ReadersDigestAustraliaNewZealand-April2018

April• 2018 | 111

I had also experienced war in that

part of the world. I’d been shot at and

trapped under artillery and mortar

fire, seen people die from gunshot

wounds and burns, and felt many

times the uncontrollable fear that can

grip you in a war zone. None of that

compares to Ern’s war experiences,

whose courage earned him the Mil-

itary Medal. But I could understand

why returned soldiers suffer from

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

War occupied only a few years of

Ern’s young life but his scars have

never truly faded – it was hard not

to notice his shaking left hand, the

nerves damaged by shell shock. Yet

Kelly. I first met Ern at the Sydney

oice of HarperCollins, where I inter-

viewed him about the book. He was a

big, robust man of 89, with sparkling

eyes and a hearty laugh. Our conver-

sation lowed easily as I knew the ter-

ritory where the Partisans had fought.

In the 1990s, I’d worked in the for-

mer Yugoslavia for the United Nations

as a press and information oicer and

had travelled throughout Croatia and

Bosnia, and knew the areas the three

escapees had journeyed through,

a route that included the Croatian

towns of Varaždin, Ivanec and Kalnik,

the capital Zagreb, and Banja Luka in

the Serb region of Bosnia.

From left : Ross Sayers, Ern Brough, ‘Allan’ Berry and Harry Lesar on their return to

Port Melbourne in September, 1944. Sayers and Lesar had also escaped POW camps

PHOTO COURTESY OF ERNEST BROUGH