Page 35 of A Call to Home (Women of the Resistance #3)

Drvar

May 1944

Steve was scribbling rapidly in his diary.

May 22nd

Something bad is about to happen. We were eating breakfast when

we heard one of the locals shouting ‘Avioni’. Often that just means one

of our planes coming over with a supply drop but not this time. We

watched as a Boche bomber flew very low and slowly along the length of

the valley. I prepared myself for explosions but nothing happened and he

flew away again. Major Street reckons he was taking photographs in

preparation for a big op of some sort and he is moving us out into the

hills until we find out what is going on. He’s gone across to Tito’s

cave to warn him.

Alix was taking down the text of a signal to Koca Popovic when Vivien Street called from the mouth of the cave.

‘May I come in?’

‘Come,’ Tito replied.

‘I’ve come to warn you. We think the enemy are preparing for another major offensive and the plane that came over was taking photographs of the area in preparation. My guess is there is going to be very heavy bombardment. I’m moving my chaps out of the way for the time being. I suggest you do the same.’

Tito shrugged. ‘I’m much better protected in here than I would be out in the open. We will stick it out here.’

Street looked uneasy. ‘It’s your choice of course, Marshall. But I think you should take any appropriate precautions.’

‘Leave that to me,’ Tito grunted. He did not take kindly to anyone trying to tell him how to organise his troops.

When Street had gone, he turned to Alix. ‘Tell all the Supreme Council to move in here for the time being. It will be cramped but they will be safe from whatever the enemy have planned for us.’

Two days later Steve wrote:

May 24th

Street was right. We all decamped up into the hills but we still

have a view over Drvar. For two days nothing happened, then this morning

we were woken by the sound of dozens of planes. Wave after wave of

Dorniers and Heinkels came over us and then the bombing started. Drvar

has been flattened. God help the people who live there, who have made us

so welcome. I must admit that in the middle of all this my main thought

was ‘thank god Alix is in the cave with Tito’. Perhaps he made the right

choice after all.

Later: Dear god, it’s a disaster! The blitz came to an end and we

thought we could breathe again, then six Junkers came into view and we

thought ‘haven’t the other bombers done enough damage?’ But it wasn’t

bombs. When the bomb doors opened, out came hundreds of parachutes, and

it wasn’t stores or weapons under them, it was men. Then in came a

flight of gliders. One landed almost on top of the house where we were

staying until a couple of days ago. I watched through Walter’s field

glasses and saw that as soon as the paratroopers had got out of the

’chutes they formed up into regular companies and started to advance

down the valley, shooting anyone in their way. Tito doesn’t have many

troops here, only the Escort Battalion. To do them justice, they did

their best to hold the Huns but I saw them being driven back until they

rallied at the foot of the ravine leading to the cave. Walter has

radioed Kocha Popovic and Slavko Rodic but they are at least two hours

away and it will all be over by then. I can see some of the Huns

clambering up the opposite side of the ravine, hauling up machine guns.

Once they are in place they will be able to sweep the mouth of the cave

and prevent anyone from leaving. The best I can hope for is that Alix

will be taken prisoner, but knowing her she won’t let them take her

easily. And there is absolutely nothing I can do to help. Oh god! What a

mess!

Alix lay on her stomach at the mouth of the cave. The barrel of her rifle was already too hot to touch. Rankovic and Djilas lay beside her with two of Tito’s personal bodyguards.

‘Conserve your ammunition!’ Rankovic shouted above the din of firing. ‘Make every shot count.’

‘Look!’ she yelled. ‘On the far side of the ravine. Machine guns!’

‘Concentrate your fire on those men,’ Rankovic ordered.

Below her, at the foot of the steep climb to the cave, Alix could see Nikola and his men fighting a fierce rearguard action, but the numbers against them were overwhelming. Next time she looked the last few were scrambling up towards the cave.

‘Hold your fire!’ she yelled. ‘Let them in.’

Even as she spoke some of the men fell back, dead or wounded. The rest stumbled past her into the cave, then Nikola was beside her. ‘I’ll take over here. You get back to Tito.’

She wriggled backwards until she could stand up. Tito was on his feet, his pistol in his hand, his face calm.

‘They can only get inside a few at a time. We can take them down as they appear.’

