大象传媒

My father John Cory鈥檚 story from his memoir 鈥淎 Span of Years鈥� as left to the family, edited by Richard Cory. The opinions expressed here are my father鈥檚.

Six of us met some partisans in a bar and they told us that later on during the evening they would be going into Milan and we could go with them. Milan at the time was officially out of bounds to the Allies, it had been left to the partisans to sort a few things out. Obtaining permission we went with our friends in their transport, armed to the teeth. I found Milan to be a very imposing city and life appeared to be going on as usual. We heard a number of shots coming from the backstreets but were told not to worry, it was only fellow partisans scoring out a few fascist collaborators.

2nd Front News
A report that Berlin had fallen and Hitler was reported dead.

We received official congratulations from the General Commander of Divisional American Forces regarding our show on the night of the 28th. 鈥� for operation beyond the normal call of duty鈥�. This referred to manning machine gun posts in response to an enemy threat. I suppose we could have just stood by not really belonging to their army, but in any case nothing happened and all we lost was a night鈥檚 sleep.

We arranged a number of trips to lake Como, absolutely untouched by war. We toured around, admiring the beautiful scenery and went up to the Swiss border at Chiesa.

2nd Front News. 7th May
The total German Armies surrender

The Italians, civilians and partisans, were still celebrating the victory and we were invited to a number of fiestas. This included a football match in the professional stadium at Saranno. Our team lost to the Italians 7 鈥� 1.

Four of us got a job, going to the Arsenal at Pavia, for security duty. There were no other troops in the town. We found that the Arsenal had already been secured by the Partisans. We organised them for guard duty, and all we did was to inspect them from time to time. The factory was still working with over a thousand employees. They had a motor launch in the river running alongside the factory, we and the partisans used it for trips up and down, swimming from it and sun-bathing on the deck. The Partisans took us for shopping in the town and I bought some dress material and buttons. I didn鈥檛 actually buy it, the Partisans told the shopkeeper to sent the bill to the factory. Ten minutes after leaving the shop I discovered that I was not carrying my rifle. Going back to the shop it was still hanging on the coat rack were I had put it on entering. We were later relieved by a large group of Americans.

All good things must come to an end and on the 22nd. May we returned to the Regiment and the 8th. Army. A 200 Km鈥檚 journey on route 9 to Cesanna, a town which had been knocked about quite a bit.

Don troops job was to organise and guard internees, Yugoslav Royalists, called Chetniks. During the war two forces of partisans operated in their country.

The Chetniks supported King Peter and the exiled government in London. The other force comprised Tito and his irregular communist band. Arms and advisers were dropped to both. As well as fighting the common enemy, at times they fought each other. The Allies finally decided to solely support Tito, no doubt prompted by the Russians. As the war ended the Chetniks came down into Italy, brining the gold from their banks, and accompanied by their women and children. They were rather a wild lot and wanted to know when we would start fighting the Russians.

I got the job escorting the General and his staff on shopping trips to Bologna, in their staff car with the Yugoslav flag flying. They bought supplies to start a school in the camp for the children, as well as other necessities. These trips usually ended up with a good meal at a restaurant and plenty to drink, and me in some difficulty in getting back to my tent on arrival back in the late evening.

General Svet Dukic had been a member of the government and we got on quite well. He promised that when they got back in power my wife and I would receive an invitation for an official visit to his country, with a free holiday thrown in. Alas, it was not to be.

The guard duty was more a matter of keeping people from getting inside the camp, a huge stadium. Yugoslavs were still feeing their country and wanted to sue the camp as a halt.

At six o鈥檆lock each evening the Chetniks assembled and turning in the direction of London, their King and government, stood in silence for awhile, then sang their national anthem.

As a break, I went on 9 days leave to Rome, with a few friends, by rail. The railway had been repaired and electrified, from Jessi right down to Rome.

We did the sights travelling by tramcar, competing with the natives to get on and stay only, being assailed with liberal whiffs of garlic. There were plenty of films and live Italian shows to see, also a visit to the opera house for 鈥楥armen鈥�. The various forces clubs were well equipped and we did most of our eating and drinking in them

By chance, I came across two of our American friends of the 10th. Mountain infantry Division, to learn that 鈥楳ax鈥�, the master sergeant from the Bronx, did not make it to the Alps. He was one of their casualties, killed in action.

Life went on more or less uneventful at the camp with just a few odd high spots. Our ammunition truck went up in flames one evening providing a good firework display.

There was a murder in the camp and we could not find out who did it. The Chetniks did not bother about it and we suspected that the victim had been a Tito spy or informer.

Sports days were organised for the children, we helped and also supplied some of the equipment. The Chetniks put on concerts, they were good singers and native dancers. We tried our hand at the latter but felt clumsy in doing the intricate steps and movements to the wild gypsy type music.

The nearest seaside to the camp was Riccione with a very good beach and forces club and we organised quite a number of day trips. The Battery acquired its own rest camp at Venice, consisting of railway carriages in a siding, at the mainland terminus. By rota we had 48 hour leaves there, short visits but well worth while.

We did the usual tourist things, travelling up the Grand Canal by gondola, by tradition painted black since the Plague when used to carry the dead out to the lagoon for dropping over the side. Other places well worth a visit were the Ducal Place, up the Campinello 310 metres high, and St. Marks a medieval church of great beauty with onion domes, it was at one time a mosque.

On the 5th. July, I, among others, was awarded the Italian Star and 1939 鈥� 45 Star. We put the ribbons up on our uniforms and felt like old stagers.

News coming over the Army Radio

25/7 Churchill out of power 鈥� Labour government elected Atlee 鈥� Prime Minister

5/8 Tito announces the granting of a general pardon to political exiles. Note, our Chetniks would have none of it and preferred exile.

9/8 Report of Atomic Bomb being dropped on Japan

15/8 Japan surrenders

The end of World War II

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.