Description
Object description
British officer served as wireless operator with Yugoslav Section, Special Operations Executive during Operation Fungus in Croatia and Slovenia, Yugoslavia, 4/1943-7/1944; served as forward observation officer in Rover Paddy, Air Liaison Section, Eighth Army, Italy, 1944-1945; forward observation officer served with Special Operations Executive on Pag Island, Yugoslavia, April 1945; served as military translator with Eighth Army in Trieste, Italy, 1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in London, GB, 1916-1939: family origins in London and Serbia; story of changing name from Simic to Stevens in 1946; education at the Oratory School; employment as journalist for English language newspaper 'South Slav Herald' and first visit to Serbia, Yugoslavia, 1932; personal religious and political views; contact with communist in Belgrade, Yugoslavia during 193Os; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; brief contact with Young Communist League, Communist Party of Great Britain, 1939; volunteering for military service and being put on 'professional register', early 1940; call-up to Pioneer Corps, 1940. Recollections of period with Special Operations Executive in GB and Egypt, 1942-1943: recruitment to Special Operations Executive, 1942; training in GB, 1942; proposed posting to Chetnik forces in Yugoslavia; meeting Canadian Croats going to join Yugoslav Partisans during voyage to British West Africa, late 1942; opinion of collaboration by Chetniks; contracting malaria and treatment on arrival in Cairo, Egypt, 25/12/1942; reaction to prospect of joining Chetnik forces; meeting James Klugmann at Headquarters, Special Operations Executive, Cairo, Egypt; receiving news that he was to join Yugoslav Partisans; preparations for going into Yugoslavia. Recollections of operations as wireless operator with Yugoslav Section, Special Operations Executive during Operation Fungus in Croatia and Slovenia, Yugoslavia, 4/1943-7/1944: parachute drop with two Canadians Pavle Pavlic and Peter Erdejevac, 4/1943; kit and equipment; prior recollection of James Klugmann and Katherine Tamplin at Headquarters, Special Operations Executive in Cairo, Egypt; flight from Egypt to Yugoslavia and parachute drop in Dreznica area; initial suspicions of Yugoslav Partisan reception group of agent provacateurs.
REEL 2 Continues: recognition of Peter Erdejevac by Yugoslav Partisan commandant as ex-International Brigade comrade; accident at Yugoslav Partisan munitions dump, 4/1943; impressions of Yugoslav Partisan headquarters; conveying information to Headquarters, Special Operations Executive, Cairo, Egypt; Josip Tito's anxiety over extent of British influence in Yugoslavia; background to arrival of Bill Deakin's mission; confinement to Yugoslav Partisan headquarters; orders to move to Slovenia, summer 1943; contrast between Croatia and Slovenia for partisan operations; finances taken into Yugoslavia; his doctoring military despatches sent by Canadian Major William Jones in Slovenia; opinion of Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Moore; surprise news of receiving commission; return to Bari, Italy, 7/1944; negotiations with Italian forces at time of Italian surrender, Slovenia, 9/1943; Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzroy Maclean's relations with Josip Tito; contact with Slovenian collaborationist forces; memories of Canadian Major William Jones.
REEL 3 Continues: leave in Cairo, Egypt, 1944. Aspects of operations as forward observation officer in Rover Paddy Unit, Eighth Army in Italy, 1944-1945 and on Pag Island, Yugoslavia, 4/1945 and as military translator in Trieste, Italy, 1945: role as forward observer officer in Yugoslav Partisan attack on Pag Island, 4/1945; work as military interpreter for Eighth Army in Trieste, Italy, 1945; question of knowledge of repatriations to Yugoslavia at end of Second World War; involvement in attempt to get German Army unit to surrender to Yugoslav Partisans near Kostanjavica, Yugoslavia, 5/1945; role as forward observation officer with Rover Paddy, Eighth Army in Bologna area, Italy, winter 1944-1945 including directing Royal Air Force attacks; British suspicions of Soviet spying in Trieste, Italy, 1945. Reflections of period as officer with Special Operations Executive with Yugoslav Partisans in Yugoslavia, 1943-1945: story of trying to obtain penicillin supply for wounded female partisan woman from British Army officer, 1945; nature of raid on Pag Island, Yugoslavia, 4/1945.
REEL 4 Continues: question of evidence of national Croat-Serb differences, 1943-1944; question of evidence of German reprisals against villages; trials of collaborators by partisans; partisan reaction to news of D-Day, 6/6/1944; question of political affiliations of partisans in Slovenia; mass marriages of Roman Catholic partisans and villagers conducted by partisan priest in Slovenia; partisan attitudes towards sexual behaviour; being shown photographs of Ustashe atrocities in Zagreb; question of uniform wearing in Yugoslavia; plans to be involved in bridge blowing operation in Slovenia, summer 1943.