Commemorative Medal of the Great Serbian Retreat

Single-classed Serbian military medal

Award

Commemorative Medal of the Great Serbian Retreat Споменица за верност oтаџбини 1915.

Type	Military decoration
Awarded for	Taking part in the Retreat through Albania of 1915
Presented by	Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Eligibility	Military personnel
Status	Discontinued
Established	5 April 1920
First awarded	1920
Total	142,148^[1]

Albanian Commemorative Medal ribbon

Commemorative Medal for Loyalty to the Fatherland 1915 (Serbian Cyrillic: Споменица за верност отаџбини 1915., romanized: Spomenica za vernost otadžbini 1915.) or Commemorative Medal of the Great Serbian Retreat, better known as the Albanian Commemorative Medal (Serbian Cyrillic: Албанска споменица, romanized: Albanska spomenica) was a single-classed military medal awarded to all Serbian military personnel who participated in the Great Serbian Retreat of World War I.^[2]

History and criteria

The Commemorative Medal for Loyalty to the Fatherland 1915 was instituted on 5 April 1920 by decree of Crown Prince-Regent Alexander I Karadjordjević in the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes until 1929, then by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.^[3]

At the end of 1915, Serbia was invaded by combined Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian armies, the greatly outnumbered Serbian Army, under the command of King Peter and Prince Alexander, faced total destruction but refused to come to terms. The decision was taken to retreat through the mountains of Albania towards the Adriatic coast to Corfu and Greece.^[4] During the journey across the mountains around 70,000 soldiers and 140,000 civilians froze, starved to death, died of disease or were killed by hostile Albanian tribes.^[5]^[6] The reorganised Serbian Army continued fighting the rest of the war on the Macedonian front liberating their country alongside French troops in 1918.^[7]

The Commemorative Medal was given on anniversaries and jubilees to all the participants of the event.^[2]

Appearance

The medal was gilt and silvered bronze in appearance, 32.5 mm x 50 mm. the obverse side depicts the profile of the Supreme Commander of the Serbian Army, Prince-Regent Alexander I, surrounding it is the inscription TO MY COMRADES IN ARMS ALEKSANDAR (својим ратним друговима Александар).^[2] On the reverse is the inscription FOR LOYALTY TO THE FATHERLAND 1915 (за верност отаџбини 1915).

The medal is worn on a light green bar with black stripes along the edge.^[2]

The medal was struck by Arthus-Bertrand in Paris.

Notable recipients

Momčilo Gavrić
Sergej Ingr
Stanislav Krakov
Milutin Nedić
Milan Nedić
Draža Mihailović
Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin

Images

front of the medal
reverse of the medal
Document issued to Leon Lebl.
Document issued to Momčilo Gavrić.
Document issued to Radivoj A. Marinkovic.

References

^ "Sretenje vraća ordenje".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ball; Peters (1994). "Serbia - Yugoslavia". Military Medals, Decorations & Orders. Schiffer Publishing. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-88740-579-2.
^ "Commemorative Medal for the Albanian Campaign". Royal Family of Serbia. Archived from the original on 16 November 1999.
^ James Lyon (30 July 2015). Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914: The Outbreak of the Great War. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4725-8005-4.
^ DiNardo, R.L. (2015). Invasion: The Conquest of Serbia, 1915. War, technology, and history. ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-4408-0092-4.
^ Hall, R.C. (2010). Balkan Breakthrough: The Battle of Dobro Pole 1918. Twentieth-Century Battles. Indiana University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-253-00411-6.
^ Glenny, M. (2012). The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-2012: New and Updated. House of Anansi Press Incorporated. p. 355. ISBN 978-1-77089-274-3.