At the Heart of the Uprising: The Tragic Story of the American Mission

The fleeing Americans were not only pursued by the Nazis, but also by a violent snowstorm that lashed them with icy November winds in the heart of the Low Tatras. Their eyebrows were frozen solid and dirt clung to them, as did their lice-ridden beards. When the Nazis finally caught up with them after nearly a month on the run, many of the emaciated soldiers clung to their last scraps of food instead of weapons.

This desperate situation was the result of a mission that is now considered one of the most disastrous in the history of American military intelligence during World War II. Without this ill-fated operation, General Ján Golian might never have received military aid – albeit inadequate – for his insurgents. This aid, delivered to Banská Bystrica 80 years ago, came from the Americans despite Soviet opposition, as the USSR had already claimed the area east of Berlin as being within its sphere of influence.

The delivery of American rocket-propelled grenades and Marlin submachine guns to support the second largest anti-Nazi uprising of the war after the Warsaw Uprising was a crucial part of the Slovak National Uprising of 1944. According to declassified CIA documents, had the mission been successful, it could have drastically shortened the war in Europe.

“It would probably have changed the character of Eastern Europe after the war,” says a report compiled from analyses and secret American messages from the center of the uprising in Banská Bystrica.

What the hell is the Navy doing here?

Beyond the hills of the Zvolen Basin, the artillery of the Third Reich rumbled in the distance when, on an unusually clear day, two American B-17G heavy bombers – the famous Flying Fortresses – appeared over Tri Duby airfield. It was September 17, 1944.

The first man to disembark was Lieutenant Holt Green. He was the commander of a reconnaissance mission of the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA. He was wearing a naval uniform.