Operation Bollebank, one of UN open fights in Yugoslavia part I

It was 1994. The war in Yugoslavia is still going on. Croatia and Bosnia were just getting back on their feet after the first war failures. The UN resolution, in the face of repeated war crimes committed essentially by all sides of the Conflict, the UNPROFOR - United Nations Protection Force was deployed in Bosnia. UNPROFOR is known primarily for the compromise in Srebrenica in May 1995, sadly.

One of the units deployed as part of UNPROFOR was the Danish tank company from Jydske Dragonregiment. The unit operated the best Danish tanks at this time: Leopards in the variant 1A5-DK. It was a major modernization of this vehicle; fire control systems and the comfort of the crew were improved. They were provided also with thermal optics. The task of the Danish unit was to secure UN observers and humanitarian aid transports.

On April 29, 1994, a message from the United Nations observation post marked Tango 2 reached the Danish base in Tuzla. There was a group of Swedish soldiers, and their task was to check the status of Sarajevo siege. The message told that Tango 2 is under heavy fire of machine guns and artillery and immediately needed support.

As it happened, the Jydske Dragonregiment soldiers went there as support. The serbian forces was gathered into brigade "Sekovici" of Republika Srpska. 10 Leopard 1A5-DK tanks and the Swedish armored personnel carrier Pbv 301 rolled out. The APC was there to coordinate and transport (as Tango 2 would need it) . The captain of the joint forces was Captain Carl Rasmussen.

After an hour's march towards Tango 2, near the village of Saraci, the column of vehicles was attacked by Serbian artillery. There was no possibilty to miss UN units: all were painted white, the flags of Denmark and the United Nations fluttered on the Leopards, and the lights remained turned on. Rassmusen decided to disconnect one platoon (consisting of three tanks) and send him to speed up contact with Tango 2. At the same time, the UN troops were not in real danger, so the Danes were ordered to stop the fire and withdraw from the danger zone.

The leading platoon left without any problems and soon approached Tango 2. However, when Jydske Dragonregiment left Saraci, the fire intensified again.

Only this time, not only the howitzers detached from the bombing of Sarajevo fired. This time they shot also anti-tank projectiles type Malutka and all types of recoilless guns Serbs had.

As Lieutenant Moeller, second company officer recalled : "The first rocket flew between two vehicles, hit the house behind us, which fell apart and threw the whole tank over rubble. The second missile would hit the third tank, but in the last minute the driver stopped the machine and avoided the rocket. "

In addition, the whole artillery was still firing. The mentioned Lieutenant Moeller was near to death: the fragment of piece flew to his neck and cut off half the long beard.

As we all know, when a Nord loses its beard, it gets a little bit unhappy.
The leopards turned out the lights, Captain Rassmussen gave the order to open the fire and eliminate the threat.

Part II will be here soon!