Boro U. AVDALOVIĆ

BORISLAV BORO AVDALOVIĆ, son of UROŠ, born in 1913* in Bjelajac near Mrkonjić Grad*. Non-commissioned officer musician, lived and worked in Mostar. Described as an intellectual. After the capitulation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941, he went to Avtovac near Gacko, where he, along with Obren and Mićo Bjelogrlić, formed the Avtovac cell (Boro was the secretary). He was admitted as a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) there. A fighter of the Mostar Battalion, he joined the insurgent units in the summer of 1941, and from August 1942, he became the head of agitation and propaganda in the 1st Battalion of the 10th Herzegovina Brigade. He was killed in autumn 1942 in Zagoričani near Livno. He was remembered as a “cheerful and always ready for a joke comrade.”

From a newspaper article from 1945, we learn from Mladen’s mother Jelena: “In November, her eldest son Boro, a fighter of the Tenth Herzegovina Brigade, was killed. It was a snowy, foggy night in the village of Zagoričani when the partisans were fighting against superior Ustasha bands. Boro was in the vanguard. A bullet hit him in the stomach. He remained dead on his spot.”

About Boro’s personality and death, it was recorded:

“In early November (1942, note), the entire brigade moved to the territory of Glamoč. We celebrated the Day of the Great October Revolution lined up in Glamoč in front of the command of the Fourth Operational Zone. When the brigade moved to the Jajce area, the battalion remained in Glamoč for the whole of November and conducted minor actions towards Livno and Duvno, protecting the liberated territory. In one of those actions in Zagoričani, Boro Avdalović, always cheerful and ready for a joke comrade, was killed. He especially enjoyed joking and conversing with old Ćetko Aškrabić. Their discussions about whether the earth is round will be remembered for a long time, which caused Ćetko trouble and compelled him to verify the matter even with the battalion commissar.”

In the National Liberation War (NOB), Boro’s sister Radmila Avdalović and younger brother Mladen Avdalović were also killed. The newspaper “Borba” published a moving interview with their mother Jelena in the “Our Heroic Mothers” section in 1945. You can read the article here (in BSC).

* According to the family members, Boro was born in 1913. The date showing as 1915 in the book “Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945” would be incorrect.