Ceremonial artillery salute marks WWI Armistice Day

BELGRADE - A ceremonial artillery salute was fired from the Sava terrace of the Belgrade Fortress on Monday, commemorating the World War I Armistice Day, November 11.

Members of the Guard of the Serbian Armed Forces fired a 10-volley salute from six artillery weapons.

The artillery salute with the highest military honors was followed by the sounding of the national anthem and the raising of the flag of Serbia.

The Armistice Day, observed in memory of the innocent victims of World War I, is a national holiday in Serbia and will be marked with commemorative events across the country.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will lay a wreath at the Memorial Ossuary of the Defenders of Belgrade in WWI at the New Cemetery in Belgrade on Tuesday.

The signing of The Armistice took place on November 11, 1918, in Marshal Ferdinand Foch's railway carriage in the Forest of Compiegne, France.

The Armistice remained in effect until the final peace treaty of the war was signed in Versailles on June 28, 1919.

World War I started with the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war and the attack on Serbia, and escalated into a global conflict with 37 million military and civilian casualties - more than 15 million killed and 22 million wounded.

Serbia marks the Armistice Day since 2012 as one of the Allies and winners in the Great War, in which it suffered enormous losses.

Serbia lost around 28 percent of its population, including 62 percent of males between 18 and 55 years of age; 53 percent of the men were killed and nine percent were left permanently disabled.

The small Serbian army lost three-quarters of its troops - 130,000 soldiers were killed and 135,000 wounded. The...