I don't know what kind of countries and societies you live in, my Hive compatriots, but I live in one where history is cut like scissors and where the truth is sometimes found out in a roundabout way.
And with a lot of delay...
After the death of Žarko Laušević, a famous Serbian actor, I came across the movie "Heroes of Halyard" with the desire to watch all the films in which he acted.
The film premiered only a month before his death, in which he last appeared in public.
But here now I will not write about the film, nor about Žarko, nor about the heroes mentioned in that film.
I will write about one place and "Halyard", the code name of the operation that was carried out towards the end of the Second World War in the territory of western Serbia.
During World War II, with the actions of the USA on the side of the allies in the fight against the Nazis, the airspace over Serbia was used for overflights from the Adriatic Sea to Romania, where strategic targets, the refineries of the Third Reich, were bombed.
As the Nazis had a strong anti-aircraft defense, American and British planes were frequently shot down.
The pilots who in the course of 1944 managed their damaged planes with extreme efforts had a clear goal - to disembark from the plane that was crashing in the territory of western Serbia, for the reason that the Allies had an agreement with the leaders of the Partisan and četnici movements, that the downed pilots , at any cost, keep alive.
That operation, which lasted more than half a year, was called "Air Bridge" by the Serbian and Yugoslav armies, while it also bore the American code name "Halyard".
With that action, over 300 Allied pilots were evacuated from the improvised airfield near the town of Pranjani, from the Galovića hill.
For a long time, this action, carried out thanks to the četnik commander Draža Mihajlović, was hidden from the Yugoslav public, which after the end of the war was oriented as communist (as opposed to the opposing, monarchist trend supported by the četnik movement).
Long, even too long.
That operation was hid from the public for so long and hard that the rescued pilots of the American and British aviation were the first to rebel against her hiding...
And for so long that it was only after the fall of communism in these areas that people started talking about her.
The magnificent feat of my people, the peasants from the villages on the hills of Suvobor, Maljen and Povlen, which was hidden as a shame... And that operation was by no means that. All those who participated in that action and who were then saved from certain death knew this.
Last weekend, we had a team building not far from the town of Pranjani, where there was a temporary airport, from which in August 1944, planes flew to safety, taking away Allied pilots.
I suggested a tour of the "Pranjani Airport" memorial complex, which my colleagues accepted, which further strengthened my impression of the Halyard operation itself.
When viewed from the air, the complex is made in the shape of an airplane, and from the ground, it is a beautifully arranged space.
We walked to the commemorative plaques and the small monument, read what was written on them and who laid the wreaths...
In short - the gratitude of the Allied army for the courage and determination of the Serbian people to save the pilots.
On the plateau above the runway, there is a board with information about the peaks in front of you, which you can look at in more detail with the binoculars.
(we went around the area on foot, and I will write about those walks on another occasion).
After briefly informing ourselves and discussing which peak is where (because we are actually nature lovers and we visited this complex on foot), we thought it would be interesting to go down to the runway...
Since it is a dirt track, which is probably not used for landing planes or is used in rare situations (because there is no air traffic control nearby), we decided to take a walk on it.
What a tribute to inexperience.
Well, it's not a meadow or a path in the forest. no one steps on that grassless land, it is soft and loose...
The rain that fell for days soaked the soil so much that so much mud stuck to our shoes that we could barely clean ourselves of the soil and mud.
But at least we walked around the place where 80 years ago cargo planes taxied and flew 343 pilots to freedom.
Glory and thanks to the heroes of Halyard!