COMMUNICATIONS AMONG THE PARTISAN UNITS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1941–1945

The couriers – intelligence officers at TV17 between 1942 and 1945

In the situation of working illegally or in war itself, where normal communications cannot be used, every political movement must pay maximum attention to establish independent illegal connections for safe and quick transfer of reports, messages, instructions, etc. Communications through Terenski vod (Field Platoons) that were set up in the national liberation war (NOB) demonstrate the resourcefulness of the thousands of participants that the leadership of the national liberation movement (NOG) managed to organise in one of the most original and comprehensive post networks. These were active throughout the war, they covered the entire territory of Slovenia and beyond, and facilitated quick connections for conveying reports and instructions of different political and military NOG leaderships.

THE TV17 COURIER STATION

A log cabin TV17 in the winter of 1943–1944, as drawn by a partisan courier from Podlipa

was active from November 1942 to the end of the war in 1945, in the woods behind the Ljubljanski vrh, only a few kilometres of the air distance from Vrhnika, Logatec and Borovnica. The fighters in this unit – Terenski vod (TV) number 17 – maintained courier connections with the TV10 at Zavrh above the Iška river, TV2a on Kališče near Logatec, and TV2 in Dolomites (Gradišče above Podsmreka), while in 1943, they also maintained a direct connection crossing the occupation borderline with the German troops, in the direction towards Gorenjska. The paths of the TV17 couriers crossing the heavily guarded railway, as well as the Ljubljana–Triest road and the densely spread enemy strongholds in the Dolomite territory, were undoubtedly among the most difficult and dangerous in the territory of Slovenia. (Text and images: Association of the National Liberation Movement Vrhnika).


Ivan Cankar: Kurent (front page)

As he stepped out of the woods, he looked down at the morning landscape covered with dew, and began to feel an unknown sweetness by such a beauty. With his eyes full of life, he saw a flowering valley melting in a silver light on the horizon, while seeing his whole homeland with the eyes of his heart, from the fields of Štajerska to the sea...

… He sparingly scattered beauty on Earth from east to west; he had passed by mighty lands without even looking at them – they are lying there desolated, gazing at heaven with their blind eyes, asking for mercy. In the end, a handful of beauty remained in his hands; he scattered it in all four directions, from the Štajerska vineyards to the steep Trieste coast and from the Triglav to Gorjanci, and said: “Happy people will live here; a song will be their language and their song will be shouting with joy!” And it has happened, as he had spoken. The God’s sowing germinated and bore fruit – heavens under the Triglav have arisen… (From Cankar’s Kurent)… (Kurent by Jurij Souček)

Hinko Smrekar: (1913): Ivan Cankar as a penitent and prisoner

Ivan Cankar was born on 10 May 1876 in a house located in Na klancu (Vrhnika) as the eighth child in an artisan-proletarian family of a market tailor. He enrolled in the Vrhnika primary school in 1882, and in the Ljubljana non-classical secondary school in 1888. There, he joined the Zadruga student society.

After graduating in 1896, he moved to Vienna to study technology at first, but soon switched to the Slavic languages studies. He is one of the four representatives of the modernism in Slovene literature. together with Murn, Kette and Župančič. His drama works were initially influenced by Ibsen and Gogolj, and later by the New Romantic movement.

His works are calling out to the political situation in the country of that time. Prevailing is the theme of an individual in a conflict with the petit bourgeois everyday, while many socially critical ideas are also noticeable.


Foto: Elo Mihevc

Menišija, where wide beech and fir tree woods entwine with colourful meadows, is ruled by the laws of nature and its wildest representatives – bears, wolfs and lynx. Hours can here pass like minutes to the nature enthusiasts.

Menišija is a 90km2 wide forested, elevated and dynamic karstic plateau between the Cerknica and Planina plain, the Cerkniščica and Otavščica valley and the Logatec Ravnik, Ljubljana Marshes and the Krim. About a 15km long and 6km wide plateau is rising approximately 700m above sea level (with the highest peak of 998m asl) and is aligned with the Dinara NW-SE ridge. Menšija is predominately covered by forests, where it is easy to get lost…

Foto: Elo Mihevc

The Menišija plateau consists of Jura lime and Trias dolomite. The lime prevails in the NW part, covered by forests. In the SW, where the forests have been partly cut and the land cultivated, the dolomite prevails. Since the XIII Century, these had been estates belonging to the Carthusian monastery (hence the name) in Bistra, with the so-called monastery route to Cerknica. (Source: The Notranjska Regional Park).

