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Rade Vukosavljevic, a retired artillery major, born in the village of Polumir in the Ibar Gorge, was the first to initiate a detailed investigation of what happened in his area a century ago, in the Balkan wars and the First War. World.
He “dug” in numerous archives and museums in Serbia, but also investigated in the Historical Archives of Vienna and the Military Museum in Paris. He translated his knowledge, supported by numerous documents, including war diaries, into a four-volume edition of “Kraljevo in the Great War”, which he published in 2018 to mark the centenary of the victory in the Great War.
In the Kraljevo Mountains, says Vukosavljević, the units of the second and third convoys were tasked with preventing the Austro-Hungarians from passing through Troglav, Čemerno and Stolovo, descending into the Ibar gorge near Ušće and Jošanička Banja and cutting off the main army that he retired there.
“If Zivojin Misic’s First Serbian Army had been caught in the pincers, as the Austro-Hungarians planned, any withdrawal to Kosovo would have been meaningless, because the Austro-Hungarians would have destroyed the First Army and immediately collapsed from there to Raska, where they they located the supreme command and the government “. “explains Vukosavljevic.
Serbian soldiers entered the battles around Kraljevo, tired of the constant attacks from the superior enemy, waiting for the help of the allies.
According to Dr. Dragoljub Danilović from the Raška District Society of Historians, there were also those who fled the battlefield, although the vast majority bravely opposed the Austro-Hungarian Third Army.
“Every day, the commanders read reports about the allied aid: it has just arrived, the Russian czar promises us, the French promise … Even the Regent Alexander signed the announcement to the soldiers several times because it has already been noticed that they are discouraging, they have lost hope, “says Danilovic.
The feeling of hopelessness was intensified by the enemy soldiers, who used civilians in the attacks, which is remembered in the areas where the fighting took place. Milica Perović still remembers the request of her grandfather, who lived in Maglič, not to forget those who sacrificed themselves for the homeland.
“He always told me how the Austro-Hungarians forced the locals, the peasants, to go ahead of them so that the Serbian army would not shoot them. Our soldiers withdrew and did not want to shoot at their people,” recalls Milica the words of her grandfather .
The strongest blow at the top of Čemerna
Battles were fought in many places, but the most severe blow to the Austro-Hungarians was at the top of Čemerno mountain, where the Austro-Hungarian 10th Mountain Brigade, advancing from the direction of Ivanjica, engaged the Studenica detachment.
A few days earlier, the detachment consisted of soldiers from the Fourth Infantry Regiment of the second call and the Sixth Infantry Regiment of the third call. Fierce battles were fought on November 10, 11 and 12, and the positions atop Čemerno were shifted from hand to hand several times.
The student detachment resisted the attacks of the Austro-Hungarian army for three days, and their sacrifice allowed Zivojin Mišić’s First Army to retreat towards Raška and further towards Kosovo and Metohija.
The author of the “Kraljevo in the Great War” edition listed the names of some 1,600 soldiers who gave their lives in the vicinity of Kraljevo to save their comrades in arms, and he believes there were more. Rade Vukosavljević tells stories that are still heard in the hillside villages of Čemerno after a century.
“After the First World War, for years and decades, shepherds found the bones of fallen soldiers in the mountains. They were dragged away by wild beasts, because after the withdrawal and occupation, there was no one to bury them, ”says Vukosavljevic.
The war flag of the Fourth Infantry Regiment of the second scale, which fought on top of Čemerno, was carried by Serbian soldiers in 1919 at the victory parade in Paris. It has been kept in the Military Museum of the capital of France for 101 years.
