Page 22 - The Constructor 2017

The Company

communications by our newly acquired fleet of motorcycles and it was decided to remove the
nuisance. We possessed no heavy equipment but had a few Italian mortars and a wide variety of
automatic weapons, most of which were supplied by almost nightly drops on the landing ground at
Mount Joannis. Hand-made ‘grenades’ (old cigarette tins filled with plastic explosive) were made.
After some five days of intense activity the final assault took place and the Cossacks surrendered.
It was just as well they did because of the difficulty of supplying our frontline forces. Most supplies
having been dropped overnight were carried by Friulan women across country to the partisans the
next morning.
By this time, we had several trained groups working at specific intervals and their nuisance value was
such that, inevitably, the enemy had to do something about it. Our intelligence organisation covered
most troop movements and the whole of north-east Italy and we learned that a rastrellamento
(search) was to take place using Fascist forces and Cossacks supported by Jaegar troops on the way
to the main front from Germany with all the necessary armour and weaponry. We therefore decided
to turn our zone into a protected area with defence in depth. Roads and bridges were mined,
roadblocks built and points of weakness covered. One bridge over the railway was demolished as a
south-bound train passed under it, cutting it in a half. The repair train the next day and the mobile
railway crane the day after were each derailed in turn causing chaos locally.
Early in August the nearest enemy HQ was at Faedis but this soon moved out in the interests of its
own safety and our HQ was moved from Stremis to Forame where we occupied part of the first floor
of a house at a bend in the road. Here we took the unusual opportunity of raising and lowering the
Union Jack at the appropriate times daily, much to our pleasure and that of our Italian friends.
None of this activity could have been possible without the full support, unstinting assistance and
great courage of the Italian partisans and particularly the Friulani — a people which we, the ‘Missione
Inglese’, learned to respect and admire. Surely, they suffered not only in their daily lives but also
through the terrifying visits and actions of the Cossacks. No home was safe, no woman or child
respected. Anyone known or suspected of supporting our cause would be dealt with in brutal
fashion without mercy. Yet not once were we betrayed and we were always made welcome with the
richest reception in the poorest homes.
Our stay in Forame came to an abrupt end on 2 October 1944 when, in the afternoon, we were
almost surrounded and, in any event, running short of ammunition. God was on our side and the
rain poured down turning the early evening into premature darkness and that night a substantial
part of the partisan forces and all the English mission crossed the Natisone to the East. We marched
for 36 hours in non-stop rain through forests as black as ink — so dark that each man held the tail of
the man in front and no-one could see his own feet. Friulan guides must rank with the best in the
world — no Indian could have done better.
Ten days later — ten days without radio communications to our HQ — we returned with a nucleus of
partisans back over a tiny bridge across the Natisone which was now a raging torrent. Sergeant
MacDonnell recovered a battery hidden for us by a local villager under some chestnuts and within 30
seconds had restored communications. Now we had to keep on the move — most trees in our area
were decidous and the first snow had already arrived. Army orders proposed a toning down of
activity in anticipation of the final efforts in the next spring. Sabotage was restricted to the
occasional but regular derailment of trains and the demolition of existing workshops primed to make
machines and parts for the enemy. Not all our plans were successful. One major act of sabotage to
destroy a fleet of locomotives, a substation, railway bridges and crossing points, although

22 | Autumn 2017 | The Journal of the Worshipful Company of Constructors