A month in Ukraine in war – media coverage.

Ukraine journey publicity round up

I spent November 2022 in Ukraine to show solidarity, and see my friends, see for myself what was happening, and to tell people outside what it was really like. I travelled to and across central and south Ukraine to Zaporizhzhia and later Odesa. With thanks to the media who have let me tell the story of my independent visit, so that they can share with their listeners and readers direct factual information. Here is a round up of the media coverage. Feel free to look at any of the links just so that they get more ‘hits’. I remain in touch with friends regularly and with developments every day.

Links here, more on each below.




1. BBC Radio Merseyside, Tuesday 22 November. A ten minute long interview about the situation in Zaporizhzhia during the war. File attached with thanks to producer Leanne Harper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGPonO3EM3Y

[I am having difficulty uploading the audio file and will try again – for now here is a link to the file on YouTube]

2. British Liberal magazine, Liberator.

My article on being in Ukraine, with some more political content than in my social media posts: Liberator 415, 4 December 2022, at pages 12 – 14 https://liberatormagazine.org.uk/back-issues/

(click on the 415 icon to download) *

3. The Liverpool Echo, Sunday 18 December 2022. Ukrainians ‘always happy’ to speak to Scouser in Odesa about two things https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/ukrainians-always-happy-speak-scouser-25762505

As I said to friend James on Twitter, and others ..  Of course everyone knows I can’t actually claim to be a Scouser (though I was born in the Liverpool district of Walton 🙂 ). Note, 3/03/23. You can tell I was flustered the morning after I arrived in Odesa (in a blackout) as in the voice update I recorded – which the Echo reporter used – I kept calling the Eurovision song contest, ‘the European song contest’. I wasn’t used to the noise of generators then either which were going in the background. I’ve always argued that Odessa is the best Ukrainian city to host the Eurovision song contest (except the airport was too small before the Russians blew it up).

4. The Law Society Gazette, 6 January 2023 ‘Advice in conflict’.

The magazine of the Law Society of England & Wales published a feature interviewing Ukrainian lawyers, and me also. They make me sound a bit more dashing than I was in fact.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/features/advice-in-conflict-/5114716.article

This is a good long read about how Ukrainian lawyers are coping during the war and helping defeat the Russian invasion.

5 The Deerfield Valley News, Wilmington, Vermont, USA. ‘On the road to Ukraine: Trying to maintain normalcy’, front page article 5 January 2023.

https://www.dvalnews.com/news/road-ukraine-trying-maintain-normalcy (subscription required).

Acknowledgments & background

1. BBC Radio Merseyside is the station for the Liverpool city region & one of the most listened to stations in the UK. This was broadcast at approx. 07:05 UK time one hour into the programme.

With thanks to Paul Salt and producer Leanne Harper. Knowing my experience in Ukraine Radio Merseyside wanted to interview me early in the war which I couldn’t do as I was working in a politically sensitive diplomatic job in the Balkans. So I missed talking when towns I knew were occupied, places I lived in bombed (Chernihiv, Odesa), cities I knew, Kyiv, Kkarkiv, & even the University halls where I usually stay hit in a Russian attack. The picture on the file (so I can upload the audio as a video) is President Zelenskyy’s nightly address in between the Schwarzenegger movie on one of my first nights in Zaporizhzhia (glitzy wallpaper). The conversion via the free service of https://voice2v.com/ On You Tube the thumbnail is with volunteers at World Central Kitchen in the city.

2. Liberator magazine. * Also see issue 412 (April) for my original 2019 article on the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which was reprinted there, with some updated commentary. ‘Ukraine’s comedian president is no comic’. Pages 6-7, & see commentary pages 8 – 9.  https://liberatormagazine.org.uk/back-issues/

I also commissioned the article on the language question in Ukraine by lawyers Iryna Barlit and Vladyslav Bandrovsky, in issue 413 (June) ‘Speak as you like’, where in answering my questions the authors explain how propaganda of discrimination against Russian speakers is an invented grievance, not matched by experience.

