Spasić Milan

Milan Spasić, naval officer, Lieutenant Commander, national hero (Belgrade, 8 September 1909 – Destroyer Zagreb, Boka Kotorska, 17 April 1941)

Spasić was born on 8 September 1909 in Belgrade to father Sava and mother Draga. He spent his youth in Belgrade, where he also completed his secondary schooling (1929). He attended and accomplished his studies at the Naval Academy in Dubrovnik, specializing in torpedo and mine naval fighting. In April 1941, he served, with the rank of Lieutenant Commander 2nd Class, as a torpedo and mine officer on board the Zagreb destroyer in the Bay of Kotor. On 17 April 1941, he and Lieutenant Commander Sergej Mašera blew up the Zagreb destroyer and lost their young lives on it.
 

At the beginning of World War II, Milan Spasić boarded the Zagreb destroyer. The ship was camouflaged with olive branches, cruising in the Bay of Tivat. On 16 April, the Yugoslav Fleet Headquarters agreed to the requested unconditional capitulation and ordered the crews to surrender their ships, submarines and seaplanes to the fast approaching enemy. After the capitulation of the Yugoslav Army, the crew of the Zagreb destroyer abandoned the ship in great confusion on the orders of Captain Nikola Krizomalija. Only the Lieutenant Commander, artillery specialist Sergej Mašera, and torpedo specialist Milan Spasić refused to leave ne ship. After the crew left, the two officers expertly placed explosive in the ship, detonated it and sank to the bottom of the sea together with it.

 

Spasić's body was washed ashore a few days after the explosion. It was taken to Meljine and buried with military honours at the Savina cemetery near Hercegnovi. Even Italian soldiers, who had already landed in Boka Kotorska at that time, paid their respects.

 

For several years, the exploits by Milan Spasić and Sergej Mašera were better known abroad than in their homeland. In 1973, however, both were posthumously proclaimed national heroes. The Order of the National Hero (No. 83, 28 June 1973) was awarded to them by Josip Broz Tito on the thirtieth anniversary of the Yugoslav Navy. The ceremony took place on the warship Galeb in Split on 10 September 1973, with the speech given by the Commander of the Naval Authority, Vice Admiral Ivo Purišić. The awards are housed at the Maritime Museum in Split.

 

Thereupon, various monuments were erected in honour of both officers, with even streets named after them (in Ljubljana, Koper, etc.). A monument to both heroes stands in Boka Kotorska, as well as a memorial plaque at the actual site of the event. In Kotor, the student dormitory was named Dom učenika i studenata "Spasić – Mašera". The memory of Spasić and Mašera has been honoured in the city of Tivat ever since the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The locals take care of their monument, regularly clean and maintain it, organize commemorations on the site, and award municipal honorary plaques named after them. In 2011, the Mašera - Spasić Department was opened at the Maritime Museum in Kotor.

In October 2024, on the occasion of its 70th anniversary, the Maritime Museum "Sergej Mašera" Piran organized, at the initiative and in cooperation with Aleksandar Gatalica from the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Ljubljana, an international symposium titled Mašera and Spasić: between heroes and ideological symbols. It was attended and speeches given by people from Slovenia, Italy, Serbia and Montenegro. The museum display case dedicated to Sergej Mašera and Milan Spasić was augmented with several copies of documents kept by the Military Archives in Belgrade, acquired by Aleksandar Gatalica for the museum documentation.

 

 

Prepared by Nadja Terčon

 

 

SOURCES:

 

Museum photo documentation

 

Terčon, Nadja: Gorelo je morje: Sergej Mašera, Piran, 2017

 

Mašera in Spasić, Med junaki in ideološkimi simboli, mednarodni simpozij, Ed. Nadja Terčon, Portorož, 25. 10. 2025

 

Stamatović, Slavko: Milan Spasić i Sergej Mašera, Beograd, 1985