Danilo R. MILIĆEVIĆ 

DANILO MILIĆEVIĆ VLADIKA, also known as UČO*, son of RISTO, born on October 25, 1919, in Hrgud near Stolac. He studied and lived in Mostar, where he moved with his parents Risto and Milica (his father worked as a miner in the Mostar mine). A teacher, he became a member of the Communist Youth League (SKOJ) in 1938 and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) in 1939. He was a member of the Inter-School Leadership of SKOJ in 1939 in Mostar, and also one of the more active members of the scout organization. He joined the National Liberation War (NOB) in 1941, being part of the first group of armed volunteer communists that sneaked out of Mostar in mid-August 1941 with the aim of organizing an uprising. The detachment, led by Savo Medan, “set off after 9 o’clock in the evening from the Bjelušine neighborhood, armed with 16 rifles, 150 rounds of ammunition per rifle. Each fighter had a revolver and at least two ‘kragujevka’ rifles.” He participated in organizing the uprising in the Stolac area, became a member of the District Committee of KPJ for Stolac, and served as the political commissar of the Hrgud Partisan Squad. After the Chetnik coup, he moved through Mostar and joined the Mostar Battalion in the Prozor area. From August 1942, Danilo is in the unit of the 10th Herzegovinian brigade, with which he will go through Šujica, Livno, Šator planina, Glamoč, Kupres, Vakuf, Prozor, Jablanica, Čičevo, Nevesinje, Gacko. Participated in the battles on Neretva and Sutjeska. As the squad’s commissar, he died at the Central Hospital during the Fifth Offensive in June 1943 at the Battle of Sutjeska.

He was described as a “hardened partisan fighter”, “a great propagandist”, whom “people gladly listened to and accepted”, “humble and highly moral”. According to one source, “his whole family was communist-oriented, and his sister Dana was persecuted by the Gestapo for propagating the goals of the KPJ.”

* According to the source: Belović, Anđelko V. (1989): “Falled for freedom”, NOR fighters and victims of fascist terror in the Stolac area 1941-1945. years.

EXCERPT FROM LITERATURE:

“During the holidays, he regularly visited his hometown, went to Stolac and visited his relatives in Hrgud, unobtrusively propagated communist ideas, winning people’s sympathy. In those cloudy times, with the clarity of his mind, Danilo, as a pedagogue, showed many people the danger of fascism and pointed out the capitulating attitude of the ruling circles on the eve of impending ominous events in his region.”

“In the surroundings of Sutjeska, even though he was in delicate health and, moreover, very exhausted, like a true soldier of the Party he fought bravely and attacked the enemy on the slopes of Zelengora. During the battle, he was seriously wounded in both legs and then fell ill with typhus. and typhus, he succumbed on the Šćepan field in June 1943. Džemal Bijedić, remembering his friend Danilo Milićević, wrote: “It was painful to say goodbye to my old party friend, the humble and highly moral student Danilo…”