Radoje Ljutovac (4 September 1887 – 25 November 1968) was a Serbian soldier from the village of Poljna, Serbia. Private Radoje Ljutovac fought in the

First World War 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 ...

in the

Serbian Army The Serbian Army ( sr-cyr, Копнена војска Србије, Kopnena vojska Srbije, lit=Serbian Land Army) is the land-based and the largest component of the Serbian Armed Forces. History Originally established in 1830 as the Army of Pr ...

, and is officially credited with the first shooting down of a

military aircraft A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat: * Combat aircraft are designed to destroy enemy equipm ...

with

Ground-to-Air A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

fire.

Balkans War

During the Balkan wars in 1912-1913, as a gunner, he contributed to the liberation of Serbia from the Ottoman Empire and the defense of Bulgaria.

First World War

Sebian 75-mm anti-aircraft artillery defending Kragujevac during WWI

He joined the

as a gunner in the Serbian Army and participated in their battles in 1914. During 1915, Serbia was again attacked by the

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

and the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

. Ljutovac was placed in the battalion artillery regiment "Tanasko Rajic", a special unit at the time, operating the newly formed anti-air battery. His regiment, which was located on a hill near

Kragujevac Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Serbia, and is situated on ...

Metin, was tasked to defend the area from enemy aircraft, as buildings such as the

Military Technical Institute Military Technical Institute ( sr, Војнотехнички институт, Vojnotehnički institut; abbr. ) is a Serbian weapons and aircraft design institute, headquartered in Belgrade, and governed by the Serbian Ministry of Defence. It ...

and other important facilities were present in that area.

Downing of the aircraft

On 30 September 1915, before noon, the alarm was sounded and his regiment went into battle stations, three planes approached Kragujevac and dropped their payload of 45 bombs, 16 of which fell on the Military Technical Institute, 9 on the train station, and the rest throughout the town. Serbian soldiers on the ground unsuccessfully tried to down the airplanes with rifle fire and machine gun fire. On the orders of his commanding officer, Ljutovac was waiting with his cannon and he saw the three Austro-Hungarian aircraft with his binoculars. The cannon was not a dedicated anti-aircraft weapon, but a Polish cannon modified by a piece of Turkish equipment captured in 1912. He took aim and fired a shell. The first plane of the group was hit. The aircraft shuddered and started kicking up smoke, and then it crashed to the ground on Prince Peter Street, right next to the house of Obren Janković. After the war, he said this of his experience: "I believed in my own hand and artillery experience," he said, "the plane was pointing towards the target," he said. "That's a happy moment." Now, I need to be calm, steady, and my arm is pulled the trigger, a flame came from the barrel, a thick smoke came out of his plane, and then he headed for the ground." After congratulating him on the venture, the commander gave him a horse, which he rode into town to find the burning aircraft. Together with the plane were the burned bodies of the enemy pilots. Ljutovac stood at attention and saluted. The pilots of the downed aircraft were Captain Von Scheffe and his rear/forward gunner Oton Kris. Ljutovac was then decorated with the Order of Karađorđe Star with Swords and was promoted to the rank of

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non ...

. Later on the

Salonika front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of German ...

Ljutovac was promoted to the rank of

sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

. In the fall of 1918, he participated in the breakthrough of the Salonika front.

After the war

After the war and demobilization, Ljutovac opened a store trading mixed goods in Trstenik. Radoje Ljutovac died on 25 November 1968.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ljutovac, Radoje 1887 births 1968 deaths People from Trstenik, Serbia Serbian military personnel of World War I