Beacons in the Night: With the OSS and Tito's Partisans in Wartime Yugoslavia [Paperback]

Franklin Lindsay (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0804725888 | ISBN-13: 978-0804725880 | Publication Date: January 1, 1996

"This is a 3-in-1 bargain: a gripping tale of adventure; a solid contribution to the history of World War II; and an illuminating introduction to the contemporary tragedy of Yugoslavia." --Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Lindsay's memoirs are largely based on newly declassified materials. 25 illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lindsay's memoir of his experiences as an American OSS officer with Tito's Partisans stands as a classic work of Resistance literature, but the book's overriding importance lies in its clarification of the ethnic/religious tensions that led to the present Balkan tragedy. Lindsay describes the two competing WW II resistance movements in Yugoslavia, both dedicated to engaging German forces needed elsewhere but with different postwar goals. Tito planned to turn the country into a Moscow-directed communist state; his rival, Chetnik leader Draza Mikhailovic, was determined to restore the monarchy and to continue the prewar dominance by the Serbs. On this basis, a civil war raged throughout the land even as the rivals fought against the German occupation. "The ethnic hatred that fueled the communal violence," writes the author, "seemed deeply embedded in the souls of the inhabitants." The book combines a rousing personal adventure story with new information on the Partisan contribution to the Allied war effort, and at the same time provides a useful lesson in Balkan history that is directly pertinent to the current bloodshed. Lindsay, retired chairman of the Itek Corporation, is an Associate of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Exciting OSS/Serbo-Croatian adventure circa 1944, by Lindsay (Associate/Harvard's Center for International Affairs). Respectfully introduced by John Kenneth Galbraith, Lindsay's memoir preserves in well-crafted prose a legendary period, proving beyond doubt that Donovan's Daredevils were not all Ivy League triflers. A young engineer with a smattering of useful languages, the author talked himself into an assignment that began with parachuting into Yugoslavia to work with Tito's partisans and led to a hardscrabble existence that lost novelty but never danger. In precise, well-remembered detail, supported by archives and some thousand pages of radio dispatches, Lindsay presents the daily complexities of the assignment. Working with Communists, plagued by irregular supply drops, dependent on cranky radios that required large batteries, pursued by ever-efficient German intelligence and military units, saddled with inept local explosives ``experts,'' and subsisting on anything from horse meat to dough-balls, he blew up major bridges and tunnels, was nearly blown up himself, and lived a life that, as told here, is half For Whom the Bell Tolls and half Lawrence of Arabia. Especially clear is the element of human error (usually born of nationalism and compounded by bureaucracy): At one point, such error causes the partial failure of what could have been a brilliant mission; at another, it results in the loss of two British supply planes. Lindsay also presents a lucid picture of local customs, personalities, and nationalities, as well as of the Nazi exploitation of ethnic enmities that are unchanged to this day. Nor is he without humor, as in his account of a riding lesson interrupted by a randy stallion. An impressive document that will interest WW II buffs, historians, and anyone who likes a tale of hands-on derring-do. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804725888
• ISBN-13: 978-0804725880
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #952,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, informative, September 12, 2000

By 

Edward Bosnar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beacons in the Night: With the OSS and Tito's Partisans in Wartime Yugoslavia (Paperback)

One of those books that demonstrates how reality is usually more interesting than fiction. Lindsay's account of his activities as an OSS operative in the former Yugoslavia during World War II is a much better read than most Cold War spy fiction. The text is very readable and hightly informative - not only about wartime events in Yugosalvia but also about the policies of the Allied governments and military in dealing with them. The book also provides a good deal of information on a topic that is covered very little in the English language: the struggle of the Slovenian Partisans against the Nazis. Lindsay points out that some of the first territories liberated within the Third Reich itself were in fact in the Slovenian provinces. Linday's observations of Tito and his senior staff just after the end of the war are also quite revealing. The text is, however, weaker where Lindsay does not speak about events he did not directly witness or take part in. Thus, he often cites rather uncritically a number of secondary sources on specific events in wartime Yugoslavia. Even so, the book as a whole is an excellent read and a valuable source of information on the subject and period that it covers.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating - True Adventures, May 27, 2001

By 

richard_t "richard_t" (Overseas) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Beacons in the Night: With the OSS and Tito's Partisans in Wartime Yugoslavia (Paperback)

Lindsay was an OSS military advisor who fought with Tito's partisans in Slovenia against the Nazis in World War II. His account is a highly-readable thrilling adventure story - climbing snowy mountains with the Germans in pursuit, crossing streams in the night, directing parachute drops, organizing Allied supplies to the Partisans. Lindsay's matter-of-fact prose is effective and adds credibility. He disdains the frequent Allied advisors who are overly pro-Partisan, never losing his distrust of communism. But he clearly has a lot of respect for the Partisans' organizational skills, intelligence, courier lines, and tactics.

Some of the most interesting material discusses the inability of the US, UK, or Soviets to either create or find or support any indigenous resistance groups in Austria. Why? Several reasons, including the inescapable fact that Austrians were not so dissatisfied with the Nazi government, were less courageous than their counterparts in Yugoslavia, and were far more willing to lay low and wait for liberation rather than risk anything at all to hasten it.

The strongest chapters are the early ones, with Lindsay in the mountains of Slovenia, where he participates in the events he discusses. The book becomes noticeably weaker as the war winds down and Lindsay moves to Belgrade and is kept isolated by Tito and is unable to witness much of what he reports on. He does a game job of reconstructing events from other sources, but much of the immediacy and some of the credibility of the early material is lost.

The postwar political struggle for the (now-Italian) city of Trieste is fascinating. Tito coveted the city and its Adriatic access. The Yugoslavs were dogged, single-minded, and happily willing to engage in deceit to seize the city in the postwar settlements. Finally, Lindsay is entirely plausible in presenting the view that only the U.S.'s 1950 intervention in Korea prevented Stalin from attacking and subjugating Yugoslavia in the wake of Tito's break with the Soviet Union.

This is a strong book, not without flaws, but certainly enlightening and useful to scholars of the Balkans and World War II as well as to those who just enjoy a fascinating war adventure.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars pretty good BUT!!!, September 18, 2003

By 

Luiza Vartavarian (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beacons in the Night: With the OSS and Tito's Partisans in Wartime Yugoslavia (Paperback)

The author does not really spend his time with Tito's Partizans which weere mainly based in Bosnia. He is posted in Solvenia, which experienced a no less bloody and brutal but very different conflict. Slovenia had a very unique experence during the Balkan war. Slovene Partizans were heavily influenced by, but not entirly controled by Tito until later in the war. Slovenia was, and still is, an ethnically homogenous area it did not experience civil war to the degree that was seen in Bosnia or Croatia. Here the Partizans were hell bent on their chief goal of expeling the occupying fascist powers of Italy/Germany and all assosiated with them.