Croatia - 2026 Croatian Military Tradition SS (MNH)
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Decorated soldiers of Croatian origin
For centuries, Croatian soldiers, renowned as fearless warriors, defended not only their own homeland but also fought under the banners of foreign rulers who were at the same time Croatian rulers. Alongside them stand numerous individuals of Croatian origin, regardless of whether they were born in Croatia or whether their parents were Croats, who served under the flags of the countries to which they emigrated or in which they were born. The names of some of them serve as a reminder of the honor and glory of the armies in which they served. For their deeds and merits, they were awarded the highest decorations their respective countries could bestow. Among them are General Marko Slivarić Heldenburški, Major Vjekoslav Lujo Cukela, Chief Petty Officer Petar Herceg Tonić and General Stanisław Maczek.
Marko Slivarić Heldenburški (Marc Slivarich de Heldenbourg, 1762–1838)
Marko Slivarić Heldenburški was born in 1762 in the village of Vrčin Dol near Pleternica in Slavonia. His father Martin was a frontier officer who, for his merits on the battlefield, was granted a noble title with the predicate Heldenburški (von Heldenburg) by Queen Maria Theresa, a title inherited by his son Marko.
Vjekoslav Lujo Cukela (Louis Cukela, 1888–1956)
Born in Split in May 1888, Cukela spent his childhood and early youth in his hometown, where he was educated. After completing school, he entered military service in 1907, remaining until 1911.
Petar Herceg Tonić (Peter Tomich, 1893–1941)
Petar Herceg Tonić was born in 1893 in Prolog near Ljubuški. In 1913, like many Croats, he emigrated to the United States of America. In 1917, he joined the U.S. Army, in which he served during the First World War. After the war, he left the Army and in 1919 transferred to the United States Navy. At the beginning of December 1941, he was stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a Chief Petty Officer aboard the USS Utah. His heroism and tragedy began on 7 December 1941, when hundreds of Japanese aircraft attacked the ships and infrastructure of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Caught by surprise and unprepared for the attack, American ships sank one after another amid flames. Among the hit vessels was Tomich’s USS Utah, which soon began to list and sink after being struck. Crew members, including Peter Tomich, made their way toward the deck to save themselves. Realizing that the ship’s boiler room had been damaged and threatened to explode – potentially killing those still aboard – Tomich returned to the boiler room and continued to monitor the boilers. He managed to prevent their explosion, but when he later attempted to escape the ship himself, he drowned as seawater rapidly flooded in. For his heroism aboard the USS Utah, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Medal of Honor in 1942. After a long search for his relatives, Tomich’s Medal of Honor was finally presented in 2006 aboard the USS Enterprise, anchored off Split, to his descendant and Croatian Army colonel Srećko Herceg Tonić.
Stanisław Maczek (1892–1994)
Stanisław Maczek was born in March 1892 near the city of Lwów (Lemberg), present-day Lviv in western Ukraine. He was of Croatian (or Croatian-Slovenian) origin and was related by family ties to Vladimir Maček, later president of the Croatian Peasant Party.