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Chapter V

Yugoslavia

I have not recorded, nor can I remember when or how I became possessed of the information that enemy occupied Yugoslavia was to be our destination. On 18 February all the fun and high-jinks were interrupted, and we were rather hurriedly taken by road to Bari to unload a ship laden with our guns and supplies. The writing, if not in manuscript, was on the wall. We worked with an enthusiasm that day which equalled for impact the startling effect of our first glimpse of an Italian city.7

Two days later, we set off by sea on board LCI (Lancing Craft Infantry) No. 260. LCI 260 had sailed from Monopoli’s slightly ruffled harbour on Sunday morning 20 February 1944 into a turbulent Adriatic, bound (we had actually been told!) for a destination in ‘enemy waters’, but the Navy crew soon had misgivings about the storm which had developed at sea. The result was that our progress to the north was cut short and the haven of Bari’s docks was soon sought, to the intense satisfaction of the many who were suffering from seasickness. The anti-climax might have been distressing had not our superiors, with commendable appreciation of the situation, allowed us ashore in Bari for the day under threats of unimaginably dire penalties for any blabbing of our projected enterprise – a laughable precaution, since none of us knew of our destination nor of our role. So the day, which started with cloak and dagger potentialities, culminated in an enjoyable appreciation of most of what city life could offer.

Topper and I saw two films that day: Ball of Fire and Air Force, neither of which made any lasting impression on my memory. However, by contrast, we did make the pleasing discovery of Spumanti – a poor-man’s and then-ignorant-of-any-other-man’s champagne – and enjoyed excellent food at one of the several forces’ canteens, already well established in a city teeming with British and American troops. The true extent of what a fortuitous bonus that day in Bari had been became clearer the next day when, after we had slept in bunks in cramped conditions on the boat, it sailed into frighteningly stormy waters of at least equal ferocity to that of the previous day. We were under orders that apparently forbade any further delay in meeting the timetabled arrangements for reception at the other end.