30th Anniversary Of Military And Police Operations Flash And Storm (C)

Military and Police Operation Flash
In the early morning of 1 May 1995, Croatian military and police forces began a rapid operation to liberate the previously occupied areas of western Slavonia. It was undertaken after a series of incidents that culminated at the end of April 1995, with terrorist attacks on vehicles on the highway and abductions of Croats. Until then, the Croatian authorities tried to find a solution and achieve peace in this area through numerous negotiations, but the enemy ignored every call. Croatia no longer had a choice. The operation began with an attack by Croatian forces on the southern and central parts of the west Slavonian occupied territory from the direction of Novska and Nova Gradiška. The end objective was to open the highway, break out on the Sava River and the internationally recognized border of the Republic of Croatia, and enter Okučani, the center of the enemy rebellion and terrorist attacks in the west Slavonian area.

The main directions of the attack were operated by the 81st Guards Battalion, the 5th Guards Brigade, parts of the 1st and 3rd Guards Brigades and the 2nd Guards Brigade and the 1st Croatian Guards Corps (HGZ), supported by the reserve and domobran units aided by anti-tank artillery and missile units, the Croatian Air Force and the units of the Special Police of the Ministry of the Interior. In the operation, Croatian Air Force strikes were used on a larger scale for the first time, and tanks delivered by rail entered combat directly, thus achieving an additional tactical surprise against the enemy.

In just 32 hours, the Croatian forces, which consisted of about 7200 soldiers and police officers, liberated 500 square kilometers of the previously occupied west Slavonian territory, and control over the Zagreb-Lipovac highway and the railway line to eastern Slavonia was established. After almost four years of occupation, the town of Okučani was liberated.

The powerlessness and defeat of the rebel terrorists resulted in the shelling of Croatian cities. Deadly missiles hit the very center of Zagreb, taking dozens of civilian casualties, and long-range artillery fired on Karlovac, Sisak, Novska, Kutina... These were merely the last deranged acts of the defeated enemy, whose end was rapidly approaching.

In this operation, Croatia showed that it had built a military force capable of liberating the occupied Croatian territories on its own, and only three months later, in the Military and Police Operation Storm, it demonstrated this fully.

Military and Police Operation Storm
With the rejection of the political agreement and the Croatian proposal for the immediate peaceful reintegration of the occupied areas into the legal framework of the Republic of Croatia, the last obstacle to launching the Operation Storm was gone. In the early morning of 4 August, Croatian troops began military actions against enemy targets in the occupied Croatian territories with a simultaneous attack from about thirty directions.

Following the initial activity of the Croatian Air Force and destruction of enemy communication systems, as well as the artillery preparations for military objectives, the Croatian forces went into action concurrently, on a battlefield almost 700 kilometers long. The striking force on the main directions of the attack was made up of Guards Brigades supported by the 1st Croatian Guards Corps (HGZ), the Special Police of the Ministry of the Interior and the domobranand reserve units.

The main directions of the attack were from the Dinara and Velebit mountains in the direction of Knin, for which the preconditions had been created already in the operation Summer '95. In the main direction of the attack from the Dinara towards Knin, the 4th and 7th Guards Brigades made up the vanguard. On the other hand, special units of the Ministry of the Interior forcefully penetrated from the Velebit over Sveti Rok in the direction of Knin. The 1st Croatian Guards Corps entered deep into the enemy interior with a helicopter landing. From the area of the Kapela, through Slunj and Rakovica on the one side, and Korenica and Plitvice on the other, the forces of the 1st Guards Brigade were advancing in order to meet with the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Taking the Ljubovo Pass and neutralizing the enemy air base in Udbina was the task of the 9th Guards Brigade. The area of Banija was surrounded from several directions, and the striking force in the direction of Petrinja and further towards Glina was the 2nd Guards Brigade. Troops of the 3rd and 5th Guards Brigades were on alert in the far east of Croatia in case of any enemy movements.

On the first day of the operation, the penetration of Croatian Army units amounted to five to fifteen kilometers deep, and enemy strongholds were brought into encirclement or semi-encirclement. Already on the second day of the operation, eighty percent of the planned combat tasks were completed. With the entry of the forces of the 4th and 7th Guards Brigades on August 5 in Knin and its liberation, the most important strategic, political and military objective of not only Operation Storm but the entire Homeland War was achieved.

In just 84 hours of the Military and Police Operation Storm, in which almost 200,000 Croatian soldiers were engaged, more than 10,000 square kilometers of the previously occupied areas were liberated. The Croatian Army achieved all its designated goals. In tactical and strategic terms, it was a brilliantly executed military operation that would be studied by numerous military analysts and military academies due to its originality and success.

Vesna Pintarić, Graduate
Journalist, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
of "Hrvatski vojnik" magazine,
Multimedia Department, Ministry of
Defence of the Republic of Croatia