AUSTRALIANS JOIN PARTISANS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 19, 24 October 1944, Page 2

AUSTRALIANS JOIN PARTISANS

PRISONERS ESCAPE IN YUGOSLAVIA Bombay,, August 21. Four members of the A.I.F. escaped pri.sonc.rs of war ( had remarkable adventures in Yugoslavia, where they linked up with Partisan forces. The men were Staff-Sergeant Harry Lesar, of Melbourne; Sergeant Ross Sayres of Castlemaine, Victoria; Sergeant Alan Berry, of Perth; and Sergeant Ernest of Drovin, Victoria. Lessor and Savres, who were in the same infantry unit were captured in Greece in April, 194.1, but remained in German hands for only two months' After leaping from a speeding train near Belgrade, they met an English-speaking Yugoslav at a village. He supplied them with civilian clothes, purchased tickets and put them on a train. They travelled to a village in southern Yugoslavia. They remained in Yugoslavia nearly three years.

They became associated with the Chetniks and later with Marshal

Broz-Tito's Partisans. They spent most of one winter in a hole in the ground with live feet of snow outside, and very little food. When British paratroops landed. Avireless messages from Lcsar and Sayres were sent out. These reached their people in Australia. After that they received messages from their relatives by wireless and in metal containers dropped from planes.

The two Australians, were not permitted to iiglit but trained a special .squad of 16 saboteurs. One night a gang of them blew up seven kilometres of railways and held up German traffic for 25 days. When British military missions arrived, Lesar and Say res acted as interpreters. Lately they were llown to Italy. Hazardous Trek Berry and Brougli were captured in the Middle East, in 1942. With a Xc:\v Zealander they escaped from an Australian prison farm last April. Wearing English battle-dress, they made a hazardous journey on foot until they met a Partisan force in Yugoslavia. At times they had to plough through feet of snow and once took an hour to cross a swilling river 200 yards wide. Their greatest excitement was when they encountered a heartbroken young Slovakian who had been called up by the German Army. He. was in full marching equipment but relieved the Australians when he shook hands and wished them good luck. Berr} T and Brough spent two months in Yugoslavia, before being llown out by American plane. The Partisans had grown from a group of 10 men to 300.000 and had recovered much territory from the Germans, they said. In one 150 Germans were killed, but the Yugoslavs -were much more pleased on this occasion with having captured eight bags of salt, a muchprized commodity. Girl guerillas Specialised in grenade-throwing ngains't pillboxes. Some small boys carried sawn-ofT rifles, and knew how to use them. The Partisans referred to Tito as "bruze" (''comrade") . All four Australians are, in good health. They have seen a number of other Australians who were released from Ltalian prison camps after the German withdrawals, but many others were sent to Germany.