Radio Siga by Matthew Robinson

Author:Matthew Robinson [Robinson, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sandorf Passage
Published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

5.

ALREADY ON OCTOBER 22, the first Soviets appeared in Siga. Two arrived by motorbike, spoke briefly with a few curious locals, and returned to Sombor. Nikola “Toša” Depalov, the political commissar of the Sombor Partisan detachment, arrived four days later to make sure that everything was primed to establish a military post and to enroll new fighters. There was already much talk of large-scale military preparations on the Danube at Bezdan, on the other side of the river from the village of Batina. It was made clear that it would be good if Siga would send more fighters with the Twelfth Vojvodina Brigade and assist in the challenges that lay ahead. Some of Siga’s young people had already joined the Partisans in previous years, but now more were needed. The brigade itself had been in position at Bezdan since October 29, but it was only at the beginning of November that its commanding officer, Borislav “Kuštra” Štrbački, stopped by, giving a speech with Ivica Pašić in the yard of the Village Hall before some three hundred residents of Siga, Father Matiša among them. Afterward, some forty people joined the ranks of the Twelfth Vojvodina Brigade, Kalman the only one of prominence among them. Marijanović, Pašić, and Škarica all stayed to take care of newly liberated Siga. Although no one would have stopped them had they really wanted to go, it would be fair to say that the army required younger people who knew how to swim and row, people of the water. And Kalman, as we know, was exactly such an individual. Maybe not completely and maybe not always, but there was no doubt whatsoever that Kalman knew how to swim and to row, thanks to years spent on the water around the Tench. The storming of the Danube was being prepared, and the help of locals would be of great importance. It was with this in mind that they were seeking fighters. What Siga lacked in numbers it made up for in the special skills of its inhabitants. Kalman felt an unbridled sense of importance when he was entrusted with a number of crucial tasks to be carried out prior to battle.

But perhaps a word or two first about the battle that was being prepared. In their advance on Budapest, the Soviets had first headed south and, in liberating Belgrade, had liberated also a large part of Vojvodina, with the intention of crossing the Danube and continuing north to the Hungarian capital. That is how the Battle of Batina came about. By enlisting in the Twelfth Vojvodina Brigade, Kalman had reported to a strike unit, specially created for the occasion and which would be among the first to cross the Danube and form a bridgehead. An incredible doggedness and sense of purpose still raged within him. Experienced Communist Youth members, volunteer fighters, eyed this beginner with suspicion and were not particularly motivated to get to know him better. His reputation as a local familiar with the water opened doors he should not have passed through.

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