Stories about Serbs and Serbia in WW1

[proka89]

This year marks 100 years since the start of World War I, and because of that i decided to share some stories about my country in WW1. For Serbia WW1 is a time of greatest victories and heroism, but also a time of great suffering and losses. Serbia lost around 1 000 000 people, which represented 27% of total pre war population, and 60% of male population. For comparison France lost around 5% of total population and Germany around 4%.

The world talks about Serbian heroism in the WWI

No other country participating in the Great War paid as heavy a price for its freedom as Serbia did. The truth remains, censed with frankincense, watered with blood and tears, purified by faith in the rightness of sacrifice for the true goal ahead. The truth about a people for which casualties were historically most often a question of life, and death – a reflection of the faith in life.

This year will mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. The Kingdom of Serbia fought against Austro-Hungary and other Central Powers from 28 July 1914, when the Austro-Hungarian government declared war on it, to Austro-Hungary’s capitulation on 3 November 1918. In the first year of the war, Serbia defeated the Austro-Hungarian army in the Balkans. In the following year, its army faced the Triple Invasion. Unwilling to surrender, the Serbian army retreated through Albania. It was evacuated to Corfu, where it rested, armed itself, and reorganised. From there it was transported to the Salonika Front, where it achieved success as early as 1916. After a long period of calm, battles to breach the Front began in September of 1918. The Serbian army set out to breach the Salonika Front. On orders of commander Živojin Mišić: “With unswerving faith and hope, heroes, onwards to the fatherland” – militarily speaking, the army made a breakthrough of the Salonika Front and wrote one of the holiest and most brilliant pages of Serbian military history.

French marshal Franchet d’Espèrey wrote in a report on the breakthrough of the Front to his government: “Operations need to be slowed down as there is no communication to deliver food to advancing French troops; only Serbian troops need no communication, they move like a storm – forward.”

Robert Lansing, US Secretary of State, said on the same topic:
“When the history of this war is written down, its most glorious chapter will bear the title SERBIA.”

Serbia’s glory was recorded, but Serbia’s sacrifices were also immense. The price that Serbia paid for the great victory in the First World War was disproportionately heavy. During the war, it lost an estimated 1,100,000 to 1,300,000 inhabitants, making up nearly a third of its total population, or as much as 60% of the male population. To better understand the feat of the army which was small in numbers, but great in bravery, it may be best to see what others, its contemporaries, said about it:

German Emperor Wilhelm, imperialism and Serbia’s opponents personified in his time, said of the Serbian people: “It is a shame that this small nation is not my ally.”

The new Viennese Greie Presse, a newspaper that waged the most intensive campaign against Serbia, wrote about the Serbian people in 1918: “It will remain a puzzle how the remnants of the Serbian army which managed to escape Mackensen’s army, could later be made fit for battle. It is proof that the Serbian soldier is among the toughest warriors the global conflagration has seen.”

The Cologne newspaper from 1918 states in the article The Psychology of Retreat: “Few soldiers fought like the Serbian soldier did. He died where he had been ordered to stand his ground.”

Field marshal Mackensen: “I have an unusual admiration and love for people from Šumadija. You are a heroic nation, full of honour and pride; a nation with a great and brilliant future.”

Austrian general Alfred Krauss also held a high opinion of Serbs, which is why he didn’t hesitate to say: “I’d like to use this opportunity to note that we have come to know Serbs as worthy enemies. I considered them, and I consider them still, the strongest of our enemies in the military sense. Undemanding, clever, cunning, particularly mobile, well armed, abundantly supplied with ammunition, skilled at using the land, very well managed, stirred to battle by hate and enthusiasm, they inflicted much more difficulty to our troops than the Russians, Romanians and Italians did.”

Czech author Erwin Kisch, corporal of the Eleventh Regiment of the Ninth Austro-Hungarian Division and participant in the Battle of Kolubara, made an interesting statement: “It was only in Serbia in 1914 that I realised that the freedom of small nations is a force stronger than the violence of the great and powerful ones”, he wrote. “Only here did I understand Chateaubriand when he said that a relentless force – the will, overcomes everything, and that might’s weakness is that it only believes in might.”

A Japanese professor at the school of medicine in Tokyo, chief of the Japanese Red Cross mission in Paris during the First World War, said in his speech: “Until this war, we, the Japanese, enjoyed the reputation of being the soldiers with the strongest spirit of warriorship. This time, we have to admit that the Serbian soldier has taken this primacy from us. Don’t mind, dear Serbs, that we are also slightly jealous of that.”

The Norwegian colonel Carsten Angel, 1915: “We arrived with little respect for Serbian soldiers, and we return full of admiration. We’ve seen a calm, confident, patriotic people. We have found the best soldiers in the world – brave, obedient, sober, resilient, willing to sacrifice their lives for their country and national idea.”

French marshal Franchet d’Espèrey also expressed his excitement at the Serbian soldiers’ traits, which is why he asked, almost poetically: “Who are those heroes who can say that they have deserved one of the greatest accolades in the world? They are peasants, almost all of them, they are Serbs, thick-skinned, sober, modest, unbreakable, they are free people, proud of their race and masters of their fields.”

The great Golgotha of the First World War gave birth to an entire cluster of heroes. Prominent among them is Milunka Savic, as the most decorated female soldier of the Great War.

 

[alimobin memon]

Thats really nice

This year marks 100 years since the start of World War I, and because of that i decided to share some stories about my country in WW1. For Serbia WW1 is a time of greatest victories and heroism, but also a time of great suffering and losses. Serbia lost around 1 000 000 people, which represented 27% of total pre war population, and 60% of male population. For comparison France lost around 5% of total population and Germany around 4%.

The world talks about Serbian heroism in the WWI

No other country participating in the Great War paid as heavy a price for its freedom as Serbia did. The truth remains, censed with frankincense, watered with blood and tears, purified by faith in the rightness of sacrifice for the true goal ahead. The truth about a people for which casualties were historically most often a question of life, and death – a reflection of the faith in life.

This year will mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. The Kingdom of Serbia fought against Austro-Hungary and other Central Powers from 28 July 1914, when the Austro-Hungarian government declared war on it, to Austro-Hungary’s capitulation on 3 November 1918. In the first year of the war, Serbia defeated the Austro-Hungarian army in the Balkans. In the following year, its army faced the Triple Invasion. Unwilling to surrender, the Serbian army retreated through Albania. It was evacuated to Corfu, where it rested, armed itself, and reorganised. From there it was transported to the Salonika Front, where it achieved success as early as 1916. After a long period of calm, battles to breach the Front began in September of 1918. The Serbian army set out to breach the Salonika Front. On orders of commander Živojin Mišić: “With unswerving faith and hope, heroes, onwards to the fatherland” – militarily speaking, the army made a breakthrough of the Salonika Front and wrote one of the holiest and most brilliant pages of Serbian military history.

French marshal Franchet d’Espèrey wrote in a report on the breakthrough of the Front to his government: “Operations need to be slowed down as there is no communication to deliver food to advancing French troops; only Serbian troops need no communication, they move like a storm – forward.”

Robert Lansing, US Secretary of State, said on the same topic:
“When the history of this war is written down, its most glorious chapter will bear the title SERBIA.”

Serbia’s glory was recorded, but Serbia’s sacrifices were also immense. The price that Serbia paid for the great victory in the First World War was disproportionately heavy. During the war, it lost an estimated 1,100,000 to 1,300,000 inhabitants, making up nearly a third of its total population, or as much as 60% of the male population. To better understand the feat of the army which was small in numbers, but great in bravery, it may be best to see what others, its contemporaries, said about it:

German Emperor Wilhelm, imperialism and Serbia’s opponents personified in his time, said of the Serbian people: “It is a shame that this small nation is not my ally.”

The new Viennese Greie Presse, a newspaper that waged the most intensive campaign against Serbia, wrote about the Serbian people in 1918: “It will remain a puzzle how the remnants of the Serbian army which managed to escape Mackensen’s army, could later be made fit for battle. It is proof that the Serbian soldier is among the toughest warriors the global conflagration has seen.”