3. Thanks to the Liverpool Echo & reporter Paddy Edrich for helping publicise what it is really like in Ukraine. Being from UK & Liverpool is popular 😊. Paddy crafted a balanced article from an audio recording I made in Odesa and our correspondence on Twitter, giving some exclusive insights for the Echo including my meeting British and American volunteers fighting with the Ukrainians. A shame I was in the city at the same time as Times correspondent and school friend Richard Lloyd Parry but we didn’t manage to meet. Richard went to the front lines to get his copy – I did not.

Only one funny thing slipped in the edit somewhere. One picture is from Zaporizhzhia, not Odesa. That is no different as you can see pictures the same of damage to civilian homes anywhere in Ukraine, it is typical. While the second to last quote which looks like it is from me is from President Zelenskyy from his nightly address after the then most recent missile attacks against civilian energy infrastructure, just after I left the city. **

4. The cover story of January’s Law Society Gazette (the magazine of the Law Society of England & Wales, professional body for solicitors). The feature by Eduardo Reyes, interviewing Ukrainian lawyers, also includes my observations after my 4000km (2500 mile) driving round trip & a month in Ukraine, 3 weeks in Zaporizhzhia, on the effect of the war there: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/features/advice-in-conflict-/5114716.article

Eduardo is an old friend from Liberal Democrat Youth & Student days in the mid 1990s.

5. The Deerfield Valley News, of Wilmington, Vermont.

https://www.dvalnews.com/

The News Editor, Michael Eldred, is an election observer colleague and friend, from meeting in North Macedonia. Michael is also a former US serviceman – early warning station operator! The newspaper is available only to subscribers but for the week of publication viewers could a preview of the article on the front page, including a nice picture with volunteers at the World Central Kitchen public restaurant at Beluga restaurant bar in Zaporizhzhia.

** I explained on Facebook. The photo of missile damage is actually in Zaporizhzhia (a destroyed car showroom and all windows blown out in an apartment block next to where my friends live, and used to live). Civilian blocks had had their windows blown in by Russian missiles next to where I was staying, and where I used to visit, and stay. One glitch in the edit, the second to last quote in the Echo article you will guess is actually from President Zelenskyy’s nightly address, when the electricity in Odesa was totally off for days after the huge Russian missile strike on the power infrastructure, just a few days after I was in the city.

Final note.

Telling people what the country is really like (positive and negative) is what I have done during my regular visits to volunteer & professionally since first visiting in May 2014. I know the Russian propaganda is untrue as I worked in Ukraine many times since 2014. The people are united in these times.

Sad to be leaving Ukraine after nearly one month. I also met some of the men defending freedom against barbarism. Men I am proud to have met and look forward to meeting again.

Written in Odessa, 1 December. Sad to be leaving Ukraine after nearly one month, & not to be staying longer in Odessa. 3 weeks in Zaporizhzhia, two days in Odessa & in some other towns. The Ukrainian border guards & security services were polite, professional & very attentive. No imposters will pass here. I met in Odessa election observer mission colleagues & friends from 2015. And new friends, Ukrainian and foreign volunteers fighting for Ukraine, freedom & democracy. From America, Britain, Germany, Poland. A great bunch of men, highly professional, modest and fun. A privilege to be invited to spend time with such good people. I will be happy to tell families in Grimsby and Middlesbrough that their guys are ok (& Chicago, Kansas & Texas). For Ukraine’s victory.



Reposted here, from Bucharest, 3 December.

