Dorćol Danube River Quay

Here the Danube River comes right up to Dorćol: along the water runs a quay with a stone-and-bronze monument and a descent that goes beneath the road to the river. Jasenica once stood by this bank; it has long been gone, and while the underground passage was being built, workers found the remains of the city’s defenders. Some were buried near Ružica Church, while others were moved to the Military Ossuary at the New Cemetery.

Major Dragutin Gavrilović, commander of the second battalion of the tenth regiment of the regular Serbian army, was to hold this bank and keep the enemy from entering the streets of Lower Dorćol. His name still appears in the quay’s official name: Major Dragutin Gavrilović Quay.

In early October nineteen fifteen, Austro-Hungarian and German troops began a new offensive against Serbia. Sixteen Austro-Hungarian companies crossed the Danube River; six Serbian companies defended this sector. Gavrilović’s soldiers sat in trenches by the water and near the railway embankment. They met the first landing party with rifles and hand grenades, inflicted heavy losses on it, and took prisoners. While this battle was under way, another Austro-Hungarian battalion landed farther east, passed through the stretched-out defensive line, and occupied part of the embankment. From there, the soldiers could reach the nearest streets of Dorćol, and further units would then cross the river behind them.

At about half past two in the afternoon on October seventh, Gavrilović gathered everything that remained nearby: three platoons from his battalion, two from a neighboring one, volunteers, and city gendarmes. At the former Jasenica, he ordered them to advance on the embankment and led the attack himself, with a saber in his hand.

The attack stalled under fire from the bank and from armored river monitor ships. Many soldiers were killed, and Gavrilović was wounded in the neck. That same day, he was sent by train to the military hospital in Čačak. Three weeks later, he returned to service and retreated with the army. Serbian units left Belgrade on the night of October tenth to eleventh; Austro-Hungarian and German troops held the city until November nineteen eighteen.

The famous order attributed to Gavrilović is carved on the memorial to Belgrade’s defenders: the regiment had supposedly already been struck from the rolls, and his soldiers should no longer care about their lives. The exact words remain a legend. No transcript of the battle exists, the full text appeared later in the memoirs of one participant, and historians debate whether the major delivered precisely such a speech. The combat report confirms something else: Gavrilović led his men into an attack, the attack failed, and the commander was wounded in the neck.

In nineteen thirty-four, while the Dorćol underground passage to the Danube River was being built, workers found the bones of fallen defenders. Part of the remains was buried near Ružica Church, and part was moved to the Military Ossuary at the New Cemetery. Jasenica no longer exists. On the bank remain Gavrilović’s name, a stone-and-bronze monument, and a passage to the water built through the place where his soldiers lay.