Curious Canadian History

S10E5 - Canadian Partisans in World War Two Yugoslavia


Listen Later

Across Axis occupied Europe a shadow war raged as numerous resistance groups in all occupied countries sought to dismantle or disrupt the Axis forces implementing their brutal occupation regimes. In some cases, these groups were quite successful, in others only marginally so, in all, though, the Allies ensured that they supported these movements to continue to strike against their daunting enemy. In the former Yugoslavia, agents of the Special Operations Executive were sent in to assess the quality of the resistance forces within that country and then to support those groups deemed worth of such support. What they found was a complicated and fraught situation and the SOE needed people familiar with both the language, culture and region to help sort it all out. Many of these to-be agents were drawn from Yugoslavians and those of Yugoslavian descent living in Canada. These agents would go on to eagerly expose themselves to intense danger, from Axis soldiers but also Yugoslavian groups sympathetic to the Axis powers. They fought Axis soldiers, they provided intelligence on Axis locations, and by the end of the war the ‘Partisans’ became one of the most effective resistance movements of the entire Second World War.


Book recommendation Roy MacLaren’s Canadians Behind Enemy Lines, 1939-1945originally published in 1981 by UBC Press.

 


Don’t forget! You can pre-purchase a copy of Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 right now at the below links:


Amazon

Indigo

Dundurn

Goodreads

Indiebookstores.ca

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Curious Canadian HistoryBy David Borys

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

30 ratings


More shows like Curious Canadian History

View all
Ideas by CBC

Ideas

395 Listeners

Quirks and Quarks by CBC

Quirks and Quarks

375 Listeners

White Coat, Black Art by CBC

White Coat, Black Art

107 Listeners

Laugh Out Loud by CBC

Laugh Out Loud

157 Listeners

Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly by Apostrophe Podcast Network

Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly

814 Listeners

Canadian True Crime by Kristi Lee | Canadian True Crime

Canadian True Crime

4,911 Listeners

History of the 90s by Curiouscast

History of the 90s

552 Listeners

The Debaters by CBC

The Debaters

211 Listeners

Canadian History Ehx by Craig Baird

Canadian History Ehx

72 Listeners

Front Burner by CBC

Front Burner

420 Listeners

West of Centre by CBC

West of Centre

23 Listeners

We Regret To Inform You: The Rejection Podcast by Apostrophe Podcast Network

We Regret To Inform You: The Rejection Podcast

177 Listeners

The Decibel by The Globe and Mail

The Decibel

125 Listeners

Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe by Apostrophe Podcast Network

Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe

278 Listeners

Gloves Off by Gloves Off with Stephen Marche

Gloves Off

0 Listeners