Three months later, after joining the Partisan movement led by Josip Broz Tito, he is reputed to have started the war against fascist occupiers. On July 7, 1941, he shot two members of the Quisling Serbian State Police, or gendarmerie, at a fair in Bela Crkva. Then, mounting the steps of the Local Town Hall, he fired into the air to summon the crowd with his two trade mark Webley Revolvers, giving a rousing speech that called upon the Proletarian Class of Yugoslavia to destroy the Beasts of Fascism, uttering the legendary words that became the rallying cry of the Yugoslav Communist Party: "Death to Fascism, Freedom for the People". Whether the actual Revolt began in relation to these events, or indeed began as a result of simultaneously localized acts of sabotage organized across many districts cells of the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party is unclear. The official history of the Communist State regards the actions of Jovanović as the beginning of the anti-fascist war in Yugoslavia, and had a National Holiday referred to in all State matters as "Republic Day".