Reminder
LOZNICA, THE FIRST CITY LIBERATED FROM GERMAN OCCUPATION IN WORLD WAR II
A Bright Spot of Freedom and Hope
Freedom was never a thing to bargain with in Jadar. In the terrible year of 1941, the uprising started already in April 22 in Donji Dobrić, under Vidojevica, only four days after the capitulation agreement was signed. The operation of liberating Loznica on August 31 was prepared in the Monastery of Tronoša. Liberators were led by lieutenant colonel Veselin Misita, royal officer, and Hieromonk Georgije Bojić, prior of Tronoša. Upon liberating the city, Zajača and Banja Koviljača, the Wehrmacht sent additional forces to Serbia from France and Greece. In spite of the occupier’s revenge, this example continued shining in the European history of freedom
By: Nebojša Trifunović
Photo: Nebojša Trifunović and NR Archive
Strange are the ways of fate. They interlace, entangle and untangle, while one is not even aware where they are taking him. Fate wanted Veselin Misita, lieutenant colonel of the Yugoslav Royal Army, to begin his life in Buna near Mostar and end it 37 years later in an uprising, in Loznica.
That summer of 1941, nearly entire Europe was under occupation of the Axis Powers. Resistance almost didn’t exist. The Red Army was retreating before the Wehrmacht in the east, bending under the force advancing like a gigantic wave spreading from the Black Sea to the Gulf of Finland towards Moscow. In the endless series of defeats, which began on September 1, 1939, freedom suddenly sparkled in a small city in the Balkans. Exactly two years after the German invasion of Poland. The flame lasted only 40 days, but sufficient to show that the powerful Hitler’s army was not invincible after all.
There are no reliable data when lieutenant colonel Misita came to Jadar from Ravna Gora. According to some, he and captain Dragoslav S. Račić prepared for the uprising from June or early July. Be as it may, the rebels gathered in the eve of the last day of August.
Professor of the Loznica gymnasium Živojin Perišić left valuable information about the events that took place at the end of the first summer of German occupation in his Material for the History of Loznica; so did publicist (and partisan fighter) Dragoslav Parmarković in his book Jadar in the Past. In the eve of the 60th anniversary of the first liberation in World War II, the AŠ 015 newspaper in Loznica published a piece about it, written by journalist Zorica Višnjić. A few years earlier, the same author made a show about the event on Radio Podrinje, interviewing the then still alive participants. However, all details haven’t been revealed to the very day, including the death of lieutenant colonel Misita.
In the year of 1941, fifteen year-old Božidar Panić from Klupci, suburb of Loznica, was present at a gathering in the Monastery of Tronoša. According to his testimony, the rebels took a vow. A funeral service was held to all of them alive, so that no one would be buried without a service in case of death. Misita then told them to be ready to attack, and Hieromonk Georgije Bojić Džidža, prior of Tronoša, pointed out that partisans took over Stolice and that Loznica and Banja Koviljača must be taken over as well.
ATTACK ON THREE POINTS
According to German data, four days before the rebels’ attack, units of the 3rd battalion 738th infantry regiment 718th division were distributed. The ninth platoon was transferred to Banja Koviljača, where two squads of the 12th platoon were already seated, while two squads of the 11th platoon were sent to Zajača, which had an important antimony mine, and two to Loznica. The occupier was housed in three objects in Loznica: the gymnasium, Vuk’s Culture Home and kafana of Lazar Hajduković in Donja Luka, in the place of today’s department store.
When everything was ready for attack, on August 31st, Misita sent an ultimatum to the Germans:
”All active and reserve officers, non-commissioned officers, the clergy, teachers and entire Serbian nation, request you to surrender the city, guaranteeing you military honor. Otherwise, we will take the city by force. In that case, you cannot ask anything from us. The deadline for fulfilling this request is 30 minutes.”
