Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical (
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On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 10:43:31 +0100, "Bloodstar"
<george.washington@microsoft.com> wrote:
>In fact, most important have gathered in this thread
All four of us,
😱)
>Yes, operation "Una" in 1995.
When operation "Storm" ended, my AT battalion was left at Kostajnica as
garrison. August and early September passed in boredom and "liberation" of
whatever spirit we could track.
Then we heard the news from Bosnian radio how Bosnian troops liberated Bosanska
Krupa and were on their way north to Prijedor, another Bosnian Serb stronghold.
A quick glance on the map, showed that if Bosnians capture Prijedor, entire Serb
controlled region on the south bank of Una would be cut off from the rest of the
Republic of Srpska and forced to surrender.
Apparently, Croatian general staff could read maps too.
Bosnian Serbs also had that ability so their radio stations were calling for
volunteers to join in the defense and asked population to defend their homes.
Nevertheless, Serb population was not stupid and started to pack their bags.
Throughout the weekend preceding the start of the operation "Una" we were
monitoring what was going on across the river in Bosanska Kostajnica. Local
authority stopped the blackout which was going on ever since we got there and it
was obvious there was a panic there.
That saturday I personally escorted a group of high school teachers who helped
clean the local high school in Kostajnica all the way to the damaged bridge
between two towns. Some teachers even went towards the river and waved towards
the other side, provoking it. Nothing happened.
On Sunday, all vacations were suspended and we got our marching orders for
Monday. Our job was to give fire support from our two Jacksons when the crossing
started. We also had a battery of towed AT guns T-12 100mm dugged in and
camouflaged.
Monday morning came, we got our recognition stripes, but morning fog apparently
prevented any offensive action. I casually went to the centre of the city to buy
newspaper and cigarettes for my addict friends.
High noon came and fog lifted. It was time for me to drive few kilometers back
to collect lunch. I drove up the road in perfect site of whatever Serb across
the river, got the lunch, drove back and saw several families of returned
Croatian refugees sitting in their homes, preparing for lunch.
I safely got back, delivered the food and soon after artillery preparation
started...
On Wednesday morning everything was over. We never fired a shot, we remained at
our base playing cards and eating while sporadic artillery duel lasted.
Serb radio, that was in the gloom and defiant mode during the preceding week,
now became cheerful, ful of Serb marching songs, announcing great victory in
repelling "ustasha agressors".
Before I went home to my three day vacation, I managed to sneak into the
operational order that called for four day action, involving crossing the river
and our task in this whole mess.
When I got home, my father showed me the newspapers that were writing about
"constant provocations" from Serb side that we "could not tolerate any more and
had to intervene". I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry.
Bosnians did not take Krupa and Prijedor was not in danger so Serbs did not have
to weaken their forces on the river as someone in Croatian general staff hoped
for.
This general was relieved, Bosnians eventually liberated Krupa, we remained in
Kostajnica pending our redeployment to Slavonia for operation "Dunav 95", i.e.
liberation of Vukovar.
Thanks to the Dayton peace accord, we were never redeployed and I was
demobilised in late November.
>As I've heard from one guy, M-84 was leathal tank, he was also from Bosnia
>and he told me that M-84 had automatic locking of targets (whatever that may
>be),
When I was in Yugoslav Army in 1987 we were told the same thing. We were told to
expect to fire no more than two shots from our towed AT guns before we had to
change position.
> I never read too much about modern tanks, I know a basic. But, if those
>Jakcsons were kept so long then they are very good weapon, of course no
>match for M-84.
They got diesel engines and better roof when they were modernised in early
fifities. I believe they were all mothballed before the war and served well in
1991. However, by 1995 most of the engines were thoroughly unreliable and out of
eight machines we had on the eve of Operation "Storm", only four could be
trusted on.
We used them mostly for indirect fire support, but this wasn't without dangers
as we saw at Petrinja...
I leave that for some other post.
Drax
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