The Cologne newspaper from 1918 states in the article The Psychology of Retreat: “Few soldiers fought like the Serbian soldier did. He died where he had been ordered to stand his ground.”

Field marshal Mackensen: “I have an unusual admiration and love for people from Šumadija. You are a heroic nation, full of honour and pride; a nation with a great and brilliant future.”

Austrian general Alfred Krauss also held a high opinion of Serbs, which is why he didn’t hesitate to say: “I’d like to use this opportunity to note that we have come to know Serbs as worthy enemies. I considered them, and I consider them still, the strongest of our enemies in the military sense. Undemanding, clever, cunning, particularly mobile, well armed, abundantly supplied with ammunition, skilled at using the land, very well managed, stirred to battle by hate and enthusiasm, they inflicted much more difficulty to our troops than the Russians, Romanians and Italians did.”

Czech author Erwin Kisch, corporal of the Eleventh Regiment of the Ninth Austro-Hungarian Division and participant in the Battle of Kolubara, made an interesting statement: “It was only in Serbia in 1914 that I realised that the freedom of small nations is a force stronger than the violence of the great and powerful ones”, he wrote. “Only here did I understand Chateaubriand when he said that a relentless force – the will, overcomes everything, and that might’s weakness is that it only believes in might.”

A Japanese professor at the school of medicine in Tokyo, chief of the Japanese Red Cross mission in Paris during the First World War, said in his speech: “Until this war, we, the Japanese, enjoyed the reputation of being the soldiers with the strongest spirit of warriorship. This time, we have to admit that the Serbian soldier has taken this primacy from us. Don’t mind, dear Serbs, that we are also slightly jealous of that.”

The Norwegian colonel Carsten Angel, 1915: “We arrived with little respect for Serbian soldiers, and we return full of admiration. We’ve seen a calm, confident, patriotic people. We have found the best soldiers in the world – brave, obedient, sober, resilient, willing to sacrifice their lives for their country and national idea.”

French marshal Franchet d’Espèrey also expressed his excitement at the Serbian soldiers’ traits, which is why he asked, almost poetically: “Who are those heroes who can say that they have deserved one of the greatest accolades in the world? They are peasants, almost all of them, they are Serbs, thick-skinned, sober, modest, unbreakable, they are free people, proud of their race and masters of their fields.”

The great Golgotha of the First World War gave birth to an entire cluster of heroes. Prominent among them is Milunka Savic, as the most decorated female soldier of the Great War.

Thats really nice information about Serbians during ww1. They truly are the most strong willed soldiers.

 

[proka89]

Defending Belgrade until the dying breath

Austro-Hungarian and German armies had been ruthlessly bombarding Belgrade for over a year, but all of their attempts to cross the rivers Sava and Danube were contested for three full days by the heroic Serbian army units. The city ultimately fell, but the ferocious resistance of its defenders earned it the distinction of being one of the five cities awarded with the Legion of Honor.

Major Dragutin Gavrilović

During the first year of the Great War, Belgrade was bombarded from across the Sava and Danube rivers with countless shells. The city was annihilated, casualties were immense, while the survivors hid in shelters or fled abroad. Many had wholeheartedly helped the army. The city resisted the attacks despite the great efforts of the enemy to cross the Belgrade rivers and conquer the Serbian capital.

In September of 1915, the enemy started to intensify its attacks which culminated on the 5th of October. Belgrade was bombarded throughout the day and night. According to some estimates, 30,000 shells were fired on Belgrade that day. Even that didn’t stop the valiant defenders from protecting their city until their last, dying breath.

The first line of defense consisted of the members of the 10th and 7th Regiment, and the remnants of the Srem and Gendarmerie Regiments. They had only one objective: to fight for Belgrade until death!

Belgrade’s defenders achieved this objective and forever engraved their names in the Serbian history books. Among all the brave soldiers, the ones that were most talked about were the Danube quay heroes, who were nearly all killed during the three days of defending the Belgrade. The White City turned to crimson.

On the day of the decisive battle, they received the Communion in the Ružica church (Little Rose church) in the Kalemegdan Fortress, and then they scattered around Dorćol and the Danube quay, readily waiting for the enemy. They sang to chase away the fear of certain death to which they were led by the speech of their commanding officer Major Gavrilović, who wanted to inspire them and lift their spirits before the upcoming battle.

“Soldiers, exactly at three o’clock, the enemy is to be crushed by your fierce charge, destroyed by your grenades and bayonets. The honor of Belgrade, our capital, must not be stained.

Soldiers! Heroes! The supreme command has erased our regiment from its records. Our regiment has been sacrificed for the honor of Belgrade and the motherland. Therefore, you no longer need to worry about your lives: they no longer exist. So, forward to glory! For King and country! Long live the King, Long live Belgrade!”

The unconventional church Ružica

Church Ružica, in which the defenders of Belgrade received their last communion, is listed as one of the most unusual churches in the world. The main reason why, among many others, lies in its horos, made of firearm parts, gun and bayonet bullets used in the Great War as well as Serbian officers’ sabers of that time.

Almost all members of major Gavrilović’s regiment were killed, whereas he himself was gravely wounded. The enemies were more powerful and prevailed quickly, pushing the defenders across Ada Ciganlija and Banovobrdo, who were retreating towards Zvezdara, while the defenders of the Danube quay were pushed out to Dušanova and Vasinastreet, and then to Avala, which was also conquered in the end. In that moment Bulgaria attacked Serbia, so Moravian Division was transferred to Belgrade on that front. The enemy was more powerful and larger in numbers, and despite the heroic efforts of its defenders, Belgrade had fallen, and soon the Austro-Hungarian and German flags were raised on and on the Stari Dvor’s palace in the Knez Milan street.

The graves of “the fairy tale army”

When the Dorćol’s underpass was being built in the 1934 in Tadeuša Košćuška street (which leads to the Danube quay), the remains of defenders who had given their lives for the city two decates earlier were accidentally discovered. The first to be exhumed were 25 skeletons from Gavrilović’s regiment, and then 28 more. The remains of Belgrade’s valiant heroes were buried in the Memorial Ossuary in military graveyards, in the Alley of National Heroes located on the Novo groblje in Belgrade. Many defenders of Belgrade found their resting place in an ossuary located in the wall underneath the Jakšić’s tower on Kalemegdan.

General Mackensen, who was a commander of the enemy troops, had written in his memoirs about the Serbian soldiers who were defending the Belgrade in October,:

“We fought against an army that we have heard about only in fairy tales, who defended themselves with virtually unprecedented courage. The moment we conquered Serbia hurt us more than her allies.”

For the outstanding bravery of its defenders, marshal Franchet d’Espèrey awarded the Legion of Honor to the Serbian capital, an accolade bestowed to only five cities in the whole, only two of those cities not being French.

Monuments

The memorial to Belgrade’s defenders engraved with the words of Major Gavrilović’s speechwas erected on the Danube quay in 1988. The exact spot where the major held this famous speech on the 7th of October 1915, on the corner of Cara Uroša and Mike Alasa street in Belgrade, a memorial plaque was placed in 1995. It was subsequently destroyed, but was rebuilt on October the 7th 2013.

 

[proka89]

Hardened field marshal honours the defenders of Belgrade

„You are not going to the Italian, or Russian, or the French front. You are going into a fight against a new enemy who is dangerous, tough, brave and sharp. You are going to the Serbian front, to Serbia, and Serbs are the people who love their freedom and who are willing to fight for it to their last. Do your best so this minuscule enemy does not overshadow your glory and compromise the success you’ve achieved so far in the glorious German army“. This is the speech that field marshal August von Mackensen held before departing for the Serbian front in autumn of 1915.

August von Mackensen, who got highest military decoration – Order of The Black Eagle in battles against Russians at the beginning of WWI, was great German military leader as well as great man. Although he fought against them, he appreciated Serbian people citing their love for freedom, and because he honored fallen defenders of Belgrade, he was remembered as a shining example in the history of warfare.

