Stepa Stepanović, Serbian field marshal in the First World War, was born in 1856 in a Belgrade village of Kumodraž, where today, at the end of the street bearing his name – Ulica vojvode Stepe – there is his house still standing. Like Živojin Mišić, he participated in all the wars of that time. He distinguished himself in the Second Balkan war in 1913, when in long-lasting fighting at Edirne, Turkey (present Bulgaria), he captured 60,000 of Turkish soldiers. His greatest credits and what made him one of the greatest Serbian commanders in history are the victories in the Battle of Cer and breaking the Salonika Front in. He won the first victory of the WWI among the Allies with his Second Army in the Battle of Cer, which brought him a promotion to field marshal (voivode). In its unstoppable march over Macedonia in 1918, the Stepa Stepanovic army forced Bulgaria to capitulate, thus accelerating the end of the Great War. Vojvode Stepa died in 1929 in Čačak. He is remembered by his character of steel, a shrewd mind and the speed in which he made the hardest of decisions; he did not like glory or parades, but always pointed out the credits of other officers and soldiers.