A reply from the Germans, who took a stroll through Yugoslavia only four months earlier, seizing it in just 12 days, never arrived. There are different testimonies, so, some say the attack began at 7 a.m., others at 10 a.m., but they all agree that it happened after the bells rang. The rebels attacked all three strongholds of the Germans. Misita led the attack on Lazar’s kafana, Bojić on the gymnasium, and Mika Vujičić on Vuk’s Home. 18 people were sent to Zajača under the command of monk Mardarije.
Rebel Milorad Banjac spoke about the attack on Lazar’s kafana. The rebels went down from Šanac over a small wooden bridge on the Štira and reached Jeftića House, present School of Economics, but the Germans opened strong fire from machineguns from the gymnasium over Gornja Luka, present Jovana Cvijića Square, so they couldn’t continue further. They were forced to return to the river and go towards Donja Luka, present Vuka Karadžića Square. The Germans fortified in the kafana noticed them and opened strong machinegun fire from the watchtower, forcing them to retreat. They stepped over the Štira, surging from the rain, and came out to the beginning of the Valjevo Road. From there, as Banjac remembered, they saw Misita rushing over the open space of Donja Luka and shooting at the gunner.
Misita’s death was never clarified. According to some statements, he died while rushing towards the kafana, and according to others, he was killed when he jumped in through the window.
Parmarković wrote about Misita’s death relying on Perišić’s work:
”Lieutenant colonel Misita bravely rushed towards Hajduković’s kafana. He was throwing bombs, and when the Germans began retreating into the backyard, he jumped in through the window. That is when he was hit by a burst from a machinegun. Deaf-mute Mujaga Zečanović fell next to him with an axe in his hand.”
However, witness Savo Jerinić told that first Mujaga fell from a bomb thrown from the watchtower, and then Misita was killed by the same bomb while firing at the Germans. It is known that the lessee of the kafana Lazar Hajduković was executed under accusation of being guilty for Misita’s death.
BREAKING GERMANS IN LOZNICA AND ZAJAČA
Meanwhile, Vujičić was inviting Germans fortified in Vuk’s Home to surrender. Their refusal was succeeded by such a vigorous attack that they were forced to change their mind. The occupiers who turned the gymnasium into a stronghold also didn’t let go so easily. They fired at the rebels from machineguns, disabling them to approach, but one of the liberators, Boja Milutinović, found a way:
– Without thinking, I grabbed the barrel of the machinegun and pulled it. I was pulling it, the German was pulling it, while the barrel was so terribly hot, that my hand was entirely burned. I was afraid and thought of letting it go, but then a bomb exploded in the backyard, the German was startled and slightly let it go. I grabbed the machinegun and rushed inside. Then we took all of them from classrooms and brought them to Tronoša.
Džidža’s testimony given to Ozna after the war states that the kafana fell after the gymnasium, after they had taken several captured Germans there to convince their fellow soldiers to surrender. The fight for liberating Loznica lasted two hours, with eight rebels killed and four injured.
During the fights in Loznica, Mardarije divided his group in Zajača into several smaller ones. They opened fire from several sides on a building with German soldiers. Despite the fire, the Germans managed to pull out of the building and start off towards the city. In a nearby town of Paskovac, they found out that Loznica fell, so they set off towards Koviljača. Three chetniks stopped them, so 60 occupier’s soldiers surrendered and laid down their weapons.
The Germans from Banja Koviljača started a counterattack, but they were soon stopped. However, they didn’t give up, so they started off towards the city again during the night, and according to some sources entered it, but soon retreated to Banja again.
The following day, commands were formed in Loznica, Zajača, Draginac and Brezjak. Additional mobilization was carried out and preparations began for liberating Koviljača, where the occupier had more than 500 soldiers. The Germans were fortified in hotels, they dug trenches, made bunkers, had air support of the ”stuka” escadrille and artillery support from Croatian ustashas on the western bank of the Drina.
