Leading to World War I the Otočac regiment was designated k.u.k Infanterieregiment Graf Jellaèić Nr.79. The 'Nr.79' was sent to the Serbian front at the start of WWI, with many of the A-H Army's Serb soldiers becoming POWs in Serbia. At the start of 1915, it found itself on the Galician front, through the Carpathian Mountains, fighting against Russian forces and suffering heavy losses through 1915. Many were taken as POWs. On Russia exiting the war in 1917 due to revolution, the resulting military and political chaos proved to be a massive obstacle for POWs in returning home. In the aftermath of the war, the allies supported the creation of a new country from the vestiges of the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Serbian State, populated mainly by Slavic peoples. This new state came into being in 1918 as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929 it was renamed Yugoslavia, which translates to 'South-Slavs'.