Serbia in WW1

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 …

On July 28th 1918, the 4th anniversary of the beginning of World War I, Serbian flag flew above the White House and all public buildings in American capital by the order of President Woodrow Wilson. This unique event, a Serbian flag flying above the White House in Washington, took place over 9 decades ago but remained a memorable act of …

During the unstoppable breakthrough that ultimately led to the end of the World War I, the Serbian army passed 600 kilometers in 45 days. French general Louis Franchet d’Esperey wrote that even the French cavalry was barely catching up. In autumn 1918 the Macedonian front (Salonika front) breakthrough started. The Allies couldn’t even assume that this secondary and less important …

Instead of the smell of summer, the warm July of 1914 brought the citizens of the Kingdom of Serbia the smell of gunpowder – the war that started the avalanche of the accumulated European, as well as the global, discontent that soon engulfed almost the entire world. A month after the Sarajevo Assassination Austro-Hungarian Monarchy gave the Serbian Government an …

At the end of the first year of the Great War, the Austrians dangerously encroached into Serbia, crossing the Sava and Drina rivers in their attempts to win Kosmaj. In this first, fast and powerful wave of enemies, the Serbian army retreated, abandoning its own cannons due to lack of time to dislocate the artillery. Only two soldiers refused to …

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 Serbian army entered the Great War with the simplified uniform that separated lower ranks from higher ranks by small details and was olive-gray (SNB) in color. Many European armies introduced this simplified trend in soldiers’ clothing in the early 20th century, and Serbian military was among the first to do that. Simplification of uniforms also symbolized equality of soldiers on the battlefield.

Serbian king Petar I Karadjordjević ordered a monument to be built in memory of Makrena Spasojević, a brave peasant woman and a loving mother who searched for her only son in the snow covered mountains of Albania during the retreat of the Serbian army in World War I. During the World War I retreat of the Serbian army across the …

Lady Paget was an English noblewoman and a humane Serbian supporter who treated the wounded in the Serbian army in the Balkan Wars and the World War I. After the World War II ended, her home in London became a meeting place for the Serbian political refugees. She financially helped the setup of the Serbian church and the Serbian club …