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The 'Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina' (''ARBiH''; ''Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine'') was an official military force of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina established by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 following the outbreak of the Bosnian War. Following the end of the war, and the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, it was transformed into Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under the State Defense Reform Law the 'Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina' were unified in to a single structure OSBiH making entity armies defunct.

Contents

Creation and Composition

Generals

Bosnian War

1992

1993

1994

1995

Military Ranks

Generals

Commissioned Officers

Non-Commissioned Officers

Enlisted Ranks

Military Insignia

Equipment

Infantry weapons

Infantry anti-tank weapons

External links

Creation and Composition

The Army of Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina, was formed on April 15 1992 during the early days of the Bosnian War. Before the ARBiH was officially created, a number of paramilitary and civil defense groups such as the Green Berets, Patriotic League and the local Territorial Defence (TO) units has been founded. Other irregular groups included criminal groups, as well as collections of police and former Yugoslav People's Army soldiers.
The army was formed in poor circumstances, and suffered from a very limited supply of arms. Critical deficiencies included tanks and other heavy weaponry. The first commander of the army was Sefer Halilović.
The army was divided into Corps, each stationed in a particular territory. In 1993, most brigades were renamed as Mountain troops given that the lack of heavy weapons made it organizationally pointless to list them as infantry or motorized. In addition, Bosnian terrain favored light infantry over armored and mechanized formations.

★ 1st Corps: Sarajevo (HQ), Goražde

★ 2nd Corps: Tuzla (HQ), Doboj, Bijeljina, Srebrenica, Zvornik

★ 3rd Corps: Zenica (HQ), Tešanj, Gornji Vakuf, Vitez, Visoko and Lašva Valley

★ 4th Corps: Mainly Mostar (HQ) but also consisting of Livno, Tomislavgrad and Trebinje

★ 5th Corps: Bihać (HQ), Bužim, and Bosanska Krajina

★ 6th Corps: Konjic (HQ)

★ 7th Corps: Jajce and Travnik (HQ)

Generals

★ Alija Izetbegovic (The Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Armed Forces)

★ Sefer Halilović (first commander)(Army chief of staff 1992-1993)

★ Jovan Divjak (second commander)

★ Stjepan Šiber (third commander)

★ Rasim Delić (commander)(Army chief of staff 1993-1995)

★ Enver Hadzihasanovic (Chief of Staff)

★ Mustafa Hajrulahović Talijan (first commander of the 1st Corps)

★ Atif Dudaković (second commander of the 5th Corps)

★ Ramiz Dreković (first commander of the 4th Corps)

★ Mehmed Alagić (first commander of the 7th Corps)

★ Željko Knez (first commander of the 2nd Corps)

Bosnian War

Main articles: Bosnian War

1992

In 1992, 70% of Bosnia was under JNA (Yugoslav People's Army), and then later VRS (Bosnian Serb Army), control. Sarajevo was under siege. The ARBiH had defended Sarajevo with light weaponry. The army was surrounded and the transfer of supplies was hard, if not impossible.

1993

1993 saw no major changes in the front lines. Instead, this year marked the start of the Bosniak-Croat war in Central Bosnia and in Herzegovina, notably the Mostar region. Pressured and contained by heavily armed Serb forces, Bosniak forces tried to make up for lost territory against numerically inferior Bosnian Croat forces - HVO (Croatian Defence Council). After short but bloody war (with no significant gains neither for Bosniaks nor Croats), US leadership led to "Washington treaty" peace agreement. From that point on, Bosnian Croat and Muslim forces continued to fight as allies against Serbs.

1994

A renewed alliance between HVO and ARBiH was agreed, with the objective of forming a strong force that could fight the much stronger and equipped VRS. This was the time of frequent peace negotiations.

1995

Despite the loss of several enclaves, notably Srebrenica, 1995 was marked by HVO and ARBiH offensives and later by NATO intervention. The Croatian army, with cooperation from ARBiH and HVO, launched a series of operations: ''Flash, Summer '95, Storm and Mistral''. In conjunction, Bosnian forces launched operations ''Sana'' and ''Una '95''. Bosnian and Croat armies were on the offensive in this phase, captured entire western Bosnia, and the Serb capital Banja Luka was seriously threatened, until peace negotiations stopped further bloodshed.
In the period of August-December 1995, Serb forces were defeated and driven out of the majority of Croatia and western Bosnia, and the ethnic Serb population fled from these parts.
Following the second Markale massacre, NATO intervention was launched, which destroyed much of the VRS infrastructure in just a few days (Operation Deliberate Force). The war ended with the signing of the Dayton Accord.

Military Ranks

Main articles: Military Ranks and Insignia of Bosnia

Supreme Armed Forces Commander - Alija Izetbegovic

Generals

★ General - General

★ Lieutenant General - General-pukovnik

★ Major General - General-major

★ Brigadier General - Brigadni General

Commissioned Officers

★ Colonel - Brigadir

★ Lieutenant Colonel - Pukovnik

★ Major - Major

★ Captain - Kapetan

★ Senior Lieutenant - Viši Poručnik

★ 1st Lieutenant - Poručnik

★ 2nd Lieutenant - Podporučnik

Non-Commissioned Officers

★ Command Sergeant Major - Glavni narednik

★ Sergeant Major - Viši narednik

★ Master Sergeant - Narednik 1. klase

★ Sergeant First Class - Štabni narednik

★ Staff Sergeant - Narednik

★ Sergeant - Kaplar

Enlisted Ranks

★ Corporal - Vojnik 1. klase

★ Private First Class - Vojnik

★ Private (PV-1) - Regrut

Military Insignia

'Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Armed Forces'

Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Armed Forces

Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Armed Forces

'Generals'
General	General-pukovnik	General-major	Brigadni General
General	General-pukovnik	General-major	Brigadni General

'Commissioned Officers'
Brigadir	Pukovnik	Major	Kapetan	Viši Poručnik	Poručnik	Podporučnik
Brigadir	Pukovnik	Major	Kapetan	Viši Poručnik	Poručnik	Podporučnik

'Non-Commissioned Officers'
Glavni narednik	Viši narednik	Narednik 1. klase	Štabni narednik	Narednik	Kaplar
Glavni narednik	Viši narednik	Narednik 1. klase	Štabni narednik	Narednik	Kaplar

'Enlisted Ranks'
Vojnik 1. klase	Vojnik	Regrut
Vojnik 1. klase	Vojnik	Regrut

Equipment

Infantry weapons

★ 7,92mm MG42

★ 12,7mm M2 HB Browning

★ 7,92mm M53

★ M48

★ M59/66

★ M70

★ M72

★ M76

★ M80

★ M84

★ M84 Skorpion

★ H&K G3

★ FAL

★ Druganov

Infantry anti-tank weapons

★ 44mm M57

★ 44mm M80

★ 82mm M60 RR

★ 9K11 Maljutka (AT-3 Sagger)

★ RPG-7V

★ 90mm M79 Osa

★ 64mm M80 Zolja

★ 120mm M90

★ Red Arrow 8

External links

★ Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

★ Blogs of former soldiers and their stories

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★ Bore oko očiju

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★ Ponor

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★ Umor

★
★ Za Tebe