Postscript. Leaving Ukraine and Moldova turned out to be a lot harder than entering had been. Very thorough checks and long delays at each point. Having crossed so many borders in the last year I think I am quite an expert on border traffic management now. I will write more opinion on that anon. I remain very sorry for the lorry drivers stuck in a 8km queue to get from Moldova to Romania. As I crossed from Moldova into Romania, so the boundary of the old Soviet Union / Russian Empire the border policeman asked “You were in Ukraine. Did you have business in Ukraine?” I said, no I am a volunteer University professor and I was visiting friends. He said “I understand”. Finally, after a month, with the exception of my friends in Zaporizhzia and the volunteer soldiers who thought wanting to go to and being in Ukraine was normal, the first person who seemed to understand me was a Romanian border police officer :-).

Resignation from the OSCE – entry into Ukraine.

I have resigned from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission to Serbia so that I can speak & act freely against Putin Russia’s war in Ukraine, without the constraints of working in an international diplomatic organisation

And my friends, family & colleagues know that I am not very good at speaking diplomatically anyway. Russia is destroying the values of peace, stability, security, democracy & economic progress on which the OSCE is based.

I have this morning [today] crossed into Ukraine to go and see my friends. I won’t see all of my friends this trip but delayed birthday drinks (from the Summer) with some of them. And as usual if anyone wants to practice English I’m happy to talk. I’m the British guy from Liverpool with an Irish name driving a Serbian car

My visit is for solidarity. I have no time for anyone’s nationalism or national myths or ideology (or God/s given ethnic land) but I do care that people should be able to freely choose how to live their lives without being invaded by a brutal tinpot dictator.

Stopping the war, defeating Russia and its allies, is the most important thing in Europe now. It is necessary so that the democratic & whole World can face the giant challenges of environmental problems, food security and livelihoods for all that we must solve

So F*ck Putin I’m going to have a beer with my friends


Posted on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Monday 7 November, Posted here, Wednesday 16 November from Zaporizhzhia, where I arrived on Tuesday 8 November.

I am posting impressions from my visit to Ukraine on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Some pictures from my current work

More self publicity (X3), a lot less serious than the War, but for people who know me who want to see what I’m up to (when not photographed in bars, and in reality not spending hours on Zoom meetings or administration):

This youth group in Preševo (a small mostly Albanian populated town in the very south of Serbia) are one I promote a lot. I feature in couple of pictures on their new website with our OSCE Mission to Serbia Ambassador. https://livrit.org/

Also in one picture currently on the front page of the Mission website at present from the rural municipality of Medvedja, the day the war started. https://www.osce.org/mission-to-serbia/513268

Not quite the lead story 😉 – It is one of the 24 scrolling photos on the front page at present, three of which are from my town (one of the others features my colleague Iljasa, translating at a press conference, on the left) https://www.osce.org/mission-to-serbia

Finally, there’s a bad but funny photo of me on this nice story (in Serbian Cyrillic) about interns Arbnor and Aulona from this region that OSCE arranged to be placed with the official Government Coordination Body that is responsible for liaison between Belgrade and local Municipalities here.
http://www.kt.gov.rs/…/arbnor-i-auljona-staziranje-u…/
My sister made a very funny comment: “I approve of the Ukrainian colours Kiron, but otherwise that tie is somewhat bizarre. A 1970s throwback.”

The election of President Zelenskyy in 2019.

Small British Liberal political magazine Liberator republished the article I wrote in 2019 about President Zelenskyy’s victory that I had forgotten that I wrote. The pdf of the magazine, Liberator issue 412 can be downloaded here
https://liberatormagazine.org.uk/back-issues/

The blurb says
Liberator 412 can be downloaded here . This is the April 2022 online-only edition of Liberator and we hope you enjoy reading it.
What’s inside this issue?
Alongside Radical Bulletin, Commentary and Letters, Liberator 412 includes:
UKRAINE’S COMEDIAN PRESIDENT IS NO COMIC.
Kiron Reid saw great hope on democracy’s eastern border in Ukraine when this article was published in Liberator 398 in November 2019 after the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as president. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we reprint it here, followed by some necessarily anonymous reflections on Ukraine now and the path to war from an observer who knows the country well

