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       Croatian Forces
   Living History Group
 
         Independent Unit, 1.Battalion, 109.Brigade Croatian Army - Vinkovci
 
 
 
 
 
 
        

       

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Who are we?
 
As a UK based group we portray the image of the Croatian combat soldier between the June 1991 and March 1992 period of the Homeland War of Independence.
The group represents unit members of the 109.Brigade of the Croatian Army with the sole aim of providing a better
awareness of the conflict and the Croatian forces of the time. In our efforts to provide an authentic portrayal we use only original items of uniform, equipment and weapons.
 
We also offer a gathering place for the
veterans of the conflict and collectors
and individuals who share an interest in
this period. 
 
 

 

Hrvatski

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

109. brigade 'Storks', Vinkovci
 

 

 

                                                           
Originally formed as the 10.Brigade ZNG "R" (National
Guard Corp - Reserve) on May 10th 1991, the Brigade staff, support units, and 1st and 2nd Battalions were formed from persons mobilized from the Vinkovci municipality, the 3rd Battalion from the Zupanja municipality and a 4th Battalion was planned from Vukovar, however events in Vukovar prevented the formation so a further Independant Company was formed in Vinkovci.
The basis of the brigade was mobilized from the Bosut Brigade of the Territorial Defence (TO) of Vinkovci, the Secretariat for People's Defence (NO) and the Vinkovci Police Department (PU). The formation was completed on May 30th, 1991 in the village of Ceric with a line up of the brigade staff and support units under the command of Ivan Petrinovic, out of a planned 1,903 soldiers the brigade had 1,800.
When formed the brigade had enough weapons for only 40% of its personnel, only the independent company was fully armed and was designed as the assault force of the brigade. Initially the brigade had only 800 rifles, on July 1st another 1000 rifles arrived along with some light machine guns, RPG's and two Strela 2M (SA-7).

 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

                                                                                                                                     

 

      

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

On June 5th Josip Matic assumed command and on June 20th the 106, 107 and 108th brigades were formed, since the 10th was already formed it was renamed the 109th. Part of 109 brigade were constantly engaged in the defence of Vukovar, by October 1st the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) reached the line of the Bosut River cut communications to Vinkovci and Vukovar and completely surrounded Vukovar.
The brigade was now covering some 60 kilometers of front line from Lipovac to the Durgutovica forest, and exhausted from months of fighting without cohesive leadership they suffered significant losses.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the fall of Vukovar on November 18th, command was assumed by Colonel Josip Zvirotic. During the next month the brigade reached its peak with a total of six infantry battalions, an artillery battalion, armoured battalion, independent company, engineer company and platoon level staff units, but were still under strength in it's brigade staff.
After several failed attempts to breakthrough brigade lines - as results of a well fortified defence line with fire control systems, the JNA limited itself to the shelling of Vinkovci and it's surrounding villages. Despite the Sarajevo truce, skirmishes continued throughout January and February 1992.
The 109 brigade was partially demobilized in March, however an active defence of the region continued for a further five years until the Eastern Slavonia region was re-integrated.
 

 

Brief conflict history
 

 

 

The Homeland War was the war fought by the Croatian people in defence of the Croatian state against the aggression brought
in 1990 by the joint Greater Yugoslav forces: Yugoslavian extremists in Croatia, the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) (which was gradually transformed into the Serbian army), and Serbia and Montenegro. The Homeland War was fomented against Croatia in August 1990, when Yugoslavian rebels supported by the JNA launched armed attacks against the legal institutions of the Croatian state and set up the self-proclaimed Yugoslavian autonomous regions in Croatia with the purpose of seceding from Croatia. The war continued in April with the gradual military intervention of the JNA and intensified in June 1991 with the direct invasion of those parts of Croatia which Yugoslavia wanted to occupy and annex. Croatia succeeded in halting the aggressor by military and diplomatic means and in liberating a part of the occupied regions through counter-attacks. Following the arrival of the United Nations peacekeeping forces on the demarcation lines in spring 1992, Croatia began negotiations in order to recover the occupied territories in a peaceful way.
 
The War for the Barracks
 
The rebellion in the summer of 1990 by extremist militia from Knin signalled an unquestionable declaration of the war on Croatia. Since the Croatian territorial defence (TO) had been disarmed a few months before, the basic questions in ensuring the survival of the Croatian state were how to defend the country and by what means. Two initial defence objectives were set: to capture the weapons from the numerous warehouses and barracks of the JNA situated in Croatia and to stop the outbreak or spreading of the war by political means.
In the months that followed, political means were used in order to prevent war and to buy time while preparations to block and conquer the barracks were made in case a political solution was not reached. Since the course of events pointed in the direction of war, it became critical to determine the right time for capturing the JNA barracks.
In the beginning of July 1991, during the JNA attack on Slovenia, smaller-scale, mostly spontaneous attacks on JNA barracks and armoured vehicles were carried out by citizens. It was during that time that the process of resistance to the JNA started throughout Croatia in all the places with military installations. Resistance came in the form of peace rallies, appeals to the JNA to surrender, blockades, stoppage of food, water and electricity supplies, occasional shootings and similar activities by Croatian citizens. Those events mostly occurred spontaneously. However, at the end of August, huge Yugoslavian military forces started the conquest of Croatia with the battle of Vukovar, signalling that it was high time for the Croatian defence to arm itself. At the beginning of September the blockade was strengthened and the pressure on all the barracks in Croatia increased. The biggest part of the battle for the barracks took place in September, and Croatian soldiers captured a large number of barracks and military depots, which made it possible for Croatia to defend itself.
 
The war for the barracks ended on 7th October when the Croatian Army captured the barracks in Samobor and the TO military depot and barracks in Velika Buna and Velika Gorica. When soldiers, weapons and equipment of the JNA were gone from the unoccupied parts of Croatia, the Croatians then captured their military installations.
The weapons, ammunition and military warehouses captured in the war for the barracks played an important role in the defence of Croatia. This is obvious from the fact that the weapons and ammunition captured from the barracks war were seven times as powerful as the weapons that Croatia had possessed before, further weapons supplies came by way of organised supply routes crossing the Hungary/Croatia border.
 
The Eastern Slavonian battlefield
 
This region comprised the areas of the municipalities of Vukovar, Vinkovci, Osijek and Beli Manastir. The strategic significance of this area in the Homeland War arose from the fact that it bordered Serbia. The defeat of eastern Slavonia was necessary for Yugoslavia in order to fulfill its drive for a Greater Serbia. The Yugoslavian military aggression began on May 2nd 1991 in Borovo Selo. Explosions, shootings and the terror inflicted by the Yugoslav paramilitary units and the JNA upon the towns and villages of eastern Slavonia intensified in May and June.
The villages of of Tenja, near Osijek, and Mirkovci , near Vinkovci, became Yugoslavian militia strongholds. The aggressor occasionally attacked Osijek and Vinkovci during July using artillery and combat aircraft. After the fall of Vukovar, Yugoslav artillery and aircraft intensified their attacks on Vinkovci and Osijek, but their experience of the heroic defence of Vukovar had taught them better than to try and take the towns. At the end of November the Croatian Army successfully defended Nustar, and in mid-December a part of the territory between Osijek and Kopacevo was liberated. Over the next five months, the JNA fortified their positions (trenches, bunkers, pillboxes and mine-fields etc.), drove out the non-Serbian population, and then inhabited the occupied towns and villages.
 

 

 

     Eastern Slavonia
  battlefront 1991-1992
 

 

 Vukovar battlefront 1991-1992

 

 

 

 

 

  Translation: Ninoslav Tomlinovic
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008: Sean Vatcher