Battle of Mojkovac
The battle of Mojkovac took place on January 6th and 7th 1916 in Montenegro on the upper reaches of the Tara in Mojkovac between the Sansak division of the Montenegrin army under Serdar Janko Vukotić and the 53rd and 62nd kuk divisions, altogether 14 battalions under Major General Wilhelm von Reinöhl (1859–1918). The extremely fierce battle in the wintry snow-covered mountains between Durmitor and Bijelasica is due to the sacrifice of the Montenegrins, who are clearly inferior in manpower, artillery and infantry, to oppose the advance of a large force of the Austro-Hungarian army, which the retreat routes of the Central Powers in the Serbian campaign defeated Serbian 1st and 3rd armies across the Prokletije Mountains to Albania, entered the context of a general national heroic narrative.
Starting position
The battle of Mojkovac resulted directly from the actions of the Central Powers in the Serbian campaign in 1915, which led to the gradual withdrawal of the defeated Serbian army. During the government consultations in Peć in November 1915, the government and the army of Serbia decided to retreat to reach the saving coast of Albania on three routes via Montenegro and Albania. In a telegram, Alexander I , Nikola Pašić and Radomir Putnik asked King Nikola I of Montenegro for military support. The Montenegrin army should try to stop the Austrians on their campaign in Montenegro and enable the Serbian army to march through to Scutari . Although the Montenegrins could have retreated as well, they stayed true to their promise and held the positions in Mojkovac.
The Austro-Hungarian VIII Army Corps under FZM Viktor von Scheuchenstuel , which had pursued the retreating Montenegrin expedition troops of the Sandžak Army from Serbia, had the task of binding them and deployed parts of the 62nd and 53rd Infantry Divisions. On the other hand, it should pass their right wing and meet with the troops of the XIX. Unite Corps to split Montenegro into two parts. The Serbian army command had assigned the newly formed Kosovo department to the Sandžak army. This was supposed to cover the withdrawal of the Serbian main force of the 1st Army via Montenegro from Peć - Andrijevica - Podgorica - Skadar with the Sandžak Army .
The 62nd Infantry Division under FML Kalser von Maasfeld invaded Montenegro from the Višegrad area from the north on November 27, 1915 and pushed the opposing defenses onto a line from Pljevlja (December 1) and Bijelo Polje (December 16) along the River Tara back, in the course of December was stopped there to secure the supply lines. At the same time, the 53rd Infantry Division (FML Heinrich von Pongracz) advanced from the northeast to the south.
course
After the offensive resumed on January 5, 1916, the group of Major General von Reinöhl (mass of the kk 205th Landsturm Brigade and 3 battalions of the Landsturm Brigade of Major General Karl Schwarz) on the left wing of the 62nd Infantry Division were ready to assemble on the following day to attack Mojkovac with the 53rd Infantry Division .
Although the Austro-Hungarian army group under General Sarkotić von Lovćen was already threatening the Montenegrin capital in the west, Serdar Vukotić kept his promise to keep the route of retreat open for the Serbs. In order to stop the further advance of the Austro-Hungarian troops at the gate of Mojkovac between the high mountain ranges of the Durmitor- Sinjajevina plateau and the Bjelasica , Serdar Vukotić ordered a general attack by his 6,500-strong army against them on January 6th, Christmas Eve according to the Julian calendar Well-developed position of the Austrians on the Bojna njiva. From this developed on January 7th the Battle of Mojkovac on the date of the Christmas festival of the Orthodox Montenegrins, which reached its climax in the meeting of the main forces of both armies in an extremely bloody battle with bayonets for the Bojna njiva. After the first two Montenegrin attacks got stuck, Serdar Vukotić led his only reserve, the Drobnjačka battalion, into action under orders that the field must be taken at all costs. After his troops broke into the first line of the 53rd Division, but not the second, a general assault of all three groups of the battalion followed in a line on the defensive positions. After the battalion had penetrated the main battle line of the 53rd Division, the fight was fought with knives and bayonets, whereupon the Austro-Hungarian troops had to flee the Bojna njiva. General Reinöhl decided to counterattack with the intention of retaking, using the last reserves of his 205th Landsturm Brigade. After the failure of the first attack, the army threatened complete defeat, and so the general placed himself in the forefront, sword in hand, and personally led the last reserves into the field. The fight in heavy snowstorms and fog on the Bojna njiva lasted into the night, and the fierceness of the fight, in which both armies were able to hold their last positions, has not since formed one of the most important moments of national self-assertion and historical memory in Montenegrin historiography 20th century only. The Austro-Hungarian troops had 700 men in the battle, 224 of whom were dead. The 205th Landsturm Brigade was unable to continue fighting due to general exhaustion. Major General Reinöhl was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order in 1922 for his bravery in fighting post mortem . The order was given to only 131 people (110 of them received the Knight's Cross) and was the most highly regarded military order of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
consequences
After Cetinje , the capital of Montenegro, fell on January 13, 1916 , King Nikola I had to accept the surrender of Montenegro and fled to Italy. Without the battle of Mojkovac, led by Serdar Vukotić, the Central Powers would have prevented the withdrawal of the Serbian army and completely crushed it. Due to this unexpected resistance, the so-called gate of Mojkovac was able to close off the so-called gate of Mojkovac for the rapid advance of the Central Powers over the only passable transverse communication lines in the upper Tara and Lim valleys in the extremely impassable high mountains of the southeast Dinarides , so that the rescue of the forced evacuation took place with extreme victims the Serbian government and army via Montenegro and Albania to Corfu was successfully carried out.