In late years of his life, at the age of sixty-five, von Mackensen was granted the task of invading Serbia in 1915. He already led wars against the Slavs before and he knew what kind of opposition he would encounter. The army he led was composed of German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian units. A year ago, Belgrade was regained back by Serbs, and the city defense was now synchronized and experienced. Commander of the Belgrade city defense forces at that time was general Mihailo Živković.

The fiercest attacks were over the Ada Ciganlija and Danube coasts. Intense day-and-night bombardment of Belgrade paved the way for the entry of von Mackensen’s army. More than 100.000 projectiles hit the Serbian capital, turning it into „atrium to hell“. Belgrade was the main target of Austro-Hungarian campaign.

One Serbian soldier was attacked by four enemy soldiers, and for every Serbian cannon, Austro-Hungarians and Germans had nine. Part of city defence forces stationed themselves along the improvised barricades on the streets, and the other part was returning fire from the basement windows. Great deal of soldiers died beneath the ruins. Every time Austro-Hungarian army was held at the barricades, fierce artillery fire followed, all the way to the center of Belgrade. Women were fighting along men in the defending lines. Despite all the resistance, von Mackensen’s units outnumbered and outgunned the Serbs.

„Killed cattle lies on the streets. Nobody removes their remains because city is under constant fire. Nobody even dares to take their dead to the graveyard. People bury them in their backyards, in their meadows… Life is unbearable, and people are leaving city for the south. However, the escape is risky, too. Today, at 10 o’clock in the morning, a family with children and their things was blown to pieces”, wrote Bogosav Vojnović Pelikan (september 1915.) He was one of the 1.300 Corporals.

After many unsuccessful counter-attacks, Serbian Supreme Command realised on october 11th that the battle for capital has been lost. Belgrade defense forces retreated in the night of october 13th to Avala line, but enemy seized this positions the night after. So, the Serbian capital officialy fell.

Unity, courage, and patriotism of the fighters who fell during the defence of Belgrade inspired von Mackensen. He erected a monument to honour them in Topcider. That was a rare historic example of the victor who honoured his enemy’s army in such a maner. It was written on the monument, in both Serbian and German: „Serbian heroes rest here“.

Who was field marchal von Mackensen?

August von Mackensen was born in 1849 in Leipzig, Saxonia. Although his father hoped that August would follow his footsteps and make living out of agriculture, this never happened and young August joined the army voluntarily after he graduated from Realgymnasium in Halle. He tried to go back to college, but the military life dragged him away. August got promoted fast. Because of his abilities, in 1873 he became tutor to future Kaiser, Wilhelm II, heir to the throne of Germany. He dwelled in the highest social circles in the country, among the rulers and generals. At the same time, he was favourited in the army because he wasn’t ashamed of his everyman roots. Even as a general, he used to wear the uniform of the 1st Life Hussars Regiment.

 

[faisal6309]

Nice info..

 

[proka89]

Milunka Savić, the most awarded female combatant in the history of warfare

She hid her chest pretending to be a man so she could fight a valiant battle for her country, her Serbia, and then, in the years to come, she gilded that same heroic chest with the Legion of Honor medals, the Karađorđe star with swords, and was the only woman in the whole world that was awarded with Croix de Guerre with the gold palm attribute. Milunka Savić is the great Serbian heroine of the WWI and the most decorated female combatant in the history of warfare.

Wars were raging, one after another in the beginning of the 20th Century, when one brave girl from village Koprivnica near Raška, traded her female garments for a Serbian combatant uniform and cut her long locks. Covering her bosoms, she valiantly fought in the Balkan wars and WWI under the name of Milun Savić.

Charles de Gaulle’s friend

From all the comrades from Serbia, French president de Gaulle invited only Milunka Savić to his inauguration. French government offered her to live in France and receive the French pension and an apartment, as a knight of the Legion of Honor, which she refused since she didn’t want to leave Serbia.

She was wounded four times, but for her it was the hardest when she was wounded in the Second Balkan war when her sex was discovered. Later on, she was always saying how the gunshot wound to the chest was the young Milun’s greatest nightmare. “But, just as is my luck, the bullet went right into my chest”, used to say the Serbian heroine for years after the event.

But that’s why she entered into the Great War as the female combatant, asking for a riffle from the Duke Radomir Putnik himself. Even though he advised her to be a nurse and told her that it would be such a waste for her to die so young.“Duke, I want a riffle!” , unwaveringly demanded the comely girl who stopped at nothing to become a member of the famous “Iron Regiment”, the most elite second infantry regiment of the Serbian army “Knjaz Mihailo”.

Medals

For her military services, Milunka Savić was awarded with twelve Serbian and ally medals for bravery. The greatest medals awarded to her were for the valiance in the WWI.

The whole Toplica Regiment loved Milunka and admired her bravery. After the Battle for Kolubara, commander Dimitrije Milić posed a question: “Who deserves the Karađorđe star with swords?”, which was answered by the whole Regiment unanimously: “Milunka Savić!”

The end of the Great War awards her with the most of her Ally medals. The commander of Allied troops, the French general Maurice Sarrail awarded her with the French Legion of Honor medal, and the general Louis Franchet d’Esperey awarded her with the French Croix de Guerre with the gold palm attribute for services in the World War I, the only medal awarded to a woman in the whole world.

In her collection of medals, Milunka has another Karađorđe star with swords, another Legion of Honor, golden and silver medals for bravery „Miloš Obilić“, Albanian Retreat medal, 1913 War medal, Russian Cross of St. George, British medal of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael, and many

The street of Milunka Savić

Her numerous adventures were borderline incredible. She had an outstanding gut feeling and knew to sense a perfect moment to launch an attack or hit enemy lines with her highly precise bomb throwing skills. Stories were told about the surprises on enemy faces upon understanding that one woman captured, disarmed and led them to the regiment’s headquarters. In one action in the Macedonian front she captured forty three and in the other sixty Bulgarian soldiers.

Fierce and fearless warrior who charged towards enemy lines without faintest regard for her own life was wounded in those attempts several times, of which the most dangerous time of them all was in the autumn of 1915 in Macedonia. With severe head wounds she retreated through Albania, and though she looked like a ghost herself, weak and famished, she never let the regiment’s spirit to waver and falter. After few months of reconvalescence, she returned to the Macedonian front without further ado, and continued fighting as the commander of the attack squad.

Life after the war: from hero to zero

After the Great War ended, Milunka got her first military service as a sergeant of the Serbian army. Those years also brought her the love with a banker Veljko Gligorević, whom she later married. She gave birth to a girl and raised her together with three of her adopted children, while she also helped thirty two others to finish school.

Milunka’s spouse Veljko got the job in Belgrade, but soon after, he neglected his family and later on he died. Milunka got the job as a cleaning lady in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later in Mortgage Bank where she spent the remainder of her employment.

During the WWII she organized an infirmary where she gave first aid to Partisans and Chetniks. That is the reason why the Police beat her bloody in front of her own children and then took her to the concentration camp located on Banjica, where she was supposed to be shot to death. When after ten months a German general and camp commander found out who she was, he released Milunka with all the military honors.

The grave of Milunka Savić in Alley of the Greats in Belgrade

She died in the October of 1973, and was buried in a family mausoleum up to 2013. Then after 40 years, her remains were brought to the Alley of the Greats, where all Serbian distinguished citizens and war heroes are buried and where Milunka had always belonged.

 

[proka89]

Archibald Reiss, “a friend of Serbs in the toughest days”

Archibald Reiss, a professor at the University of Lausanne and Swiss criminologist arrived in Serbia at the beginning of the World War I in order to investigate the crimes committed by Austro-Hungarian army, and remained in it until his death. He is remembered as one of the greatest friends of Serbs with whom he passed the worst and the most glorious days of the Great War.

The son of the German landowner Reiss, a young doctor, chemist, professor at the University of Lausanne, famous criminologist, Archibald Reiss, accepted the invitation of the Serbian royal government to investigate the crimes committed by Austro-Hungarian army in Serbia, at the beginning of the Great War.

