 - War with Tito?

Posted on: 18 October 2005 by Ron Goldstein

Dear Edward

I also have strong memories of Trieste
see A2166130

and other articles.
My 'mob' didn't arrive on the scene until October 1945 but we were to stay in the Venezia Giulia area until 1947.
During my Italian service I managed to float around in various Divs including the 6th Armoured, the 78th and finally the 56th Div.

Ex-serviceman Cpl.Ron Goldstein
nowadays, like yourself, referred to as a veteran !

Best wishes

Ron

Message 1 - Re: War with Tito?

Posted on: 18 October 2005 by Peter - WW2 Site Helper

Dear Mr Dudley

Your story regarding the end of the war in Italy is very interesting; you were caught in a very fluid and confused situation.

You say that "Initially we took up trenches left from WW1 and then moved into Yugoslavia". However, no Allied troops ever set foot in Yugoslavia (other than small special liaison groups during the war). What you were in was Italian territory which Tito was claiming for Yugoslavia, partly using the spurious argument that since Venezia Giulia (prior to WW1 part of Carinthia) was occupied by Austria and formed part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, it now ipso facto belonged to Yugoslavia, but mainly insisting that any territory 'liberated' by his forces belonged to Yugoslavia by conquest.

From 1919 the term 'Venezia Giulia' embraced the Italian provinces of Gorizia, Trieste, Istria (Pola), Carnaro (Fiume), and Zara (Zadar) on the Dalmatian coast. As the Germans retreated from Italy, the 4th Yugoslav Army (the partisans had considerably expanded by April 1945, supplied by the Red Army), poured into Italy occupying most of Venezia Giulia and in particular Fiume. At this point the Italian Partisan movement in Venezia Giulia split with a faction of ultra left wing Italian Communists siding with Tito, on orders from Moscow, and severing their allegiance to the Partisan National Liberation Committee in Milan.

Thus, when the Allies arrived in Venezia Giulia they found it almost completely occupied by Tito's forces, and what would now be called 'ethnic cleansing' was well under way. Not only were Italian fascists being shot but also Italian Partisans, including some Italian Communist Partisans who objected to Italian territory being swallowed up by Yugoslavia.

General Alexander had met Tito in Belgrade on two separate plenary meetings held on 21 and 24 February 1945 ostensibly to discuss Allied support for Tito's spring offensive. At the meetings Alexander stressed the coming need for a secure Line of Communication for the Western Allies from Trieste to Austria and tentatively saying that it looked to him that this would entail "the occupation of all territory west of the 1939 frontier between Italy and Yugoslavia", stressing that he had no authority to agree to changes to national boundaries and that this was a matter for a future Peace Conference. On his part Tito said that he did not see why the Allies had to occupy the whole of Istria just to protect their Line of Communication to Austria, and he offered the Ljubljana route through Yugoslav territory to Austria for Allied use, but in return he wanted an occupation zone in Austria. Although he side-stepped this, Alexander was really out of his depth politically in dealing with Tito and he could only get a verbal agreement about the whole issue which he thought was binding.

In April 1945 when Alexander raised the 'Belgrade Agreement', Tito simply pointed out that conditions had changed since, what he now dismissed as, 'non-binding discussions' in Belgrade; even the offered Ljubljana route through Yugoslav territory to Austria forgotten. At most he was now ready to accept Allied Military Government in Venezia Giulia 'provided' (and here was the rub) that the Tito's Partisan administration, already established in the area, continued to function under its overall command. By then Tito's partisan forces were firmly established in most of Istria and Gorizia, and the 4th Yugoslav Army had a firm grip on Fiume.

On 2 May Tito upped the ante. He sent a sharp note to Alexander demanding to know why British forces had entered a region which had been liberated by the Yugoslav Army. A footnote in the official history says "4th Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff was even ruder at a lower level conference, stating that unless the British complied he would not be responsible for the consequences" ('The Mediterranean and Middle East', Volume 6, Part III, page 338).

Matters then escalated to government level with Churchill, Truman, Eisenhower, and behind the scenes, Stalin involved and on 19th May Yugoslav intransigence suddenly broke. Negotiations then continued at a calmer level until 9 June, but considerable Italian territory was lost to Yugoslavia.

The fact that you thought you were in Yugoslavia when you went beyond the WW1 trenches is very interesting and clearly shows the extent to which Tito's forces had already 'cleansed' the area. I knew that signs were changed from Italian to Serbo-Croat, but I hadn't realised that the changes were made so quickly.

We can only speculate what might have happened had Tito, then spurred on by Stalin, got his way. With the route to Austria closed, the whole of that country would have been occupied by the Red Army and the knock-on effect incalculable.

Kind regards,
Peter Ghiringhelli