Serbia
Živojin Mišić
1855–1921 Commander, Serbian First Army, 1914; Chief of the Supreme Command, 1918
Živojin Mišić was born in 1855 in the village of Struganik, the thirteenth child of a peasant family, and worked as a shepherd as a boy. He fought in the Serbo-Turkish wars of 1876–78, taught strategy at the Military Academy from 1898 to 1904 and became assistant chief of staff to Radomir Putnik. In late 1914 he took command of the First Army, which bore the brunt of the Austro-Hungarian invasion, and won the Battle of Kolubara, driving the invaders out of Serbia; he was made a field marshal. In the retreat of late 1915 he argued for a final stand but was overruled. In 1918 he planned the breakthrough of the Salonika front and became Chief of the Supreme Command. He died in Belgrade on 20 January 1921.