WHITE EAGLES

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

    Beginning  of September 1943 Ljubljana was in the state of turmoil, Italian forces surrendered to the Western Allies. Mussolini was arrested and guarded by the Italian Royal Army units, when the German paratroopers freed him and he declared the continuation of the Fascist led  Italy. We all thought that it was time to oppose the occupation of the land. Trainloads of the citizens of Ljubljana traveled East to the region of Dolenska, most to the city of Kocevje which was already under the partisan control, I was in a small group of young people that believed in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Looking back, knowing of all those trainloads joining the communist partisans, we should have realized that Ljubljana was as RED as it can be. We still believed in the final victory of Western Allies, who  we thought were our friends. The Royal Yugoslav government 'ruled' from London , England, their minister of defense was general Draza Mihajlovic, who was leading our resistance from Ravna Gora in Serbia.  General Mihajlovic was a true patriot, officer of the Royal Yugoslav army, who decided to stay and fight instead of escaping to Egypt and England as most other high ranking  officers and politicians did. His Head Quarters were in the mountain of Ravna Gora, well defended from partisans and German army. For us it was a symbol of resistance.  He refused to leave the country at the end of the war, when the Americans offered to take him out.

My first encounter with the Royal Yugoslav resistance on terrain, which meant (in those days)  in free territory, was gathering of all our units at the castle of Turjak in the region of Dolenska. I left the train  in the town of Grosuplje. The train was  taking people out of Ljubljana  , mostly future partisans going to the town of Kocevje. There were seven of us assembled at the station, as I remember, we were left to our own 'devices' how to get to Grcarice, a town where our best unit was fortified, waiting for reinforcement of Serbian units from the region of Lika.  The Serbs never came, our best fighters were left alone in the middle of partisan territory.  Grcarice were overrun by partisans with the help of Italian artillery. The promises by partisans that cetniks would keep their weapons and fight  Germans, was not kept. They were bound by wires and taken to Kocevje and eventually executed. My friends Bacnik and Plajh were with them. How can one forget?