Youngest soldier of WWI

The origins of the First World War lay in Austro-Serbian antagonism. After occupying predominantly Serbian territory of Bosnia and Hertzegovina in 1908.  Austro-Hungarian Monarchy considered Serbia as a natural next step in their colonial expansion and tried to provoke the war at any cost. For years Austrian press was dehumanizing Serbian people, portrait them as lesser beings, preparing its people to physically destroy the whole nation.

Serbian sculls as a birthday present to Austrian emperor 

"Once upon a time there was Serbia, now all Serbian are hanged, only sheeps left ."

On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student and member of a multi-ethnic organization of national revolutionaries called Young Bosnia, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The political objective of the assassination was the independence of the southern Austro-Hungarian provinces mainly populated by Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austria-Hungary delivered the July Ultimatum to Serbia, a series of ten demands intentionally made unacceptable in order to provoke a war with Serbia. When Serbia agreed to only eight of the ten demands, Austria-Hungary declared war on 28 July 1914. While western historians trying to connect organization of this assassination to Serbian secret service the truth is that Austrian Archduke had mental problems and was not seen as proper inheritor of the throne. All indicates that assassination was organized by german and Austrian secret service.

It is important to sat that Serbia lost 30 % of all population in WWI and 65% of male population, 1 200 000 people,  due to systematic war crimes committed by Austrian, German, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Croatian soldiers.

 Austrian army killing Serbian civilians ,mostly woman, elderly people and children

Story about the youngest soldier of the great war started in 1914. Momčilo Gavrić was the youngest soldier in the First World War. He was born in May 1st, in 1906 in a village near the town of Loznica in Western Serbia, as the eighth child of eleven. At the very start of the Great War, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy concentrated the bulk of its forces at the Drina river, whose surroundings became the battlefield in the first phase of the war. During the first onslaught of the enemy, in the nearby village of Trbušnica near the town of Loznica, the entire village was slaughtered  including the  family of the seven  years old Momčilo Gavrić, whereas he himself was saved by pure luck , he was not at home when enemy soldiers arrived. His own words about the massacre :”  I saw in my front yard a massacre, I saw soldiers killing my parents and seven brothers and sisters .I was hidden behind the bush and when saw all that blood ...the whole yard was red from blood, all killed, slaughtered with knives and bayonets , house in flame … I just froze , couldn’t move or speak .”

He ran into the 6th Artillery Division of the Serbian Army which was, at the time, stationed on Mount Gucevo near his home village. He was taken by the 6th Artillery Division as a war orphan and a soldier called Milos Misovic was assigned as his caretaker. The boy pinpointed the location of the Austro-Hungarians that same evening, and was given control of the trigger of one of the Serbian batteries, which was considered as an act of personal revenge for the death of his family.

At the age of 8, after the Battle at mountain  Cer, one of the bloodiest battles of the great war and  first Allied victory over the Central Powers in the First World War, and the first aerial dogfight of the war took place during the battle he was promoted to the rank of Corporal by the commander of his unit, and given a military uniform. In 9 days  more than 15,000 troops were killed, with additional 50,000 wounded and 5000 captured on both sides. The losses of the Austro-Hungarian army were much bigger than the Serbian opponent and they were pushed back to the Austrian governed Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was their initial position for the invasion.

At the age of eight, he was the youngest soldier in the War and the youngest Corporal in history.

In the fall of 1915 the Mackensen Offensive crushed Serbian resistance . Serbia was occupied by joint forces of Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian armies, but the Serbian government and Army refused to capitulate.The alternative meant a huge, exodus-like retreat of the remnants of the Army through Albanian mountains, with a goal to reach the Allied territory in Greece, in the winter of 1915. The historical event is often referred as the “Albanian Golgotha”, which illustrates the horrors of the retreat by foot during winter time. Corporal Gavric crossed Albania with the rest of his comrades-in-arms and was given the “Albanian Medal” as a commemoration for his effort.When his unit was sent to Thessaloniki, Major Tucović sent him to Sorovits where he hastily went through the equivalent of four grades of elementary education.

In Kajmakčalan, Field Marshal Mišić was stunned when he saw a uniformed ten-year-old boy in the trenches. Major Tucović explained the situation to him that Gavrić had been with them since the Battle of Cer, and that he had both been taught discipline and been wounded during his time in the unit. Mišić promoted Gavrić to Lance Sergeant, and the order was read out to the whole division.

He was wounded several times during his service but continued to go back to the trenches, until the liberation of Serbia was completed and the war was over

After the war he was granted a scholarship in Great Britain, as part of an aid program for war orphans.  Gavric finished his education at the Henry Wreight School in Faversham, Kent, graduating in 1921. After graduation, he returned to Serbia and was reunited with his three brothers who had survived the war.

During WWII short campaign after which Nazi Germany occupied Yugoslavia, his regiment was captured, but he somehow managed to escape. In 1943 he was sent to Banjica concentration camp with his Jewish friend but later released by intervention of police official who remembered the boy soldier from WWI.

After WWII he was prosecuted by communist regime and almost killed and he spent year and half in prison where he was tortured the entire time. After he was released he couldn't talk for several years due to a trauma and later he never talked abut his time in communist prison. He died in 1993 at the age of 87.

Momcilo Gavric was given, in the course of time, memorials dedicated to him on the island of Corfu in Greece and most recently a monument in Belgrade. Also, a street in the town of Loznica bears his name.