Beginning with the exhibition opened on August 3th 2025 the Homeland War Museum Dubrovnik has been honoring the Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders with its Annual Special Exhibition that showcases the Museum’s latest scientific and expert achievements.
This year’s national holiday also marks the 30th anniversary of the military and police Operation Storm and for the occasion the Museum expanded its “Croatian War Photography” project to include the thematic exhibition titled “Storm, 1995 – 2025”.
The exhibition consists of two chronologically divided themes containing more than 200 artifacts from the Museum’s permanent collections and documents on display in one exhibition area of the Fort Imperial on the mount Srđ.
The first thematic exhibition unit is dedicated solely to Operation Storm – the largest liberation offensive Croatian Army has ever launched and the symbol of the final victory against the aggressor and of the freedom gained in the Homeland War. During the offensive that lasted August 4th through 7th 1995, Croatian forces completely defeated the army of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serb Krajina. In the process, 10 400 square kilometers of the temporarily occupied territory was liberated and reintegrated within the legal order of the Republic of Croatia. Aside from the display documenting the phases of Operation Storm, this thematic unit also contains the chronological survey of both the most important political events and military actions Croatia has undertaken during the final stage of the Homeland War.
The second thematic exhibition unit is dedicated to the events that occurred in the region of Dubrovnik during Operation Storm and immediately upon its victorious ending. It was precisely during this time that the Army of the Serb Republic undertook relentless artillery and infantry attacks on the entire southernmost area of Croatia in its attempts to break the first line of Croatian defense.
Croatian Army decisively stood their ground and successfully curbed the aggressor’s territorial appetites thus effectively stopping the areas of Prevlaka and Konavle from being reoccupied and severed from the Homeland.
Although the exhibition “Storm, 1995 – 2025” contains a number of documents and artifacts from the Museum’s collections, the exhibition’s focal point again gravitates toward the study and display of war photographs as both highly valuable Museum’s artifacts and part of our rich cultural heritage.
The Museum’s successful collaboration with the news publisher Slobodna Dalmacija from Split has yielded a rich visual testimony of Operation Storm, providing in turn the visitors with an opportunity to learn more about the glorious Croatian liberation offensive via special moments now captured for all time. The photographs were donated to the Museum by such well known war photo-reporters as Matko Biljak, Božidar Vukičević, Milo Kovač and Zvonimir Pandža.
The exhibition is enriched with the clippings of numerous newspaper reports and articles published in Slobodna Dalmacija during those war times in an endeavor to show the visitors the scope of power wielded by media and journalistic photo reportage.
Events on the Dubrovnik Front at the time of the military/police Operations Flash and Storm
During the defensive Homeland War (1991-1995), Croatia’s extreme south added shining new pages to its rich history thanks to the courage and sacrifices of both its armed defenders and general public.
The crucial but also most arduous wartime events in the wider Dubrovnik environs, which played a decisive role in the ultimate victory over the Serbian-Montenegrin aggressor, transpired in the period from 1 October 1991 to 25 October 1992. They were first and foremost characterized by the successful defence of the City under complete enemy encirclement in November and December 1991, which halted the until-then unrelenting advance of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and Serbian-Montenegrin forces, undertaken with the aim of conquering this part of Croatia’s state territory and merging it into “Greater Serbia.”
Besides the military defeat imposed upon it by the City’s defenders, the aggressor also suffered an even heavier political defeat and condemnation from the entire global public due to its senselessly brutal and destructive attacks on Dubrovnik, a world-renowned cultural and tourist destination under UNESCO protection since 1979.
Dubrovnik’s defence simultaneously facilitated the implementation of the first and, up to that point, largest offensive operation by the Croatian army and police in 1992, which was aimed at lifting the blockade of Dubrovnik and liberating the temporarily occupied sections of the Dubrovnik Municipality.
With the victorious conclusion of this operation after six trying months of battles waged from May through October, the forces of the Southern Front lifted the blockade of Dubrovnik, took control of the city’s hinterland and broke through to Croatia’s internationally recognized border. A sturdy and reliable defensive system, roughly 105 km in length, was established in this zone, based on over 120 commanding fortified heights, which enemy forces never managed to seriously imperil.
The next two years on the Dubrovnik front were characterized by occasional low-intensity combat between units of the Croatian Army and the Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb) Army, as well as the latter’s artillery terrorization of the populace in southern Croatia.
Events in the last wartime year were also influenced by the complete failure of peace talks conducted by representatives of the EU and UN. It became apparent that the persistent rejection of any negotiated solutions by the political leadership of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (in Croatia) and the Republika Srpska (in Bosnia-Herzegovina) constituted the primary obstacle to ending the war.
Prompted by the war’s escalation, particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the fall of Srebrenica and the grave threat against the Bihać pocket by Serb forces, the United States decided to take the initiative in negotiations going forward and brought considerable military and diplomatic pressure to bear on Serbian representatives to end the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Dubrovnik area in 1995
The wider Dubrovnik area in 1995 was marked by constant artillery attacks on the defence lines of the Croatian Army’s Southern Front by the Herzegovina Corps of the Republika Srpska Army, while civilian targets from Prevlaka to Ston were also regularly attacked. The intensity of these attacks, undertaken as part of a strategy of repulsion or retaliation, were influenced by the liberation operations successfully executed by Croatian forces, codenamed Leap 1, Leap 2, Flash, Summer ’95 and Storm.
