Milan Milovanović was a Yugoslav Army general (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) ''Armijski đeneral'' who was acting

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Afg ...

of the

Royal Yugoslav Army The Yugoslav Army ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Jugoslovenska vojska, JV, Југословенска војска, ЈВ), commonly the Royal Yugoslav Army, was the land warfare military service branch of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (originally Kingdom of Serbs ...

from 1922 to 1924 and Chief of the General Staff between 1929 and 1934. He was briefly Minister for Army and Navy between April and October 1934, and was appointed as senior member of the

Military Council A military council is an approach to organization by a council with representatives from various bodies. The term "military council" applied to organisational groupings of senior ranking officers in the European armies of the 19th century during o ...

in 1935.

Career

Milovanović was born in

Šetonje Šetonje is a village situated in Petrovac na Mlavi municipality in Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroa ...

in the

Požarevac Požarevac ( sr-cyr, Пожаревац, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Braničevo District in eastern Serbia. It is located between three rivers: Danube, Great Morava and Mlava and below the hill Čačalica (208m). As of 2011, ...

region of

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

in 1874. He entered the Military Academy in 1891 and was commissioned into the infantry in 1894. He attended training in France in 1903. In August 1912, he joined a secret society called the

Black Hand Black Hand or The Black Hand may refer to: Extortionists and underground groups * Black Hand (anarchism) (''La Mano Negra''), a presumed secret, anarchist organization based in the Andalusian region of Spain during the early 1880s * Black Hand (e ...

. From 1910–12 he was chief of the intelligence section of the Serbian General Staff, and he was a professor of tactics at the Serbian Military Academy until 1919. During the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he held several staff positions and was attached to the French Supreme Command as the Serbian representative during 1917 and 1918. In 1922 he became the first assistant to the

of the

, Petar Pešić. Between 1922 and 1924, he acted as Chief of the General Staff while Pešić was Minister for the Army and Navy, and later commanded the 5th Army at

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...

. In April 1929 he was appointed as Chief of the General Staff but relinquished this position when he was appointed as Minister for Army and Navy in April 1934. In October 1934, he was replaced by

Petar Živković Petar Živković ( sr-cyr, Петар Живковић; 1 January 1879 – 3 February 1947) was a Serbian military officer and political figure in Yugoslavia. He was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 7 January 1929 until 4 Apr ...

as Minister for Army and Navy after the assassination of King Alexander, as he was not considered strong enough to perform the role. He was appointed as the senior member of the

in 1935. He was considered a particularly capable officer when he was younger.

References

Sources

Books

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Milovanovic, Milan 1874 births 1942 deaths Serbian military personnel of World War I 20th-century Serbian people People from Petrovac, Serbia Serbian generals People of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Royal Serbian Army soldiers Army general (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)