Svetozar Boroević

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Svetozar Boroević von Bojna (or Borojević) (13 December 1856 – 23 May 1920) was an Austro-Hungarian field marshal who was described as one of the finest defensive strategists of the First World War. He commanded Austro-Hungarian forces in the Isonzo front, for which he was nicknamed the "Lion of Isonzo".

For his service during the First World War, Boroević rose to the rank of Feldmarschall before the end of the war in 1918, becoming the first and only Austro-Hungarian field marshal of South Slavic descent.

Life

Early life

Boroević was born to a Serbian Orthodox family on 13 December 1856 in the village of Umetić, Croatian Military Frontier.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was baptized in the Serbian Orthodox Church, most likely in the parish church in Mečenčani, where his father served.<ref name="Rauchensteiner">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn His father Adam Boroević was a Grenzer (border guard) officer, his mother was Stana (née Kovarbašić von Zborište).<ref name=":1" /><ref name="Dupuy-94-Boroevic" />Template:SfnTemplate:PnTemplate:Sfn His father took part in wars in Italy, Hungary and Austro-Hungarian campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878. He was awarded the silver medal for bravery.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As an old man, Boroević's father had built a Serbian Orthodox church as his endowment in Mečenčani, which was consecrated in 1877.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Boroević had a brother, Nikola, a colonel who also received Austrian noble status in 1917.<ref>Template:Harvnb: "a car i kralj Karlo I austrijsko plemstvo njegovu bratu, pukovniku Nikoli dana 16.III. (3.V.) 1917. god."</ref>

Some sources state that Boroević was an ethnic Serb or of Serb origin.<ref>Matica Srpska 1975: "Био је зван на ручак приликом посете познатог аустријског војсковође, пореклом Србина, Светозара Боројевића."</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb Template:Quote</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb Template:Quote</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb Template:Quote</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Other sources regard him as an ethnic Croat or of Croat origin.<ref name="Rauchensteiner" />Template:Sfn<ref name=":1" /><ref name="keegan-wheatcroft-1976">Template:Harvnb: "A Croat (the Croats prided themselves on their particular loyalty to the emperor)."</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Allegedly, Boroević himself stated that he was a Croat and that Croatia was his homeland.Template:Sfn<ref>Tado Oršolić, Jugozapadno talijansko bojište i maršal Borojević u dalmatinskim novinama Narodni list i Smotra Dalmatinska (1915.-1918.), p. 95. and footnote 22 on p. 95., u: Feldmaršal Svetozar barun Borojević od Bojne (1856.-1920.). Zbornik radova, Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb, 2011., (editor Marino Manin), Template:ISBN</ref>

Military career

Early career

He joined cadet school at the age of ten.Template:SfnTemplate:Pn After finishing grade school he moved to Kamenica and later Graz where he studied in military academies.<ref name=":0" /> He attended the Liebenau cadet school in 1875.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Dupuy-94-Boroevic">Template:Harvnb: "the son of a Grenzer (border guard) officer; attended the Liebenau cadet school (1875),"</ref> After graduating from Military School he served as a Junior Officer in the army.Template:SfnTemplate:Pn He advanced quickly through the ranks. He was a corporal in 1872, and later on May 1, 1875, he became a lieutenant.<ref name=":0" /> He would also fight battles in Bosnia in 1878.Template:SfnTemplate:Pn In 1889, he married Leontina von Rosner, a daughter of a late Austrian colonel, Friedrich Ritter von Rosner. The couple had one son, Friedrich Borojević von Bojna, named after his mother's father. The son died in 1918.Template:Cn