For an hour it seemed they were at a stalemate but slowly a grim thought dawned in Alix’s mind. Perhaps they could prevent a frontal attack, until their ammunition ran out, but there was no way out of the cave. Sooner or later they would have to give up. If the enemy decided to lay siege to them, it would not be long before their food ran out. They would not be short of water, that was some comfort. The waterfall at the back of the cave gave them a plentiful supply.

The waterfall! A sudden desperate inspiration struck her. She crawled back to the mouth of the cave and peered down. The stream that entered the back of the cave as a waterfall ran through and then disappeared in a second fall into the ravine. Far below her she could see where it met with a second stream flowing down the ravine itself. That stream, she reckoned, must have its origin somewhere up on the hills above the valley. If they could only get down to it, they might be able to walk up along it, out of the trap the Germans had laid for them.

She tapped Nikola on the shoulder.

‘Not now!’ he responded irritably, as he pushed a new magazine into his weapon.

‘I think there may be a way out,’ she hissed.

‘Way out? How?’

‘Down the waterfall.’

‘What? Are you mad?’

‘No. Look. If we can get down to the bottom of the ravine the Boches won’t be able to see us from where they are. We could walk up it till we come out up on the mountain side.’

‘And how do you imagine we are going to get down there. It’s almost sheer.’

‘Haven’t you noticed the trapdoor?’

At the entrance to the cave someone had in the past constructed a wooden platform that hung out over the ravine, and in it there was a trapdoor.

‘I reckon whoever made that wanted a way to haul up supplies rather than having to carry them up,’ Alix said. She wriggled out onto the platform and squinted up at the far side where the Germans were positioning their machine gun. ‘They can’t actually see this spot. The angle’s wrong, as long as we keep low. And we’d be behind the waterfall, so that would hide us from anyone on the path up.’

‘Okay, but that doesn’t answer the question. How do we get down?’

‘We need a rope. There are some over there that we use for tying loads onto mules.’

He shook his head. ‘There’s no way I can climb down a rope. With this hand,’ he held up his right hand with the amputated fingers, ‘I can’t get a proper grip.’

‘That’s not what I mean. You can tie the rope round my waist and lower me down. Then, if I get down safely, I’ll untie the rope and you can pull it back and lower Tito, then all the rest.’

He considered. ‘It might work, as long as the rope is long enough. It’s a long way down.’

‘I know that,’ she said. ‘But what’s the alternative? Wait till they storm the cave, or starve to death in here.’

Nikola looked down at the path, as three or four German soldiers scrambled into view and were picked off by some of the defenders. ‘We’ll run out of ammunition soon. It’s worth a try.’

They went back into the cave and pulled several coils of rope out from behind some boxes of ammunition.

‘We’ll have to tie several of these together,’ he said.

Tito saw what they were doing. ‘What’s going on?’

Alix explained.

‘I can’t let you risk yourself like that.’

‘I’m just as much at risk here,’ she pointed out. ‘At least this might be a chance.’

He considered. ‘It might enable you to escape. If you want to try I won’t stop you.’

‘Not just me,’ she said. ‘If there is a way we can all get out, and if we come out on top of the hill, the Boches won’t be looking for us there. We might be able to slip away before they realise we’ve gone.’

Tito hesitated a few seconds longer, then he said, ‘Very well. If there is a way out and if you think the rest of us can make it, tug on the rope. If not, take your own chance. Don’t hang about waiting for us.’

‘All right.’ Alix was shivering with fear at the thought of the drop, but she told herself it was the only chance of survival.

A voice from the cave entrance shouted, ‘We’re running out of ammunition here,’ and Nikola said, ‘If we are going to try this we need to hurry.’

He finished tying the lengths of rope together and tugged on the knots to test them. Then he tied one end round Alix’s waist.

‘Give me the end of that rope,’ Tito said. ‘We need someone with two good hands on that job.’

Alix moved to the mouth of the cave and wriggled out onto the little platform. Nikola stretched out beside her and between them they heaved the trapdoor open. Alix peered down. The face of the rock was slick with water from the fall, which gushed down right beside the platform, but it was not completely smooth.

‘I think there are some handholds and footholds I can use to take some of my weight,’ she said.

‘Never mind that.’ Tito’s voice said from behind her. ‘I’ll have you safe.’

