In 1912, a nineteen-year-old Serbian peasant girl made a decision that would rewrite military history. When her tubercular brother received mobilization papers for the First Balkan War, Milunka Savić cut her hair, donned men’s clothing, and took his place in the Serbian army. She had no military training, no combat experience, and no grand ambitions of glory. She simply refused to let her sick brother die in a war he was too weak to fight.
Over the next seven years, this farm girl from a remote village would become the most decorated female combatant in human warfare. She would capture enemy positions single-handedly, survive nine battlefield wounds, and earn medals from four different armies. The French would call her the “Serbian Joan of Arc,” but Milunka Savić was something Joan never was: a soldier who lived to see her wars end and her country free.
Her story challenges everything we think we know about gender, warfare, and heroism in the early twentieth century. It reveals how a young woman from Europe’s most backward region could outfight trained soldiers, outmaneuver military bureaucracy, and outlast two of history’s bloodiest conflicts. More importantly, it shows how the modern world systematically erased women’s contributions to its most defining moments.
The Making of a Warrior
Milunka Savić was born on June 28, 1892, in Koprivnica, a village so remote that most maps didn’t bother marking it. The region around Novi Pazar represented everything that European powers considered primitive about the Balkans. Peasant families lived in stone houses with dirt floors. Most people never traveled more than twenty miles from their birthplace. Literacy was rare, especially among women.
But this isolation also created self-reliance that urban populations couldn’t match. Mountain villagers had survived centuries of Ottoman rule, Austrian expansion, and constant border warfare. They knew how to hide in forests, move silently across rough terrain, and shoot accurately with whatever weapons they could find. These skills mattered more than formal military training when fighting began.
Milunka grew up in a household where survival required constant physical labor. She hauled water from distant wells, herded livestock across mountainous terrain, and helped with harvests that determined whether her family would eat through winter. This work built the physical strength and endurance that would later amaze military doctors who examined her battle wounds.
The Savić family belonged to the class of Serbian peasants who had never accepted foreign domination. They maintained oral traditions about medieval Serbian kingdoms and heroes who had died fighting the Ottomans. These stories weren’t romantic folklore – they were practical guides for resistance against any occupying force. Young people learned that dying for Serbia was expected, but killing for Serbia was better.
When the Balkan League declared war against the Ottoman Empire in October 1912, every Serbian family faced mobilization. The army needed every able-bodied man to drive the Turks from territories that Serbs considered their ancestral homeland. But Milunka’s brother suffered from tuberculosis that made military service a death sentence. Someone had to go in his place, and Milunka decided it would be her.
The Deception That Changed Everything
Transforming from village girl to Serbian soldier required more than cutting hair and stealing clothes. Milunka had to master masculine behavior patterns that she had observed but never practiced. She learned to walk differently, speak in lower tones, and interact with men as an equal rather than a subordinate. This performance had to be convincing enough to fool military officers, fellow soldiers, and enemy combatants.
The Serbian army in 1912 was desperate for recruits and didn’t examine volunteers too carefully. Peasant boys often looked younger and smaller than their ages suggested due to poor nutrition. Milunka’s slight build and beardless face didn’t attract unusual attention among the conscripts gathering in Novi Pazar. She enlisted under a male version of her name and was assigned to the Serbian army’s infantry.
Basic training lasted only a few weeks before units were sent to the front lines. Milunka learned to march in formation, handle a rifle, and follow battlefield commands. But most importantly, she learned to kill without hesitation. The first time she shot an enemy soldier, she felt no remorse or fear – only satisfaction that she had protected her comrades and served her country.
Her first major engagement came at the Battle of Bregalnica in October 1912, where Serbian forces attempted to break Bulgarian defensive positions. The fighting was brutal and confused, with units advancing and retreating across the same ground multiple times. Milunka proved herself by maintaining position under heavy fire and providing accurate rifle support for advancing troops.
When her commanding officer was wounded, she took charge of a small group of soldiers and led them in capturing a Bulgarian machine gun position. This action earned her first military decoration and promotion to corporal. More importantly, it established her reputation as a soldier who could be trusted in desperate situations.
The deception continued successfully through nine separate military campaigns. Milunka fought in every major battle of the First Balkan War, distinguishing herself in engagements that military historians still study today. Her fellow soldiers knew her as a reliable fighter who never retreated and never left wounded comrades behind. They had no reason to suspect that their most dependable warrior was the woman they would never have accepted in their ranks.
