First Serbian Volunteer Division

First Serbian Volunteer Division
Nicholas II reviewing the First Serbian Volunteer Division in Odessa (May 1916)
FoundedJune 1916[1]
Disbanded1918
Allegiance Serbia
BranchRoyal Serbian Army
TypeGround Forces
Size18,000 [1]
42,000 (early 1917)[2]
Part of47th Russian Army Corps
First Serbian Army
Garrison/HQ
Engagements
Commanders
Chief of StaffColonel Vojin Čolak-Antić
Notable
commanders
Colonel Stevan Hadžić
Merged intoYugoslav Division
Allies
Opponents

The First Serbian Volunteer Division (Serbian: Srpski dobrovoljački korpus) or First Serbian Division, was a military formation of the First World War, created by Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, and organised in the city of Odessa in early 1916. This independent volunteer unit was primarily made up of South Slav Habsburg prisoners of war, detained in Russia, who had requested to fight alongside the Serbian Army. It also included men from South Slav diaspora communities, especially the United States.

Even though the Serbian volunteers greatly outnumbered all the other ethnic group, a large number of the division's officer corps was made of former Habsburg reserve officers of Croat and Slovene descent. In April 1917 the name of the division was changed to the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes Volunteer Corps. The force holds a particularly significant place in World War I history due both to its intermingling of different Slavic ethnic groups as well as its role in the final military operations of the Salonika front.[3][4]

  1. ^ a b Thomas, Babac & Pavlovic 2012, p. 13.
  2. ^ Banac 2015, pp. 121–123.
  3. ^ Malcolm 1996, p. 158.
  4. ^ Rieber 2014, pp. 575–580.