Milunka Savić

With her bravery, the Serbian First World War heroine, Milunka Savić, outdid many men, and in the post-war years of her life she deserved a halo of a martyr.  She born in 1888 in the village of  Koprivnica near Raška. she fought in the 1912 and 1913 Balkan Wars. As a junior sergeant of the Second Regiment she fought in the First world War. She was wounded nine times. For her multiple heroism as a bomber in the Kolubara Battle she was awarded the Order of the Karađorđe’s Star with Swords.Furthermore, she was awarded two French decorations of the Legion of Honour, as well as Miloš Obilić Medal. She is the sole female recipient of the French decoration of the Croix de guerre with palm (War Cross with Palm). She was offered to move to France where she would receive a military pension, but she chose a life in Serbia where she and her heroism and merits were soon forgotten. In the Second World War she was imprisoned in the Banjica camp for nine months, and after the war, in Tito’s Yugoslavia, she worked as a cleaning lady. Milunka Savić died in1973 in Belgrade. Only after her death, Yugoslavia and Serbia would honour their heroine properly: she was buried in the Novo groblje cemetery (The New Cemetery) in the Alley of the Meritorious with full the state and military honours.