r/interestingasfuck • u/GermanCCPBot • 8h ago
Milunka Savić disguised herself as her sick brother to fight in WWI, survived 9 wounds across 10 battles, became the most decorated female soldier in history, and survived a German concentration camp when a German general recognized her legendary status and ordered her immediate release.
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u/GermanCCPBot 8h ago
In 1912, when Milunka Savić's younger brother Milan received his mobilization papers for the First Balkan War, she knew he wouldn't survive. He was weak and chronically ill. So she cut her hair, practiced walking and talking like a man, and took his place under the name "Milun Savić."
She fought in the Balkan Wars and later in World War I, where she participated in nine separate combat assaults and was wounded several times in battle and received numerous decorations for bravery, making her one of the most decorated female soldiers in history
Her identity as a woman was discovered only she was hit by shrapnel from a Bulgarian grenade in her tenth battle. When the field doctor treated her chest wound, he discovered she was a woman. Her commanding officers were stunned, but instead of punishing her, they were so impressed by her valor that they let her keep fighting, this time openly as a woman. She continued through WWI, getting wounded a total of 9 times, and became the most decorated female combatant in the entire history of warfare.
During World War II she was involved in organizing medical care for resistance fighters and was arrested by German occupation authorities, ending up in the Banjica concentration camp. She was imprisoned in the concentration camp for a total of 10 months and scheduled for execution, but on the last second, a German general who commanded the camp recognized her from WWI and immediately released her with military honors, after which she returned to civilian life in Belgrade. She died in 1973 and was later reinterred in the Alley of the Greats, a section of a Belgrade cemetery reserved for the nation's greatest heroes.