Biographies & Memoirs

30

The Battle of Savinja Valley

The second drop with the radio never arrived. While waiting in Pohorje, Lindsay heard the sound of gunfire. Thinking the Partisans were having fun, he stormed out to lecture them on the prudent use of the weapons and ammunition that had only just been dropped! Crossing a hill, he found two Partisan brigades dug in, holding off 1,200 SS.1 He withdrew to a hasty 4th Zone HQ meeting, where it was decided to hold until night, then retreat west. The Partisans would gather their full strength, Lindsay would arrange new drop sites on the way, and together they would liberate the Savinja Valley. For any of their future plans to work, they needed a liberated area, somewhere they could defend in strength, take airdrops, rally and train recruits, and shelter E&Es on their way south.

The Partisan forces were in place to attack Savinja Valley on 30 July, but Lindsay’s part had not gone well. Some ammunition, but no arms, explosives, or light artillery had been dropped. It would all be on the Partisans. The targets were German garrisons in two small towns in the Savinja Valley: Luče and Ljubno. The valley was deep, with narrow winding roads, a few back paths out of the valley, and a single main road east to Celje. Each garrison was held primarily by Wehrmannschaft troops, supplemented with Wehrmacht and SS personnel.

Taking the garrisons’ central fortifications was the key. The task fell to locally recruited troops: the Šlander Brigade, composed of Partisans smuggled out of Pohorje in 1943, and the Zidanšek Brigade. The 14th Division, meanwhile, would blockade the eastern road, and a feint would be launched against a town just outside the valley: Gornji Grad.2

Lindsay, his second man Bush, and 4th Zone HQ established themselves on the mountain range between the three towns and watched the attack begin. This time the Partisans were meticulous in their assault. At Ljubno, grenades were thrown into pillboxes, and explosives set against fortifications under covering fire. The enemy retreated into their central garrison as dawn broke on a glorious summer day. Lindsay and Bush watched from the hills, indignantly taking cover when an enemy soldier spotted them from a window and opened fire. No longer shrouded by darkness, it looked as if the Partisans would again fail. Lindsay hadn’t been able to drop weapons capable of breaking the last fortifications. Then six Partisans pulled a 75mm Italian gun up the main street. It had been disassembled and carried by hand all the way from the south, thanks to the Sava Navy.3 The first round blew a hole in the garrison wall. A second exploded inside, and a Partisan assault team stormed the breach. The German garrison surrendered.4 The next day the other garrisons surrendered too, including the one at Gornji Grad where the feint became total victory.

The Wehrmannschaft survivors accepted an offer to join the Partisans, while the forty-five surviving German defenders had their lives spared. For propaganda value, they were stripped and sent walking naked to Celje.5 The Partisans had their liberated territory and had captured enough German guns to arm 500. Recruits rallied by the thousand, and they now hoped that all the other arms they needed would be dropped by air.

The Partisans did not linger; orders came from Tito for Operation Ratweek. Slovenian Partisans would operate in synch with their Yugoslav colleagues, destroying German lines of transport and communications all over the Balkans. That meant going back to Pohorje, and making a second attack on the railways. Lindsay stayed in Savinja to coordinate, while Bush accompanied the 14th Division. They would seize Pohorje, take a large airdrop of explosives at Rogla, and destroy the railways. Major Losco would be dropping too, ready to take up his MI9 duties and begin rescuing POWs.6

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