‘What if the rope isn’t long enough to reach the ground?’ she asked.

‘Shout and I’ll haul you up again. If you find yourself at the bottom, untie the rope and give it a tug.’

Alix lowered herself through the trapdoor and gasped as the icy water from the fall hit her. She twisted herself round to face the rock face and managed to get enough purchase to stop herself from rotating.

‘Lower away,’ she called breathlessly.

Inch by inch, scrabbling with hands and feet to hold herself close to the rocks, she felt herself being lowered. Once or twice she craned her neck to peer down to see how far she had gone, but the sight of the drop below her made her feel dizzy, so she concentrated on searching for handholds in the rock. The rope was cutting into her body so that she felt she was being pulled in half and the descent seemed to go on for ever.

Then, quite unexpectedly, she found solid ground beneath her feet. She turned round. She was standing on a rock at the point where the stream from the cave met the one in the ravine. Looking ahead, she could see how the main stream flowed down under a tunnel of overhanging branches. There was no path but the water was shallow, with small rocks showing above the surface, and the gradient was not too steep. She could see that it would be possible to walk up it. She drew a deep breath. There was a way out, if only the rest of the group could be lowered down to her.

The knots in the rope had tightened under the pressure of her weight and the water had made them swell. It took her a long time to get them loose but at last she was able to give two sharp tugs and the rope was hauled up. The noise of the waterfall deadened the sounds of gunfire and from her position deep in the ravine she could see nothing of what was happening, but above her she could hear voices. It sounded like an argument. For a long time nothing happened. Then gazing up she saw a dark shape beginning to descend and the shape was swearing in a high, female voice.

Zdenka!

Now she understood the delay and the argument. Eventually Zdenka arrived on the ground beside her.

‘Oh, it’s you! I might have known you were behind this bloody stupid idea!’

‘Shut up and help me get this rope untied so the others can get down,’ Alix returned sharply.

The rope came loose and was withdrawn and there was another wait. Then, from above, came a scrabbling and whining, and Tigger came into sight. How typical of Tito, Alix thought, to send his mistress and his dog to safety before himself. Untying Tigger was a hazardous proceeding, as the wolfhound was understandably incensed by his treatment and kept trying to bite her, but she succeeded in the end and the rope was hauled up again. After that, matters proceeded more rapidly. Tito arrived, followed by Djilas and then Tito’s two bodyguards and Arso Jankovic. Vladimir Dedijer was not with them. He had been wounded earlier and had been evacuated with the rest and Vladimir Velebit had gone with Maclean.

‘Who’s left up there?’ Tito asked.

‘Rankovic and Nikola and three of Nikola’s men,’ was the answer. ‘Alexander says we should get moving. They will hold the Boches off as long as possible. Once they get into the cave they will see we’re not there. It won’t take them long to realise we haven’t just sprouted wings and flown away.’

For the first time it occurred to Alix that there would be no one left to lower the last man. Nikola or Alexander Rankovic? Which would be left behind?

‘He’s right. We should move,’ Tito said. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Go where?’ Zdenka demanded. ‘We are trapped down here just the same as we were in the cave. It’s all that stupid girl’s fault. Why do you listen to her?’

Djilas turned on her. ‘Shut up, Zdenka! You’ve caused enough trouble as it is.’

‘We are not trapped,’ Tito said. ‘Thanks to Alix we have a way out. Come!’

It was a long scramble up the bed of the stream but the overhanging branches hid them from enemy eyes and at last they came out in a shallow grassy bowl fringed with reeds and a few windblown thorn trees. The stream had its origin here in a spring that bubbled out of the hillside. Alix sat down on the grass and lifted her head, relishing the sun on her face, but she was not allowed to rest for long.

‘Where are we?’ Djilas asked.

Climbing up a bank, they found themselves on the open hillside, far above the valley where Drvar was situated. Distantly, they could still hear the sound of gunfire but they could not see into the valley.

‘We should wait for Nikola and Alexander,’ Alix said, but Tito shook his head.

‘We need to move. Sooner or later the Boches will get into the cave and find it empty. It won’t take them long to figure out how we got out, and where we can go, so can they. We need to join up with Slavko and his men, if any of them have survived. If we keep to the high ground we should be able to skirt round the valley to where they are based. Come on, let’s move.’

