Bela pri Podkraju

On a marble, top-cut block, a plaque is attached, next to the block a machine gun is placed. The monument is dedicated to 8 soldiers of the Vipava Detachment, who fell in the clash at this place on 15 February 1943. The author is Anton Tratnik, it was unveiled on 22 July 1977.

EŠD 24087

JSNP 105 (here also literature about the monument)

»                                                                                                      202.5 That evening before the terrible morning, the boys celebrated in the inn in Vrhpolje … They are going to become partisans, to join the Slovenian army, and it seems as if they are being accompanied on this journey by joy … Joy mixed with fear and courage; it strikes you dumb and at the same time gives you the strength to perform extraordinary deeds. They spent the night above the Bela River, in a hollow on the Brežca, up towards the Višnje. Before they even woke up in the morning, they were already surrounded … Eight thousand, they say, Italians, from all the military units on the Vipava. In three long columns, they carefully moved from the Sanaborska side towards the sleeping partisans - along the road by the Bela River, along the hills on the right side of the valley and along the opposite slope between the valley and the Višnje. From the top they descended towards the camp and climbed from below. The lower ones felt the upper ones, replaced them with the partisans and attacked them with bombs. These in turn set fire to them. Both sides attacked the partisans in between. The shooting also came from the top on the other side of the valley. Seventy-eight dead Italians, and all the partisans. Except for Janez Petrovčič - Metnega from Bela. Early on, he left the village to join the partisans. In the Ruštava meadow, he found out that Italians were everywhere around. Where? 'On a tree,' he thought, and looked at three dark pines. 'Among the branches, they won't see me …' But just under that very tree, an Italian officer was going to the side! Janez moved towards him, but the cartridge in the old Austrian rifle did not ignite. The Italian turned around at the sound, jumped back and already shot back with his pistol. Slowly, from branch to branch, Janez fell from the tree … They dragged the still-living one to Bela. They tied his legs to a truck and dragged him to Podkraj. He was still alive … The fallen partisans were taken to be buried in Miren. Even today, they rest there, on the Italian side of the cemetery … (Tone Kobal - Jurčku) 202.4 It was a dry winter and we were grabbing leaves off the roof. All morning it rained, but we didn't know what it was. It just seemed strange - all the time, military trucks were going up and down, up and down. Blood was flowing onto the road from them … (Matija Ukmar - from Plavž)

Franc Černigoj, Znamenje na Gori, Ajdovščina: [self-published] Franc Černigoj, 1999, pp. 566–568.