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A Hero’s Story

Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. Mark 10:43-44

This is a story about the most decorated female warrior of all time - a lady with nine wounds and twelve medals, a hero, a mother, a patriot, a comrade, and a source of inspiration to this day - Milunka Savić

Early Life & Mobilization

Milunka Savić was born in 1890 (or 1892, according to her membership card of the Association of Reserve Military Officers) in the village of Koprivnica near Jošanička Banja in Raška, Serbia, to mother Danica and father Radenko, as the eldest child. She had two younger sisters Miona and Slavka and her brother Milan, and was raised in a conservative rural family, where children were taught to be virtuous and honest people, and to love their neighbor and their country. She grew into a beautiful, tall and strong girl, while her brother Milan was weak young man prone to illness. After the publication of the Decree on Mobilization on September 30 / October 3 1912, Milunka decided to register at one of the mobilization sites in Belgrade, instead of her brother. She registered under the name Milun Savić.

I’m going to war, and how will I go to war if I don’t learn how to be a man. It’s not just: `Milunka, put on men’s clothes, cut your hair, tighten your chest and that’s it, you’ve become a man` but, my brother, I have to practice my speech and posture. Yes, posture… I, Milun Savić, a shy guy, will always be on guard, not to say my real name when asked.

Military Career

She was assigned to the Drina Division of the Serbian Army. As a soldier, she took part in war conflicts and especially stood out in the Battle of Skadar. After the short First Balkan War (1912-1913), Milunka Savić took part in the Second Balkan War (1913), which began immediately after the end of the First Balkan War and was fought between Bulgaria and Serbia due to a territorial dispute. Milunka Savić first became famous in the Battle of Bregalnica, when she was also wounded. In hospital, the medical staff realized that they were treating a woman. Also in hospital, she was awarded the rank of lieutenant sergeant and the Karađorđe star. Although still wounded, she returned to the front line to her comrades.

After World War I started In July 1914, she volunteered for service. However, as her secret was revealed, she was not allowed to join the ranks. Milunka did not want to give up and even managed to reach the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command, Radomir Putnik. Putnik initially refused to approve Milunka’s request and instead offered her to be a nurse. She declined and after persistent insistence got enlisted into Second Infantry Regiment of the Morava Division, an elite unit known as The Iron Squadron.

I am lieutenant sergeant of the Serbian army, and I demand my war schedule. I don’t want to nurse, I want a rifle! I am not afraid of bullet. I demand to be enlisted into a squadron!

In the First World War, she particularly distinguished herself as a bomber in the Battle of Kolubara (1915-1916). There, for multiple heroic acts, she was awarded another Karađorđe star with swords. She lived through the retreat of Serbian army over Albanian mountains with a serious head injury, but after a short recovery she re-joined the ranks on the front lines in Thessaloniki, Greece, where she stays until 1918. In the battle of Crna Reka (1916), Milunka single-handedly captured 23 Bulgarian soldiers. One of the captives was Georgi Dimitrov, later the president of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, with whom she was a friend after the war.

Life After the War

After demobilization in 1920, as a sergeant, she worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She married Veljko Gligorović in 1922, and had daughter Milena in 1924. They also adopted three more children. After getting divorced, she continued to live with her children and sister in Stepanovićevo village near Novi Sad, where she received property from the state and built a house. She moved to Belgrade with her children in 1929 due to poverty. On the initiative of her comrades, Milunka got a job as a maid at a bank in Belgrade, where she spent most of her working life. She turned down an offer to move to France and receive French military pension. Instead, she stay in Belgrade. During all that time, she educated and raised thirty children whom she brought from her home village.

Although without any formal education, she spoke and wrote in English and French, and maintained correspondence with her former comrades, including French admiral Émile Guépratte and marshal Franchet d’Espèrey.

At the beginning of World War II, she established and maintained a military hospital in Belgrade. After the fall of Yugoslavia, this facility kept treating both monarchist and communist rebels. For this, Milunka was arrested by the Nazi Germany authorities, getting severely beaten in the process, and incarcerated in Banjica concentration camp for 10 months. However, one day a German general who commanded the camp recognized her and ordered her immediate release.

In 1972, Milunka Savić was given a one-bedroom apartment by the city of Belgrade. She lived in the new apartment for about a year, and died on October 5, 1973. Her remains were moved to the Alley of the Greats on the New Cemetery in Belgrade in 2013.

Medals

On top of two Karađorđe stars, Milunka was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour) twice (type IV and type V) as well as the Russian Cross of St. George, the British medal of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael, and the Serbian Miloš Obilić medal. She is the sole female recipient of the French Croix de Guerre with the gold palm.