Boroević was awarded for his service in the capture of Sarajevo. Svetozar would eventually become a commander in the Croatian Home Guard. Before the First World War, he commanded the 42. Home Guard Infantry Division of the Croatian Home Guard.Template:Sfn In 1903 he was formally released from the Home Guard, already having been assigned to the Imperial & Royal Army in 1898. During war, the defensive troops were part of the Armed Forces commanded by the Supreme Army Command and could be used at the front. He distinguished himself in the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878.<ref name=":0" /> Because of his service, he was awarded Military Merit Cross.<ref name=":0" /> Afterwards, he was promoted to the rank of Oberleutnant in 1880. From 1881 to 1883 he studied at the military academy in Vienna.<ref name=":0" /> Between 1887 and 1891 he underwent additional military training and worked as an instructor after that, and he would begin his teaching at the Theresian Military Academy. He would finish teaching there in 1891.<ref name=":0" /> Svetozar became a major in May 1892.<ref name=":0" /> In May 1895, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.<ref name=":0" /> He would take control over a battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment during the month of April in 1896.<ref name=":0" /> In November 1897 he was promoted to Colonel.<ref name=":0" /> Later he was appointed to chief of staff of the Seventh Corps of the Imperial & Royal Army in June 1898, where he remained until February 1904.<ref name=":0" /> In 1904, he was promoted Major General and took control of the 14th Infantry Brigade.<ref name=":0" /> In May 1905, he was created a Hungarian nobleman (since Croatia was one of the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown) with the attribute von Bojna by the Emperor & King.<ref name=":0" /> From 1907 to 1912 he commanded to VII Landwehr Division.<ref name=":0" /> On May 1, 1908, the monarch made him Field Marshal Lieutenant (Feldmarschallleutnant).<ref name=":0" /> In September 1909 he was put in charge of the VI Corps in Kassa.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref> He became the commander of the Sixth Corps of the I & R Army in April 1912 and on May 1, 1913, General of the Infantry.<ref name=":0" />

World War I

Early War

When World War I started in 1914 he was in command of the Sixth Corps on Galicia in the Eastern Front.<ref name=":0" /> He would distinguish himself at these battles.Template:SfnTemplate:Pn On September 1, 1914, he became commander of the Third Army.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">Template:Cite book</ref> He would fight at the Battle of Komarów.<ref name=":0" /> Later, in early October he liberated Fort Przemysl, providing a temporary relief in the Siege of Przemyśl.<ref name=":0" /> His troops then pulled back to hold positions around Limanowa, at the Dukla mountain pass, and elsewhere on the Carpathians, stopping the Russians from breaking out on the Danube. The Russian counter-offensive in February and March 1915 almost managed to push Boroević's Third Army back towards Hungary, but they managed to hold just enough for the German reinforcements to arrive and save the already endangered Budapest and the Pressburg bridgehead. They then proceeded to join the general Austro-Hungarian—German offensive (with the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army under Archduke Joseph Ferdinand and the German Eleventh Army under Mackensen) that pushed back the Russians and eventually retook Przemysl.

Boroević as a general of the infantry in 1915
Isonzo Front

His actions on other sections of the war appealed to Emperor Franz Joseph and on May 25, 1915, he was given command on the Isonzo front.<ref name=":4" /> He arrived on May 27 with part of the Third Army with him and leaving the rest to Army Group Mackensen.Template:SfnTemplate:Pn There Boroević became the Commander of the Fifth Army, with which he organized a defense against the Italians to break countless offensives.<ref name=":0" />Template:SfnTemplate:Pn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He finished building defenses and managing the logistics of his army by the end of May.Template:SfnTemplate:Pn While there, Boroević's troops contained eleven Italian attacks and he was hailed as the Knight of Isonzo in Austria-Hungary, while his soldiers adored him and called him Naš Sveto! ("Our Sveto!"). For valor in combat, he was promoted to the rank of Generaloberst on 1 May 1916. On 23 August 1917 he rose to the position of commander of the Southwestern Front, which was later renamed Army Group Boroević. He would later fight at the Battle of Caporetto.<ref name=":0" />Template:SfnTemplate:Pn In January 1918, he opposed Hungarian proposals to split Austria-Hungary's Army into separate Austrian and Hungarian units.<ref name=":0" />Template:Sfn He became Field Marshal on 1 February 1918 and was also awarded numerous medals, including the highest order for Austro-Hungarian soldiers, the Military Order of Maria Theresia.<ref name=":0" /> He led to defeat the southern prong of the last Austro-Hungarian offensive at the Battle of the Piave River.<ref>Raab, David "Battle of the Piave: Death of the Austro-Hungarian Army, 1918" (2004) pag. 77</ref> The front was maintained until end of October 1918, when the Italian army launched the decisive offensive of Vittorio Veneto and non-Austrian troops left their positions following the secessions of their nations from the dual monarchy (Czechs and Slovaks on 28 October, South Slavs on 29 October, Hungary on 31 October). After that Boroević fell back to Velden, where he sent a telegram to the Emperor offering to march on Vienna to fight the anti-Habsburg revolution in the imperial capital. It is not certain whether the Emperor was given this message (Boroević doubted it); the offer was refused on behalf of the Emperor. After the Imperial & Royal Army had been demobilized by the Emperor on 6 November, Boroević was retired, by the I & R War Ministry in liquidation, by 1 December 1918.

