WITH so many remembering the start of the Great War and the anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, may I remind folk of another, lesser-known anniversary.
It is 60 years since British and American troops vacated Trieste and handed the city over to the Italians. Many people do not realise that allied soldiers occupied the city of Trieste at the northern part of the Adriatic Sea from the end of the Second World War in 1945 until October 1954.
Although this was a pleasant place to be stationed, it was at the southern end of the Iron Curtain and a potential flash point between the west and east across the Yugoslav border.
I belong to the BETFOR Association (British Element Trieste Force) for the comradeship of ex-Trieste veterans. It is a very relaxed organisation: it has to be – we are almost all over 80.
We welcome new members, including wives, daughters and sons as associate members. The subscription is £10 a year. We keep in touch by a quarterly journal and annual reunions, plus occasional enjoyable trips back to the city of our youth. There are occasional regional get-togethers.
If anyone is interested in joining us, please contact me and I will introduce them for membership.
George Kirman, 13 Pulleyn Drive, York, YO24 1DY.
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