15 AUGUST 1992, Page 25

Partisan pushovers

Sir: Noel Malcolm (Letters, 8 August) is absolutely correct to doubt Sir Fitzroy's claim and the Partisan myth that the Ger- mans used 20 divisions to check Tito and his hordes.

As a former German soldier serving with one of the low calibre' divisions in Yugoslavia in 1943, I can testify to the rela- tively poor performance of the Partisans.

They were certainly noisy and enthusias- tic, but badly trained and undisciplined. Their standards of fieldcraft and fire con- trol were low, and they performed badly under fire.

True, they were better than the French and Italians, but that is not much to go on.

Tito and his minions set themselves a low standard and failed to achieve it.

Manfred ICharmann

C/O The Oriental Club, London W1