President Milanović Lays Wreath at Donje Bare: To the Brave Youth of our Heroic Dalmatia
“The reason for my coming here is the great battle in which many of our people participated and were killed. I am referring to Dalmatians from Croatia, first of all Croats, Serbs from the Knin area, people from Croatia. A huge number of Croats, exclusively Dalmatians, left their bones here eighty years ago”, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović stated after laying a wreath and paying tribute at the memorial to the fallen combatants of the Second Dalmatian Brigade at Donje Bare in Sutjeska National Park in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
President Milanović wrote the following inscription on the wreath: “To the Brave Youth of our Heroic Dalmatia”. President Milanović laid a wreath at Donje Bare on the occasion of Anti-fascist Struggle Day and the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Sutjeska in which more than 7,500 Partisan fighters were killed including 3,032 Croatian Partisans from Dalmatia.
President Milanović stated that nearly all of Dalmatia fought here. Later on he will pay tribute at the memorial in Tjentište. “Those were freedom fighters, fighters against Nazism and fascism. This is a memorial to Dalmatians only, the Second Dalmatian Brigade; this is a memorial to the brave Dalmatian, Croatian youth, the Partisans of that time. Down below I will pay tribute to the Partisans, fighters against Nazism and fascism”, President Milanović noted.
“People fought for something they believed in and were prepared to die. There were very many of them, the whole of Dalmatia, the survivors ended up in Trieste. The people who survived here formed the backbone of the army that incorporated Istria into the Croatian state”, President Milanović said in concluding his address.
The Battle of Sutjeska, which lasted from mid-May to mid-June 1943, was one of the fiercest in this area in the Second World War. Close to 22,000 Partisan troops at the Sutjeska River, including 4,000 wounded fighters, fought against German and Italian forces 127,000 in total. During the breakthrough across the Sutjeska, a special role was played by the Second Dalmatian Brigade that had positions in Gornje and Donje Bare, and guarded the Partisan army’s left flank while crossing the Sutjeska and pulling out of the encirclement.
In the period from 5 to 9 June 1943, the fighters of the Second Dalmatian Brigade repelled all attacks by the Germans and Italians who were by far more numerous than the Partisans and better armed. By 15 June 1943, the greater part of the Partisan troops managed to escape the encirclement but the main part of the 3rd Partisan army’s strike division together with the hospital did not manage to withdraw. In the Partisan army were 8,925 fighters from Croatia, mainly from Dalmatia, 5,195 of them. By the end of the Battle of Sutjeska, 7,543 Partisan fighters were killed including 3,032 Partisans from Dalmatia.
Accompanying President Milanović were the Head of the Office of the President of the Republic Orsat Miljenić, the Adviser to the President for Defense Ivica Olujić, the Adviser to the President for Human Rights and Civil Society Melita Mulić, and the Staff Officer for Operational Support of the Cabinet for Defense and National Security of the Office of the President Colonel Ivica Kranjčević.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Ana Marija Katić