The Day of the City’s Liberation in the First World War was marked today on the central city square in Smederevo.
A memorial service at the Monument to the Fallen Fighters in the Great War was conducted by the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church Municipality of Smederevo, and after the playing of the national anthem and a minute’s silence, wreaths were laid by representatives of the Požarevac Garrison of the Serbian Armed Forces, the City of Smederevo, the Associations of Descendants of the Warriors of 1912–1918 from Smederevo and Kovin, and the city committees of the SPS and SUBNOR.
The poet Miroslava Cvetković addressed the citizens gathered at the commemoration by reciting her verses, followed by Branko Milanović, President of the city Association of Descendants of the Warriors of 1912–1918.
“105 years ago, at this place, on 30 October 1918, or 17 October by the old calendar, at around 11 o’clock the bells of our church tower rang out, announcing freedom for Smederevo and the end of the Great War, which has remained in our memory for its many victims and the suffering it brought,” Milanović recalled.
It is less well known that, because of its proximity to the border with Austria-Hungary and the action of Austro-Hungarian artillery from ships, the city suffered a great deal, before all others. Despite the stronger resistance put up in the Great Mitrovdan Battle of 1914, Smederevo was completely occupied in November of the following year. More than 2,000 people from Smederevo were taken to Austro-Hungarian camps, where they were used as labour and for forced work, but after the breakthrough on the Salonika Front in 1918, the Serbian and French armies, above all the First Serbian Army, the left wing of the Cavalry Division, supported by the Morava Division, liberated Smederevska Palanka and Velika Plana on 27 October. After that, decisive battles were fought from Lozovik to Radinac on 28 and 29 October. Under the command of Major Dušan Dodić, Smederevo was liberated on 30 October, as was heard, among other things, at today’s commemorative gathering.
The monument at which the wreaths were laid to mark the Day of the Liberation of Smederevo in the First World War was erected and consecrated on 1 December 1926, the day marking the proclamation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, while most of the information about the liberation of Smederevo in the First World War is preserved in the war diary of Major Dušan Dodić.
