Croatian


Croatian Army

Croatian War of Independance
Croatia declared its independence on June 25, 1991. The war in Croatia lasted from 1991 to 1995. The war was between the Croatian government and enclaves of Croatian Serbs who wished to remain part of Yugoslavia who were backed by the Serb-led Yugoslav People's Army. The Croatian side aimed to establish sovereignty for the Republic of Croatia, previously a socialist republic in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Croatia's Serbs, incited from nationalist circles in Serbia, seeked new boundaries in those parts of Croatia with a Serb majority or with an influential Serbian minority. In April, 1991 the Republic of Serbian Krajina was declared. The Croatian forces overran Krajina in 1995 in western Slavonia in Operation Flash (May) and overran the rest in Operation Storm (August) forcing approximately 200,000 Serbs to flee their homes. The war was striking for its brutality in a relatively developed society in Europe, and in modern times.

Croatian Army

The Croatian Ministry of the Interior (MUP) started arming an increasing amount of "special police" forces, and this led into the building of a real army. At the early stage of the war, lack of military units meant that Croatian police force took much of the brunt of fighting - eventually the police would form the core of the new military force - initially named "Zbor Narodne Garde" (ZNG), later "Hrvatska Vojska" (HV) - that was formed in 1990, but not really developed until 1993.

Weaponry was always lacking and many units were formed either unarmed or with WW2-era rifles.The army was, however, highly motivated, and was formed into local fighting units - so people from a village would defend their own village - which meant they were fairly effective in their home grounds. In August 1991, the Croatian Army had less than 20 brigades, which would grow to 60 by the end of the year through general mobilization which was called in October.

By 1995, Croatian Army would develop into an effective fighting force - arguably the best in the region - centered around elite "Guard Brigades" (eight) and less effective "Home Defence Regiments" and regular brigades. This organization meant that in later campaigns, Croatian army would pursue a variant of blitzkrieg with Guard brigades taking the role of punching holes in the enemy lines, while other units simply held the front and completed the encirclement of enemy units.

Foreign Volunteers in Croatia

At the beginning of the conflict in Croatia many foreign volunteers joined the National Guard. Although most of the volunteers were ethnic Croats returning from countries they had emigrated to their were also many who had no connections to Croatia who came because of their political beliefs or in search of adventure. Most non ethnic Croats came from western countries like Britain or France with some also from Hungry. They mainly fought by themselves or in their own groups which were supervised by the National Guard. Some had served in the French Foreign Legion and were useful in the training of the Croatian militias.
Croatian Army Croatian Army Croatian Army Croatian Army Croatian Army
Croatian Army Croatian Army

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