Reviewing this in 2022 I think that nearly every point is still valid. I could have made more critical comment on Volodymyr Zelenskyy (and in the last year too), and on his predecessor, who I like, Petro Poroshenko (I always buy his Roshen brand chocolates), and I could then & would now explain more problems with the inflexible EU trade policy towards Ukraine’s links with Russia (especially in the east) and a misguided nationalist language policy (which is getting to be quite a national myth now – ignoring that most people Russia is killing are Russian speakers). None of those points undermine the fundamental issue – that Russia invaded Ukraine unprovoked in 2014 and is carrying on unprovoked a barbaric war in 2022. In 2022. In Europe.

 

Note the original post of a text of this article, including photographs, is here: My article on the Ukraine elections, and new President, Zelenskyi. – Kiron Reid 

In praise of big tech & social media as they help the traveller.

Google Maps, Google Translate, Twitter, Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp, Wikipedia, YouTube have been invaluable for international travellers & workers though I still love hard copy atlases, road maps, dictionaries & encyclopaedias. It is fashionable to slag off apps & corporations but

This is a tweet I meant to write at the end of working in Chernihiv region, northern Ukraine for two months in Spring 2019, the apps of big corporations, the internet (& Wikipedia) made travel, work & volunteering abroad much easier in the last years

Slagging off Facebook & Google, Microsoft & other tech giants is sometimes fair but it is unfair not to welcome & applaud the great help they also are for so many people – Skype too (other products are available). PS I sometimes use CDs even as well, I was a late adopter

Published first as a Twitter thread, 8:46 PM · Sep 2, 2021·https://twitter.com/KironReid/status/1433501488471494661

The post spurred by my replying to this Ian Bancroft tweet

 
 
 

Ian Bancroft
 
@bancroftian




My reply – I totally agree, seeing this problem quite often. Google Maps is incredibly useful but pretty inaccurate in south Serbia and not great in North Macedonia, with no ability to correct actual road content. Some predates route of E-75. I use Michelin maps on desktop alternatively.
8:29 PM · Sep 2, 2021

 

The gender equality of Excessive executive pay.

An old tweet summarises an issue where female equality campaigners (and male supporters) put one aspect of fairness over others. The issue of unequal pay is rightly raised, but when it is excessive pay the complaint from BBC journalists, or the practice of UK University Vice Chancellors, local authority Chief Executives, bosses of housing associations, charities, and even mutual Building Socieities like the Principality, is to award the levelling up of excessive pay to the female (Chief) executive but think nothing of the gross disparity with other workers in their organisation or in ordinary jobs.

Summer last year I was horrified at the excessive pay being given to the incoming Chief Executive of the Principality Building Society – Wales’ leading financial institution. Julie-Ann Haines was a longstanding senior executive of the society. (A building society traditionally specialises in lending to people to by houses, and some remain officially as ‘mutuals’ owned by the savers and borrowers as members, not owned by shareholders or private companies like banks). At a time when savers in banks and building societies are hit by near non existent interest, it is particularly aggravating to see the new Chief Executive paid excessively – many many times an average salary – whether a woman or not.

Kiron Reid
@KironReid
·
Nov 22, 2018
Gender equal pay & obscene unequal pay are different issues but will some progressive feminists be equally outraged about grossly excessive pay to a female boss, not only when the £ goes to a man? While we should also acknowledge Bet365 & Denise Coates give millions to charity.

Some descriptions of June in south Serbia.

