Sail Leverwhich in Serbian means white city, is 2,891 kilometers away by road from Villanueva de la Cañada (Madrid). They are the points that unite the life and death of Bozidar Petrovic from his birth (April 7, 1911) until his war plane was shot down on July 12, 1937. In the sky of Madrid ended the life of a young man of just over 26 years who came to Spain to defend the Republic and in whose past football had had as much weight as his militancy in the Communist Party.
The name of Bosko Petrovic It is part of the history of the Yugoslav football team. He appears in the Balkan lineup that on December 16, 1934 lost 3-2 in the Princes Parkbefore 40,000 spectators, against France.
Petrovic, during his time as a Vojvodina player.
At 38 minutes into the game he had to be substituted when he was injured and came on in his place. Badger bell. There are no more records of his other appearances with the Balkan team. In the chronicles of that afternoon his name appears a couple of times as a savior at the limit of two French actions on the way to goal.
Studies and football
From his hometown he moved to Belgrade to continue studies that were directed along the path of Right. In the capital, Petrovic’s life took on three aspects: his studies, football and militancy from a very young age in the outlawed Communist Party. He was arrested on different occasions and shaved to the core as an attempt to teach him a lesson.
After passing through the ranks of two youth teams of Belgrade, BASK y Buskhis quality made him jump to the football elite of his country. He played in the Vojvodina between 1932 and 1934 (it descended in 1933) and the SK Belgrade (champion in 1935 and 1936).
Petrovic appeared after his death on the posters of the International Brigades.
While studying, Bosko began training as a war pilot. Thus began the path to his death. In the Novi Sad Air Academythe beautiful university city, obtained diploma 1,103 from the sixteenth class of the I Air Regiment. The first war planes he handled were French-made: a Avia BH-33 and a Hawker Fury.
Fernando Garcia
Football took him back to Paris in 1936when Spain It was already burning in flames after the military rebellion of July 18. In those days, what was happening at Spanish Republic It was an obsession for thousands of young communists around the world, including Petrovic. He decided to illegally cross the border with Spain. On Christmas Day 1936, accompanied by his compatriot Streten Dudich (Yugoslav aviation aces, Kahan Gustavsson) entered Spanish territory with a false passport obtained through communist contacts. Bozko Petrovic became known as Fernando Garcia.
His first contacts with war came in Albacete and Murciaareas in which in 1937 the Republic felt strong. The two Yugoslavs assigned to the Grupo Andre Malrauxentered combat after almost a month of training.
On Valentine’s Day 1937 they were hit aboard their Breguet 19, a plane used by republicans and nationals and which the Yugoslav aviation also had. Dudich He died in the attack and Petrovic suffered minor injuries to his knee. After a quick recovery, in March he was assigned to the unit led by Ignacio Hidalgo Cisneros, one of the few aristocrats who joined the Communist Party in the War and who died in exile in Bucharest in 1966.
Group of Yugoslav aviators during the Civil War, including Petrovic.
At the school area El Carmolí (Cartagena), Petrovic He was instructed by Soviet pilots in the handling of the I-15 e I-16. Thus he became part of the Second Squadron of Group 12, under the orders of the Soviet general Ivan Trifimovich Eremenkooday in which he shared a destination with Spanish pilots, two Austrians and two Americans.
On June 2, 1937, in the Sierra de Guadarramashot down the first of the five enemy aircraft listed on his service record: a CR32. The Soviet Lev Shestakov He was the Republican pilot with the most kills: between 39 and 42, depending on the sources.
death
Petrovic entered combat for the last time July 12a hot day of high intensity in the aerial fight in the Sierra de Madrid. After several operations, around five in the afternoon a rebel CR32 (probably piloted by the Joaquín García Moratowar hero in the national ranks, author of the downing of more than 50 enemy aircraft, who died in an aerial exhibition a few weeks after the War and who gave his name to the street Santa Engracia of Madrid during the Franco regime) put the Eremenko.
A maneuver by Bosko saved the life of his superior, but the Yugoslav was hit and died in the air. The Soviet general lived until December 1, 1986, the date on which he died in Kiev at the age of 76 years.
Ivan Trofimovich Eremenko
In the war reports of Air Force of the Republic corresponding to July 12, 1937, there is no record of the demolition of Petrovic. There is only talk of a plane hit at three-thirty in the afternoon in Seville la Nueva and whose pilot was able to parachute. That can be found in the ABC of Madrid on July 13. In the one from Seville, published under rebel command, there is talk of six Republican planes shot down throughout Sunday, July 12, in the battle of Madrid. One of the burned devices places it in Sevillejain what is a mistake and must be the same plane that the Republicans considered hit in New Seville. In this text, the Sevillian ABC accuses the red aviation of bombing civilian areas of Villaviciosa de Odón.
your brother
The Petrovics’ fight for republican Spain did not die with Bozko. Goodhis brother, came to the International Brigades to visit his brother. Then he learned the news of his death in Madrid.
He decided to join the government Air Force and participated in the battles of the Aragon Front under the command of two other generals sent to Spain by Moscow: Anatoly Serov and Eugeniv Antonov.
The burial of your belongings
All that remained of the personal belongings of BoskoPetrovic was transferred from Spain to Serbia before the World War II by a Yugoslavian international brigadier. Shortly before the Balkans Seeing themselves bloodied once again, they buried everything in the patio of the family home. The grave contained the pilot’s jacket, some personal items and photographs. After the war, only his passport remained in good condition. It belongs to the collection of Yugoslav Air Force Museumin Belgrade.
Petrovic’s plaque, the one on the left, discovered in the 1950s in the Partizan stadium
Taxes
The recognitions to Bosko Petrovic In their country they had to wait. When he died, the little that was written about him was in a derogatory tone, about the death of a mercenary. It was in monarchical and conservative Serbia in which Dragoljub Mihajlovicleader of the monarchical resistance, absolute anti-communist and head of the fight against the Nazi occupation.
On May 23, 1959, the Yugoslav Federation discovered a plaque with the name of Bozidar Bosko Petrovic in the stadium Partisan. Whoever goes to Belgrade, Novi Sad o Ivanjicathe city of his parents, you can find Bozidar Petrovikova Street, the one dedicated to the Yugoslav defender who gave his life in the defense of the Spanish Republic.
