Primožič Franc

Franc Primožič was born in 1924 in Pevma/Piuma (Gorizia). In the early 1930s he moved with his family to Kamnik, in northern Slovenia.
In 1942, following the Nazi-Fascist invasion of Yugoslavia and the annexation of northern Slovenia by Germany, he was conscripted into the German Army. After three months of training, he was sent to the Eastern Front, in present-day Ukraine. Upon arrival, he deserted together with several fellow soldiers and joined the Soviet partisans.
As a partisan, he spent two winters in the field, before eventually rejoining Soviet troops. He subsequently enlisted in the Red Army and, at the end of the summer of 1944, was admitted to a tank driver training course intended for personnel to be assigned to the Yugoslav People’s Liberation Army.
Upon completion of the course, Franc joined the newly formed 2nd Armoured Brigade of the Yugoslav Army, initially serving as a tank driver and later as a T-34 tank commander. With the 2nd Brigade, he took part in numerous combat operations and, in May 1945, reached Ljubljana and Trieste.
Retained in the Yugoslav Army as a tank driver instructor, he was demobilised only at the end of 1947. After returning to Kamnik, he met his future wife and married. Following the Tito–Stalin split of 1948, his past as a Soviet partisan caused him serious difficulties with Yugoslav security authorities. Despite this, he was recalled to service as a reservist during the Trieste crisis of 1953 and deployed near the Italian border.
In civilian life, he worked for a period in the textile industry and later as a driving instructor. A keen sportsman and mountaineer, he climbed several of the major Alpine peaks.