Cows coming home at tea time or dusk with their cowherds, goatherds tending to goats by the side of the road or in fields, often with the cows. The cows are giant – much bigger (one third bigger I think) than I see in North West England. Unlike in May I haven’t yet seen the flocks of sheep grazing and moving around the fields, tended by their cheerful relaxed shepherds. Perhaps, having returned just a few days ago, I haven’t been on the roads where the sheep are – though often they are grazing even on the outskirts of the small and larger towns in south central Serbia and Kosovo. Perhaps they have moved to cooler spots than the valley floor. Small bright red field poppies by the sides of the roads and streams. The plastic pollution along and in all the streams now covered up by lush new green growth or washed away on its way to pollute elsewhere. Swallows darting around in the air or gliding gracefully, super fast outside my high balcony or near skimming my head on the walkway to our office, where they nest in the concrete roof space. Geraniums (as us unbotanical call them) giving colour on most balconies, window boxes, and lofts and front paths, carnations, primulas and other pretty bedding plants in municipal displays and planters, gardens, some adopted beds (by shopkeepers or residents) that looked shabby or abandoned in winter and autumn now providing extra colour. Still the strings of dried peppers hang on balconies, in loft space and eaves. There are roses and even water loving hydrangeas like in England. Earlier there were snow drops. In May there were plenty and daffodils in the gardens and wild primulas in the wooded hillsides. The oak trees were not out then but suddenly came alive. Colourful beehives are found on the hillsides, in family plots, and along the edge of fields. Road side signs in remote Medvedja, or even along the autoput to Belgrade advertise domestic rakija and med (honey). The heady scent from Lime trees drifts on the air.

Storks, large (tubby even) and tall, stalking around the fields dotted, one here, one or two there, or at dusk in their nests on telegraph poles, electricity pylons, or on chimneys and rooves. Two stalks in a nest, sitting or standing, their young they were tending in May no longer sitting with them. No, three storks in a nest, the third looks grown but slightly smaller, these are the young I saw newly born months ago. One on a roof nearby, majestic. The swallows and the sparrows compete. But little birds buzz around the storks without any complaint.

The vines growing (with roses at the row ends for pollination, very pretty), the plum trees growing (to make plum brandy – slivocic [shlivovits/z or shlivovitsa] or rakija, all incorrectly translated here as brandy but there are different types for each fruit and Serbian and Albanian people have their favourite), men forking up bales of hay in the tea time heat onto tractors laden with hay. Bales or heaps in the fields, sometimes in the Serbian villages traditional conical haystacks. Corn drying in open wire or wooden holders. New corn plants shooting up in the fields. Courgettes and cabbages. Vines are grown even in yards in the towns. Chickens run around and noisy but harmless stray dogs coexist without problem – as clueless as the chickens for wandering out into the roads, and competing with the cats to scavenge in bins. Looking at a bleak wall or run down frontage just peer through the doorway, gate or cracks and you usually see a beautiful yard, courtyard or garden. And if you like vintage Yugoslav era tractors this is the place to come. They look fine, classic working venerable machines. Every greengrocers, small shop and market or informal street seller’s pitch is piled with colourful fresh produce.

From my balcony looking across town I see the green low hills to the east (running north and south and inland to bigger hills towards North Macedonia and Bulgaria) and from the block stairwell on the other side there are the near low green lush hills to the west. Running south I can the highway that goes past the southernmost town of Presevo (sounds like Preshevo; or Presheve to Albanians) and on to Skopje, Thessalonica or Athens (or north to Belgrade). I wait to see if we will get the thunderstorms, as last year June and August were months for thunderstorms. Unexpectedly to me. Despite the heat there has been only one so far. Since writing that line a couple more but not the drama and deluges of last year yet. June was warn, last June and July hot. Such a change since the last thunderstorms in an unusually cold and wet mid May. In April there was sun and rain like in Britain, and snow, but 1 March and 1 November had been warm enough to sit on the balcony. Mid February there was heavy snow. People say the weather in Britain is changeable.

