Ivko P. ZOVKO 

IVAN IVKO ZOVKO, son of PERO, born on October 10, 1913, in Polog near Mostar. A farmer. He joined the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments on February 15, 1945, in the 2nd Battalion of the 10th Herzegovina Brigade. A fighter, he was killed in May 1945 (according to multiple sources, he was killed in Ribnica, Slovenia*). The circumstances of Ivan’s death were recorded as follows:

“(…) when, on May 3, the German garrison in the Općine area capitulated, the German 97th Army Corps started a breakthrough across the Ilirska Bistrica towards Postojna and Ljubljana. After completing the task in Trieste, the 10th Brigade was on the march as part of the main force of the Division on May 4. On the way to Postojna (via Pivka), the Brigade’s headquarters received a direct order from the Chief of Staff of the Yugoslav Army to turn towards Ilirska Bistrica and engage with the German 97th Army Corps, which, after senseless sacrifices near Rijeka in an independent breakthrough towards Ljubljana, had reached Ilirska Bistrica the previous day. On the same day, near Ribnica, the Brigade clashed with its forward units and was pushed back. In a brief confrontation, about fifteen fighters were killed, and several others were wounded (…).