Iosef Bojko portrait

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Infantry Sergeant (Yugoslav)
Iosif Bojko (from Ljubuski, Herzegovina)

A Serbian also, but a different type. Fair and stout without flabbiness, short moustache under a short nose. He is from that Herzegovina province, eternal powder keg, eternal temptation to Austria and where the bloody prologue of the drama was played out. Doubtless he had been forced to serve formerly in the Imperial armies under the yellow and black flag. He has kept the correct demeanour, buttoned up, a bit stiff. But in how many of these annexed provinces did the heart beat strongly for the lost Serb homeland! What fire was smouldering under the ashes! Austria was right to look in that direction with disquiet: not that the troops would be disloyal, when it was not a question of brother against brother, but the feeling for a lost homeland is one which no political skill could silence. The old great Serbia must be reborn. She found in the blood of her children her most valued and glorious possession.