Professional paper
Croatian Army’s 102nd Brigade in the HURRICANE Operation of December 1991
Vlado Hodalj
Abstract
The paper makes an attempt to reconstruct the planning, organizing and conducting of the VIHOR Operation, one of the first offensive operations of the Croatian Army during the National War (December 1991). This operation ended unsuccessfully, and the 102nd Brigade suffered several dozen casualties. On the basis of avaible published
data and an analysis of the basic elements of planning, organizing and conducting of the operation, it is suggested that the main reasons for the debacle of the VIHOR operation lie in the very grave objective and subjective circumstances encountered on almost all front lines in Croatia during the period in which this operation was
prepared and conducted; a lack of readiness among both the troops and their command structure to prepare and conduct a complex operation of crossing a major river on the move; the lack of basic and special military skills needed for an operation of this kind; and other factors, such as the misjudgement of some key factors of this
operation, especially of the combat readiness of the 102nd Brigade to conduct an operation of this kind, the lack of responsibility of the higher echelons of command, and the lack of discipline.
Keywords
Operations; National War; River Crossing; 102nd Brigade of the HV; Kupa
Hrčak ID:
2870
URI
Publication date:
31.12.1999.
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