serviceyears death_date death_place birth_place allegiance awards battles birth_date rank image article_title name
1941 -- 1943 13 june 1943 krekovi , near tjentište , bosnia-herzegovina nudo , principality of montenegro yugoslav partisans order of the people 's hero order of kutuzov '' neretva battle of sutjeska ` world war ii '' ' battle of 25 january 1905 major general savo kovačević.jpg sava kovačević
 sava kovačević
sava kovačević

sava kovačević -lrb- ; january 25 , 1905 -- june 13 , 1943 -rrb- was a yugoslav partisan commander during world war ii .
kovačević was born in the village of nudo , close to nikšić , to a family of montenegrin peasants .
in his early age he worked as a blacksmith and adopted communism , becoming a member of the communist party of yugoslavia -lrb- kpj -rrb- in 1925 .
he gradually rose through the party ranks , became one of the communist leaders in montenegro .
he was often arrested for his activities .
after the axis invasion of yugoslavia , kovačević was one of the leading organizers of the uprising in montenegro against the italian occupation .
he became commander of nikšić partisan detachment , deputy commander of main headquarters of montenegro and finally a member of supreme staff of the yugoslav people 's liberation army -lrb- ypla -rrb- .
in june 1942 he became first commander of 5th montenegrin -lrb- sandzak -rrb- brigade of ypla .
his unit took part in 1942 bosanska krajina campaign -lrb- bosnian frontier campaign -rrb- - operation against independent state of croatia garrisons that brought large sections of bosnia and herzegovina under partisan control .
in february and march 1943 , during the battle of neretva , -lrb- german operation weiss -rrb- kovačević commanded his brigade in attacks on prozor against italians and konjic against joined italian-ustasha-german defenders .
on june 6 , during the battle of sutjeska -lrb- german operation schwarz -rrb- he became commander of 3rd assault division of ypla .
his division covered the rear of other partisan units while they successfully broke through german lines .
3rd division , also encumbered with the wounded partisans , was less successful in its attempt of breakthrough .
on june 13 , sava kovačević was killed while personally leading his men during the charge against fortified trenches of german 118th division at krekovi , on river sutjeska .
owing to his humble background and habit of disregarding any privileges of the rank , kovačević was one of the most popular partisan commanders .
he was famous for his personal courage : one of the well known episodes happened on february 20 , 1943 in ostrožac on neretva river when he , with his brigade commissar dragiša ivanović , in an unexpected encounter with a group of italian tanks , managed to jump on tank platform , sava on the second and dragiša on the third of three tanks , to destroy their crews and to capture one tank each .
his heroic death made him into one of the partisan icons .
he was posthumously proclaimed people 's hero of yugoslavia .