CYCLING TRAILS

There are four marked cycling trails in the Vrhnika part of the Menišija. K6 takes us to the Ljubljanica River Experience and Exhibition site (DRL), passing the former Roman fortress on Hrib and following the former Roman and cargo road to the Štampe bridge, around Raskovec, which was a favourite topic of the Vrhnika fellow countryman Ivan Cankar, all the way up to the Cesarski vrh, and following the Roman fortress wall to the Jerinov hrib, where the trail joins the K2 (Planina, 733m asl) and the K5 cycling trails (the Mercury trail from Vrhnika to the municipality border towards Idrija). Following the K7 from DRL on the old gravel road, we drive to Pokojišče, where we can either continue on the Menišija road towards Begunje pri Cerknici or descend to Borovnica and Bistra or ascend over Rakitna (and Krim) back to the Ljubljana Marshes. K8 is a circular trail around the Ljubljanski vrh, while the K9 takes us to Pokojišče passing the Suha štirna (the Dry Well).

MENIŠIJA TRAILS:


Foto: Elo Mihevc

Menišija, where wide beech and fir tree woods entwine with colourful meadows, is ruled by the laws of nature and its wildest representatives – bears, wolfs and lynx. Hours can here pass like minutes to the nature enthusiasts.

Menišija is a 90km2 wide forested, elevated and dynamic karstic plateau between the Cerknica and Planina plain, the Cerkniščica and Otavščica valley and the Logatec Ravnik, Ljubljana Marshes and the Krim. About a 15km long and 6km wide plateau is rising approximately 700m above sea level (with the highest peak of 998m asl) and is aligned with the Dinara NW-SE ridge. Menšija is predominately covered by forests, where it is easy to get lost…

Foto: Elo Mihevc

The Menišija plateau consists of Jura lime and Trias dolomite. The lime prevails in the NW part, covered by forests. In the SW, where the forests have been partly cut and the land cultivated, the dolomite prevails. Since the XIII Century, these had been estates belonging to the Carthusian monastery (hence the name) in Bistra, with the so-called monastery route to Cerknica. (Source: The Notranjska Regional Park).

CYCLING TRAILS

There are four marked cycling trails in the Vrhnika part of the Menišija. K6 takes us to the Ljubljanica River Experience and Exhibition site (DRL), passing the former Roman fortress on Hrib and following the former Roman and cargo road to the Štampe bridge, around Raskovec, which was a favourite topic of the Vrhnika fellow countryman Ivan Cankar, all the way up to the Cesarski vrh, and following the Roman fortress wall to the Jerinov hrib, where the trail joins the K2 (Planina, 733m asl) and the K5 cycling trails (the Mercury trail from Vrhnika to the municipality border towards Idrija). Following the K7 from DRL on the old gravel road, we drive to Pokojišče, where we can either continue on the Menišija road towards Begunje pri Cerknici or descend to Borovnica and Bistra or ascend over Rakitna (and Krim) back to the Ljubljana Marshes. K8 is a circular trail around the Ljubljanski vrh, while the K9 takes us to Pokojišče passing the Suha štirna (the Dry Well).


Local community Sinja Gorica

Sinja Gorica is a local community and a place in the municipality of Vrhnika, which is functionally divided into Sinja Gorica and Sap. People have lived in this area since the Old Iron Age and on the top of the hill, west of the church of St. Job builds a hillfort, as evidenced by the formation of the terrain and prehistoric small metal finds. From the top there was an open view of the Tauriscis fort on Tičnica.

The old village core is formed under the church. It is mentioned as Sweinpuhel (in translation Svinja Gorica – Pig Hamlet) in 1414, in 1474 as Singa Goriza, on the military map (1763–1787) it is entered as Suina Goritza, in the Franciscan cadastre Lepa (Beautiful) Gorica is recorded, later in the XIX. century however, it is referred to as Schweinbuchl. In German, all names refer to pigs grazing in the area. Others believe that the settlement is named after sviba (a type of Cornelian Cherry) and where sviba grows – Svibnja Gorica, but the letter b is lost when pronounced, which is why the German translations are also incorrect.

Church of St. Job

the major attractions in the Local Community Sinja Gorica is the church of St. Job, which was first mentioned in 1526. It is the only church in Slovenia dedicated to St. Job, protector of beekeepers. Job is a biblical person and is synonymous for people who suffer injustice. It affirms that God wants only the best for His beings, but the fulfillment of God’s will can be very painful.

