Partisan: The incredible true story of a New Zealand soldier behind enemy lines

James Caffin

HarperCollins

John Denvir has a remarkable war history that is shared in wonderful detail in Partisan. Denvir was thought to have been killed, by both the army and his family during the early stages of World War

II. In fact, Denvir had escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp in Yugoslavia and made his way to the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, where he joined a partisan band as a machine-gunner. Most of his war was spent behind enemy lines where he led brave and heroic attacks on German and Italian forces. He was wounded four times and received many medals and awards, among them the Soviet Medal for Valour. When he was released from his duties in 1944, Denvir spent some time in Egypt, after first having to convince the New Zealand Army that he was in fact not dead! He returned to Temuka and became a taxi driver. This book was originally published in 1945 and has been reprinted.