The house of Archibald Reiss in Topčider

Even though, this was the reason he was not popular in his homeland, he sent to the world pictures of the Serbs at the beginning of the war. He loved Serbian peasant and he wanted to join Serbian army as a volunteer and be part of it in difficult moments. Those definitely were the days when army was crossing Albany, in which he participated as a faithful comrade with the soldiers of Morava Division and in the breakthrough on the Salonika Front.

At the end of the 1918 he was not working as a professor at the University of Lausanne anymore, and he changed this position for Belgrade and a modest house in Topcider, which he called Good Field, in memory of the place in Macedonia, where one of the decisive battles on the Salonika Front was fought in 1918.

Reiss got the land in Topčider, as a sign of national gratitude, and the house was built like majority of traditional Serbian houses in villages: simple, with ground floor and with only four rooms. However, there was something very special about that ordinary house: a porch with three arches on two wooden pillars painted with colors of the Serbian national flag. The interior of the house matched Reiss visions of the Serbian village, his spirit and mentality.

His whole living space was filled with a country he loved so much, so it can be said that Reiss chose to be a Serb.

“Your people are patriotic. I do not know a nation in which legendary national heroes live so long in national soul like it is a case with you. Your people are democratic, and truly democratic, but not in the way the politicians are. Among your people, a man is valued for being a man, a not for his suits and titles. The people are proud, but not mean. Finally, you are smart people, one of the brightest I have ever seen in my life”.

Monument in Topčider

As a sign of gratitude to war comrade and friend, The Association of Reserve Officers and Warriors raised a monument to Archibald Reiss in August in 1931. The monument is the work of a sculptor, Marko Brežanin. On the 80th anniversary of the death of Archibald Reiss, experts from the Institute for Protection of Monuments of Belgrade, restored the monument.

He was a member of delegation in Yugoslav government at the Peace Conference in Paris, engaged in the Ministry of Interior business,
but he soon had a conflict with Nikola Pašić
. As he did not want to work with people he did not respect, doctor Reiss decided to withdraw from the public life.

In the peace of his home in Topčider, he wrote sort of a political testament “Listen, Serbs“, in which he observed the strenghts and weaknesses of Serbian people, and clearly made a difference between the common people, to whom he remain loyal until his death, and officials, which he considered to be thieves.

Rough words of one such official, former minister Kapetanović, a war profiteer who was abroad during the war, sick and weakened heart of Archibal Reiss could not bear. After one argument with him, Reiss suddenly died.

He was buried in Topčider, but his heart was buried separately in Kajmakčalan, to rest there with his comrades. Not having forgotten how he descibed their documented war crimes, Bulgarians, according to historical records, stole his heart from Kajmakčlan in the World War II.

Serbs owed doctor Reiss that beside a monument and the street named after him in Čukarička Padina (Čukarička Slope), rearrange his dilapidated house in Topčider and turn it into a museum. They owed him an eternal memory and mentioning.

While, on the other hand, this “Swiss volunteer in Serbian army, a friend of magnificent warriors of Šumadija, Danube, Morava, Timok and Vardar“, besides from his heart and life, left Serbian people with the advice for years to come: ”Listen, Serbs! Watch out from yourselves!“

Mountain in Canada dedicated to Duke Putnik

When the WWI ended, a mountain in Canada was named Putnik, after the Serbian Duke RadomirPutnik. Canadians wanted to pay tribute to the allied Serbian fighters who suffered great losses in the WWI and under Putnik’s command inflicted the first defeat on the Central Powers.

Faraway in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, in the Kananaskis mountain range, among the few mountains with names that are hard to remember, there is one name that rings a bell with every citizen of Serbia. Putnik. It was named, neither more nor less but after the Serbian Duke, Radomir Putnik.

Canadians named it that in 1918, after the horrible war that raged onaround the world for whole four years and in which Serbians were allies. In appreciation of the sacrifices of Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian army who in the Battle of Cer inflicted the first defeat on Central Powers in the WWI, they dedicated a piece of their land to him.

The Duke knew how to win against overwhelmingly strong enemy, but when he was losing, he was losing in a way that left the honor of Serbia intact. After the Tripartite invasion of Central Powers on Serbia, at the end of 1915, instead of humiliating separate peace, he ordered a retreat of Serbian army towards Kosovo and Albanian seaside across the Albanian mountains. This event is known as Serbian army’s retreat through Albania, or “Albanian golgotha”, for numerous losses that the Serbian army suffered. It is estimated that from the beginning of the retreat 72,000 lives were lost.

Rare honesty

Radomir Putnik engraved his name in the pages of Serbian history by defeating the Ottoman army in the valley of Vardar, which happened after the Battle of Kumanovo (23rd and 24th of October, 1912) during the First Balkan War. That’s when general Putnik became the first Serbian Duke.However, according to the Duke Putnik’s wishes, his salary remained the same as the second lieutenant’s – three dinars a day.

A hundred years after the WWI ended, Ravna Gora Serbian Heritage Society from Calgary, the biggest city of Canadian province Alberta (to which mountain Putnik belongs) and the group of people from Edmonton, immortalized the Putnik mountain by unveiling and consecrating the memorial plaque on which are carved the following words in English:

“Mount Putnik is named in perpetual remembrance of the men and women of the allied armed forces in Serbia and their leader Field Marshal Radomir Putnik (1847-1917). Serbia lost a quarter of its population, both army and civilian,during WWI (1914-1918). This sacrifice was part of Canadian and Allied efforts in Europe against three empires to protect the rights and freedoms of human kind.”

Mountain range Kananaskis is an extremely popular tourist attraction of Canada. Ergo, Canadian Serbs are very proud to have something “of their own” on this side of the globe. Even though they are thousands of miles away, Serbians residing in Serbia may never see the mount Putnik, but they are still extremely proud as well.

 

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The Kajmakčalan Watchtower

After eighteen days of heavy and indecisive fighting at Kajmakčalan, the Serbian army was able to open the “Gate of Freedom” and return triumphantly to its homeland. Traveling by bullock carts, on poor roads and in bad weather, the soldiers brought not only pride and freedom, but also a memory of the great victory at Kajmakčalan that enabled them to return to their homes.

One of Belgrade’s most unusual monuments – an observation post located in the Pionirski Park, was made of stones from Kajmakčalan mountain. This monument represents a memory of the great victory in World War I, which the Serbian army achieved fighting against Bulgarians on the Kajmakčalan mountain. To save the memory of this victory for good, Serbian High Command decided to take the stones from the peak of Sveti Ilija (2,524 meters high) back to homeland.

At the very heart of Belgrade , in what was once a garden of the Old Palace, and where the young Princes Alexander, Tomislav and Andrej played war games, the reconstructed watchtower stands as a reminder of all the sufferings and sacrifices made by Serba in the Great War. In order to prevent the great men – who fought bravely for their homeland – from falling into oblivion, the memorial plaques with the names of all Serbian generals who took part in World War I were put on the watchtower.

Covered with vines and rocks, the stone tower was made to resemble the original observation post that was of great importance to Serbian soldiers in the battle (particularly remembered for the large number of deaths suffered by the Serbian army, and for the altitude at which it was fought). Brass memorial plaques with engraved names of the generals who bravely fought in the Great War represent the central part of this extraordinary monument.

Until 1944, the Pionirski Park was surrounded by a high wall and served as a garden of the Old Palace; but, after removal of the wall, the park was turned over to public use, when the reconstruction of the Kajmakčalan watchtower began. In addition to the watchtower that makes this park so special and interesting both for tourists and residents of the capital, many rare and endangered plant species contribute to its beauty and importance.

A statue of the famous Serbian sculptor and painter Nadežda Petrović and a monument to our only Nobel Prize winner for literature, Ivo Andrić, are part of the cultural richness of this botanical park (as many call it). The abundance of greenery, rare trees and plants, lots of resting benches and walking paths, make this park a favorite place for sightseeing, stroll and relaxation.