Interesting:

In the vicinity of the settlement there are important wetlands and habitats of legally protected plants (eg močvirska logarica – Fritillaria Meleagris), so most of the local community is included in the environmental area under the protection of Natura 2000.


Podlipa and the Church of St. Brice

The trail starts (or ends) at the P&R car park (Park & Ride) in Sinja Gorica. The path leads mainly along the regulated bed of the Podlipščica stream. This year we completed the route to Podlog, and the second year we will complete the route at the Church of St. Brice in Podlipa.

In Podlipa, you can join the K1 bike path if you drive along the asphalt road for about a kilometer in the direction of Smrečje. You can also join K1 at the new footbridge over Podlipščica (turn towards the main road Vrhnika-Podlipa).

Kovtr’s mill

The Podlipa valley is a narrow valley that plunges a good six kilometers into the surrounding hills, rising with steep slopes from three to four hundred meters above the valley. The valley is very watery, so it is not surprising that along Podlipščica, Tunjica or Lahovka and many tributaries in the last two hundred years there are over twenty different water-powered plants, including five sawmills, eleven mills (among the oldest mills are Razor’s (1709), Pajsar’s, Mesar’s and Malnar’s, already drawn in the Austrian military map (1763–1787)), spruce bark milling feet for Vrhnika tanners and millet and barley feet, and seven small hydroelectric power plants (among the oldest are Verbič’s, built after the First World War) for the tannery, which was built in 1877 on the site of Mesar’s mill, Kovtrova (1934), Smrekarjeva (1938) and the village MHe (1941), and in the lower course of Tunjica, in addition to Verbič, there was also a tannery in Kralovš. In addition to Kovtr’s bicycle, only Žagar’s (Koščak’s) mill has been restored.

we rebuilt abandoned cart tracks

The valley is named after the village of Podlipa (347 m above sea level, 367 inhabitants), mentioned in historical sources as early as the 13th century. century, when it was donated to the monastery in Bistra. The settlement was originally named after the Tujnica stream, which originates in Pajsar’s cave, the name Podlipa appears later and is named after the linden tree, the descendants of which can still be seen today.

The village boasts many attractions, among them a partially built ground floor house on no. 51 with a preserved wooden ceiling and a black kitchen and a semicircular stone portal (mid-19th century) at the foot of Boštjan’s hill, Kovtr’ mill, the one-nave parish church of St. Brice (1803), parish and open-type chapel with stone pillars on the façade and with the year 1880 on both capitals at house no. 49a.

Among the village specialties is certainly the table in the inn Pri Vrtnarju (Jurca), which miraculously begins to turn with the laying on hands. In the wider vicinity of the church lies an archeological site from the Middle Ages.


In the tenth millennium BC, the area of today’s Ljubljana Marshes is covered by a lake, which is already inhabited by pile-dwellers. For transport by water or to the shore, they already know how to squeeze a tree from one trunk. For this time-consuming work, they use tools mostly made of stone or cornea, and the interior is also hollowed out by burning. In the Copper and Bronze Ages, they already use simple axes. So far, over sixty logs or trees have been discovered in Barje, most of them younger, which means that the tree was used as a means of transport until the Middle Ages. So far, four trees from the mound period have been confirmed by the dendrochronological method.

5.200 years old wheel with axle

There are many logboat trees in the pre-Alpine world, so we should be particularly proud of the 5200-year-old and thus the oldest discovered wooden wheel with an axle in the world, which was excavated in 2002 in Stare gmajne near Verd. The wheel and axle are part of the cart (ciza), made and used in the younger phase of the settlement of the mound. The wheel, with a diameter of 71.2 cm, is made as a full disc with a rectangular hub made of two boards made of ash wood from a more than 80-year-old tree and connected in width with four ridge slats. It is part of a wagon or ciza, suitable for the hilly landscape, which includes the hinterland of the then lakeside Ljubljana Marshes. Pile-dwellers use it either to transport captured game or to transport field crops to the edge of the lake. They are already using draft cattle to transport the wagon.


Local Community Drenov Grič – Lesno Brdo

The local community of Drenov Grič – Lesno Brdo (6.50 km2, 1,300 inhabitants, 291 m above sea level) stretches on the western edge of the Ljubljana Marshes and consists of the settlements of Drenov Grič (750 inhabitants) and Lesno Brdo (550 inhabitants).

