The First Group, 1942
The first group of eight Yugoslav irregulars were recruited and given some basic training by the summer of 1942. The documents in this section show that passports and exit visas complicated the volunteers' departure from Canada.
The corresponding file at the UK National Archives is called "America: Balkan Recruiting in Canada - First Party (Shipwrecked)." Some of these Yugoslav recruits were in transit aboard the Greek freighter Andreas when it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in the Atlantic. Luka Biljan and Emil Vrkljan (referenced in CDYS00006) were killed.[1]
[1] MacLaren, Behind Enemy Lines, 136 and Petrou, “Melancholy Courage,” Note 59.