Commander Stane: from a Farmhand to the Commander of the Headquarters of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Slovenia

November 7, 2024 marked the 80th anniversary of the tragic death of Franc Rozman Stane. France, as he was called at home, was born on March 27, 1911 at the Ljubljana maternity hospital, which was rather unusual for that time, particularly for families living away from urban centres, but there were probably indications of a difficult birth. His father Frančišek, known locally as »Mlakarjev« from Spodnje Pirniče, vowed to build a chapel in front of his house if his wife Marjana and the child survived the birth. He placed his wife on a cart and drove her to Ljubljana. Both, the mother and the baby survived, but the young France remained of delicate health for quite some time and had frail physique for the rest of his life.

France's father Frančišek Rozman never came back from the World War One; his mother remained alone with four children. She met Jožef Nanut, a refugee from Primorska region, became pregnant and moved to Italy with him without marrying. Her two daughters and the younger son Martin were placed in an orphanage, while France went to work as a farmhand and a shepherd and was helped out by a teacher, Alojzij Macarol, a refugee from Gorizia region. France's mother eventually returned and remarried after her first husband Frančišek Rozman was pronounced dead, but life was still hard. The initially appointed guardian of the children was not performing his duties, so he was replaced by Valentin Rožanc (shot as a hostage on October 13, 1942), who took an interest in helping France and Martin. In 1926, France left to work as an apprentice for the baker Lovro Cimperman in Ljubljana, where he stayed on as an assistant baker even after his apprenticeship had ended. During this time, he bought himself a bicycle so that he could visit his family, became passionate about cycling competitions, and was also known as a good dancer. He dreamt of emigrating to America, but then became keen on a military profession. However, he was soon disappointed as he was not accepted into the application process to attend the school for non-commissioned officers. He never found out the reason for the rejection of his application, but it was probably due to his frail physique, lack of formal education, or the quota of Slovenians was already reached. After completing his mandatory training during his military service, he was assigned as a military baker to a bakery in Petrovaradin. In autumn 1933, he returned home with a rank of a corporal. Since neither he nor his brother could get a job, they survived for a time by poaching. Then Franc rented Novljan bakery in Medvode, but things did not go as planned. 

In 1936, he obtained his passport with the intention of going to Ethiopia to help assist in the fight against the fascists, but the Italian authorities sent him back home. He then tried to move to France, probably just so that he could go to Spain. Franc Rozman Stane was one of the first Slovenian volunteers fighting in the Spanish Civil War. While attending school for non-commissioned officers there, he met Aleš Bebler, political commissioner of the school, which he graduated with honours. Even then, he proved himself to be a good tactician, quickly advancing to the rank of troops commander, and was known among his fellow fighters as someone who never used the phrase “I can’t”. When the Spanish government withdrew the international brigades from the front, Rozman was outraged. He completed the officers’ school and by the end of the war in January 1939 he had already reached the rank of captain. Until May 1941, he was moving around various camps in France, where he also served as a commander of Yugoslav camp barracks and began his political activism. Later, he was employed as a forced labourer near Leipzig, working as a baker. He was able to escape via Zagreb to Ljubljana at the start of August 1941, probably in the company of Dušan Kveder – Tomaž. Soon after he began sharing his military knowledge with the partisan units stationed around Ljubljana.

In October 1941, he left for Styria and in April 1942, he and Tomaž founded the 1st Styrian Brigade. Stane became its commander, Tomaž its political commissar, and Petrer Stante – Skala its deputy commander. Also in April 1942, the High Command of the Slovenian National Liberation Army carried out a reorganization of the army, dividing it into groups of detachments. Stane was appointed the commander of the 2nd group of detachments. Not believing that almost all of the fighters of the Pohorje Battalion were killed on January 8, 1943, he rushed to Styria, where all he could find were remains of bunkers. By then, he was already the commander of the 4^th Operation Zone of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Slovenia (referred to as NOV and POS) and he left for Carinthia.   

From Mežica, he came back to Styria. When his deputy commander Skala set off towards Kozjansko Detachment, the rest of the men spent the night in Dobravlje above Čreta. The guard must have fallen asleep, and the Germans surprised the sleeping men, killing Dušan Kraigher – Jug and Vera Šlander – Lojzka, the latter being the sister of the national hero Slavko Šlander as well as someone who Stane loved deeply. Stane himself was wounded in the attack. He had to continue his journey to White Carniola, because in July 1943 he was appointed the commander of the Headquarters of the NOV and the POS. 

He remained the commander of the Headquarters of the NOV and the POS up until the fatal November 7, 1944, when he succumbed to injuries sustained during the explosion of the light mortar in the village of Lokve north of Črnomelj. At the time, allies began using transport planes to send large amounts of material to White Carniola. If he could, Stane always made sure to participate in the organizing and storing of such material. And so it was also on November 6, when he stored two crates containing English-made mortars in his barrack. These were small mortars with a basic tube and a small baseplate, without any targeting equipment. The next day they decided to test the received mortar. Anton Dobrilovič – Tonček and Jožef Jug placed the weapon into a shallow trench and lowered the first mine into the barrel, Tonček acting as a gunner and Jug as his assistant. Stane gave the order to fire and Tonček triggered the weapon. The exercise was repeated once again. Since there was one more mine left in the crate, they decided to fire that one too. However, there was no shot; instead a powerful detonation was heard. Tonček and Jug were killed instantly. Stane clutched his stomach and collapsed, as did Jože Malnarič – Križevski. Also wounded were Lado Ambrožič – Novljan, Anton Žnidaršič – Štefan and Franc Tavčar – Rok. Commander Stane succumbed to his injuries later that same day, and Štefan died on December 18, 1944.

Was the death of commander Stane really an accident or was it perhaps a conspiracy that caused such harm to the national liberation movement? And who was behind it all? His fellow fighters, the allies, the Germans, or someone else? Sabotage, because the weapons were British? Rumours of such nature began to swirl immediately after the accident. It is likely that an unforeseen impact occurred during the transport of the mortars, triggering the first safety mechanism, although the packaging showed no external damage. Since later several similar incidents occurred, the Headquarters of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia banned the use of these mortars.

According to Ante Novak – Fric, the preparation of the funeral was one of the saddest tasks in his life. The funeral ceremony was held the following day in Črnomelj. Boris Kidrič bid farewell to commander Stane, a man short in stature but great in spirit, with these words: “The life of a nation was your life, the fight was your personal fight. You were connected to your units for life and death. You knew your units like no other commander did, and your subordinate commanders often had to learn from you. The units knew you were theirs, and that is precisely why your death comes as such a heavy blow to them all.”

Commander Stane was succeeded in his position by his Spanish Civil War comrade, Dušan Kveder – Tomaž.

Polona Trobec Mlakar