Courage, love and desire to return to their homeland, gave Serbian soldiers strength to conquer the “impregnable city”. Their endeavor and dedication was eternalized in a modest way – by erecting the watchtower in the Pionirski Park and a small memorial church at the top of Kajmakčalan, where the skulls of dead Serbian soldiers are kept. “To my fearless and faithful giant-heroes, who chested out to open the doors to freedom, and stayed here as guards at the threshold of the fatherland”, a tribute of Aleksandar Karađorđević on the memorial chapel.

St. Peter’s Church, Kajmakčalan

Battle of Kajmakčalan

The battle of Kajmakčalan was fought between the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Bulgaria on the Salonika front, in World War I. Various names for Kajmakčalan tell us about its significance: the Bulgarians called it the City of Boris, because they thought it couldn’t be captured, whereas the Serbs called it the Freedom Gate, because they stepped into their country at that very point, for the first time after many months. The battle was fought between the 12th and 13th of September 1916.

KAJMAKČALAN

Halt, Traveler! Here they lie!
The ashes of kings are hidden among these piles,
Worship them hat in hand,
One by one, buss them all!
Out of these barrows, a dirk from heap,
Where the trumpet of conscience aligned sinewy hearts,
Festivals of glory have shone to us
And removed the martyrs from the cross.
The eternals reside here, with flaming sacrifice
and heart pulse they woke the dead
Serb, halt! Here they lie!
These are our Lavras and altars;
Let their bright glow beam you,
And lower your forehead with prayer!

Aleksa Šantić

The Battle of Cer: The First Allied Victory in the Great War

Unfavorable strategic position, exhaustion from the Balkan Wars and a painful shortage of ammunition, did not prevent the Serbian army to achieve one of the most famous victories in World War I, the victory in the Battle of Cer. Love for the motherland, unity and courage of the Serbian soldiers, and a brilliant strategic plan of General Stepa Stepanović, made possible for to the Kingdom of Serbia to shift from strategic defense to counter-offensive, and achieve a victory that will amaze the entire world.

Firing cannon shots on Belgrade,on the night of July 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarians started their first offensive against Serbia. That night, Belgrade inadvertently became the first European city that was bombed in the twentieth century. For the next eight days Belgrade was sleepless, for the bullets, screams and fear were tearing the air. It turns out that this was only the beginning.

The first offensive of the Austro-Hungarian army in a wide area of western Serbia lasted until August 24. Austria has concetrated the bulk of their forcesat the Drinariver, where the landing and strike operations started on August 12. From that moment on, the Battle of Cer was preceded by four days of fierce fighting in the Podrinje region.

Knowing that the Austro-Hungarianswere numerous and better armed, the Serbian army was mostly positioned in the interior of the country, waiting for the enemy to make move, so that units could be easily dispatched to the required fighting ground. Supreme Command of the Serbian army wanted to “buy” more time to shift stronger Serbian forces to the battleground.

The 3rd Army had a task of distracting the enemy. Even though it was the army with the least number of soldiers, the enemymanaged to cross Drina only after four days of fierce and bloody fighting. And while the Austro-Hungarian army was nearing, General Stepa Stepanović began regrouping the Serbian army.

Recognizing the importance of Cer for performing the entire action, General Stepanović ordered the Combined Division to seize the peak of Kosanin grad in the night between the 15th and 16th of August. But there was another surprise for the Serbian army. Parts of the 21st Austro-Hungariandivision were already there. In a dark and stormy night, face to face with the Austro-Hungarian soldiers, the battle of Cer was about to begin.

Many of those taken aback soldiers were at rest and quite surprised by this visit of the Serbian army, and it was not difficult for the Serbs to takeover the territory. However, with successive arrival of the armies on both sides, this encounterquickly evolved into an angry and bitter struggle. In the heat of the night-battle at Tekeriš, one of the most celebrated victories of the Serbian army took place, and by morning the Austro-Hungarian Army was forced to retreat.

Duke Stepa Stepanović

About 180,000 Serbian and around 200,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers fought in the Battle of Cer. Supreme Commander of Serbian forces was Crown Prince Aleksandar, Chief of the General Staff was, Field Marshal Radomir Putnik, General Stepa Stepanović commanded the 2nd Army, and Pavel Jurišić Šturm commanded the 3rd Army. The Austro-Hungarian forces were headed by General Oskar Potiorek and General Liborius Ritter von Frank. It is estimated that Austria-Hungary lost from 6000-10000 soldiers,about 30,000 were wounded, and 4,500 soldiers were captured. Serbia had 3000-5000 killed and 15,000 wounded soldiers.

Peace did not last long. The following day, on the 16th of August, the battle to win Cer flared fiercely. In a clash between the left column of the Serbian Cavalry Division and the left column of the Austro-Hungarian 21st Division on the northern slopes of Cer, this spearhead enemy unit was completely broken and incapacitated for further combat.

Meanwhile, the Cavalry Division and the First Call Division of Šumadija, managed to sucessfully prevent the merging of the 2nd and 5th Austro-Hungarian Armies (at the moment when this connection was of utmost importance for rescuing the 21st Division on Cer) by using very hard maneuvers in the region of Šabac and Mačva. In the valley of Jadar, the Serbian 3rd Army was resisting attacks of the enemy with varying success, preventing its penetration to Valjevo.

During the 17thand 18th of August, a day-and-night battle between the Serbian Cer Spearhead Unit and Austro-Hungarian 9th Division continued. On August 19, the Serbian army has finally broken the resistance of the 5th Army’s left wing and mastered the ridge of Cer, while the enemy division was compelled to retreat. Only thing the Austro-Hungarian army could do that day, and the following day, is to retreat across the Drina river.

General Pavle Jurišoć Šturm

In the final battles from 21st to 24th of August, the city of Šabac was liberated and the remaining Austro-Hungarian soldiers were expelled from Serbia; the Cer operation thus ended as a complete failure of the Austro-Hungarian army.

Being victorious in the Battle of Cer, the Serbian army demonstrated not only skill and experience, but immense courage and sacrifice for the homeland as well. The first Allied victory against the Central Powers in the Great War strengthened the morale of our military and allies, raised the reputation of the country and gave it strength for the upcoming ordeals.

In a report on defeat of the Austro-Hungarian army, an Austrian journalist Ervin Kish wrote: ” The army has been defeated and has found itself in a wild, reckless and panicky run. A defeated army – No! –abroken mob, rushing in a mindless terror towards the border ( … ) Those Serbs, they’re great guys, they know how to defend their country.”

 

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Ode to a Blue Sea Tomb

Vido is an island of the Ionian island group of Greece. It is a small island (less than kilometer in diameter) at the mouth of Corfu city port.

During the First World War, the Corfu island served as a island hospital and quarantine for the sick Serbian soldiers following the epic retreat of the Serbian army and part of the civilian population through Montenegro and Albania in 1915 following the Austro-German-Bulgarian invasion of Serbia. While the main camps of the recuperating army were on the Corfu itself (a contingent was sent to Bizerte as well, and many of the civilian refugees were accepted by France), the sick and near-dying, mostly soldiers were treated on Vido to prevent epidemics. In spite of Allied material help, the conditions of both the improvised medical facilities and many of the patients on the island resulted in high fatality rate. Due to small area of the island and it's rocky soil it soon became a necessity to bury the dead in the sea (by binding rocks to the corpses to prevent flotation). More than 5000 people were buried at sea near the island of Vido.

The waters around Vido island are known by the Serbian people as the Ode to a Blue Sea Tomb (in Serbian, Plava Grobnica), after a poem written by Milutin Bojić during World War I.

Serbian WWI soldiers mausoleum

Hail to you, imperial galleys! Restrain your mighty rudders!

Stroke your oars silently!

I'm proudly officiating a sublime Requiem in the chill 
of the night 

Upon these sacred waters.

Here at the bottom, where seashells tire in sleep

And upon the dead algae peat falls,

Stretch the graves of the brave, couched brother
beside brother,
 Prometheuses of Hope, Apostles of Pain.