BATTLE FOR KOVILJAČA
On September 1, at 6 a.m., the attack on Koviljača began. The Germans successfully resisted two attacks, and the rebels stopped their counterattack. Wehrmacht lieutenant Jaak later wrote in his confiscated war diary that flares from the opposite bank of the Drina indicated that Croatian support in arms was coming, previously promised in a message thrown from a plane. On the second day of September, a battalion of Croatian ustashas was progressing towards Koviljača, but they were rejected. Around 6 p.m., the rebels succeeded in bringing down a German scout plane.
There were many victims in the fights for Koviljača. The Germans spread a wire with electricity and many rebels ran into it and died. There are no reliable information about the numbers (the total number of chetniks fallen in the battle for Banja is between 37 and 60, depending on the source). It is known that four partisans died and four of them were wounded.
The following day, all attempts of Germans to send backup to their surrounded soldiers were thwarted. The Drina and Valjevo partisan squads liberated Krupanj and Bogatić, so all accesses to Loznica from Šabac, Valjevo and Zvornik were closed. The Mačva Battalion stopped the German antiarmour squad near Šabac, and fighters of one partisan and two chetnik squads attacked and rejected a Wehrmacht squad near Zavlaka. However, the Germans fortified in Koviljača didn’t give in, and the following day even the aviation attacked the rebels. Then, finally, fire from German positions stopped. They realized they couldn’t resist any more and left the town.
The fight for Loznica was the first armed conflict of the chetniks against the occupiers, and liberation of Koviljača the first joint armed venture of partisans and chetniks. The success of rebels showed that the German force, invincible until that moment, can be broken. Two days after establishing the quisling authorities in Serbia, Loznica sparkled on the black map of Europe as a bright spot of freedom and hope.
The rebels’ guns were still hot when the German 342nd division was sent from France and the 125th regiment from Greece to Serbia. Hitler ordered General Franz Boehme to break the resistance. Freedom lasted only for a short time. The city was surrendered without a fight on October 10 and remained in chains until September 23, 1944, when units of the Second Vojvodina Brigade, 16th Division, 12th Corpus of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia liberated it with slight resistance. The Germans already left the city, leaving only several soldiers, parts of the White Army Russian Protective Corpus, Serbian Volunteer Corpus and Serbian State Guard.
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Prisoners
Ninety-three German soldiers and officers were captured in Loznica. They were treated in a humane manner and half of them died two days later in the German bombing of the Čokešina Monastery, where they were transferred. The fact that the prisoners were treated well saved the city from German revenge, which struck Jadar in the days around October 14, when 2.950 inhabitants of Draginac and surrounding villages were assassinated, including babies in cradles and seniors.
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The Real Day of the Uprising
The Yugoslav Army ended their resistance to the Wehrmacht on April 18, 1941, but the rebellious people of Jadar killed one German officer and two non-commissioned officers from an ambush already on April 22, near the village of Donji Dobrić. The Germans then burned down the village and took 70 hostages. A day later, the commissar of the municipality of Loznica Bora Radovanović warned, upon the order of the German military command: ”German military authorities will shoot 50 of our people for one of their soldiers and destroy all our homes.”
As far as known, it is the first example of such a threat, almost six months before the notorious Boehme’s order to shoot 100 Serbs for one dead German soldier and 50 for a wounded one.
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Misita
Lieutenant colonel Misita was an excellent officer. At the age of 33, he became the youngest major of the Yugoslav Royal Army and lieutenant colonel at the age of 37. He was decorated several times. He spoke French, Czech and German, so he sent the ultimatum to Germans in Loznica in German.
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Life in the Liberated City
Little is known about life in Loznica in the days of freedom. It is known that life was hard, that there were around 2.000 Bosnian refugees in the city and its surrounding. The market was open on Fridays and craftsmen and kafanas were working as well. Children and players of LSK played football near ”Sokolana” and the Cultural and Artistic Society ”Karadžić” was active as well. The city command invited people to collect food for refugees, and there were several points where food was prepared and distributed.