Now in the heat it is quiet but in the evening, with almost no Corona cases and most restrictions now officially lifted (previously largely ignored) many diaspora and those studying or working away have returned and the towns are crowded, outside and inside the bars and cafes. In the bigger town of Vranje, people stroll the old Corso in the evening, like the passeggiata or paseo, while the pedestrian ‘squares’ of Presevo and street in my town are thronging. Small kids race round in electric cars without fear of (your) life or limb. The daytime peace in Bujanovac (if not market day – or the shattering noise of Roma motorised agricultural equipment) broken by the tooting horns of processions of cars for the traditional wedding cavalcade. The lively exotic sounding skilled Roma musicians are a feature of all weddings – brass band music is a Roma speciality. But brass, and saxophone and clarinets and accordion seem to feature in traditional Balkan music whether it is described as Serbian, Albanian or Roma. Who would have thought that the traditional music of the ‘Western Balkans’ sounds so much like ‘eastern’ enthused trad jazz. And then, with Hollywood style glitz are the High School pupils showing off gorgeous fashionable modern dresses and brat pack / rat pack sharp suits and shirts for their High School prom night at the end of a very unusual school year. The Macedonian (Albanian) ice cream sellers doing a roaring trade at night, and people strolling in the smaller and bigger towns, often visiting the traditional Montenegrin dessert shops (or a hereditary business of people originally from Prizren in Kosovo or from North Macedonia also).

Since writing the above I saw just one flock of sheep in the cooler evening near the village of Turija. And three storks on a nest perhaps feeding younger ones. And a second flock of sheep in the evening on the higher land on the southern western edge of the bigger town of Vranje. And the diaspora have returned in huge numbers from Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Italy and France. It has become a busy Summer. As I drive, walk or cycle around the towns and villages of the region, noticeable as I’m speaking English and don’t speak any languages of the region, (probably the only British resident, and only one from Liverpool) most people talk to me in German and are disappointed when I can’t speak to them. They are almost invariably welcoming and friendly nonetheless. By coincidence one British family do live in Gjilan / Gnjilane 30 miles away. The coffee shops and kafanas (taverns), restaurants and café bars and bars (and even nightclubs in Presevo) are buzzing and packed in the morning, evening and night. The cars and excessive traffic I will write about another time. Bang on cue, a wedding cavalcade goes past, a Roma wedding. And a peel of thunder rolls in over the hills. And an Albanian wedding cavalcade. And the rain has come. The second rain in two days. The rain has really come. It won’t dampen the spirits but is a welcome relief perhaps after a baking hot July.

Kiron Reid came to Serbia in June 2020 to work in south Serbia, next to North Macedonia. He lives in the small town of Bujanovac (sounds like Booyanovats), which is populated by Albanian, Serbian and Roma residents.

Notes observing May to July 2021. 27 June, 2 July, 18 July 2021.

With thanks to my friend Liam, who asked me to write (in May last year and afterwards) on my experience in Serbia. This post first appeared on Liam’s ecclectic & personal blog (published from Manchester, UK), ‘Falling leaves – anthropological musings‘ on 28 July this year. Published as ‘Notes from South Serbia by K’ 28 July 2021.
https://falling-leaves.blog/2021/07/28/notes-from-south-serbia-by-k/

Letter of thanks to people on my first year in Serbia.

A letter of thanks to people for the warm welcome during my first year in Serbia.

Dear friends,

One year ago, and 6 weeks, in June, I came to Serbia to take up the position as head of the OSCE office in Bujanovac. I am writing this note to thank people for their warm welcome. From the border guard when I arrived at Belgrade airport on 5 June 2020, and when I came to Bujanovac on 10 June, nearly everyone I’ve met has been friendly and welcoming. In Bujanovac, Preševo and Medvedja, and elsewhere.

Because I came from the UK, in between the first waves of Corona, I have been here for most of the time throughout this strange year. It has meant it was slow for me to meet people officially and though I have met very many people over my first year there are still others that I have not met yet.

As the only British person, the only person from England, maybe the only foreigner, in Bujanovac and the other municipalities I am pleased that many people stop me to chat. Serbian, Roma and Albanian residents. Including those who are surprised to see me when I am cycling or driving or walking round the towns and villages. I regret there is no train or bus between Bujanovac and Preševo as I prefer to use public transport at home.

