Louise Power said:
>During the tour the guide told our group a story that during WWII, the Germans
>headquartered in the nearby castle and stored their ammunition in the entry
>way of the cave. The story further went that partisans came into the cave
>through another entrance and blew up the ammunition causing a fire which
>caused the limestone to heat and crack. He even pointed out what he purported
>to be said cracks.
>To date, I've never found verification of this story. Has anyone else been
>there and heard the story. Does anyone know whether or not it is true. If you
>have information on this, please let me know.
According to the book "Cave Guide to Slovenia, Vol. 1, The Classical
Karst Caves" by Ian Bishop (1997), p. 56:
"The entrance includes a piece of the history of the cave, the ceiling and
walls are heavily blackened as a result of a raid on 23rd April 1941 by members
of the sabotage group of the Vojko Brigade who destroyed a petrol dump
belonging to the occupying forces."
That's all it says. Nothing about explosives or rock being cracked.
However I'm sure the rock would have cracked under those circumstances. I have
seen surface limestone cracked and broken after a forest fire has passed
through in Mexico.
A similar account is given in "The Postojna Caves and other Tourist Caves
in Slovenia" by Francè Habe (1979), p. 35:
"The 1866 entrance partly introduces us to the past history of the caves. A
marble plaque has been erected at the beginning of the right-hand wall with the
following inscription: "Here, on the 23rd April 1944, the sabotage group of
the Vojko Brigade destroyed a petrol dump belonging to the occupying forces.""
Again there is no further discussion of the incident. The dates differ,
so I suspect one is a typo, but it is likely that it was gasoline rather than
explosives that were set off.
Mark Minton