National reception
The battle of Mojkovac is the last that Montenegro fought in its history and is often placed in line with the legend of the blackbird because of the high blood toll and the utter futility of effective resistance against a great power of Montenegrins . The battle has entered the epic singing tradition of the Montenegrin guslars and the prose literature and poetry of Montenegrin and Serbian authors and poets in many ways. The event is commemorated every year at the memorial in Mojkovac as well as in Podgorica and Belgrade by Montenegro and Serbia.
In the domestic self-is from the recording of the " Mojkovacka bitka" as the analog of "Montenegro Thermopylae " in the canon of the Epic zehnsilbigen seal and the songs to Montenegro National Instrument of gusle by Hadzi Radovan Becirovic Trebješkog ( "Mojkovacka bitka" , 1927), as also as an important topos in the context of the Montenegrin literature. This is how Milovan Djilas integrated the battle into the center of the narrative of his novel "Crna Gora" :
“This army has nothing left to retreat to, even if this country were bigger. Every further step back means an extinguished tribe - and there are not many of them, the betrayal of a century of heroic suffering and exertions, the departure from the only true myth and epic that still beats in the chest. "
Serdar Vukotić's daughter, Vasilija Vukotić (1897–1977), also witnessed the events on the battlefield. Vasilija often accompanied her father to the front; the reason for this is not known. Vasilija, who as an orderly passed on her father's orders to the troops on the battlefield of Mojkovac, also passed on the later famous words of her relative Đure Vukotića on Christmas Eve of January 6th 1916. During the traditional Orthodox Christmas fire from her father to the officers and Soldiers in front of the house where the staff resided, Vasilija was the only woman present holding the offerings of the feast, boiled wheat and a candle. She later noted the statements of the Montenegrin commanders about the real reason for the decision to challenge the Austro-Hungarian army to a decisive battle the next morning: “ The fight is spreading like fire, the Serbian army has been able to break away - if we all perish, then remains someone who avenges us and who comes out of the German fire. None of them burned until dawn ”.
Vasilija also gave the battle and the military epilogue derived from it on the Salonika Front its most famous expression:
"Without the bloody Christmas Eve in Mojkovac there would have been no resurrection on the Kajmakčalan ."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Politika, January 17, 2016 Стогодишњица Мојковачке битке
- ^ Nikola B. Popović 2012: The Serbs in the World War I 1914-1918 . Kuća Petrović, Fondacija Radost, Belgrade, ISBN 978-86-906183-5-4 , here p. 47
- ↑ Austria-Hungary's Last War 1914-1918 , Volume 4, p. 43 Local copy
- ↑ Austrian Biographical Lexicon
- ^ Military Maria Theresa Order 1914-1918
- ↑ Milorad Ekmečić: Dugo kretanje između klanja i oranja - istorija Srba u novom veku (1492-1992) . Evro Giunti, Belgrad 2011. Here pp. 353–354
- ↑ Milovan Djilas 1958: Crna Gora . NIRO, Književne Novine, Belgrade 1989, ISBN 86-391-0169-8
- ↑ Vesti, January 9, 2016 Uz stogodisnjicu Mojkovacke bitke: Izginuli za spas Srbije
- ↑ Milovan Djilas 1989: Crna Gora . NIRO, Knjizevne Novine, Belgrade. P. 6
- ↑ Milovan Djilas: Crna Gora . P. 20
- ↑ Informer, January 7, 2016 DAN KRVAVIH BADNJAKA: Da ne beše Božića na Mojkovcu, ne bi bilo ni Uskrsa na Kajmakčalanu
- ↑ Novosti, August 13, 2014 Vasilija Vukotić, Orleanka Mojkovačke bitke
- ↑ Novosti, January 7, 2016 Božić kada su braća spasla braću