#novj

[yugoslavfub]

A young man and a girl from the village of Stapara near Sombor before the Battle of Batin, November 1944. Source: Ravnoplov

[itsstovie]

"Getting into the courtyard had been just too easy; it was hard to believe that we'd get away with it; but the officers began to file out with their hands in the air and I motioned with the barrel of my rifle for them to line up against the wall on the north side of the courtyard. They looked terribly frightened. I guess they thought we planned to shoot them all. Even if that had been our intention we would have had to kill them with clubs. We had no ammunition left.

"The rest of our 'attacking force' then worked its way around to the front of the courtyard and came in through the gate. My cousin made the prisoners stand facing the wall and they began to blubber and beg for their lives. I told them no one would be hurt if they followed orders and kept their faces to the wall, their hands in the air, then I went into the little fort to see what weapons I could find. We needed some grenades and machine guns and we needed them immediately, before our prisoners could realize we were almost unarmed. The men standing guard had eight rounds between them, and only one grenade. But we found the arsenal at once and hurried back to the courtyard with a sub-machine gun and two grenades for every member of our party."

Mladineo reached over suddenly and touched my elbow. He looked at me and laughed.

"Do you know what the toughest part of that raid was?" he said earnestly. "It was keeping a straight face. We all wanted to laugh hysterically. It was too ridiculous!"

'What did you do with your prisoners?" I asked.

"We just left them there, in the end; but first we carried away twenty-four sub-machine guns, twelve pistols, a hundred rifles, lots of ammunition and six cases of grenades. It was a nice rich haul. And we got a lot of other valuable stuff, too, including several big boxes of spaghetti, maps and official documents.

From Louis Huot’s “Guns For Tito”. Yugoslav partisan stories never fail to disappoint.

[yugoslavfub]

Representatives of the Seventh Strike Division at the youth conference in the village of Hajtić near Glina, May 5., 1944. From left to right: : Đuđa Šušnjar, Nikola Bjelajac and Stanko Rebrača.

[yugoslavfub]

The brigade of the NOVJ and the Soviet army officers take a decision before battle, October 1944. Source: Russian State Archive of the Cinema Documents / Russian Center for Science and Culture / Rossotrudnichestvo

[yugoslavfub]

NOVJ handmade officer’s belt. The belt buckle reads “ Workers of the world, unite!”

[yugoslavfub]

Partisans on the march in the snow. 

[yugoslavfub]

Breeches made out of an Italian zelt. Now talk about high fashion for the NOVJ. 

[yugoslavfub]

NOVJ soldier wearing the“regulation” pattern tunic in 1945.