Levičnik Karel

Karel Levičnik was born in the first month of the first year of the 20th century (28 January 1900). He attended primary and secondary schools in Ljubljana, where his father Albert Levičnik held the position of a judge and President of the Provincial Court. After the early death of his mother, he joined the Navy and in 1917 graduated from the Austro-Hungarian Naval Academy in Pula (14 June 14). In World War I, he served on board the school ship Delta and the cruiser Aspen. Immediately upon the war in 1918, he joined the Navy of the Kingdom of SHS and eventually the Royal Yugoslav Navy, where he was promoted to the rank of Second Class Commodore. In 1929, he completed the Senior Artillery Course in Greenwich and Portsmouth, England.

Until 1941, he served on different ships of the Navy. After the capitulation of the Yugoslav Army in April 1941, he returned from Boka Kotorska, where he was the Director of the Artillery-technical Institute, to Drča near Šentjernej in Slovenia to his father-in-law, Counter Admiral Franjo Vučer. Soon, he decided to join the Liberation Front (OF). Like several other Yugoslav mariners, he was arrested by the Italians in March 1942 and taken to Italian camps: Gonars, Monte Male, Padua and Treviso. After the capitulation of Italy he returned to Slovenia and joined the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOVJ). For a brief time, he served as an instructor at the Slovenian Headquarters in Kočevje and eventually sent, by order of the Supreme Staff, to Dalmatia and soon after to Vis Island, where he took an active role in the defence of this strategically significant island. There he held different positions: commander of the Partisan Artillery, in the Naval headquarters, in the defence headquarters of the island of Vis and in the headquarters of the 4th Army (commander of artillery). In 1944 (6–11 August 1944), he became a member of the delegation with Marshal Tito in southern Italy to participate in talks with the Allied Command dealing with coordinated operations and despatching Allied aid to Yugoslavia. The highest Partisan leadership entrusted him the entire organization in the establishment of strong artillery units that eventually contributed to the liberation of the entire eastern Adriatic coast up to Trieste, Gorizia and Klagenfurt.

After the war, Levičnik still held responsible positions in the Yugoslav People's Army. He was promoted to Major General, and five years later to Lieutenant Colonel General. He served in Zagreb and Belgrade. In 1960, just a couple of years before retiring, he was chief of the technical administration of the Yugoslav People's Army. Inter alia, he was Deputy of the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia for the Postojna region and long-time President of The Association of Scientific and Technical Translators of Slovenia. He had numerous articles published in Slovenian newspapers. He wrote a book about overseas artillerymen (published in 1968), but did not live to see it published. He died on 25 March 1968, and is buried at Šmarje near Šentjernej, together with his wife Vera and son Jurij, in the Vučer family grave.

He was awarded numerous high state decorations for his work.

After him, a street (Ulica generala Levičnika) in the Koper district was named with a resolution on 23 February 1970 by the competent body of the Koper Municipal Assembly. This is the place where the Local Association of Combatants for the Values of the National Liberation War Olmo-Prisoje is to shortly erect a memorial plaque to Karel Levičnik that is now being prepared.

Prepared by Nadja Terčon

Source:

Museum photo documentation

Klun Albert: Karel Levičnik. In the book Levičnik, Karel: Artileristi prekomorci, Nova Gorica, 1968, p. 207-215