Croatia, Independent State. The Passport of General Milan Uzelac, Commander of the Austro-Hungarian Air Force

WWII Croatian Passport of General Milan Uzelac, Commander of Austro-Hungarian Air Force during WWI, since 1919 Chief of the newly created Department of Aviation in Royal Yugoslav Air Force (until 1923), and in 1941 appointed as a Honorary General in the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia.

Passport of the Independent State of Croatia, constructed of hard paper stock, 32 pages, issued in Zagreb, Croatia, in 1942, with a photo and signature of General Uzelac. Personal information was stated on page 3, profession - "General"; Religion - Croatian Orthodox, among other information.

The Passport contains several official Visas, with trips to Germany, Italy, Hungary. Overall, the passport is in a very good condition. This passport is one of the rare items attributable to this famous General who served in three different Air Forces over a period of 30 years, and in high capacity! Whereabouts of his awards, documents, uniforms, is unknown.

Emil Uzelac was born in Komárom, in present-day Slovakia, then Austria-Hungary, on 26 August 1867 to a Croatian Orthodox family from Lika. He grew up in the vicinity of Karlovac where he finished gymnasium (same Gymnasium attended by Nikola Tesla) after which he enrolled at the Technical Military Academy of Civil Engineering and Crafts in Vienna from which he graduated on 18 August 1888. After graduation, Uzelac entered the 2nd Engineer Regiment as a Lieutenant and served in Pula and Trieste. He also worked in Zadar as an engineering technical expert.

After two years, Uzelac entered the Engineer's Command and served in Klagenfurt. He was promoted to the rank of Major on 1 May 1908. At the proposal of General Alexander von Krobatin, Uzelac was appointed Commander of the Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops. Since his appointment on 24 April 1912 until the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Uzelac was the only true commander of the whole Austro-Hungarian Air Force.

His task was very difficult because he had to found aviation in a country of limited industrial capacity and lack of raw materials, in the conditions of poor understanding among military authorities and highly bureaucratized military and overall state system. Uzelac was awarded numerous domestic and foreign awards for his role in the modernization of the Austro-Hungarian aviation.

In addition to flying in a plane, he also flew in an air balloon and was on 15 May 1914 awarded the diploma of the leader of free balloons by the Austrian aeroclub. 

He commanded the air force until the end of the First World War. On 1 May 1918, he was promoted to the rank of Major General. When the command was reorganized on 1 October 1918, he was formally degraded because his position as Air Force Commander was renamed as Deputy Air Force Commander.

Following the end of the First World War, Uzelac lived for some time in Petrinja (Croatia) and was drafted into the Royal Yugoslav Army on 28 November 1919. He was appointed Chief of the newly created Department of Aviation in the Ministry of the Army and Navy, which was, in reality, the position of the Air Force's Commander-in-Chief. He was in charge of the reorganization and modernization of Yugoslav aviation. Although Uzelac laid the foundations for a modern aviation by building it with the experience gained in Austro-Hungarian air force, he was forcibly retired on 19 August 1923 as "unneeded".

In 1941, Uzelac joined Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia as an Honorary General. He worked on the construction of NDH's air force. On 25 November 1941, at the age of 74, he retired. On 21 and 22 August 1942, on the occasion of his 75th birthday and the 30th anniversary of service, a ceremony attended by numerous German, Hungarian and Croatian pilots from World War I, was held in Zagreb.

Milan Uzelac was imprisoned following the end of World War II. He died in Petrinja on 7 January 1954 and was buried in Mirogoj cemetery.