Don't you feel the wafting sea,

That it may not trouble their holy repose?

From the deep abyss peaceful slumber ebbs,

And in tiring flight the moonlight slowly passes.

This is a mysterious temple and a sad graveyard

With decaying carcasses, unfathomably real.

Silent like the night on the tip of the Ionian Sea 

Dark as a conscience, cold and despairing.

Don't you feel from your most depressing moods

 That piety grows over this benediction

And the air fills with curious gentleness?

That great soul of the fallen roams

Hail to you, imperial galleys! Upon this tomb 
my dear kindred ones 

Veil the trumpets in mourning black.

Let your sentry, upright, chant the holy dirge 

Here, where waves come to an embrace!

For the centuries will pass as the white foam 

vanishes upon the sea without a trace,

And a new and great age will come in its place,

 To create a splendid home upon this grave.

But these waters, in which was shrouded

the terrible mystery of the Epic,

these waters will be a cradle in Time of legends revealed,

Where the soul will seek out its Destiny.

Buried are here once ancient garlands

And the passing joy of more than one generation,

That's why this cemetery lies in the shadow of waves

Between the bosom of the sea and the vault celestial.

Hail to you, imperial galleys! Extinguish the torches,

Let the oars come to a blustering rest,
And when the Requiem prayers are said, steal away 
into the dark night

inaudibly and with reverential awe.

I wish for the eternal silence to rule

and for the glorious dead to hear the noise of Battles,

 And rejoice in our cries of victory, as we cast ourselves beneath 

the wings of Glory upon the fields vermillion with blood.

For, there far away, battles sway 

With the same blood that emanates from this resting-place:

Here above the eye of the resting lords,

There before the son's history is made.

That's why I seek peace, to officiate a Requiem

without words, without tears and quiet sighs,

Mingle with the odor of powder, the perfume of incense

 As we hear resound the far noise of the cannon.

Hail to you, imperial galleys! In the name 
of a conscientious fast
Glide lightly upon these sacred waters.

A Requiem I'm officiating, one that heavens

have yet to see upon these sacred waters!

Milutin Bojić

 

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The Iron Regiment

During the liberation wars 1912-1918 (First and Second Balkan war and WW1), Serbia has mobilized around 100 infantry, cavalry and artillery regiments. All these military units boldly and courageously, at great cost, fulfilled their patriotic duty to the fatherland.

However only one regiment received the honorary title of "The Iron Regiment", awarded to them in regard of the legendary courage they have shown in the battles. It was the second Infantry Regiment "Knjaz Mihajlo". It was formed from the conscripts 21 to 31 years old (drafted from the regions of Toplica, Jablanica and Zaplanje), who participated in all the wars that Serbian army fought since September in 1912 until the middle of December in 1918.

What should be pointed out, especially when it comes to the Iron Regiment during the First Balkan, Second Balkan War and World War I, is that 16 000 fighters participated in the battle actions of this regiment. Iron Regiment participated in all big battles during that period. In the First Balkan War in Kumanovo, Prilep and Bitola battle. In the Second Balkan War in 1913 during the fights with the Bulgarian army, this regiment suffered losses of 50% of all soldiers. The commander of the regiment, all battalion commanders and all company commanders also died in this war. Since the war, the regiment began to carry the name "The Iron Regiment".

In this war they gain immortal fame during battle of Bregalnica, when in the most critical moment on 18 June 1913, they stormed elevation 650, breaking through Bulgarian front, and resolving this battle in Serbian favor.

In the First World War in 1914 The Iron Regiment participated in the Battle of Cer, in its very center in the village of Tekeriš.

In the battle of Kolubara they were given the task by the Supreme Command to take important strategic high ground Kremenica. During this battle colonel Stojanovic commander of the regiment was sick, so the command of the battlefield was entrusted to the lower-ranking officers. In several bloody assaults regiment tried to take Kremenica, but failed, suffering heavy losses. Stojanovic could not lay in a bed, listening the news of the death of his soldiers. He got up and came to the position even though he could hardly stand on his feet. With the command " Charge " he boldly led his soldier in attack. Kremenica fell, and Milivoje Stojanovic died in battle.

Milivoje Stojanovic Brka
After the Battle of Kolubara Commander of The Iron Regiment became colonel Dimitrije Milić. Early in 1915 the unit was transferred to Macedonia to strengthen the front with Bulgaria. In the end of 1915 The Iron Regiment soldiers were assigned to guard the retreat of the Serbian units and thousands of refugees. They are the last Serbian unit that left Serbian ground, and through Albanian gorges reached the sea.

In what later became known as Serbian Golgotha through the Albanian gorges, Serbian soldiers and civilians were trudging through the mountainous Albanian wastelands during the harshest wintertime (November 1915 - January 1916), plodding through the frost and snow poorly dressed, on the brink of starvation and exhausted. Their worst enemy was the Albanian population itself. Wherever they could, the Albanians were attacking from behind and stabbing the Serbs in the back, killing the nation in retreat whose state has been taken away. Some 100,000 Serb soldiers and refugees perished during this legendary march-maneuver of the Serbian Army, and only 125,000 of the Serbian soldiers have reached the Adriatic coast.

Soldiers of The Iron Regiment at Salonika front

After a brief recovery they were deployed in Salonika front. The Iron Regiment was at the center of operations in the battle for the village of Gorničevo, and during the liberation of Bitola. Just on 25 September 1916, the regiment captured five Bulgarian officers and 804 soldiers, seized four guns, seven machine guns, 600 rifles, etc..

Immortal fame regiment gained capturing elevation 1212 on 4th November 1916, which allowed liberation of Bitola. Elevation 1212 was unofficially called (by the soldiers) the graveyard of The Iron Regiment.

Dead soldier of the Iron Regiment at elevation 1212

After the breakthrough of the Salonika front in which they actively participated, the regiment participated in the battles for the liberation of Nis, Aleksinac, Paracin, Svilajnac.... In mid-December in 1918 regiment was withdrawn from Vojvodina to Belgrade. Where they served as a guard unit until the 5 May 1920, ensuring Palace, the National Assembly and the Ministry offices. Only when the guard was formed, the regiment was demobilized and the few surviving warriors, who in September in 1912 set off from Prokuplje in to the war, finally returned to their homes, burnt and devastated by the Bulgarian occupation.

Total losses of the regiment in the wars from 1912 until 1918. are approximately:
- Killed in battle 32 officers, 1 239 soldiers and non-commissioned officers.
- Wounded in battle 148 officers, 6 492 soldiers and non-commissioned officers.
These numbers do not include losses from diseases.

War Flag of the Second Infantry Regiment of the Morava Division (The Iron Regiment), is the most decorated flag of the Serbian army. She was awarded the following decorations:

- Order of the Karađorđe's Star with Swords II class
- Order of the Karađorđe's Star with Swords III class
- Order of the Karađorđe's Star with Swords IV class
- Order of the White Eagle with swords III class
- Golden Medal for Bravery
- Croix de guerre with a palm

Twenty- seven officers and men were carriers of two Karađorđe's stars. More than 250 officers and soldiers received one Karađorđe's star. The greatest recognition regiment received in 1921 when the coffin of the late King Peter I was covered with the flag of the regiment.

Among the fighters of The Iron Regiment there were also the two famous women warriors:

Milunka Savić - Serbian war heroine who fought in the Balkan Wars and in the First World War. She is recognised as the most-decorated female combatant in the entire history of warfare. She was wounded no fewer than nine times during her term-of-service.

She was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour) twice, Russian Cross of St. George, British medal of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael, Serbian Miloš Obilić medal. She was the sole female recipient of the French Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 with the gold palm attribute for service in World War I.

Flora Sandes - was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier in World War I. Initially a St. John Ambulance volunteer, she travelled to Serbia, where, in the confusion of war, she was formally enrolled in the Serbian army. She was subsequently promoted to the rank of Sergeant major, and, after the war, to Captain.

