112 | April• 2018
PARTISAN PROMISE
Eric, escaped the prison farm camp.
Armed with only a tiny compass and
a stolen map, the three men had
planned to lee through Slovenia to
the Adriatic coast and from there
hitch a boat ride to Italy.
But after days on the run in
south-eastern Austria, hiding in l
and ditches, the men were sta
and suffering from hypothe
Lying down back-to-belly, th
to stay warm during the nights
always woke feeling so cold it was
diicult to speak. Late one inky black
night, ignoring their aching bodies,
they were forced to cross the
freezing Drava River – which
bordered Slovenia – now swol-
len from melting snow. Ern and
Allan couldn’t swim, so it was
the New Zealander, Eric, who
took charge of the dangerous
river crossing.
hey stripped naked and tied
their clothes with boot laces to
a makeshift raft. Trouble struck
an hour into crossing what they
thought was a 15-metre span of
the river, when they discovered
they were in a section that had
been widened by a weir. Allan
developed a cramp while Ern,
trying desperately to stay aloat
by dog paddling, was showing
worrying signs of shock. Eric
swam ahead to check how far
they had to go before returning
to help his struggling mates. “We
nearly came undone that night,”he often insists he was not afraid in
battle. “I wasn’t very frightened of
anything,” he tells me. “I think it’s
because I had a lash of blood from
my mother that I did not fear for
anything.” Ern reckons he inherited
the ighting resilience of his moth-
er’s cousin, Captain Albert Jacka, a
World War I Gallipoli veteran who
earned a Victoria Cross.
A COMPASS AND A MAP
he chill of winter still hung in the
air when, in April 1944, now aged
24, Ern, together with Allan and
nng
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