The Revelation That Almost Ended Everything
Milunka’s secret was revealed in the most mundane way possible. During the Battle of Bregalnica, shrapnel from an exploding artillery shell tore through her uniform and embedded in her chest. She continued fighting until blood loss forced her to collapse. When medics carried her to a field hospital, examining physicians discovered what ten military campaigns had concealed.
The attending doctors were completely unprepared for this situation. Military regulations contained no procedures for dealing with female combatants who had enlisted illegally. The medical staff debated whether to treat her wounds or immediately report her to military police. Some argued that her deception constituted desertion or fraud that warranted court-martial.
Word of the discovery spread quickly through the hospital and reached her commanding officers within hours. They faced an unprecedented dilemma. Milunka had proven herself as one of their most effective soldiers. She had earned promotion through merit and won the respect of her comrades. Punishing her would damage morale and eliminate a valuable fighter when the army needed every competent soldier.
But military tradition and social expectations demanded that women be excluded from combat roles. Allowing Milunka to continue fighting would set a precedent that could encourage other women to attempt similar deceptions. Conservative officers worried about the implications for military discipline and social order if women began demanding equal treatment in armed forces.
The final decision came from her immediate superior, who called Milunka to his office after she recovered from her wounds. He offered her transfer to the nursing division, where she could serve her country in a role considered appropriate for women. This compromise would acknowledge her patriotism while maintaining traditional gender boundaries that most people considered natural and necessary.
Milunka’s response became legendary throughout the Serbian army. She stood at attention and declared that she wanted only to fight for her country as a combatant, not as a nurse. When the officer said he would consider her request overnight, she replied that she would wait standing at attention until he reached a decision. Military tradition required that she maintain this position until formally dismissed.
The standoff lasted only an hour before the officer agreed to send her back to the infantry. But this decision represented much more than accommodation of one unusual individual. It established the principle that military effectiveness mattered more than social conventions. Milunka had forced the Serbian army to choose between tradition and capability, and capability won.
Warrior Excellence in World War I
When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in July 1914, Milunka was already a veteran combatant with two years of battlefield experience. But World War I would test her abilities in ways that the Balkan Wars had never demanded. The fighting was more intense, the weapons more deadly, and the stakes higher than anything she had previously encountered.
The early months of the war went badly for Serbian forces. Austrian armies invaded from the north while Bulgarian forces threatened from the east. Serbian troops found themselves fighting on multiple fronts with limited ammunition and inadequate supply lines. Many military units disintegrated under pressure that exceeded their training and equipment.
Milunka’s unit was assigned to defend positions along the Kolubara River, where Austrian forces were attempting to break through Serbian lines and capture Belgrade. The battle lasted for weeks, with positions changing hands repeatedly as both sides launched desperate attacks. Casualties were enormous, and many units lost three-quarters of their strength before being withdrawn from combat.
During the height of the fighting, Milunka led a night attack against Austrian trenches that had been causing heavy casualties among Serbian forces. She guided a small group of volunteers across no-man’s land and attacked the enemy position from an unexpected angle. The assault succeeded in eliminating the Austrian strongpoint and capturing valuable intelligence about enemy plans.
This action earned her first Karađorđe Star with Swords, Serbia’s highest military decoration. The award citation praised her “exceptional courage and leadership under fire” and noted that her actions had “saved countless Serbian lives.” But more importantly, it established her reputation as a soldier who could accomplish missions that larger, better-equipped units had failed to complete.
Her most famous exploit came in 1916 during the Battle of the Crna Bend, where Serbian forces were attempting to break through Bulgarian defensive positions. Intelligence reports indicated that a small Bulgarian unit was holding a strategic hilltop that controlled movement throughout the valley. Previous attacks had failed with heavy casualties, and commanders were considering abandoning the objective.
Milunka volunteered for a solo reconnaissance mission to assess Bulgarian defenses. She approached the position at dawn, moving carefully through terrain that offered minimal cover. What she discovered was a full company of Bulgarian soldiers – not the small detachment that intelligence had reported. Any rational person would have returned with this information and recommended that a larger force be assigned to the attack.
Instead, Milunka decided to attack immediately while the Bulgarians were still unprepared for combat. She had observed their routine during several hours of surveillance and knew exactly when sentries changed and where weapons were stored. Using grenades and rifle fire, she created the impression of a much larger attacking force while systematically eliminating Bulgarian resistance.
The engagement lasted three hours and ended with twenty-three Bulgarian soldiers surrendering to a single Serbian corporal. This achievement was so extraordinary that initial reports were dismissed as impossible. Only when Milunka returned with her prisoners did commanders accept that she had accomplished what entire battalions had been unable to achieve.