The village of Drenov Grič began to form after the construction of the second imperial road in 1809. Thus, at the beginning of the 19th century table. there are almost no houses along Tržaška cesta from Sinja Gorica to Log. Where there is a turnoff for Horjul today, there is a house-inn with a stable, called Pri Stari šrangi. There is an inn in the eastern part and a cattle barn in the western part. At that time, distant and nearby farmers loaded a lot from Ljubljana to Trieste and the inn was well visited. As the barn soon became too small, in 1816 a new one was built next to the house along the road for 50 pairs of horses and oxen. The barn still stands today. It was not until around 1830 that the first residential house was built next to the inn, and then by 1838 five more. People from distant and surrounding places call this small settlement after the inn Stara šranga. Around 1898, a local line of the Ljubljana-Trieste Southern Railway was built through the settlement, leading to Vrhnika. In those years, the number of houses in the village increased sharply, and the material situation of the inhabitants improved. The village is supposed to be named Drenova Gorica at that time, but it will soon be renamed Drenov Grič.

Kucler’s quarry

Lesno Brdo is divided between the municipalities of Vrhnika (southern part) and Horjul (northern part). Above the main part of the village there are three quarries, the largest is still in operation, two smaller ones are abandoned. Due to geological peculiarities, Kucler’s quarry is protected as a natural monument.

Interesting:

In five millennia, all land routes and waterways on the pile-up lake run through the area of ​​the local community, only the navigable Ljubljanica is too far.


Roman consular road

The Romans attached great importance to traffic and especially to road connections. So it is no wonder that as early as around 450 BC, road construction was standardised by law. This determined, among other things, the width of the road at 2.45 m on straight sections and 4.90 m on bends (later the construction of roads between 4.0- and 6.0-meters wide is introduced, so that two carriages can meet), the rules for paving and the right to use private land (easement)..

According to importance, Roman roads are divided into public, side, local and private roads. As a rule, public roads are built as straight as possible, so in some places the slopes reach 20%. Minor obstacles on the planned route, e.g. hills, are removed, tunnels are dug into larger rocky hills and bridges are built over rivers, for which the Romans are true masters. Along the roads at a distance of one mile (thousand (double) steps or 1,478.5 meters), they place round two-meter high milestones made of a single piece of stone. The golden zero milestone (miliarium aureum), from which the distance from Rome is counted, is placed in the centre of the Forum.

Roman findings near via Gemina in Vrhnika

With the via Gemina, the Romans connect Aquileia with Emona. The section between Nauportus and Emona is built between 14 and 9 BC XIII. Roman Legion – Legio XIII Gemina. According to the finds, the Roman road in Vrhniško descends steeply from Stampeta’s bridge to the five-sided fortress on Hrib, bypassing the (today’s) Church of St. Paul on the south side, crossing Hribski potok south of today’s bridge and leading in a straight line to Stara cesta near the former smithy. To the Church of St. Lenart, the routes of the Roman and Stara cesta overlap, then the road continues below Hrušovca to Frtica and further in a straight line to the Church of St. John at Log..

Interesting: At the end of the Roman Empire, 372 public roads were built over a length of 80,000 km on three continents, from Scotland to Mesopotamia and from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.


Preparations for the construction of the first section of the motorway in Slovenia have been going on for five years, and on 29 December 1972 the 32 km long motorway section between Vrhnika and Postojna was handed over to traffic. With this project, Slovenia or the former Yugoslavia joins twenty European countries that already have motorways. Workers from all Yugoslav republics are taking part in the construction, mostly from Macedonia, from where they were driven by the desire for higher earnings. Construction divided into three subsections (Vrhnika-Logatec, Logatec-Unec and Unec-Postojna).

On the Vrhnika-Logatec section, the initial part near Vrhnika causes problems for workers due to the unfavorable geological base. Like the builders of the Southern Railway, the builders of the motorway section have problems with the swampy soil of the Ljubljana Marshes. With the preloading process, they cause forced subsidence of the ground, thus preventing subsequent deformations of the road. Five overpasses, four underpasses and the Verd viaduct (630 m) are being built on the section. Most of the headaches and related delays cause contractors to break through the Štampet Bridge.

Interesting:

All facilities on the bog soil are built on piles, which due to the variability of the terrain reach between 15 and 40 meters in depth.

construction of the first motorway (Source: Archive of DARS d.d.)