Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Poljana and Odžak: The Last Battles in Europe in World War II" video.

MY late wife was Slovenian. These battles are still remembered as if they occured yesterday. People have relatives that were in the partisans or Ustasha, and sometimes both. It's not the kind of thing ever discussed in public, especially among people that have been drinking at a bar or party of some kind. People are still being killed over what happned during the war there. It's hard for people outside the former Yugoslavia to understand. The breakup of Yugoslavia allowed these battles to be fought all over again. You did as good a job telling the story as could be expected.
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MacLean was supposedly part of the inspiration for the James Bond character in the Ian Fleming books. He was a fervent anticommunist but stuck to his mission to find out what force could kill the most German, and that was Tito's partisans.
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Steve Lyden-Brown What a complete moron. Hoover stole an FW-190 that was being used as a parts donor for other FW-190's that were still able to fly. The plane was not armed, and he was lucky to nurse it to a forced landing in the Netherlands. He went on to become one of the greatest test and airshow pilots in history. He only passed away in 2016 at age 94. He's a legend among pilots and lived along and useful life.
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@martymethuselah Never mind. I thought for a split second I was dealing with a rational person.
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@martymethuselah The Germans had no idea what the cargo was of any ship n Bari harbor. They launched the attacks to damage allied shipping being used in the invasion of Italy. The allies had no intention of preemptively using the mustard gas bombs being carried in bombs along with other ammunition on the SS John Harvey. It was being shipped to Europe due to reports the Germans would use gas to stop the invasion of France and Germany. Roosevelt had already stated the allies would respond in kind to any German use of gas, so the bombs were being stored in Italy in case such a response became necessary. It was despicable that wartime secrecy prevented doctors treating victims from knowing about the mustard gas released by the destruction of John Harvey, but this is the kind of thing that happens in wartime. The reports of what happened at Bari were declassified in 1959 and a book was written about it in 1967
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@martymethuselah I suppose you have links to sites that support your assertions, right?
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@BoskoBuha99 According to the book Eastern Approaches, Randolph could be an inspiring orator like his father...assuming he wasn't drunk. According to MacLean and others, he caused the other Brits and partisans nothing but grief while he was in Yugoslavia.
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@BoskoBuha99 Randolph was the kind of speaker that could motivate people. I think you're right about Churchill wanting to elevate Tito's position as the leader of postwar Yugoslavia as long as his forces would keep lots of German forces pinned down. He rightly thought Tito could keep all the disparate parties in Yugoslavia under control, something he did quite well while he was alive by force of his personality and an efficient secret police. Given your grandfather's close experience with Tito and the partisans during the war, I think you'd find Eastern Approaches an very interesting book. It's available for less than $15 on the US Amazon site so I assume it;'s also available from the UK site. No Kindle version though. I still enjoy a book in my hands, so at least this one is still available at a reasonable price. I paid much more for the hardcover version I bought in 1970.
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@jameshickok2349 He was indeed, Very few pilots have had the accomplishments of Bob Hoover. I'm just a not that great GA pilot, but watching him fly his Shrike at airshows was absolutely amazing.
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