DUBROVNIK AND THE DUBROVNIK WAR FRONTLINE IN 1995

Abstract

Posljednja godina Domovinskoga rata na dubrovačkom području protekla je u znaku triju događanja. Prvo su bili cjelogodišnji topnički napadi Hercegovačkoga korpusa Vojske Republike Srpske, u kojima je stradao veći broj civila i hrvatskih vojnika te nanesena velika materijalna šteta, drugo plan “Maestral”, prema kojem su postrojbe Hrvatske vojske uredile obrambeni sustav dubrovačkoga područja i obranile ga od ponovnoga pokušaja osvajanja Vojske Republike Srpske, a treće operacija “Burin”, kojom je Hrvatska vojska trebala zauzeti dio istočne Hercegovine i dugoročno zaštititi Dubrovnik od topničkoga terora Vojske Republike Srpske. Zbog niza diplomatsko-vojnih razloga operacija nije provedena.The peak of the war in the Dubrovnik area lasted from October 1991, when the Serbo-Montenegrin aggression began, to October 1992, when the Croatian Army ended the liberation of this territory. Then established lines of the battlefield would remain unchanged until the end of the war. For the next two years there were battles of lower intensity between the Croatian Army (CA) of the Southern Front and the Herzegovina Corps of the Army of Serb Republic (ASR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The overall situation also changed in 1995 when the Croatian and the Serbian side were leading larger attack operations, a part of which was related to Dubrovnik. The ASR was going to win the Dubrovnik region and the Neretva valley, and so gain access to the Adriatic Sea. The CA directed attacks on Central Croatia, whilst for Dubrovnik, where a satisfactory condition had been achieved in 1992, a defensive plan called „Mistral“ was made. In the first eight months of 1995 the bulk of the conflict was in southwestern Bosnia. To relieve its troops on this battlefield, the ASR was leading artillery attacks on the CA positions and civilian targets in the Dubrovnik area for months, due to which a large number of soldiers and civilians were killed and the normal life of population was paralysed. The combat operations of the ASR Herzegovina Corps, with the aim of winning the access to the sea, began on August the 12th and lasted till September the 1st. Seven soldiers of the CA were killed in these attacks, but the frontline did not move. This proved that the winning of the access to the sea was beyond the real capabilities of the ASR and that the balance of power shifted in favour of the CA. As a reaction to the Serbian attacks, the CA drafted plans for the operation „Gale“ by which it was supposed to occupy a part of the eastern Herzegovina and to long term protect Dubrovnik from Serbian artillery attacks. The preparations were completed in September and October, but the conclusion of the Dayton Agreement prevented the implementation of these plans. There followed the demobilization of the Croatian and the Serbian forces thus ending the war on the Dubrovnik frontline also. Comparing to the developments on other battlefields, the Dubrovnik frontline in 1995 had a secondrate importance, while its dynamics of events were among the calmer