Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
17.04.2016.

Dress rehearsal of the Guard before the celebration of the centenary of the landing in Corfu




Members of the Serbian Armed Forces Guard travelled to Corfu, and conducted the dress rehearsal on the nearby island of Vido for the ceremony marking the centenary of the landing of the Serbian Army in these islands.

The tomorrow ceremony will be led by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, and the high state delegation will include the ministers Zoran Djordjevic, Aleksandar Vulin, Ivan Tasovac and the Serbian Armed Forces Chief of General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic.

According to the plan, there will be a military memorial ceremony to be served by the Metropolitan Amfilohije, laying wreaths with full military honours, the artistic programme, as well as a commemorative ceremony on the high seas – Blue grave, and in the Serbian house a new permanent exhibition will be opened.

The first landing on the "island of hope", as the Serbs named Corfu, was in the dock in Gouvia 1916, six kilometres north of the city, and material costs of equipping and serving Serbian army were taken over by France and the United Kingdom. Since during the Albanian Golgotha, the withdrawal of the Serbian Army through Albania, a large number of soldiers died of cold, hunger and exhaustion, the French government decided in early 2016 that its navy postpone all other transport from Albania until the Serbian Army withdraws from Albania and from that day the Allied ships began with transportation, and by 15 February, 135,000 people were transported to the Greek island of Corfu and about 10,000 to Bizerta.

On the island of Vido, where a memorial complex is today with the mausoleum, the heaviest casualties were disembarking; from 23 January to 23 March 1916, 4,847 people died and for about 5,400 death people, the sea around the island has become a Blue tomb.

 
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Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia, Bircaninova 5 street, Belgrade
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