Several hours later as they came to the head of the valley they heard movement ahead of them. Tito signalled them to stop and went forward, using the trees for cover. Moments later he called back. ‘It’s okay. They’re our men.’

In a small clearing they found a huddle of men, many of them wounded. Slavko Rodic hurried forward and embraced Tito.

‘You are safe, comrade. God be praised!’

‘Not so much to do with God, as with this young lady,’ Tito said, indicating Alix. ‘But now, what’s the situation?’

‘Bad,’ Slavko said. ‘We attacked the invaders in the valley but they were too many and too well armed. We’ve lost a lot of men. In the end I had to order a withdrawal. And my scouts tell me there are ground troops fanning out through the forest. The Germans have thrown hundreds of men into this attack. What do you want us to do?’

‘We will head for the woodcutters’ huts where we stayed a few weeks back,’ Tito said. ‘Send a courier to Koca Popovic. If any of his men survive, they can rally there.’

It was dark by the time they reached the little group of huts and when she stopped Alix found she was trembling all over with exhaustion and delayed shock. Oblivious to the danger that might be closing in on her she stumbled to the nearest hut and fell onto a heap of straw, but her sleep was fitful. Despite her exhaustion her senses were alert to every sound, the voices of the men in urgent consultation, the trampling of feet in the forest litter. She dozed on and off, then suddenly, she was jerked awake by a shouted challenge by a sentry and an answering call. She dragged herself to her feet and went out. It was daylight now and a fire was burning in the centre of the clearing. From the far side she heard a familiar voice and Nikola limped into view, accompanied by Rankovic and three of his men. Forgetting her weariness, she ran across to them.

‘You got out! You’ve made it to here! I’m so glad to see you!’

Nikola raised bloodshot eyes to hers and held out his arms. She moved into his embrace and he crushed her close to him. ‘You found the way. You saved us,’ he murmured.

‘How did you get away?’

‘We held the Boches off as long as possible. I found a crate of hand grenades and we kept lobbing them down. The way up is narrow and steep. They couldn’t rush us, so I think they decided to just wait until we ran out of ammunition. Alexander lowered my three men, and that left just us two. We kept chucking the odd grenade to let them know we were still there. After we threw the last two, Alexander insisted on lowering me down, because he knew I didn’t have a chance of climbing down unaided. Then he managed to climb down himself, hand over hand. My god, I don’t know how he did it. His hands are cut to pieces. As he reached the bottom we heard German voices in the cave, but he’d managed to pull the trapdoor shut.’ He gave a shaky laugh. ‘I don’t know how long it took for the Boches to work out that we hadn’t disappeared by magic, but we didn’t wait to find out.’

‘And these three are all that are left of your men?’ Tito asked.

‘Yes.’ Nikola’s weary voice was suddenly hoarse with fury. ‘God rot the bastards!’

Alix led him over to the fire and someone pressed a mug into her hand. It was tomato soup! For a moment she could not think where it had come from, then she remembered that one of the air drops had included American dehydrated food. The strange looking contents had caused some consternation among the Partisans to begin with, until it was explained that they had to be soaked and cooked before you could eat them. Someone, bless him or her, had thought to put some in their pack before they left and Alix drank gratefully.

Another challenge rang out and was answered with the correct password. Moments later Major Street and the rest of the British mission came into the clearing, bringing with them the Russians and followed by a dozen or so Partisans. Alix scrambled to her feet and threw herself into Steve’s arms.

‘I thought I’d never see you again,’ he whispered, holding her close. ‘How did you get out?’

In disjointed sentences she told him the story. Finally, she asked, ‘And you? What brought you here?’

‘When the attack started,’ he said, ‘we decamped pretty rapidly and headed west to join up with Slavko Rodic. We met up with some of his men but it was clear his brigade had been severely mauled in the fighting. They had become separated from the main body and didn’t know what to do for the best. So we agreed to head for these huts, hoping some of the others would make for there too. But I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I’d find you here.’

Walter was already setting up his radio set and Steve went to help. Street handed him an encrypted message.

‘Get that off asap to RAF Brindisi. We need air support immediately.’

When he had finished sending the message Steve looked around for Alix and found her slumped in an exhausted daze against somebody’s pack. He picked her up in his arms and carried her into the nearest hut where she sank into a deep sleep with her head on his shoulder.