Battle of Vukovar - Vukovar, Croatia - Battlefields on Waymarking.com

The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of the Croatian city of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serbian paramilitary forces, between August-November 1991 during the Croatian War of Independence. It ended with the defeat of the local Croatian National Guard, the near-total destruction of Vukovar and the murder or expulsion of most of the Croat population of the city and surroundings.

Although the battle was a significant and symbolic loss for Croatia, which did not regain control of the town until 1998, it was also a very costly victory for the JNA and helped to gain international support for Croatian independence. As such, it is widely regarded as having been a crucial turning point in the course of the war.

Croatian forces

Vukovar was defended by a force of some 1,800 defenders drawn from local militias, the 204th brigade of the Croatian National Guard (ZNG) and Interior Ministry forces. As many as a third of defenders were said to be non-Croats. They were relatively poorly armed with little heavy weaponry, though they gained some additional weapons following the capture of JNA barracks elsewhere in Croatia. Despite their small numbers and poor weaponry, they were far better motivated than their opponents, as [in some instances] their families were located in the town, and they would naturally fight with more vigor and emotion. They also benefited from the defensive advantages offered by urban terrain.

Dedakovic and the defenders' Chief of Staff, Branko Borkovic, played a key role in devising defensive tactics that kept the JNA out of Vukovar for a prolonged period of time. They created a unified command structure that created a single brigade from a number of previously disparate elements. Their tactics centred on the creation of an integrated defence system that featured the mining of approach routes, roving anti-tank teams, snipers and heavily fortified defensive strongpoints. This combination was intended to slow down and dissipate JNA attacks to the point where counter-attacks could force a retreat.

Yugoslav/Serb forces

The attacking force was a mixture of JNA soldiers, conscripts from the Serbian Territorial Defense Forces, Chetniks (Serbian nationalist paramilitaries) and local Serb militiamen. At its largest, it numbered about 50,000 troops. Although it was in theory far stronger than the Croatian forces and was much better equipped, it suffered from often low morale, poor leadership, and constant desertions, which reduced the strength and capability of many units. Many of the JNA soldiers were not Serbs in the first place, a large number being Bosniaks and Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. By this stage, the non-Serb members of the JNA were not particularly supportive of either Serbian nationalism or the nominal cause of Yugoslav unity. The non-Serb soldiers were distrusted by the Serb-dominated officer corps, and many deserted from a battle in which they felt that they had no stake of their own.

Low morale was a problem for the Serb members of the JNA as well, and desertions and protests were frequent among the largely conscripted force. The war was unpopular at home and the JNA experienced severe problems in mobilizing soldiers for the battle. The Army as a whole struggled to explain adequately what it was fighting for (it was only in October 1991 that its insignia was altered to replace the communist symbol of the red star with the Yugoslav tricolor flag, symbolising its shift from communist to nationalist ideologies).

Aftermath

The three-month siege tied down some of the best units the Yugoslav Army had, including two tank and six mechanized brigades in the wider area - substantial part of the Army's tank assault force - which eased the pressure on other fronts in Croatia. This three-month pause, during which the JNA was concentrating on defeating just one Croatian infantry brigade, enabled Croatia to complete the mobilization started in October. As a result: when the battle of Vukovar begun, Croatian Army had less than 20 infantry brigades, which rose to about 60 when it was over.

The fate of those captured at Vukovar; both military and civilians; was grim. Many appear to have been summarily executed by Serbian paramilitaries. Many of the defenders of Vukovar were also killed although some, including the commanders, successfully broke through JNA lines and escaped to government-held territory. Of the non-Serb civilian survivors, most were expelled to government-held territory but around 800 of the men of fighting age (civilians and captured soldiers alike) as well as many other civilians were imprisoned in Serbian prisons. Majority from Vukovar ended up in the Sremska Mitrovica camp. Although most were eventually freed in prisoner exchanges, some reportedly died after being tortured.

Many of the Croatians in the Vukovar hospital (around 260 people plus several medical personnel) were taken by JNA and Serb paramilitary forces to the nearby field of Ovcara and executed there (Vukovar massacre).

(Source: Wikipedia)

Name of Battle: Battle of Vukovar Name of War: Croatian War of Independence Entrance Fee: 0.00 (listed in local currency) Date(s) of Battle (Beginning): 08/25/1991 Date of Battle (End): 11/18/1991 Parking: Not Listed

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