Editing Evelyn Waugh (section)

=== Frustration, ''Brideshead'' and Yugoslavia ===

Waugh's elation at his transfer soon descended into disillusion as he failed to find opportunities for active service. The death of his father, on 26 June 1943, and the need to deal with family affairs prevented him from departing with his brigade for North Africa as part of [[Operation Husky]] (9 July – 17 August 1943), the Allied invasion of [[Sicily]].<ref>Hastings, pp. 445–446</ref> Despite his undoubted courage, his unmilitary and insubordinate character were rendering him effectively unemployable as a soldier.<ref>Sykes, pp. 229–230</ref> After spells of idleness at the regimental depot in [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]], Waugh began parachute training at [[Tatton Park]], Cheshire, but landed awkwardly during an exercise and fractured a [[fibula]]. Recovering at Windsor, he applied for three months' unpaid leave to write the novel that had been forming in his mind. His request was granted and, on 31 January 1944, he departed for [[Chagford]], Devon, where he could work in seclusion. The result was ''[[Brideshead Revisited|Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder]]'' (1945),<ref>Hastings, pp. 454–462</ref> the first of his explicitly Catholic novels of which the biographer [[Douglas Lane Patey]] commented that it was "the book that seemed to confirm his new sense of his writerly vocation".<ref>Patey, p. 296</ref>

Waugh managed to extend his leave until June 1944. Soon after his return to duty he was recruited by [[Randolph Churchill]] to serve in the [[Maclean Mission]] to [[Yugoslavia]], and, early in July, flew with Churchill from [[Bari]], Italy, to the Croatian island of [[Vis (island)|Vis]]. There, they met [[Josip Broz Tito|Marshal Tito]], the Communist leader of the [[Partisans (Yugoslavia)|Partisans]], who was leading the guerrilla fight against the occupying [[Axis powers|Axis]] forces with Allied support.<ref>Stannard, Vol. II pp. 113–114</ref> Waugh and Churchill returned to Bari before flying back to Yugoslavia to begin their mission, but their aeroplane crash-landed, both men were injured, and their mission was delayed for a month.<ref>Stannard, Vol. II pp. 116–121</ref>

The mission eventually arrived at [[Topusko]], where it established itself in a deserted farmhouse. The group's liaison duties, between the [[British Army]] and the Communist Partisans, were light. Waugh had little sympathy with the Communist-led Partisans and despised Tito. His chief interest became the welfare of the Catholic Church in Croatia, which, he believed, had suffered at the hands of the [[Serbian Orthodox Church]] and would fare worse when the Communists took control.<ref>Hastings, pp. 468–473</ref> He expressed those thoughts in a long report, "Church and State in Liberated Croatia". After spells in [[Dubrovnik]] and Rome, Waugh returned to London on 15 March 1945 to present his report, which the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]] suppressed to maintain good relations with Tito, now the leader of communist Yugoslavia.<ref>Hastings, pp. 485–491</ref>