In 1916, during the Serbian advance on Bitola, Sandes was seriously wounded by a grenade in hand to hand combat. She subsequently received the highest decoration of the Serbian Military, the Order of the Karađorđe's star Star. At the same time, she was promoted to the rank of Sergeant major.

To honour the bravery of the fallen, the Serbian composer Stanislav Binički composed the "March on the Drina", a song which has become a symbol of the bravery of the Serbs during the First World War. Binički dedicated the march to Colonel Milivoje Stojanović, the third commander of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the Serbian Army, which participated in the battle. Stojanovic was killed in the fighting.

To battle, go forth you heroes,
Go on and don't regret your lives
Let the Cer see the front, let the Cer hear the guns
and the river Drina's glory, courage!
And the heroic hand of the father and sons!
Sing, sing, cold water of the Drina,
Remember, and tell of the ones whom fell,
Remember the brave front, full of fire and mighty force
Whom expelled the invaders from our dear river!

Sing, sing, Drina, tell the generations,
How we bravely fought,
The front sang, the battle was fought
Near cold water
Blood was flowing,
Blood was streaming by the Drina.
By the Drina for the freedom.

These Serbs are tough in trouble, sober, modest, unbreakable. They are the free men, proud of their nation and the masters of their fields. For the freedom of their homeland these peasants instantly turned into the most courageous soldiers, the most persistent, the best of all soldiers. These are the glorious troops, made of endurance and zeal, the ones that make me proud of leading them, shoulder to shoulder with the French soldiers, to a victorious march for the freedom of their fatherland.

French General Franchet d Espérey, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied troops in WWI.

 

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Flora Sandes

A postcard showing Sergeant-Major Flora Sandes, the only western woman to fight on the frontline in WWI

She lived an extraordinary life, even by today's standards; battling against the odds to achieve her dream of fighting as an equal alongside men.

And it wasn't just the art of 'soldiering on' in which she saw herself as an equal to her male companions: Drinking, smoking, racing cars and shooting - all still very much masculine pursuits were considered fair game to Flora.

Surprisingly her background would not have suggested such maverick spirit. Born in 1876 in North Yorkshire, Flora was the youngest of eight children. The family, headed by her rector father Samuel Sandes, moved to Suffolk when she was nine years old.

She had a typically middle-class childhood that included a governess and stint at finishing school, but rather than dreaming of steady life with a husband and children, Flora always yearned for adventure.

According to Louise Millar, Flora's biographer: 'Women in those days were supposed to lead lives of demure respectablity which included tea parties and playing tennis. It could be very dull, particularly for someone like Flora who was a tomboy.'

Flora loved being in the army, saying 'I never loved anything so much in my entire life.' This photograph was taken in Montenegro in 1919

After training as a stenographer in London, Flora used her wages and a legacy from a rich uncle and headed off to explore the world.

She worked as a secretary in Cairo, camped in British Columbia in Canada and, even, while working her way across America, shot a man in self-defence.

Flora was 38 years old when Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, living in London with her 15-year-old nephew Dick and her elderly father.

She signed up to be a volunteer with the ambulance service and within eight days was on her way to Serbia with the first volunteer unit to leave Britain.

At first, she worked with the Red Cross but soon enlisted in the Serbian army - one of the few in the world to accept women.

She soon moved up the ranks, becoming corporal and then sergeant-major, and didn't shy away from the action. While engaged in hand-to-hand fighting, Flora was wounded by a grenade while helping to defend her position.

She was rescued by a lieutenant in her company who risked his life to crawl out under fire to drag her back to safety.

One of the guys: Sergeant-Major Flora Sandes inspecting her troops

For her exceptional bravery under fire, she was awarded a medal and made headlines around the world, but it had come at a price - shrapnel had shredded the flesh of her back and the right side of her body from shoulder to knee. Her right arm had been broken and badly lacerated.

Once recovered, she rejoined the men in the frontline trenches, fought alongside them as they regained the country they had lost nearly three years before, and survived Spanish influenza.

Says Millar: 'They called her a 'brother', as as an honorary man. She was a good soldier, starting the war as a private and had made sergeant-major by end of war.'

She adds: 'Serbia was the only country that allowed women to do anything they wanted During the war they had more freedom than anywhere else partly because the Serbians didn't know what to make of these women and their need was so desperate.'

When the war ended she remained in the army, saying: 'I never loved anything so much in my life.'

But in 1922 when she was demobilised, Flora found it hard to readjust. ‘I felt neither fish nor flesh when I came out of the army,’ she said. ‘The first time I put on women’s clothes, I slunk through the streets.’

She drifted between England and Serbia for several years but then found love in the shape of Yuri Yudenitch, a handsome, educated 'White Russian officer', 12 years her junior, who had served as one of her sergeants.

The Serbian army was one of the few to accept women and Flora felt at home with the other soldiers

They married in 1927. Two years later, they moved to the new kingdom of Yugoslavia and there they stayed.

But with tensions once more brewing, neither were to enjoy a peaceful life. The Nazis invaded in April 1941 and four days later, aged 65, Flora pulled on her uniform and marched off to fight.

Within days, though, her old war wound put an end to her plans. It took only 11 days for the Germans to defeat the Yugoslav army and occupy the country.

Flora was imprisioned by the Gestapo - the German political police - and was freed after a week, but had to report to a Gestapo officer every week. Sadly her beloved husband died of heart failure in 1941.

After the war Flora was left alone and penniless. However undeterred she moved to stay with her nephew first in Jerusalem and then Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe - where at the age of 70 she raised local hackles by drinking and smoking with the black peasant population.

She finally returned to Suffolk and took to using an electric wheelchair to travel between the local villages. She would set off, white hair streaming behind her, as she pushed it to its full speed.

Increasingly nostalgic for the war, she lived for the annual gathering of the Salonika Reunion Association, for whom she was a heroine.

After a brief illness, she died at Ipswich and East Suffolk Hospital on 24 November 1956 of ‘obstructive jaundice’, aged 80. She had renewed her passport shortly before she died, still dreaming of places to see and trips to take.

According to her biographer Louise Millar, Flora was even more modern than women are today in a sense. 'She let nothing hold her back. She did what she wanted to do and she was proof that women could do whatever they wanted.

'I think she helped shift the perception of what women could do. She was a heroine. She really pushed the boundaries.'

 

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Tsar Nicholas II of Russia

Graffiti portrait of Russian Emperor Nicholas II on Ulitsa (Street) Tsara Nikolaja II in the Vrachar district of Belgrade, Serbia.

The Serbian people had great respect for the last Russian Tsar, never forgetting his coming to their aid in World War I.

On 24th July, 1914, Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia sent Tsar Nicholas II the following telegram:

"Yesterday the Austro-Hungarian Government presented to the Serbian Government a note about the murders at Serajevo. Ever since this horrible crime was committed Serbia has condemned it. We are willing to investigate the plot and we will severely punish any Serbians who are found to be involved. But, the demands from Austria-Hungary are unnecessarily humiliating for Serbia. However, they say we must agree to all of them in forty-eight hours or Austria-Hungary is threatening us with war. We are prepared to accept some of the conditions but we need more time and the Austro-Hungarian army is already preparing for war.

"We are unable to defend ourselves and we beg your Majesty to help us. The friendship which your Majesty has always shown toward Serbia gives us confidence that our appeal to your noble heart will be answered."

On 27th July, 1914, Tsar Nicholas II sent Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia the following reply:

"Your Highness was quite right to contact me and nor were you mistaken about the friendship I have for the Serbian people.

"My Government is doing its utmost to smooth away the present difficulties. I have no doubt that neither you nor the Serbian Government will neglect any step which might lead to a settlement, and both prevent the horrors of a war and protect the national dignity of Serbia.

"All efforts must be directed at avoiding bloodshed, but if despite everything, there is war you can rest assured that Russia will never abandon Serbia to her fate."