Recognition from Allied Powers
Milunka’s battlefield achievements attracted attention from Allied military observers who were monitoring Serbian army performance. French, British, and Russian officers had never encountered a female combatant who had earned promotion through merit and demonstrated consistent effectiveness in major battles. They began recommending her for decorations from their own governments.
The French were particularly impressed by her combination of tactical intelligence and personal courage. They awarded her the Légion d’Honneur twice – an unprecedented recognition for any foreign soldier, much less a woman who had served illegally. French military analysts studied her tactics and incorporated some of her innovations into their own training programs.
British officials awarded her the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael, recognizing her contributions to Allied victory in the Balkans. This decoration was rarely given to foreign soldiers and never before to a woman. The citation noted that her actions had “significantly contributed to Serbian resistance against Central Powers and maintained Allied positions in southeastern Europe.”
Russian recognition came through the Cross of St. George, a military decoration reserved for exceptional valor in combat. Russian officers were particularly interested in her ability to maintain morale among Serbian troops during the darkest periods of the war. They noted that soldiers fought more effectively when they knew Milunka was present, suggesting that her reputation had become a strategic asset.
Most significantly, she became the sole female recipient of the French Croix de Guerre with gold palm for service in World War I. This decoration recognized sustained excellence in combat rather than single acts of heroism. The award acknowledged that Milunka had not just survived the war – she had excelled throughout its duration in ways that few male soldiers matched.
These international recognitions were important because they came from professional military establishments that had no political reason to inflate Serbian achievements. Foreign observers evaluated Milunka’s performance using the same standards they applied to their own soldiers. Their conclusions that she deserved the highest possible honors validated her exceptional abilities.
The Forgotten Heroine
When World War I ended in 1918, Milunka faced a problem that no military training had prepared her to handle: peacetime. The skills that had made her an exceptional soldier were largely irrelevant in civilian life. Serbian society had no place for women who had demonstrated abilities that challenged fundamental assumptions about gender and social roles.
The new Yugoslav government offered her a comfortable pension if she would move to France, where her military decorations made her eligible for veteran benefits. French authorities were prepared to provide housing, medical care, and social recognition that acknowledged her contributions to Allied victory. This offer would have given her financial security and social status that were impossible in post-war Yugoslavia.
Milunka rejected this opportunity and chose to remain in Belgrade, where she found work as a postal employee. This decision reflected her deep attachment to the country she had fought to defend, but it also demonstrated her failure to understand how quickly societies forget their wartime heroes. Within a few years, most people had no idea that the quiet woman sorting mail had once been the most decorated female warrior in history.
Her personal life proved as challenging as her professional situation. In 1923, she married Veljko Gligorijević, whom she had met while visiting Mostar. The marriage produced a daughter named Milena but ended in immediate divorce. The reasons for this breakup remain unclear, but it seems likely that Veljko was unable to accept a wife whose military achievements exceeded his own.
Milunka also adopted three other daughters: Milka, whom she found abandoned at a railway station; Radmila-Višnja; and Zorka, a fatherless girl from Dalmatia. These adoptions revealed her continued commitment to protecting vulnerable people, but they also created financial burdens that her modest postal salary couldn’t support. She worked multiple jobs to provide for her family while receiving no assistance from government programs.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Yugoslavia was developing its national mythology around male heroes and traditional gender roles. Official histories emphasized the sacrifices of male soldiers while ignoring women’s contributions to military victory. Milunka’s story didn’t fit these narratives, so it was systematically excluded from textbooks, monuments, and public commemorations.
By the late 1950s, she was living in a deteriorating house in Belgrade’s Voždovac neighborhood with her adopted daughters. Her own daughter Milena had been hospitalized with mental illness, creating additional medical expenses that strained the family’s finances. Most of her military decorations had been sold to pay for food and medicine.
Rediscovery and Belated Recognition
Milunka’s rediscovery began accidentally in the early 1960s when she attended a military ceremony wearing her remaining medals. Other veterans recognized the decorations and began asking about her service record. When they learned about her wartime achievements, they were amazed that such an extraordinary soldier had been living in poverty and obscurity.
News of her situation spread through veteran organizations and eventually reached journalists who investigated her story. Newspaper articles describing her wartime service and current living conditions created public outrage about how Yugoslavia had treated its greatest female war hero. Citizens began demanding that the government provide appropriate assistance and recognition.
In 1972, public pressure finally forced the Belgrade City Assembly to provide Milunka with a small apartment. This housing came only one year before her death, after she had spent decades living in conditions that would have been considered inadequate for any veteran, much less one with her exceptional record of service.
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