Mission Maple and Captain Charles Fisher

Abstract

The American captain Charles Fisher was the commander of the US Maple Mission, sent to join the Slovenian partisans in the 4th Operation Zone by the Office of Strategic Services - OSS. The task of this mission was to advance to Austria, organise a resistance there and keep sending the intelligence it collected to the base. Throughout its stay with the partisans, the movement of this mission was restricted. Furthermore, the partisans prevented it, in various ways, from proceeding north. Therefore in his reports Fisher was very critical and expressed many complaints about the partisan movement. Finally he managed to make his way to the Pohorje hills, while eight of his agents returned to base due to the emergency situation. On 26 December 1944 Fisher and the partisans fell into a German ambush in the Tuhinjska dolina valley, and Fisher was killed. His work was continued successfully by the surviving members of the mission, operating under the name Grady-Mansion group and supplying the base with intelligence from the field, which was very useful to the Allies. The OSS attempts to organise a resistance in Austria were completely unsuccessful. The partisans impeded any attempt of OSS missions and groups to infiltrate Austria as well as the possibility of a successful resistance against the Nazis being organised there.