The reawakening of this combat zone under new political and strategic circumstances was awaited by the forces of the Southern Front in full readiness, as they had been taking enhanced defensive measures since March 1995 in compliance with an order issued by the Croatian Army’s Central Command under the codename Maestral (preparations and planning for defence operations to hamper any anticipated attacks).
The following units were activated along the frontline established at the end of 1992, which extended from the village of Ravno (Bosnia-Herzegovina), across the heights above Popovo plain and the Trebinje forest, the area above Konavle to the village of Dubravka and farther to the border with Montenegro and Pevlaka: the Croatian Army’s 141st, 114th and 115th Brigades, the 116th Home Guard Regiment, the Croatian Army’s 163rd Brigade, the 156th Home Guard Regiment, the Dubrovnik 1st Home Guard Battalion, the Konavle Battalion, the Croatian Army’s 9th Guard Brigade, the Mixed Marine Squads of Dubrovnik, Korčula-Pelješac, Brač and Hvar, the 8th,10th and 16th Artillery Divisions, the 415th Mobile Coastal Artillery Battery, the 39th Engineering Battalion, the 2nd Battalion of the 204th Anti-aircraft Defence Brigade, as well as special Interior Ministry (police) units from throughout Croatia and members of the Dubrovnik Police Administration. The continuous recruitment and supplemental activation of units meant that during July and August of 1995 the Southern Front Command had a total of 10 to 12 thousand troops at its disposal.
Facing the Croatian forces were the Trebinje and Bileća Brigades of the Republika Srpska Army’s Herzegovina Corps, which together with reinforcements numbered approximately 5 thousand troops.
After Operation Leap 1 was successfully implemented by Croatian forces on 7 April 1995, as of mid-April Serbian units began carrying out artillery and small arms strikes on a daily basis as a way to threaten Croatia, to halt offensives in the direction of Knin. Besides military targets, many civilian locations were also attacked in the villages of Orašac, Zaton, Brgat, Močići and Radovčići, as well as Dubrovnik’s airport, which was a frequent target because of the media attention these attacks garnered and the fact that it had enormous importance to the normalization of life in the wider region. A notable example of this was the renewed attack on 19 April during the opening ceremony for the renovated terminal building, which was attended by Croatian Prime Minister Nikica Valentić, the military attachés of the United States, Great Britain and France, and several hundred citizens. Just as the Croatian prime minister was delivering a speech, a mortar shell fired from the Republika Srpska Army’s position hit the runway and damaged the Croatian Government’s airplane. During these attacks in 1995, over 100 enemy shells hit the airport and its immediate surroundings.
A new series of artillery attacks by the Herzegovina Corps followed during May as retaliation for the military/police Operation Flash in Western Slavonia. Besides heavy shelling on Croatian Army positions, four attacks were launched against civilian targets throughout the wider Dubrovnik region.
Immediately after the signing of the Split Agreement on 22 July (which restored the Croatian-Bosnian Muslim military alliance), Croatian forces liberated Bosansko Grahovo and Glamoč in neighbouring Bosnia and took control of the Knin-Drvar road, thereby securing all necessary prerequisites for the final liberation of the occupied territories of Northern Dalmatia and Lika.
As part of a reprisal for this defeat, on 3 August the Republika Srpska Army carried out one of the harshest criminal attacks on the Dubrovnik area. Three young Dubrovnik natives were killed and three more heavily wounded as a result of an exploding mortar shell fired at Klačine beach in Veliki Zaton. This crime was one of the direct motives for launching the military/police Operation Storm.
The fiercest artillery and infantry assaults by the Republika Srpska Army in the entire Dubrovnik region followed in August 1995, during and after Operation Storm, with the objective of once more seizing Konavle and Prevlaka, thereby securing access to the seacoast for the Republika Srpska. This would have been the achievement of one of their major wartime aims and strengthened their hand in the continuation of peace talks.
The Herzegovina Corps launched its planned offensive with a destructive artillery barrage on 12 August, during which approximately 2,000 shells were fired at the entire Dubrovnik region. Four large wildfires broke out as a result of this shelling, destroying immense tracts covered with forests, olive groves and vineyards, while the first infantry assaults were also staged, although they were successfully repelled by Croatian Army units.
After a counterattack by the Croatian Army’s artillery, which fired about 4,500 shells at the Republika Srpska Army’s positions, a brief lull ensued, but high-intensity combat continued until 1 September.
The severity of these battles is reflected in the statistics showing that seven Croatian Army soldiers lost their lives, while 36 individuals were wounded, and over 20 thousand artillery shells were fired.
In implementing the Maestral defence plan, the Southern Front’s dominant forces successfully repelled all attacks by the enemy, which sustained a decisive defeat as a result. Croatian forces were also prepared to undertake offensive operations in eastern Herzegovina in case of failure of upcoming peace negotiations.
