Dragan Sotirovic, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetDragan Sotirovic
Date of Birth: 05-May-1913
Place of Birth: Vranje, Pčinja District, Serbia
Date of Death: 06-Jun-1987
Profession: military personnel
Zodiac Sign: Taurus 
About Dragan Sotirovic
- Dragan Mihajlo Sotirovic (serb.
- ?????? ??????? ?????????; fr.
- Dragan Michel Sotirovitch, „Draza”, „X”, „Michal”;; 5 May 1913 - 5 or 6 June 1987) was a Serb Chetnik, Captain of the Yugoslav Army, and Major of the Home Army’s 14th Regiment of Jazlowiec Uhlans.
- For his service and bravery, Sotirovic was awarded the Virtuti Militari .
- Sotirovic entered the Yugoslav Army in 1934, and in 1940, he began studying at Yugoslav Military Academy.
- Promoted to Captain, he fought in the 1941 Invasion of Yugoslavia, after which he joined guerilla forces of General Draza Mihailovic, the Chetniks.
- Captured by the Wehrmacht, he was sent with other Yugoslav officers to POW Camp Nr.
- 325 in Rawa Ruska.
- After the transfer to a camp in Stryj, Sotirovic simulated appendicitis and was taken to a hospital.
- He fled on January 13, 1944, and soon made contact with local Home Army unit, which took him to a hideout in the village of Zubrza near Lwow.
- After identity check, Sotirovic was in late March 1944 sent to the Home Army’s 14th Regiment of Jazlowiec Uhlans, commanded by Colonel Andrzej Choloniewski.
- As his deputy, he participated in the pacification of a Ukrainian village Szolomyja, in which headquarters of a local branch of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was located.
- He also fought in the Lwow Uprising, attacking German positions east of the city.
- For his bravery, he was on July 27, 1944 awarded the Virtuti Militari by Colonel Wladyslaw Filipkowski.
- On July 31, 1944, Sotirovic was arrested by the NKVD.
- Together with other Home Army officers, he managed to escape behind the San river.
- On March 5, 1945, he was arrested again near Dynow.
- During an escape attempt he broke his foot, jumping off a balcony.
- Hiding his real identity and presenting himself as French officer Jacques Roman, who had been kept in a German POW camp at Odessa, Sotirovic was taken to a hospital in Rzeszow, where he was freed by members of the NIE organization.
- In early April 1945, Sotirovic joined anti-Communist forces near Rzeszow.
- His unit cooperated with local National Armed Forces unit and anti-Ukrainian peasant unit from the village of Grabowka.
- After several clashes with the Ukrainians, Sotirovic, who had been promoted to Major, convinced the warring sides to sign a local truce, on May 29, 1945 in Siedliska.
- Both sides recognized the Soviets as their common enemy, and ceased fighting each other.
- The last raid of Sotirovic’s unit was a raid on a Soviet column, which took place on June 25, 1945 near Domaradz.
- He then moved to Lower Silesia, briefly serving as the president of the town of Lesna (Marklissa).
- Surrounded by a group of his former soldiers, Sotirovic boarded his people on a train with ethnic Germans being moved to the west, and left Poland for US Occupation Zone in Germany (see Allied-occupied Germany).
- He then moved to France, taking on the name Jacques Roman.
- Sotirovic settled in Monaco.
- He died on 5 or 6 June 1987, during a pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece.
Read more at Wikipedia