April• 2018 | 113Ern says. As if the cold wasn’t enough,
the raft began to come apart and they
lost most of their meagre supplies.
Dragging the disintegrating raft
behind him, Eric saved the two from
perishing in the freezing water that
night. Eventually reaching the Slove-
nian side of the river, they set up camp
and dried their uniforms over a fire
started with Eric’s cigarette lighter.
After recovering, they travelled
through Slovenia and crossed the
snow-capped mountains bordering
Croatia. he escapees were taken in
by a group of Partisan ighters, who
werepartoftheYugoslavcommunist
resistance led by Josip Broz, knownaison oicer working with the Partisans (centre) with Allan
Be Baty to her left, and Ern to her right, with Partisan ightersmale British
and Eras ‘Tito’. Made up of Bosnians, Croa-
tians, Serbians and Slovenes, the re-
sistance included women and fought
both the Nazis and the Ustashi, the
ultra-nationalists who ran Croatia.
The Partisans were known for giv-
ing leeing Jews, refugees and Allied
POWs safe passage to freedom.
During April and May 1944, the
three men zigzagged across the
country with the Partisans, who
raided villages and clashed with the
brutal Ustashi. Ern witnessed ex-
treme cruelty by all sides. One time
the Partisans attacked a village near
Varaždin and brought back 20 pris-
PHOTO COURTESY OF ERNEST BROUGH oners, one of whom was a Partisan’s