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After the German surrender on May 2, there was one complication. German Army Group South-East, opposite the Yugoslavs and Russians in Austria, had not joined in the capitulation. There was also a Cossack Corps milling about on its own, and the Yugoslavs were not taking kindly to the British and American forces having reached Trieste. The 1st Battalion London Irish were at Dolo, where they had been promised a week\u2019s rest after the exertions of the latter stages of the fighting. The rapid advance had prevented all the little things of life being done, such as washing clothes and generally tidying up, for nearly a month. But hardly had the promise been made when 167 Brigade was ordered to move at once. No one knew what it was all about, but the London Irish set off eastwards through country which showed scarcely any signs of war. At the end of their journey, they found themselves at Gorizia and in the middle of a typically Balkan squabble about which they knew little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were in Venezia Guilia, formerly a part of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had been given to Italy after the First World War. The Slav minority in the province resented the way Mussolini had kept them in subjugation for over twenty years. With the fall of the Italian Dictator, they were out for vengeance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When 1 London Irish reached Gorizia on May 3, they found parties of Yugoslavs ready to stake their claims. There had been skirmishes between them and the Italian population, who were equally determined to keep the territory Italian. At the same time there was a third party under the leadership of the Church which was in favour of independence, and while being pro-Slav was anti-Tito and anti-Communist. To make matters worse there was a good deal of hunting of former Fascists, which appeared to be a good excuse for paying off all sorts of old scores. Finally, there were some sixteen thousand Chetniks outside the town. They were Serbs who supported General Mihailovitch and were violently anti-Tito. The Chetniks from time to time fired mortars indiscriminately into Gorizia, but a squadron of New Zealand tanks had unobtrusively made its presence felt and a large-scale uprising or civil war was prevented. The London Irish relieved the New Zealanders in their difficult task. Eventually the Chetniks were shepherded away to camps in Italy, the Yugoslavs kept on their side of the River Isonzo, and although there were sporadic and noisy demonstrations, the town was reasonably calm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just as the 1st Battalion were settling down and everything was going comparatively smoothly, they were ordered to move to Doberdo, between Gorizia and the sea. There was some tension because of a fear that the Yugoslavs might forcibly occupy Gorizia and the rest of the province and talk about it afterwards. But ultimately a treaty was signed and their truculence subsided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Irish Brigade, with the 2nd Battalion of the London Irish, also took the part of Balkan peacemakers. They had been ordered to move north to Udine, while the rest of the division surged into Austria. On May 7 the brigade passed into the Cividale-Caporetto area. Two companies, H and E, of the 2nd Battalion London Irish went to Caporetto and Plezzo, the idea being in a very friendly way to try to deflect the Yugoslavs back into their own country, or at any rate to keep them off the road which the Eighth Army had to use. That was achieved in good spirit, although the Yugoslavs were very persistent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On May 8, at 1500 hours, the Prime Minister announced that the end of the war in Europe would be at midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was splendid, but the Irish Brigade were still too busy to do much about it, though the 1st Battalion was able to celebrate the historic occasion in Doberdo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On August 2, 1945, Lieut-Colonel JA Sperling, who had commanded the 1st Battalion since September 1944, took over command of a battalion of his own regiment, the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, in Greece. He was succeeded by Lieut-Colonel GHK Ryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When an Allied Commission visited Trieste to help solve the local Yugoslav-Italian problem, the London Irish provided guards for the members. For some time, there was a feeling of tension in the city, and the battalion had to be ready at short notice for any duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A number of old faces gradually disappeared from the battalion as release claimed more and more of them. But the draft from the 2nd Battalion came as a great boon, and once again the old spirit asserted itself, the spirit of the Regiment, the London Irish Rifles, without thought of comparison between the two battalions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disbandment overtook 167 Brigade in the late summer of 1946, and in a message to Lieut-Colonel Sir Denis Bernard, Brigadier J Scott Elliott paid warm tribute to the London Irish. \u201cThey have been with me now for two years, and I would like to say how very much I have appreciated having them. While I have had them, they have always been cheerful, they have never had a failure in battle and have always had an extraordinary knack of rising to the occasion at the right moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Field-Marshal Alexander paid a farewell visit to the brigade group at Pola. He was greeted by the London Irish pipes under Pipe-Major Franklin and Bugle-Major Taylor. The band played his old regimental march, \u201cSt. Patrick\u2019s Day,\u201d and when he left, he did so to the strains of \u201cLet Erin Remember.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No final farewell could have been more appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThus shall memory often, in dream sublime, Catch a glimpse of the days that are over; Thus, sighing, look through the waves of Time For the long-faded glories they cover!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THOMAS MOORE.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After the German surrender on May 2, there was one complication. German Army Group South-East, opposite the Yugoslavs and Russians in Austria, had not joined in the capitulation. There was also a Cossack Corps milling about on its own, and the Yugoslavs were not taking kindly to the British and American forces having reached Trieste. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":26286,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-26348","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26348"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26502,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26348\/revisions\/26502"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonirishrifles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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