Milan Emil Uzelac

Uzelac in Austro-Hungarian uniform.

Milan Emil Uzelac (26 August 1867 – 7 January 1954) was soldier and military commander who was a leading figure in the air forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Independent State of Croatia.[1]

Emil Uzelac was born in Komárom, then Austria-Hungary, on 26 August 1867. He was born into a Serbian Orthodox Christian family.[1][2] He started in the compulsory Austro-Hungarian army in 1888.

In 1912 he was made commander of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops, which until then had been mostly a force of balloons.[1] He modernized the force and was subsequently decorated with numerous imperial awards.

After World War I Uzelac joined the Royal Yugoslav Air Force on 28 November 1919, along with two other Austro-Hungarian generals, Rudolf Maister and Ante Plivelić. He retired on 19 August 1923.[3]

In 1941 he was saved by deportation by the Independent State of Croatia, through his friend Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, who then held the position of Deutscher Kommandierender General in Agram.[2] He was made an honorary general of the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia, within the Croatian Home Guard.[4]

He died in Petrinja on 7 January 1954 and was buried in Zagreb's Mirogoj cemetery.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Emil (Milan) Uzelac
  2. 1 2 Stone, Norman (2001). "Army and Empire". In Emil Brix, Klaus Koch, Elisabeth Vyslonzil. The Decline of Empires. Oldenbourg Verlag. p. 57. ISBN 9783486565942.
  3. ↑ Čapo, Hrvoje (December 2009). "Former Austro-Hungarian officers in the Army of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Yugoslavia". Review of Croatian History. Zagreb, Croatia: Croatian Institute of History. V (1): 133. ISSN 1845-4380. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  4. ↑ Biographies - Home Defense Air Force
  5. ↑ Milan Uzelac
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