Tomislav Dretar - Military Career - Bosnian War

Bosnian War

When the war in Croatia started he organized an intelligence agency which tracked the movement of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) troops in northwest of Bosnia, and informed the Croatian military authorities which contributed to the timely activation of the Croatian air defense and prevented ethnic ideas whose action either fell into an empty area or were received during and in a place in which and when they had not been expected. In time and with much skill, although he did not have any military education he organized the defense of Croatians in the Bihać area, he became the president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Bihać, established the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) of Bihać and the Bihać area on the 28th of July 1992 in the village of Šmrekovac in the municipality of Velika Kladuša and become the First President and Military Commander as an officer with the title of colonel. The Croatian units numbered a total of 1,200 men organized as smaller units within the Fifth Bihać Corps as an autonomous Croatian military component. Under his command the Croatian HVO units were a component of the Army of Republic Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He openly opposed Mate Boban and the creation of a Croatian quasi-state of "Herzeg-Bosnia", because he saw this as the same thing that the Chetniks were doing in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Boban's followers tried to assassinate him a number of times, but he always succeeded in slipping away. He participated in the first combat of the army which was organized based on his project, he succeeded in building a relationship of mutual trust and equality with the Bosnian component, established and lined up on 12 June 1992 in the "Zrinski-Frankopan" barracks in Bihać in the suburb of Žegar the first Croatian Bihać battalion called the "101 Bihać-Croatian battalion", which entered in the group of the Second Croatian-Muslim Bihać brigade, which was part of the 5th Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina named the "502 Croatian-Muslim Bihać Brigade", he organized the rescue of two piston aircraft of type Kurir, which were of great benefit during the war for supplying military and other necessary materials. He managed the organization of the creation of an Air Force and the accomplishment of the first flights on the Zagreb-Bihać line, at night, in secrecy.