Memorial to General Boroević

20 min.

Svetozar Boroević was born into a border-guard family in the Croatian village of Umetić near Petrinja on 13 December 1856. He dedicated his life to a military career very early on; he was a brilliant student and cadet. At the outbreak of World War I, he took command of the 6^th Corps of the Austro-Hungarian Army in the rank of Infantry General. He fought with his army at the Russian Front and in the Carpathian Mountains. With Italy entering World War I in May 1915 a new battlefield opened, the so-called south-western front. The defence of its southernmost section (the Isonzo Front) was assigned to the Austro-Hungarian Fifth Army under the command of General Boroević. With his army he defended the Isonzo Front from the onset of fights all the way to the breakthrough of the front in the Upper Soča Region in October 1917. The Fifth Army soon began to be called the Isonzo Armee [Isonzo Army]. In February 1918 Boroević was appointed field-marshal. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Field-marshal Boroević wanted to join the newly organized army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but as a former Habsburg general he was unwanted. Embittered, he retreated to Austria and died in Klagenfurt on 23 May 1920, forgotten and impoverished.

Photos: (1, 2, 4) Vinko Avsenak; (3) Renata Gutnik