N.Z. PARATROOPERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 68, 18 September 1944, Page 6

N.Z. PARATROOPERS

SERVICE IN YUGOSLAVIA

Parachuted into Yugoslavia with a ■ British paratroop unit in an araa controlled by General Mikhailovitca's guerrillas, Warrant Officer N. G. Harvey, of the Second N.Z.E.F., spent twelve months on work against the enemy and training the Yugoslav irregulars in the use of demolition materials. He returned to New Zealand recently as a member of a furlough draft. Warrant Officer Harvey left New Zealand with the Second Echelon, and remained with the New Zealand Division until early in 1943, when his application for training as a- paratrooper was granted. Together with men_from all branches of the British and Dominion armies he received intensive, training in demolition work as well as the normal diverse activities of a paratrooper, which include training in the use of all German and Italian weapons. In the middle of last year the unit had completed its preparation for the special task in hand, and was dropped in Yugoslavia. At this time General Mikhailovitch had not come into the disrepute which afterwards led to the withdrawal of support from the Yugoslav Government in London. The paratroopers organised a headquarters which was in direct radio contact with Cairo and split into smaller bands, which kept in touch with their own headquarters. Their objective was to disrupt communications so far as possible, and they did it thoroughly. With supplies dropped from the air they blew up railway lines and bridges and trained the partisans in similar work. Their ammunition they took from the enemy trains they wrecked, because they were specially equipped with German rifles, revolvers, and heavy machine-guns, and at one stage with captured Italian mortars. Ranged against them were German, Italian, and Bulgarian troops, who. could have wiped out the small detachment if only they could have caught it among tne mountains. In their search for ammunition on one occasion the partroop men picked a small station with four sidings on a single track line, expecting a goods tram to arrive. The sidings and the rails on either side were mined, and when two, not one, trains pulled into the station they exploded the charges and blew up the station water pump in addition, marooning the trains. Unfortunately, their information proved faulty, and both trains were full of troops. A battle developed, and the British troops and guerrillas in positions in the hills above the station killed 80 of the enemy and wounded 120, wtihout loss. On one occasion a section of the paratroops were, caught by a.large force of Bulgarians. They fought their way out, but had to leave behind five wounded men. All five were summarily executed by the Bulgarians. When the political situation in regard to General Mikhailovitch and the rival claims of Marshal Tito became more acute it was decided to evacute the unit. They received orders by radio to construct a landing field for the aircraft which would take them off. They were apparently trained to expect orders like this, because they did so, and American transport planes flew them out.