WWII Heroes of Serbia Remembered

By: Bojana Jankovic
Bajina Basta, Dec.2, 2009 (Serbia Today) - On Sunday, 29th November, 2009, on the Kadinjaca Mountain, in Western Serbia, between Uzice and Bajina Basta, the 68th anniversary of the WWII battle in which some 300 warriors of Radnicki Bataljon ( the Worker’s battalion) were killed. These heroes gave their lives defending the retreat to the Supreme Headquarters of the Partisan army in the Uzice Republic.
On this day, the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Uzice held a liturgy for the fallen heroes, and delegation of the Ministry of Defense and leader from all political parties in Uzice and Bajina Basta as well as associations of descedants, laid the wreaths at memorial monuments, with the honor guard of the Army of Serbia.
The Radnicki batalion of Uzice’s Partisan Unit, in the command Andrija Djurovic, offered fierce resistance a far more superior enemy who was at that time carrying out an offensive in the liberated territory on the Republic Uzice. The small, underarmed battalion put up such a fierce resistance to the attacking Nazi forces that the entire offensive was held up by the this small band of warriors fighting to a man in the face of certain death. The enemy forces broke the last defense of free Uzice, but the heroism battalion remains etched in the memory of the people to this day.
The ceremony marking the battle took place in front of several hundred people, as the Yugoslav tricolor flag flew overhead, along with the flag of the proleterian. Survivors of the National Liberation War, as the Balkans theater of WWII is known in Serbia, wore hats which were worn at that time, and sang a songs of tribute and all around Serbia, the famous battle was celebrated as Republic of Day.