ОФИЦИРСКИ КОР ВОЈСКЕ КРАЉЕВИНЕ СРБИЈЕ У ПРВОМ СВЕТСКОМ РАТУ
THE OFFICER CORPS OF THE ROYAL SERBIAN ARMY IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Summary/Abstract: The paper is based on archival records from the Serbian Military Archive and the Archive of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and includes rank-lists of the Serbian officers, military press, and selected literature. It chronicles the number, structure, quality, and losses of the Serbian officers Corps during the First World War. It also reconstructs the process of education, training, and selection of active and reserve officers of the Serbian Army, that emphasized positive selection and war experience as the main factors for the success Serbian Army achieved during the first and second AustroHungarian campaign in 1914. According to this research, there were 3,712 active and 6,725 reserve officers in the Serbian army during World War I. Most of the active Serbian officers were educated and trained at the Serbian Military Academy or promoted from the ranks after passing an officers’ examination; and most of reserve officers were highly-educated people with high school or university degree who represented the best part of the Serbian elite of the time. Although most of them were native Serbians, there were also those of other nationalities, mostly volunteers, such as Czechs, Croats, Slovenes, Britons, and Russians. Some 1,216 of the Serbian officers, or 12%, were prisoners of war of the Austrian, Bulgarian, and German forces. During the war, almost 50% of entire Serbian officer corps was killed in action or died from diseases and losses among the officers were 50% higher than losses among the ranks.

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