The Siege of Vukovar

In the summer of 1991 the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitary formations attacked the city of Vukovar in a bid to deliver a knock out blow to the nascent Croatian army and force the Croatian government to cede a third of its territory to Serbia. The plan was to take the city in a matter of days and then swiftly advance westwards, as far as the Croatian capital city of Zagreb. The Serbian government and YPA leadership miscalculated badly. The Croatian forces in Vukovar put up a stiff resistance and repulsed the attack, inflicting a huge number of casualties on the YPA and Serb paramilitaries. The Serbs, at that point, had no option but to besiege Vukovar and wore down the defenders by subjecting the city to merciless artillery bombardment and aerial attacks. The siege lasted for three months. The defenders, vastly outnumbered and armed only with small arms, beat back numerous onslaughts on the city but in the end, starved, exhausted and out of ammunition they had no choice but to surrender. By that time the YPA's artillery had reduced Vukovar to rubble. Contrary to the agreed terms of surrender the Serb occupiers put the city to the sack and bestially slaughtered hundreds of POWs and civilians. Ante Nazor gives us a comprehensive account of the Battle of Vukovar and Anica Maric the story of her struggle for survival in the beleaguered city.