The Secret Rescue (43 page)

8. “time to rest and refit”
E. W. (“Trotsky”) Davies,
Illyrian Venture
(London: Bodley Head, 1952), 66.

9. fourteen days
Hayes, interview.

10. destroyed a village
Ibid.

11. young American OSS officer
Smith, “Report on Mission of Evacuation.”

12. Taylor
“Outline of Duties with Office of Strategic Services,” memo, October 4, 1945, RG 226, entry 224, box 767, Jack H. Taylor personnel file, NACP.

13. seven sorties… ten tons
Captain G. F. Else, USMCR, to Colonel Paul B. Nelson, memo, September 6, 1945, Jack H. Taylor personnel file, NACP.

14. rough seas
Smith, “Report on Mission of Evacuation.”

15. establish the camp
Roderick Bailey,
The Wildest Province
(London: Jonathan Cape, 2008), 196.

16. “so they lay there”
H. W. Tilman,
When Men and Mountains Meet
(1946), collected in
The Seven Mountain-Travel Books
(1983; repr., London: Bâton Wicks, 2010), 363.

17. temporary home
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
41, 196–197.

18. Orahood
RG 226, entry 224, box 575, Donald Orahood personnel file, NACP; David Brodie, “The Rescue of American Nurses from Albania,” in
The OSS CommVets Papers,
ed. J. F. Ranney and A. L. Ranney (Covington, KY: James F. Ranney, 2002), 28.

19. Karapiçi
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
200–201; Peter Lucas,
The OSS in World War II Albania: Covert Operations and Collaboration with Communist Partisans
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007), 13, 18–19.

20. “landing was duck soup”
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
196.

21. shot in the back
Ibid., 208–210; Lucas,
The OSS in World War II Albania,
54–56.

22. Duffy explained
Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party”; Mangerich,
Albanian Escape,
119–120.

23. wireless set
Herbert Bell, “Signal Report on Colour Operation,” TNA, HS 5/124.

24. Station IX
Terry Crowdy,
SOE Agent: Churchill’s Secret Warriors
(Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2008), 10.

25. Brown
John Brown, unpublished interview, Imperial War Museum (IWM), 1989, provided to the author by Roderick Bailey with permission from IWM.

26. forty-two pounds
Louis Meulstee and Rudolf F. Staritz,
Wireless for the Warrior: Clandestine Radio
(Ferndown, UK: Wimborne Publishing, 2004), vol. 4.

27. could not use it to communicate
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
67.

28. Field operators… coded messages
Margaret Pawley,
In Obedience to Instructions: FANY with the SOE in the Mediterranean
(Barnsley, UK: Leo Cooper, 1999), 58, 65.

29. “sked”
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
68.

30. two mules
Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party.”

31. “I would prefer”
Ibid.

32. bitter negotiating and price gouging
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
71.

33. “After being in Albania”
Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party.”

34. “propaganda and goodwill tour”
Ibid.

35. “looked back and surveyed”
Ibid.

36. MP40
Ibid. In his report, Duffy referred to his weapon as a tommy gun, but the pictures of the group when they are rescued show an MP40.

37. “looked us over”
Agnes Jensen Mangerich to John Graham, undated letter, John Graham family papers.

38. clasped on the barrel
Hayes, interview.

39. Sten gun
Ibid.; Bailey, e-mail interview, November 8, 2012; Chris Bishop, ed.,
Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II
(London: Metro Books, 2002), 263.

40. cost one SOE officer
Roderick Bailey,
Forgotten Voices of the Secret War
(London: Ebury Press, 2008), 282.

41. sprained his ankle
Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party”; Hayes, interview.

42. [description of Voskopojë]
Hayes, interview.

43. [churches of Voskopojë]
“Voskopojë Churches,” World Monuments Fund, http://www.wmf.org/project/voskopojë-churches.

44. “It’s a hell of a place”
Hayes, interview.

45. vomited
Mangerich,
Albanian Escape,
122.

46. others insisted
Ibid.; Hayes, interview.

47. curse
Hayes, interview; Abbott,
Out of Albania,
111.

48. “the piano roll”
Hayes, interview.

49. Dividing the group
Ibid.

50. bride
Ibid.

51. young couple in love
Davies,
Illyrian Venture,
34.

52. “sworn virgins”
Robert Elsie, e-mail interview, November 11, 2012; Mike Lanchin, “Last of Albania’s ‘Sworn Virgins,’ ” BBC News, October 22, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7682240.stm; Dan Bilefsky, “Sworn to Virginity and Living as Men in Albania,”
New York Times,
June 23, 2008.

53. [crossing the river]
Hayes, interview; Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party”; Mangerich,
Albanian Escape,
124 (quotes from Duffy’s report); Abbott,
Out of Albania,
110.

54. last to cross
Hayes, interview.

55. stolen more than a thousand sheep
Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party.”

56. “without an English speaking Albanian”
Ibid.

57. makeup
Hayes, interview; Abbott,
Out of Albania,
58.

58. “managed to create an impression”
Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party.”

59. [Hayes’s shoes]
Hayes, interview.

60. Gina, the partison
Ibid. The description and timing of Gina’s return in Mangerich,
Albanian Escape,
148, differed from Hayes’s.

61. “pilots slightly light-headed”
Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party.”

62. “Have heard persistent rumours of invasion”
Ibid.

63. message from Cairo
Ibid.

64. goodbye to Gina
Hayes, interview. Mangerich,
Albanian Escape,
148, and Abbott,
Out of Albania,
119, differed as to the timing and description of when Gina left. Both placed his departure slightly later in the story but are not consistent.

65. bridge
Hayes, interview; Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party”; Abbott,
Out of Albania,
117.

66. truck
Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party”; Abbott,
Out of Albania,
117.

Chapter 11

1. cold, barren room
Hayes, interview; Lawrence O. Abbott,
Out of Albania,
ed. Clinton W. Abbott (Lulu Press, 2010), 117–118.

2. meeting point in town
Hayes, interview.

3. Mount Nemërçkë
Ibid.; Gavan Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party from Albania,” TNA, HS 5/124; Abbott,
Out of Albania,
118–119.

4. honey
Hayes, interview.

5. “It took almost seven hours”
Duffy, “Report on Evacuation of American Party.”

6. “But by the grace of God”
Roderick Bailey,
The Wildest Province
(London: Jonathan Cape, 2008), 67.

7. Sheper
H. W. Tilman,
When Men and Mountains Meet
(1946), collected in
The Seven Mountain-Travel Books
(1983; repr., London: Bâton Wicks, 2010), 367.

8. Leake
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
244; E. W. (“Trotsky”) Davies,
Illyrian Venture
(London: Bodley Head, 1952), 98.

9. Tilman
Bailey,
The Wildest Province,
75–76; David Smiley,
Albanian Assignment
(London: Sphere Books, 1984), 65.

10. “the nurses in good heart and looks”
Tilman,
When Men and Mountains Meet,
367.

11. “Once his mission had been established”
Smiley,
Albanian Assignment,
65.