Мајоr Gаvrilоvić

He was born in Čаčak, finished the Military Academy in Belgrade and took part in all the wars of Serbia in the first half of the 20th century.

Drаgutin Gаvrilоvić, an eminent Serbian officer, gained his wordly glory for an order he issued to his soldiers on 7 October 1915, on the first day of the Austro-Hungarian and German attack on Belgrade in the First World War: Heroes! Exactly at three o’clock, the enemy is due 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 Fatherland. Therefore, you no longer need worry about your lives: they no longer exist. So, forward to glory! For King and Country! Long live King, Long live Belgrade! At the time he commanded the 2nd battalion of the 10th Cadre Regiment, which, was defending positions at the very confluence of the Sava and the Danube, beneath the Kalemegdan Fortress. On 5 August 1915, German general, August von Mackensen started the invasion of Serbia. A storm of steel fell along the whole front. In just two days, thirty thousand grenades fell on Belgrade.

Most of the soldiers defending Belgrade died. But the sacrifice of the Serbian troops and the population of Belgrade in the fights, amazed even the enemy, which lost ten thousand soldiers in taking  Belgrade.

HISTORY

Мајоr Gаvrilоvić war decorated with the Serbian War Medal, the Kаrаđоrđе Star, the French Croix de guerre, and many other medals. A street stretching along the Danube riverbank (where Gavrilović and his men fought) bears the name Major Gavrilović’s Riverbank in his memory. There are also streets bearing his name in the cities of Niš, Čačak, Valjevo, and Užice.

Serbs may well be the only nation in the world for whom the enemy built a monument. Entering Belgrade and amazed by the heroism of the enemy, the famous German field marshal Mackensen erected a monument in Kosutnjak to the heroic defenders of the Serbian capital.