Milunka Savić
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Milunka Savić (1888 - 1973) is a Serbian woman war hero from The First World War.She is also a woman with the greatest number of medals awarded in the history of warfare. She was wounded nine times.
She was born in village Koprivnica near Raška, Serbia in 1888. When her brother received call-up papers for mobilization in the war between Serbia and Bulgaria in 1913, she put on men’s clothes and joined the Serb Army to replace him. She received her first medal and the rank of Corporal in the battle of Bregalnica. During the battle, she was wounded and it was only then, when she was received in hospital, that it was discovered she was a woman.In 1914, during the WWI, she was awarded her first Karađorđe Star with Swords after the battle of Kolubara when she single-handedly captured 20 German soldiers. She was awarded her second Karađorđe Star with Swords after the battle of Crna Reka in 1916 when she captured 23 Bulgarian soldiers single-handedly.
In Thessalonica, she hit a bottle of cognac at a 40 m distance with a hand grenade for a bet with French General Maurice Sarrail. The remaining 19 bottles of 1880 cognac she shared among to the soldiers of her company. She was awarded French Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour) two times, Russian Cross of St. George, English medal of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael, Serbian Miloš Obilić medal... She is the only woman in the world awarded with French Croix de Guerre (War Cross) with Gold Palm. After the WWI, she refused the offer to move to France and be granted French army pension. Instead, she choose to live in Belgrade, but people soon forgot her merits. The rest of her life, she worked as a cleaning lady.
She died in Belgrade on October 5, 1973.
