European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 11, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                That Banka Bystrick was Likely to fall and that it was not advisable a Send in any additional people. On oct. 7 the Oss landed 17 More people at Banka Bystricky including 14 More military agents another of several British agents and an associated press War correspondent plus his Navy photographer. About 28 american pos were flown out on the aircraft that brought in the new team members. By oct. 26 the uprising capital of Banka Bystrick had fallen to German troops whose infantry use sophisticated radio techniques to coordinate aircraft and artillery attacks against partisan Mountain positions. -. The German air ground teams robbed them of the advantage of terrain and turned the Safe Haven into a trap said it. Col. Jack Kingston a modern Day army special forces member. The mountains trapped the partisans and because they did t have enough weapons or provisions became an in surmountable obstacle Kingston said. When Banka Bystrick fell Green s detachment of americans split up with the largest group heading into the Low Tara Range along with disintegrating . Americans met up with the resistance woman they called Maria who said she would guide them to the russian lines. An american tragedy they spent two months fighting hunger frostbite disease German sympathizers and exhaustion As the tired band of americans pushed through the mountains. ". One by one stragglers were captured. Most of the aviators surrendered they had escaped once from the germans and now preferred the comparative Comfort of pow Camps to the certain death of the mountains in Winter. In mid december Maria spoke with the mayor of a Village called Solomka in the Hron River Valley. Following the crushed uprising this was the first town to openly Welcome the american survivors who were housed at two encampments near the top of a Mountain called Volsky Bok. It took three Days of trudging through Waist deep Snow to reach the Mountain hut dec. 17. That was the americans final hiding place. Accounts Don t agree on How Many people spent Christmas at Volsky Bok but the rag tag party included a dozen Ameri cans a few British and half a dozen partisans. It. James Gaul an archaeologist from Pittsburgh read a Christmas prayer that offered thanks for de Liverance from the blizzards and High winds from the perils of. The nights and the dark valleys and he offered thanks for preserving the Little group that had made it so far. There were still Hopes that the British might drop supplies for them. Before Dawn on the Day after Christmas Maria along with two soldiers went to a Mountaintop Clearing to wait for an Airdrop that never came. 100 Miles it100km Bratislava Austria Hungary Volsky Bok Banka Bystrick 848vine Crawley copy of Maria Gulo Vicovan s passport at museum of the slovak National uprising in Banka Bystrick. About 300 germans attacked the hut at 7 . Pavel Kamensky a 22-year-old partisan was with them. V r we were getting up we were beginning the morning and suddenly we heard a great Deal of shooting said Kamensky who was shot in the hip. He ran from the hut and hiding in the Woods near by saw German soldiers March up the path and enter the hut. There was no further shooting after the initial blast. Kamensky heard slovak being spoken from the German group. So i wondered How is it possible that these Ger mans spoke slovak there must have been slovaks among  v the germans burned the hut. As Maria heard the Story a storekeeper in the Vil Lage had been robbed by partisan scavengers and wanting revenge told the germans where they could find american soldiers hiding in the mountains. Supplies eventually were parachuted into the nearby Valley where they fell into German hands. The americans including a reporter Joseph Morton and his photographer Nelson Paris were taken to Mau Hausen concentration Camp in Austria where they were tortured and shot. Morton was the Only american War correspondent executed by enemy forces during world War ii. The German army killed at least 6,000 slovak troops during the uprising and its aftermath. Thou Sands More slovak partisans froze and starved to death in the Tara mountains during the Winter of 1944-45. In retaliation for the uprising German is units destroyed 200 slovak villages. Heroic Maria Maria Gulo Vicovan guided pfc. Kenneth Dunlevy and sgt. Steve Catlos safely through russian lines on Jan. 23,1945. The two americans credited her with saving their lives. She is now a realtor living in Oxnard Calif. She insists she did nothing heroic. It s so easy to put labels said the 72-year-old. I would Call myself a Patriot at that time a Freedom fighter. It s funny. You win you re a hero. You lose you re a  after the group was captured at the hut she said we just kept on running going crawling whatever and then just continued until the end of the  like Many of the democratic partisans she fled postwar Czechoslovakia. Attending a 50th anniversary commemoration this past August at the rebuilt hut on Volsky Bok the former guide said she recalled her comrades after half a Century. Like a film through my mind i see the faces said the woman they called Maria. She recalled the villagers risking their lives to bring them food. I recall Christmas she said. The Christmas prayer she spoke a while longer her voice Drifting Over the Pines and beyond a Mountain Brook talking of things that happened and people who died half a Century ago in a War torn country far from Home. Of. Is Vince Crawley Pavel Kamensky 72, in Volsky Bok last month. Is Vine Crawley slovak girl with . Flag at August ceremony. September 11,1994 sunday pages