In Burton's footsteps

By now it must seem obvious that my tour of Europe is turning into a tour of Hollywood film sets. In this case I turned right instead of left and arrived at Richard Burton's - "The Partisan" - place.
The film commemorates the heroism of the resistance to the Axis forces during WWII. Here at Sutjeska, in a remote valley carved by the Dina River, a massive battle took place in May / June 1943 with the intent of wiping out the resistance movement. There were 16 partisan brigades comprising 15,700 soldiers and 4000 wounded, many with typhus.Against them were 127,000 Axis troops, 8 artillery regiments, tanks and 300 aircraft.
Following the abject failure of a fourth attempt at suppression, the campaign called "Case White", Hitler got quite cross and ordered another one, Case Black, with orders starting:
"Units are obliged and authorised to use every means in this battle, without limits and against women and children as well if it leads to success ... ...."
It didn't. But the Germans did ensure that none of the wounded or sick, or their nurses survived. Their justification was the existence of typhus.Read more