Eighty years ago Churchill and Tito back down when challenged

 

 Tito backed down in the first major confrontation between communist and democratic states. Yugoslav partisan forces had occupied the Italian port of Trieste where they conducted a reign of terror against Italian Fascists and non-communist Slovenes. None of the various agreements between Stalin and the US or UK had specified a post-war frontier and the Yugoslav leader Marshal Tito hoped to include Trieste in his country. The British, however, had major military forces with heavy weapons notably the 2nd New Zealand division. Tito agreed with General Alexander, the British commander, to withdraw his men. The Yugoslavs, though, were left with the territory of Trieste's hinterland east of the so-called Morgan Line, which still belongs to the Yugoslav successor state Slovenia.

A proposal to allow candidates serving in the armed forces to wear their uniforms while campaigning in Britain's general election provoked furious protest from Labour in Parliament. It would have been a significant change in policy and, more damningly, the idea smacked all too obviously of a "khaki election", which would supposedly favour the Conservatives. The Conservative party had tried to persuade many serving officers with distinguished war records to stand. In fact most Tory service candidates did not want to wear uniforms. Churchill backed down the day after the proposal had been published.

The reconquest of Borneo, which had been occupied by Japan since 1942, began in earnest with a major landing by the Australian army. The island of Tarakan off the Borneo coast had been taken as a staging post and air base. Some 30,000 men were commited to the attack, mainly one Australian division. They faced a garrison of perhaps 9,000. The operation was part of General MacArthur's campaign in the South Pacific, which was conducted separately to the main offensive against the Japanese home islands. It would also relieve the population of Borneo which had suffered badly under Japanese occupation.