After the war

Tomb of Boroević at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria

After the demise and disintegration of Austria-Hungary, Boroević decided to become a citizen of the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He was not welcome despite offering his services to the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.<ref name="HBL-1989">Hrvatski biografski leksikon, volume 2, 1989, pp. 168-169</ref> So he stayed in Carinthia, now Austria's southernmost state; his personal belongings, which were on transport in Slovenia, the former Austrian crownland of Carniola, were confiscated there. Boroević could not understand the mean treatment he had to experience, "the only field marshal the Southern Slavs had ever produced", as he wrote in his memoirs.

Boroević died in a hospital at Klagenfurt, the capital city of Carinthia. His body was transferred to Vienna where he was entombed at the Central Cemetery (Grave no. 62 in the New Arcades to the right of the Church of St. Charles Borromeo). The grave had been paid for by the former emperor Charles, who lived in Switzerland then. He could not take part in the funeral, since he had been banished from Austria for his lifetime by the Habsburg Law since 3 April 1919.

Honors

Honorary degree

In 1916, with the approval of the Emperor Franz Joseph I, on the proposal of the Faculty of Law and the Senate of the University of Zagreb, Svetozar Borojević and Archduke Eugen were awarded the university's highest honorary degree, Doctor Honoris Causa in the field of social sciences, for their victory over the enemy and especially for the protection of hereditary grudge, and rights and cultural progress of Croats ("Ob eximia in limitibus imperii strenue defendendis ac imprimis in Croatum paterno solo iuribus atque litterarum et artium progressu tuendis merita"). The award ceremonies were held on 30 January 1916 (for Archduke Eugen) and 1 February 1916 (for Svetozar Borojević) at the Fifth Army's military apartment, 305 Military Field Post on the Italian front. Delegation for the award was made of Josip Šilović; Milorad Stražnicki, dean of the Faculty of Law; Fran Barac, rector; Robert Frangeš-Mihanović, sculptor; and Andrija Kišur, clerk.<ref>Ivan Mirnik, Dvostruki počasni doktorat Zagrebačkoga sveučilišta 1916. godine, Društvo za povjesnicu Zagrebačke nadbiskupije "Tkalčić", Zagreb, 2012., Template:ISBN, p. 16.</ref><ref>Honorary Doctors of the University of Zagreb 1913–2013</ref>

Honorary citizenship

Croatia
  • Honorary citizen of Karlovac, 1915.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Honorary citizen of Sinj, November 1915; Sinj Municipality Council determined that the most beautiful street in the city would bear his name.<ref name="auto">Tado Oršolić, Jugozapadno talijansko bojište i maršal Borojević u dalmatinskim novinama Narodni list i Smotra Dalmatinska (1915.-1918.), p. 98., u: Feldmaršal Svetozar barun Borojević od Bojne (1856.-1920.). Zbornik radova, Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb, (editor Marino Manin), Template:ISBN</ref>
  • Honorary citizen of Požega, Slavonski Brod and Varaždin, November 1915.<ref name="auto"/>
  • Honorary citizen of Zagreb, March 1916.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Honorary citizen of Pazin, 5 May 1916. On 13 August 1919, during the occupation of Istria by the Kingdom of Italy, the City Assembly revoked his title.
  • Honorary citizen of Janjina municipality, May 1917.<ref name="auto"/>
  • Honorary citizen of Bakar, Koprivnica, Hrvatska Kostajnica and Petrinja.<ref>Ivan Mirnik, Dvostruki počasni doktorat Zagrebačkoga sveučilišta 1916. godine, Društvo za povjesnicu Zagrebačke nadbiskupije "Tkalčić", Zagreb, 2012., Template:ISBN, p. 32.</ref>
Slovenia
  • Honorary citizen of Ljubljana, August 1915; revoked in 1919, returned in 2009.<ref name="auto1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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See also

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References

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Sources

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