As I speak only English (I have a few words of Serbian and less Albanian) I must apologise that I cannot to talk to you in your own language(s) – or German which nearly everyone seems to speak. Even my local tailor is multilingual in several languages. South Serbia is very different to my home of Liverpool – especially the food and weather – but it is a nice place and people are friendly. The Albanian coffee is especially strong, the tea is strange or terrible (except the Russian or Turkish tea), the beer is certainly not like traditional British beer (nor are the fish & chips), and it’s a crying shame there are plenty of Chinese businesses but no Chinese food south of Niš. And no traditional British food like curry 😊.There is a lot of politics here (like in my home city), people all know more about football than me, waitresses and barmen alike, the traffic is crazy, and I hate the dumping and plastic waste and refuse that people strew around the beautiful countryside. The street sweepers in Bujanovac do a great job in all weathers – I see them. I always remind people that the positives are much better than the negatives. I am privileged to work with a great team here in your region and country.

With best wishes,

Kiron (the British guy / Liverpool Irish guy).

PS Though our weather in Liverpool is rather mild, I am enjoying this nice rain 😉.

First published on my Facebook account, 18 July.

The British and the Second World War in Yugoslavia post.

Replying to @Nik_Ilic @ukinserbia and 2 others

 

Drove up to Niš to see this exhibition last week & delighted to get shown around by curator Boban Janković & see some of his military artefacts collection. Some real examples of derring do & even some SOE James Bond type gadgets. @almurray would like the exhibition [famous UK comedian and World War 2 history expert, Al Murray].

Curator Boban at Historical Archive Nis exhibition on British SOE officers in Yugoslavia in World War 2.

Curator Boban at Historical Archive Nis exhibition on British SOE officers in Yugoslavia in World War 2.

 

https://www.facebook.com/arhivnis/

 

You can view much of the exhibition online here

https://www.britanciusrbiji.rs/en/

 

The adventure of Captain Peter Wilkinson at the Three Kings hotel

https://www.britanciusrbiji.rs/en/hotel-three-kings/

 

and the ‘toys’ that Charles Hargreaves carried are especially amusing

https://www.britanciusrbiji.rs/en/captain-charles-hargreaves-parachutes-into-serbia/

 

I didn’t know that the Allies evacuated partisan wounded, or that Jugoslavia had Hurricanes & later given Spitfires.

 

With so many needless wars in the Balkans it still shocking that hundreds and hundreds of WW1 shells were dug up at Bitola in N Macedonia just months ago. *Actually from 23 November to 4 December over 1,000 74mm artillery grenades were found in excavations in the city park near the football stadium. The city Rescue and Protection Directorate had already removed 12,500 ordnance from the same location. The pretty little town of Bitola (Manastir in Turkish) was on the front line in Balkan wars and World War 1.

 

 

Replying to Defence Attache Colonel Nick Illic.

https://twitter.com/Nik_Ilic/status/1359882574240301060

 

 

Definitely one for Dr. Jon Clarkson (a family doctor friend and WWII military history enthusiast). Curator Boban at the Историјски архив Ниш – Istorijski arhiv Niš Historical Archive Niš has I think he said over 800 military helmets from the early 2000s through both World Wars, Napoleonic, and even Medieval Serbian. He supplied some of the local items for this instalment of the travelling exhibition, and the Archive provided photographs of British officers in this third largest Serbian city after its liberation.

 

It is ironic that the only Ordnance Survey type map I have seen in Serbia, is a Ministry of War map in this display supplied to SOE officers, covering Niš down to Leskovac (a textile manufacturing centre known in Jugoslavia as little Manchester) which is a regional town in the area my office covers. Google Maps just is not comprehensive in Serbia and is totally not reliable in rural south Serbia. But there are no detailed paper maps – of course as everywhere in South Eastern Europe I’ve been local people don’t actually use maps.

 

Original tweet 11 February, my posts 6 March.