Milorad Petrović

General
Milorad Petrović
Native name Милорад Петровић
Nickname(s) "Lord"
Born (1882-04-18)18 April 1882
Sumrakovac (part of Boljevac), Kingdom of Serbia
Died 12 June 1981(1981-06-12) (aged 99)
Belgrade, SFRY
Allegiance  Yugoslavia
Service/branch Royal Yugoslav Army
Rank Army General
Commands held 1st Army Group
Battles/wars World War I
World War II: Invasion of Yugoslavia (1941) (POW)

Milorad Petrović (Serbian Cyrillic: Милорад Петровић; 18 April 1882 – 12 June 1981) was an Army General [lower-alpha 1] in the Royal Yugoslav Army who commanded the 1st Army Group during the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia of April 1941 during World War II.

Early life and military career

Petrović was born on 18 April 1882 in Sumrakovac, Principality of Serbia. He joined the Royal Serbian Army in 1899, attending the Military Academy until 1901, when he was commissioned in the rank of poručnik (lieutenant). His initial posting to the 15th Infantry Regiment was followed by stints at the Musketry School and the 18th Infantry Regiment. On 4 October 1908 he was appointed to command a company of the 4th Infantry Regiment. At the beginning of the First Balkan War in 1912 he was appointed an orderly officer at the Supreme Command, and during that year was promoted to the rank of kapetan prve klase (captain first class). The following year he was moved to the operations section of the Supreme Command, and remained in this position until the end of the Second Balkan War. During 1913 he was promoted to major and commanded troops at the railway station in Skopje during an Albanian revolt.[2]

Axis invasion of Yugoslavia

Petrović commanded the 1st Army Group during the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia of April 1941.[3][4] Petrović's command consisted of the 4th Army of Armijski đeneral Petar Nedeljković,[5] responsible for the Yugoslav-Hungarian border and deployed behind the Drava between Varazdin and Slatina,[6] and the 7th Army of General Dušan Trifunović,[5] which was responsible for the defence of the northwestern border with Italy and the Third Reich. Petrović's Army Group Reserve was located around and to the south of Zagreb.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Serbian: Armijski General was equivalent to a United States lieutenant general. [1]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Niehorster 2013a.
  2. ↑ Bjelajac 2004, p. 246.
  3. ↑ Anic 2002, p. 31.
  4. ↑ Niehorster 2013b.
  5. 1 2 Loi 1978, p. 43.
  6. ↑ U.S. Army 1986, p. 37.
  7. ↑ U.S. Army 1986, pp. 36–37.

References

Books

  • Anic, Nikola (2002). Njemačka vojska u Hrvatskoj 1941–1945 [The German Army in Croatia 1941–1945] (in Croatian). Zagreb, Croatia: Hrvatski institut za povijest (Croatian Institute of History). ISBN 978-953-6491-77-3. 
  • Bjelajac, Mile (2004). Generali i admirali Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1918–1941 : studija o vojnoj eliti i biografski leksikon [The Generals and Admirals of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 1918–1941: A Study of the Military Elite and Biographical Lexicon] (in Serbian). Belgrade: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije (Institute for the Recent History of Serbia). OCLC 607699124. 
  • Loi, Salvatore (1978). Le operazioni delle unità italiane in Jugoslavia (1941–1943): narrazione, documenti [The operations of Italian units in Yugoslavia (1941–1943): narrative, documents] (in Italian). Rome, Italy: Ministero della difesa (Ministry of Defence). OCLC 9194926. 
  • U.S. Army (1986) [1953]. The German Campaigns in the Balkans (Spring 1941). Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. OCLC 16940402. CMH Pub 104-4. 

Web

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