1945 World War 2 Diary Archibald Charles Maidment 2771 Field Squadron R.A.F. Regiment

February 1945 and Maidment is off on an American craft to Yugoslavia, arriving in Zara [now Zadar] after the carpet bombing of the City the the Allies and the retreat by the Germans. His first job appears to have been to establish a new airstrip, as well as building defences and aerodrome buildings.

Aside from a Liberator crash landing early on (crew were OK) everything appears to go quite well. Once the aerodrome is established, his duties move back to "fixing rockets" and guard duty. Shortly after, a Liberator catches fire on landing, followed a few days later by "two Liberators, one Lightning and a B-Fighter crashed on the drome, all the crews got out ok..".

There follows a description of the invasion of Pag Island commencing on April 3rd 1945. The Invasion of Pag Island "...No. 2 Flight is going on an invasion tomorrow, the C.O. comes round and gave us a talk...The Invasion force, No. 2 Flt, 2771 Sqdn RAF Reg. R.S.R. with four 75 mm guns, wireless opps, transport, six jeeps and two 3 ton lorries. The main force was 2000 Jug infantry. The Regiment job was to give support and covering fire for the guns, and stop any German patrols...left camp at 6 oc in the evening, embarked on L.C.T. 380 at Zara...we arrived off the Island about 11.30. At 11.45 we stormed up the beaches under the cover of darkness, it was a complete surprise landing as we did not meet any opposition...there was 36 of us on our lorry...we took up positions all round the guns...at 3 o'clock there was a few short bursts of machine gun fire on the hill to our left, which we heard later was a Jerry patrol out looking for us, but instead they ran into a strong force of Jugs who had just landed...In the evening the planes came over and dive bombed the German positions in the town, then round they came again firing their rockets and guns...the Jugs are doing well and now engaged in street fighting...Jerry sent over a few mortar shells, one dropped about 40 yards from us...after this our planes came over and did their bombing runs, the town was now just a mass of smoke...we heard the great news that the Germans had surrendered..."

A few days later, news comes through of the German surrender and Victory for the Allied Forces, sparking much celebration. A few days later, they leave Yugoslavia on their landing craft and head back to Italy for a few days before transferring by road to Austria, arriving in Klagenfurt in late May, and on to Judenburg and Vienna.

The diary ends on October 28th 1945 with Maidment in Vienna, shortly before being demobbed and shipped back to England.