Baština (Jan 2017)
The giant of Montenegro: Jovo Poček: A volunteer of the Canadian army in World war I
Abstract
Upon the outbreak of World War I, and the entry of Great Britain into this conflict, the British also sent the soldiers from their colonial estates to the western front battlefield, but also from other dominions from around the globe, whom the British monarch was the supreme sovereign and military chief of. This is how the Canadian soldiers were recruited during 1914, sent as help to the joint Franco-British troops, and jointly fought against the German army. One of the Canadian fighters, who laid down his life for the victory of the allied forces, was the Serbian volunteer Jovo Poček. The descendant of the famous Montenegrin hero Novak Ramov Jovović immigrated to the USA in 1910. When the Great War started, Jovo Poček applied as a volunteer in the Canadian army that deployed him to the 2nd Machine Gunner Battalion of the 5th Division. On the battlefield, Poček was wounded in both his legs by the enemy's continuous fire. By the time he was provided medical assistance followed by a long-term recovery, the war had already ended, and this healed Canadian soldier felt nostalgic towards his old homeland where he planned to go back, where the friendly faces of his cousins and family awaited. This plan of his was prevented by a sudden illness that knocked down the so-called giant of Montenegro. In the same war and on the identical front, as a volunteer of the French army, his brother Tomo also participated. In the battles for Verdun, he earned French military decorations. Unlike Jovo, Tomo was lucky to survive the horrors and dangers of war.
