Branko Mamula

Branko "Đuro" Mamula (Serbian Cyrillic: Бранко "Ђурo" Мамула; 30 May 1921 – 19 October 2021) was a Serbian politician and Yugoslav officer who participated in World War II in Yugoslavia. He was later the Minister of Defence of Yugoslavia from 1982 to 1988.

Branko Mamula
Бранко Мамула
4th Federal Secretary of People's Defence of Yugoslavia
In office 5 May 1982 – 15 May 1988
Prime Minister	Veselin Đuranović Milka Planinc Branko Mikulić
Preceded by	Nikola Ljubičić
Succeeded by	Veljko Kadijević
9th Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army
In office 10 July 1979 – 5 May 1982
Minister	Nikola Ljubičić
Preceded by	Stane Potočar
Succeeded by	Petar Gračanin
Personal details
Born	(1921-05-30)30 May 1921 Slavsko Polje, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now Croatia)
Died	19 October 2021(2021-10-19) (aged 100) Tivat, Montenegro
Nationality	Yugoslav
Political party	League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1942–1990) League of Communists – Movement for Yugoslavia (1990–1992)
Awards	Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour
Military service
Allegiance	Yugoslavia
Branch/service	Yugoslav Navy
Years of service	1941–1988
Rank	Admiral of the fleet
Commands	Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) Yugoslav Navy
Battles/wars	World War II

Biography

Mamula was born in Kordun in May 1921 to an ethnic Serb family. He joined League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia in 1940 and at the start of World War II in Yugoslavia in 1941 he joined the Yugoslav Partisans. In 1942, he joined Communist Party of Yugoslavia. During the war, he was put in charge of numerous units, moving through the ranks of the Partisans. Before he became the Defence Minister, he held the rank of admiral as Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army from 1979 to 1982. After becoming Defence Minister in 1983, he was promoted to Admiral of the fleet. He lived in Opatija from 1985 until 1991.^[1][2]

The entrance to Branko Mamula's former villa in Opatija, Croatia, with signpost in English: "Mamula is Gone".

Mamula remarked on the Yugoslav People's Army's (JNA) failure to respond to Slobodan Milošević's rise in Serbia, in his 2000 book Slučaj Jugoslavija (transl. Case Yugoslavia):

The military leadership of the JNA bears responsibility for not carrying out a coup d'état. Instead, it allowed the nationalist leaders and the separatist behaviour of the two western republics to push the JNA into the hands of Greater Serbian nationalism, which unscrupulously utilised the Army in the inter-ethnic war, and eventually rejected it.^[3]

From 2007, he lived in Tivat, Montenegro. Mamula turned 100 in May 2021.^[4] He died on 19 October 2021, from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Montenegro.^[5]

Honours

National Honours

• Yugoslavia:
• Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour
• Great Star of the Order of the Yugoslav Star
• Order of the People's Army (3x recipient)
• Order of Labour with Red Banner
• Great Star of the Order of Military Merit (2x recipient)
• Order of Merits for the People with Golden Star
• Order of Brotherhood and Unity with Golden Wreath
• Order of the Partisan Star with Rifles
• Commemorative Medal of the Partisans of 1941

Foreign Honours

• France: Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour
• Poland: Partisan Cross
• Sudan: 1st Class of the Order of the Republic
• Italy: Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
• Kingdom of Nepal: Member 1st Class of the Order of the Gurkha Right Arm
• Indonesia: Navy Meritorious Service Star, 1st Class (Indonesian: Bintang Jalasena Utama)
• Tunisia: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Republic
• Greece: Grand Commander of the Order of Honour
• Austria: Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria
• Jordan: Grand Cordon of the Al-Hussein Order of Military Merit