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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Vijiha Bashir, at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland on behalf of John Hislop from Bishopton and has been added to the site with the permission of Johnstone History Society. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Not a lot has been written, or even known, about the above part of the last war. The initial thought was taken by Winston Churchill after the turn of events in North Africa.

A unit of British Soldiers had been active behind enemy lines with a great deal of success. These men had been trained be a British Army Officer who was then asked by Churchill to assist President Tito. President Tito’s partisan army was in conflict against the German forces in Yugoslavia. The Army Officer accepted the request from Churchill and a force of British Soldiers were landed there initially in one of the Dalmatian Islands and a base was made on Vis which had a good Harbour and facilities.

A flotilla of M.T.B and M.G.B boats were then based at Komiza and were used to support the partisans as well as British troops led by Brigadier MacLean who were causing problems ashore by preventing German supplies getting through to their mainland positions.

I was aboard an M.T.B as Wireless Operator and we used to patrol the coastal areas stopping supplies intended for German soldiers — the Germans relied heavily on getting supplies through by sea as it was the only route left for them. Quite a lot of action took place — boats were sunk, lives were lost. Towards the end of 1943 and well into 1944 was the most active time for us and no doubt we were able to support MacLean and his men who were fighting alongside Tito and his Partisan Army.

To go into detail of various actions among the Dalmatian Islands and offshore bombardments at Split and Dubrovnik would resurrect many painful memories.

I have been listening, some years ago, to a television programme of the support Sir Fitzroy and Lady MacLean had given to the Dalmatian Islands during the shortage of supplies, food etc. And I understood from that, that Tito had gifted a house on the Island of Korcula and that Sir Fitzroy had associated this with Bute. These interested me and although during my annual visit to Rothesay, no one seemed to know anything about this, not even the Information Centre; a letter to the ‘Buteman’ cleared this up. This is what was said in the response letter dated 19th July 2001.

Rothesay is in fact formally twinned with the Island of Korcula. The twinning partnership was set up by the late Fitzroy MacLean and he was M.P for this area and he chose Korcula as he had been given a house there as a gesture of thanks from the Yugoslavian Government for his wartime involvement with their country.

The twinning was reasonably active but the last official visit form this area took place in 1991. Shortly thereafter came the terrible civil war in Yugoslavia during which Sir Fitzroy and Lady MacLean took out medical supplies to Korcula, a substantial donation to this aid having been made by the population of Rothesay and Bute.

Since the end of the war attempts have been made to re-establish contact but so far to no avail. Hopefully with the extension of the European Community into the former Eastern Bloc there may be greater efforts and more opportunities to re-establish and strengthen and long term link that exists between the two areas.

The letter went on to say that if I should ever visit Korcula I should feel at liberty to let them know that Rothesay still recognises the links with them and would like to rekindle some of the friendships which were made many years ago.

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