 

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In the last few years we are all witnesses of the history revision concerning WW1. Germany, Austria, Hungary... are trying to put all the blame for starting the WW1 on Serbia. But let's see some facts. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip on 28th June 1914 and this is conversation below is from 1913:

The Diplomacy of the Balkan Wars 1912-1913
By E. C. Helmreich
(Cambridge MA and London: 1938)

Chapter 20: The Albanian Boundaries and the Aegean Islands


...Serbia had long been advised by the powers to evacuate territory which had definitely been awarded to Albania....

The day after the official notification of the Serbian withdrawal of troops the Kaiser was in Vienna. It was a Sunday, October 26th [1913], and the German embassy gave a tea in honor of its imperial guest. Here Count Berchtold had a long, fateful, political conversation with His Majesty. William II did most of the talking. Such assurances of cooperation and support from the fountain head of authority heartened the Austrian minister. Doubts of German cooperation vanished. Henceforward he was to feel himself certain of German aid.

According to the Kaiser:

“Panslavism and with it Russia have played their role in the Balkans, but simultaneously the Slavic states have been strengthened in a fashion that gives Germany and Austria-Hungary pause to think. The war between East and West cannot be avoided indefinitely and if Austria-Hungary is then open to an attack in the flank by a respectable military power, this could have a fateful influence on the struggle of the nations....The Slavs were not born to rule but to serve. This they must be taught....”

His Majesty then sketched a scheme by which the Dual Monarchy should bind Serbia to its support. On Berchtold’s protest that such a plan could not be realised, the Kaiser continued:

“When His Majesty Emperor Francis Joseph demands something, the Serbian government must give way, and if it does not then Belgrade will be bombarded and occupied until the will of His Majesty is fulfilled. And of this you can be certain, that I stand behind you and am ready to draw the saber whenever your action makes it necessary.”

His Majesty accompanied these words with a movement of his hand towards his saber. Other matters were discussed. The thread which ran through all the Kaiser’s utterances however was that the Dual Monarchy “could fully and completely count on him and that whatever came to him from the Vienna foreign office would be considered a command.” (n47)

Different attitudes and different views on many subjects, it is true, smouldered on at the Wilhelmstrasse and the Ballhaus platz. Yet there is no question that from the time of the October crisis, 1913, the two allies came closer and closer together until they became “blood brothers” on the battlefields of the World War.

May 20, 1913: Conrad Urges War Against Serbia

On the death of Austro-Hungarian chief of staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf (above) in 1925, the Austrian socialist leader Otto Bauer delivered a bitter eulogy: “If we are listing the five or six men in all of Europe who bear the primary guilt for the outbreak of the war, one of these five or six men would be Field Marshal Conrad.”

Bauer’s condemnation was based in fact. Conrad was an old-school Austrian German who viewed southern Slav nationalists as existential enemies of the Dual Monarchy, with Serbia in the lead. The huge expansion of Serbian territory and population in the First Balkan War alarmed Conrad, who warned the Serbs would now turn to liberating their ethnic kinsmen in Austria-Hungary. It was imperative, Conrad said, to break the momentum of Slavic nationalism by crushing Serbia and reducing it to a vassal state—maybe even absorbing it. Of course he realized this might bring war with Serbia’s patron Russia—but he believed Austria-Hungary stood a fair chance as long as it had Germany at its side.

Conrad's call for war against Serbia became louder and more urgent over the course of the First Balkan War. On January 9, 1913 he told the foreign minister, Count Berchtold, that Austria-Hungary had “lost its position in the Balkans” because of the rise of Serbian power under Russian protection, adding that “Russia must be overthrown,” and repeated the advice in a memorandum prepared for Emperor Franz Josef on January 20. On February 15, 1913, he warned the German chief of staff Helmuth von Moltke that Slavic nationalism was a threat not only to Austria-Hungary but Germany as well, which would “in the end penetrate through to the very marrow of Germany.” At a meeting of the Dual Monarchy’s ministers on May 2, 1913, during the Scutari crisis Conrad called for the defeat and annexation of Serbia’s sidekick Montenegro, which would probably lead to war with Serbia as well.

The peaceful resolution of the Scutari crisis seemed to remove any justification for war against Serbia and Montenegro, but Conrad remained convinced the Slavic kingdoms had to be crushed militarily, not just contained diplomatically—and also saw another chance for Austria-Hungary to act in the impending Second Balkan War. On May 20, 1913, he wrote to Franz Josef: “Fate once more today would offer us the opportunity for a solution; it was not impossible that Serbia and Greece might get involved in a war with Bulgaria. Then we must not hesitate to intervene against Serbia.” In fact, Conrad urged Berchtold to conclude an alliance with Bulgaria directed against Serbia, taking advantage of Bulgarian anger at Russia (which failed to protect Bulgarian interests against Serbia and Romania) to upend the balance of power in the Balkans. But Austria-Hungary’s German ally was skeptical about a Bulgarian dalliance, and Berchtold let the idea drop.

Austria-Hungary issues ultimatum to Serbia

At six o'clock in the evening on July 23, 1914, nearly one month after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a young Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Baron Giesl von Gieslingen, ambassador of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Serbia, delivers an ultimatum to the Serbian foreign ministry.

Acting with the full support of its allies in Berlin, Austria-Hungary had determined in the aftermath of Franz Ferdinand's assassination to pursue a hard-line policy towards Serbia. Their plan, developed in coordination with the German foreign office, was to force a military conflict that would, Vienna hoped, end quickly and decisively with a crushing Austrian victory before the rest of Europe—namely, Serbia's powerful ally, Russia—had time to react. As the German ambassador to Vienna reported to his government on July 14, the [note] to Serbia is being composed so that the possibility of its being accepted is practically excluded.

The Dual Monarchy demanded an answer to the note within 48 hours—by that time, however, anticipating Serbian defiance, Gieslingen had already packed his bags and prepared to leave the embassy. While the world waited for Serbia's response, Germany worked diplomatically to contain the effects of the ultimatum, but none of the other great powers, with reason, were inclined to see Austria-Hungary, with its relatively weak military, as acting alone. By 1914, the battle lines had been drawn in Europe: if Germany stood with Austria-Hungary against Serbia (and by extension, Russia) then Russia's allies, France and Britain, would be likely to step into the fray as well.

The British cabinet, just after receiving the news of the Austrian note to Serbia, held a meeting in London, one that had previously been devoted to discussing Ireland's desire for independence. This note, as Winston Churchill famously wrote, was clearly an ultimatum, but it was an ultimatum such as had never been penned in modern times. As the reading proceeded it seemed absolutely impossible that any State in the world could accept it, or that any acceptance, however abject, would satisfy the aggressor. The parishes of Fermanagh and Tyrone faded back into the mists and squalls of Ireland, and a strange light beganto fall upon the map of Europe.

Meanwhile, in Belgrade on the afternoon of July 25, convinced that Austria-Hungary was preparing for a fight, Serbian Prime Minister Nicola Pasic ordered the Serbian army to mobilize. Pasic himself delivered the Serbian answer to the ultimatum to Gieslingen at the Austrian embassy, just before the 6 p.m. deadline. Serbia's response effectively accepted all terms of the ultimatum but one: it would not accept Austria-Hungary's participation in any internal inquiry, stating that this would be a violation of the Constitution and of the law of criminal procedure. This response did much to appeal Pasic and his country to international observers of the conflict; to Vienna, however, it made little difference. Gieslingen, bags packed and car waiting to drive him to the railroad station, broke the Dual Monarchy's diplomatic relations with Serbia and left to catch his train. Three days later, on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, beginning the First World War.

After Serbian response to Austro Hungary ultimatum, Kaiser wrote this:

“On reading through the Serbian reply which I received this morning I am persuaded that on the the whole the wishes of the Danubian Monarchy are met. The few reservations made by Serbia on single points can in my opinion well be cleared up by negotiation. But capitulation of the most humble type is there proclaimed.....”

"the reply amounted to a capitulation in the humblest style, and with it there disappeared all reason for war"

And they still declared the war.

 

[vostok]

The Slavs were not born to rule but to serve. This they must be taught

Similarly, thought Hitler and his allies. Something like that, I'm sure, the West still thinks ...