Radomir Putnik

In memoriam

Military Figure. He was a highly-decorated Serbian Army Commander, who participated in all the wars that Serbia waged from 1876 to 1917. From the year 1903, he was the leader of the preparations of the Serbian Army, for the coming wars, as the Chief of General Staff and Minister of the Serbian Army. Together with Colonel Zivojin Misic, he prepared plans for the Balkan Wars and all the plans before World War I. After the first victory in the First Balkan War, at the Battle of Kumanovo on October 23, 1912, he became the first Serbian Duke. During World War I, he was the chief of the Supreme Command in a victory over the Austrian Army on Cer Mountain in August of 1914, the first Allied victory of World War I. All Serbian victories from 1912 to 1916, can be reckoned as the special merits of Putnik, as he was standing at the head of an expert staff. He presented and protected operations and plans in front of the Serbian Government. With his personality, his rank, and his position, he was morally responsible, in front of all his subjugated chiefs for each of his positions and for every order of the Supreme Command. After the reorganization of the Serbian Army on the island of Corfu, at the beginning of 1916, Putnik, being physically exhausted, was relieved of his duty and traveled to Nice on sick leave. In spite of all the nursing and medical treatment and care of the French doctors, Putnik was not able to return to his liberated country, dying from bronchitis, influenza and pneumonia. His remains were ceremonially transferred to the New Cemetery in November of 1926 and buried with military honors. He is ranked 54th among the 100 most prominent Serbs. At the end of World War I in 1918, a mountain in Canada was named Putnik, in honor of the Serbian Duke Radomir Putnik.

Locația mormântului