Mission Lindsay was a World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) military expedition to Yugoslav Partisans in Slovenia, sent in May 1944.
The mission left Brindisi airfield in a RAF Halifax bomber and together with cargo of guns, explosives, radios and medical supplies parachuted in Dolenjska, near the village of Semič on 14 May 1944.
Reducing the movement of troops, weapons, fuel and raw materials (such as oil, bauxite, copper, zinc, lead and chrome) would damage German military ambitions and its war industry.
At the heart of it was Zidani Most, a railway junction where three key branches of the railroad met, linking Germany with Port of Trieste and the Italian front as well as Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Greece.
[4][5] "Our immediate mission was to cut the rail lines that run through the Southeastern Alps, in order to block the transfer of German reinforcements from Austria, Hungary and the Balkans to the Italian front, as the Allied armies approached Rome and pushed further north.
With their advance, the blocking of those same lines would later become a key to helping bottle up German divisions in the Balkans.Schraeder was sent to set up a weather observation station near the local airfield used by Luftwaffe.
[6] "This would make it possible to read all of the German weather reports from occupied Europe as soon as they were sent, a feat I later heard was ultimately accomplished.The quartet landed safely, together with their equipment and were picked up by the local Partisans, who escorted them to their headquarters.
There they met Captain James Goodwin, an American head of the Allied Liaison Mission,[7] and Lieutenant George Wuchinich, a Serbian-American OSS officer.
There they met local commander, Viktor Avbelj "Rudi" and secured a parachute drop location before moving to Pohorje, into safer, higher and less populated mountainous area.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Bush returned and confirmed that his group had managed to block the southern mainline for a week by "filling deep cuts with rock blown down by explosive charges from either side".
Corporal Welles finally arrived in mid-August, together with a British SOE officer - Major Roberts who was a part of Lieutenant Colonel Peter Wilkinson's[15] group intended for infiltration into Austria.
[16] In time, Lindsay got an opportunity to understand the Partisan movement and meet some of its key political and military leaders, including Mile Kilibarda, Jože Borštnar, Alojz Kolman Marok, Dragomir Benčič Brkin and Franc Primožič.
In order to prevent German reinforcements, they blockaded and mined roads, bridges and the local railroad, and launched a diversionary attack on the Litija garrison, some twenty miles south.
[17] On 19 August, the mission received instructions from Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean, which was in fact Marshall Tito's order to be forwarded to the local Partisan commanders, concerning Operation Ratweek – a co-ordinated all-out attack on the rail and road communications across the Balkan.
[26] Additionally, Captain Charles Fisher arrived with twelve men in September the same year in order to strengthen the link, together with the senior local Partisan commander Franc Leskošek Luka.
[27][28] As the 1944 was nearing the end and both Anglo-American and Soviet troops were making great progress towards Berlin, it became likely that the Partisans would want to expand their territory not only to the pre-1941 border, but also incorporating nearby areas of Austria and Italy with significant Slovene and Croatian population.
Additionally, the Partisans were aware of the American military missions to their royalist Chetnik troops and were concerned about the information going back to their enemies via this route.
[29] Finally, a mixture of ideological differences, wartime distrust, fear of espionage, poor weather and difficult communication and logistic channels led to disagreements and misunderstandings.
"On 24 October Lindsay received the instruction to prepare for a high-secrecy mission to Zagreb and arrange the surrender of the German Lt General Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, their military plenipotentiary there.
[32] Their they met other Maclean Mission representatives - Captain Jim Goodwin and Lt Col Peter Moore who debriefed on the state of play in the local area.
Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, had been liberated two months prior with the aid of the Soviet Red Army, and the communist leaders of the movement became more vocal in their support.
[33] On 18 December, they continued their journey crossing into Croatia and eventually reaching the town of Glina, where they were picked up by an American representative who drove them to the Croatian HQ at Topusko to join OSS Lt Col Lanning "Packy" McFarland whose jeep was delivered via a C-47 landing few days before.
They also met the local Partisan commanders, Ivan Gošnjak and Vladimir Bakarić, who had informed him that General Glaise had been arrested by the Gestapo two weeks earlier and is no longer contactable.
"On 19 February 1945, Lyndsey was flown out to the Allied HQ at Caserta, Italy and told that his new post would be to replace Lieutenant Colonel Charles Thayer as head of the American military mission in the recently liberated Belgrade.
[36][37] Lindsay arrived to war-torn Belgrade and met his mission commander, Brigadier MacLean, for the first time, noticing that the British officers had "many close school and family ties".
[42] In late February 1945 Field Marshall Harold Alexander visited Tito in Belgrade and agreed the future demarcation line between the two armies and understanding that the Port of Trieste, and all the northbound rail and road communications would be under his control and disposal.
Stalin had bigger issues on the demarcation line between the US and Soviet forces inside Germany as well as his assistance to the Italian Communist Party, which had a wide support and could possibly win the elections.
[51] German attack on the Partisan units was carried out by the notorious 13th SS Mountain Division on 4 December in an attempt to reclaim the area which they had lost in August.
The situation was getting desperate with mixture of constant movement, deep snow and bad weather conditions which meant that the first aid with radios, batteries, clothing and food was dropped on 20 February 1945 - more than two months after the offensive had started.