Radoje Ljutovac | Origin of Street Names

Radoje Ljutovac (1887 - 1968) was a Serbian peasant, farmer, soldier, and participant in both the Balkan Wars and World War I. As an artilleryman, he shot down an Austro-Hungarian plane with a regular artillery shell, marking the first such case in the long history of warfare.

Born and raised in the village of Poljna, near Trstenik, at the beginning of the First Balkan War, he was mobilized and assigned to an artillery unit as an ordinary soldier.

He spent both Balkan Wars and the early days of the Great War by the cannon, probably not suspecting that he would go down in the history of world military aviation as the first soldier to shoot down an enemy plane with a regular field artillery piece from the ground.

This feat is particularly significant considering that at the time there were no anti-aircraft missile defense systems.

Specifically, on September 30, 1915, when the Austro-Hungarian aviation, reinforced by modern German planes, attacked Kragujevac, the Supreme Command of the Serbian Army simply had no response to the fatal enemy air attacks, and large human casualties were inevitable.

The anti-aircraft defense was improvised thanks to the ingenuity of engineers at the Military Technical Institute in Kragujevac, utilizing old Turkish cannons seized in the Balkan Wars. Modified to have a greater range of motion vertically, these conventional cannons gained the ability to target aerial targets. The chances of shooting down enemy bombers with such devices were still relatively low, but at least some resistance was provided.

However, by carefully observing the length, speed, and direction of movement of the German aircraft, Radoje Ljutovac aimed at the lead plane, fired an artillery shell into the space where he presumed it would be, and hit it. The plane crashed in the center of Kragujevac, after which the enemy aviation withdrew from the "Kragujevac" sky.

This small "victory" was overshadowed by the great losses suffered by the city up to that point, as well as the entire country in the coming months and years.

Nevertheless, Radoje Ljutovac will forever be recorded in the history of world military aviation as the first man to shoot down a military plane with an artillery shell. As a result of this act, he was awarded the Order of Karađorđe's Star with golden swords and promoted to the rank of corporal, soon to become a sergeant. He survived the retreat through Albania, participated in the breakthrough of the Salonika Front, and after the end of World War I, he became a recipient of several more decorations - the Albanian Commemorative Medal and the Commemorative Medal for the War of Liberation and Unification.

After leaving military service, he opened a small shop in Trstenik and lived modestly in his homeland until the end of his life.

In honor of the founder of the Air Defense Unit in the Serbian Army, streets in Kragujevac, Trstenik, and Belgrade bear the name of Radoje Raka Ljutovac, and a commemorative monument dedicated to this feat is located on Metino Hill, above Kragujevac.