Dušan Jezdić or Dushan Yezdich (

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, 22 December 1881 –

Ionian Sea The Ionian Sea (, ; or , ; , ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, and the Salento peninsula to the west, ...

, near the island of

Vido Vido () is an island of the Ionian Islands group of Greece. Location This small island (less than a kilometer in diameter) is at the mouth of the port of Corfu, about 1 km north of the old fort. History The island was known to the ancien ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, 1917) was a Serbian

Chetnik The Chetniks,, ; formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland; and informally colloquially the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist m ...

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

who participated in the struggle for

Old Serbia Old Serbia () is a Serbian historiographical term that is used to describe the territory that according to the dominant school of Serbian historiography in the late 19th century formed the core of the Serbian Empire in 1346–71. The term does ...

and Macedonia (1903–1912), the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

and the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Biography

Jezdić was born in Belgrade and educated at the prestigious Serbian Military Academy. He became a

after joining the

Serbian Chetnik Organization The Serbian Revolutionary Organization () or Serbian Chetnik Organization (Српска четничка организација / Srpska četnička organizacija) was a paramilitary revolutionary organization with the aim of liberation of Old Se ...

in 1903. Until 1917 he participated in the wars as a lieutenant colonel. He was buried at sea with hundreds of others who survived the

Serbian army's retreat through Albania The Great Retreat, also known in Serbian historiography as the Albanian Golgotha ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Албанска голгота, Albanska golgota), refers to the retreat of the Royal Serbian Army through the mountains of the Principalit ...

only to fall ill from the excruciating experience and die of hunger or disease after having reached

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

. After the retreat of the Serbian Army through Albania at the end of 1915, the French fleet transported around 150,000 Serbs to the island of Corfu during January and February 1915. Jezdić was among the soldiers, exhausted by the strenuous march through mountainous

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

and

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

, some were dying in staggering numbers in contrast, the most seriously ill soldiers and patients were disembarked on a small, rocky island called

close to Corfu, which was organized as a temporary field hospital. Without any possibility of being buried on the stony island, the surrounding sea was converted into a "blue sea tomb", where more than 5,000 people were lowered. Vido Island, near Corfu, was a haven for those involved in Serbia’s Great Retreat, a mass escape of king and civilians. It functioned as a

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals, and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have bee ...

area. Because the rocky composition of the island made it hard to dig graves, those who died on the journey were buried at sea. It’s assumed that several thousand were buried this way. The sea around it is called ''Plava Grobnica'' or the Blue Tomb by Serbian people. The retreat of the Serbian army and civilians through the

Prokletije The Accursed Mountains (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Prokletije, Проклетије, separator=" / ", ; both translated as "Cursed Mountains"), also known as the Albanian Alps (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Albanski Alpi, Албански Алпи, separator=" / ", li ...

mountain range that encompasses

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

, and

represents part of the great tragedy of Serbia in World War I. Corfu and Salonika was the place where the army recuperated and regrouped before departing for the front at

Salonika Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

In literature

Brother-at-arms and

war poet War poetry is poetry on the topic of war. While the term is applied especially to works of the First World War, the term can be applied to poetry about any war, including Homer's ''Iliad'', from around the 8th century BC as well as poetry of th ...

Milosav Jelić Milosav Jelić (Skobalj (Smederevo), Kingdom of Serbia, 13 March 1883 – Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 6 July 1947) was a Serbian chetnik active in Old Serbia and North Macedonia, Macedonia. He was also a writer, war poet and one of the leading Belgrade j ...

wrote a poem memorializing Jezdić's short but brave life. Poet

Milutin Bojić Milutin Bojić ( sr-Cyrl, Милутин Бојић; – ) was a Serbian war poet, theatre critic, playwright, and soldier. A native of Belgrade, he began writing poetry at an early age and published a number of literary reviews under a p ...

, who survived the Albanian retreat, witnessed the bodies tossed at sea, and eventually succumbed to

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

and died in

, also wrote a moving tribute entitled Ode to a Blue Sea Tomb ('' Plava Grobnica'').

References

* Sources: Српски биографски речник, том 4, с. 35. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jezdic, Dusan Chetniks 1881 births 1917 deaths Serbian military personnel killed in World War I