Draft:Dragoljub M. Dinic (general)

Dragoljub M. Dinić (31 August 1881 - Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia, 20 January 1966) was a Serbian general and Yugoslav major general, professor and writer.[1]

Biography

Dinić was a participant in the Balkan Wars and the First World War. Promoted to brigadier general on 28 June 1927, he was professor of weapons technology at the Military Academy in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Belgrade from 1926 to 1937.[2] Among other things, he authored the Military Academy's textbook for military technology in 1936. After the Second World War, he was reactivated as a professor at the Military Academy of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army from 1945 to 1946 and taught there at the Infantry School (Pešadijsko vojno učilište).

Dinić was the recipient of all the highest military awards in Serbia and Yugoslavia.

He was involved in the liberation of Old Serbia and Macedonia. His description of the military campaign to capture northern Albania and the operations between Prizren and Durazzo provided insights into the war and the euphoric and patriotic impressions of the Serbian soldiers during the "liberation of Kosovo".[3]

Career

Dragoljub Dinić was born on August 31 in Kragujevac. He was the son of Mijajla and Stevane Dinić. He finished his 7-year high school in Kragujevac. After graduating from the Military Academy in Kragujevac, he served there as a non-commissioned officer (vodnik) until 1906. From 1906, he was assigned to the Obiličevo powder magazine in preparation for training as a technical artillery officer. He completed his actual two-semester training at the technical faculty in Ghent, Belgium. In 1908, first in Obiličevo, he became a non-commissioned officer in the Infantry Regiment (pešadijski puk) Car Lazar, and from 1909 he served in the XIX Infantry Regiment until the First Balkan War. Before the war he had attended the infantry school in Ripanj.[4]

1912–1918

During First Balkan War, Dinić was involved in the fighting as commander of the XIX Infantry Regiment in the regions of Podujevo and Priština, then part of the Ottoman Empire. As deputy chief of staff of the Shumadija Division, it marched through Turkish Albania and was involved in the fighting around Lezha.[5][6] In Durrës he was appointed staff commander of the division, then commander of the 2nd Battalion of the XIX. Regiment between Durrës and Kumanovo.

During the Second Balkan War, Dinić was involved with the XIXth Infantry Regiment in the battles at Zletovska reka, Kriva Palanka and Kiselice as well as Gramadi. Cited by the Supreme Army Command, he was proposed for early promotion to major. During the Albanian uprising in 1913, Dinić was deployed as commander of the XIXth Infantry Regiment in the border region around Lake Ohrid and Struga. On 13 September 1913, he was wounded in these battles.

The impressions of the war, written from a patriotic point of view, record the view of the Serbian soldiers in the “liberation of Kosovo” in patriotic words:

“After the revenge for Kosovo Field and the ceremonial entry of the troops of the Šumadija division into the tsarist city of Prizren, our 19th unit marched through the main streets of Prizren […] while an icy wind […] predicted snow and a harsh winter in the sight of Mitrovdan (26 October according to the Julian Calendar).”

Dinić described the euphoria and atmosphere among the soldiers in the tenor of revenge on the Ottoman Empire and compensation for the defeat of 1389:

“The officers and soldiers are beaming with the very fresh impressions of the ceremonial victory...everyone is overjoyed and proud ... and our proud falcons, guided by the Star of Providence and the Star of Karađordes (note: military order), heard shortly after they first lowered their wings around Prizren the loud slogan: "Let's go to the sea, to the Adriatic!", and he also described the more far-reaching territorial ambitions: The descendants of the Serbs who were defeated on Kosovo Polje are now as if they had descended from the sky... and want to draw the knightly bridge of Serbia to the Adriatic over the Albanian ridges and snowy Alps, over the bandit-like nests of the Arnauts (note: synonym of the Skipetars).[8]"

First World War

In the battles of the First World War in 1914–1915, Dinić was commander of the Second Battalion of the XIIth Infantry Regiment of the Shumadija Division (Šumadijska Divizija I. Poziva) of the First Serbian Army. He was involved in all of the division's battles. In the Battle of Cer, the division had to seal off the Austrian bridgehead at Šabac. Dinić was also involved in the battles for Lazarevac, Smederevo, Smederevska Palanka, Belgrade and Blace. On 11 October 1915, he was lightly wounded at Smederevska Palanka, and on 1 November