BACK TO LIFE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 7 February 1944, Page 3

BACK TO LIFE

SOLDIER’S ADVENTURES

FOUGHT WITH YUGOSLAVS

In one of the N.Z.E.F. casualty lists last week was the following item:

“Now Reported Safe. Denvir, John, L/Cpl. Mrs E. J. Denvir, Maori Point, Karamea (w.).” Behind that announcement is an unusual war story, part of which was revealed recently in the cabled news about the fight being waged by the Yugoslav patriots, Cpl. Denvir is the New Zealand soldier who was reported to have become a battalion commander in the Yugoslav Patriot Army. The mother of this soldier, Mrs J. Denvir, of Christchurch, has this week received the following cablegram from her son: "Back in Egypt, slightly wounded; take no notice of rumours.” Cpl. DenviFs reference to rumours, his mother thinks, means to disregard reports of his death. Captured in Greece, he had been reported killed after his second escape from enemy hands. The advice had been confirmed, and for more than a year his wife received a widow’s pension. Neither his mother nor his wife believed that Corporal Denvir was dead, and their faith was confirmed when it was reported from London that a “Private Denvir” had made a broadcast from Yugoslavia stating that he was fighting for the People’s Freedom Army. Three months ago Mrs Denvir, jun., was officially informed that her husband was alive. A BROADCAST From friends abroad she has received a transcript of the broadcast, in which her husband described how the patriot forces operated, and told how he had escaped from the Germans. “Here’s what happened to me,” said Denvir. I was taken prisoner on April 28, 1941, and was transferred to Maribor, where we were kept as prisoners of war. “On August 1, I escaped to Zagreb, where I was recaptured and sent back to Maribor. After three weeks under arrest, I began to draw up a new plan for escape. On December 9, along with three comrades, I managed to get to Lubliana. “Here, we became convinced that it was almost impossible to escape from Europe, so we decided to carry on the struggle against the enemy here, and joined the People’s Army of Liberation. “For twelve months we have been fighting Italians and White Guards in Slovenia. The Partisan Army is made up of Slovenes, but there are also Poles, Germans, Italians. and British in its ranks. “It displays the greatest courage and daring in the struggle against the enemy. Its principles are justice and humanity.”