5th Army Corps (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

At the beginning of the Bosnian war , armed units began to form in many territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first of such detachments was the 101st separate Muslim Krajin brigade, created on April 9, 1992 in the village of Kovachevich of the Tsazin community ^[1] . After that, the formation of such military units began: in Bihac on July 19 two (1st and 2nd) infantry brigades were created at once. In August, the 1st Tsazin’s appeared in Tsazin , and the 105th Buzhima Krai Infantry Brigade (later the 505th Knight’s Mountain Brigade) was formed in Buzhima on August 15 . All these units formed the backbone of the 5th Army Corps and the future Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The number of volunteers for the ARBiH was abundant, but the soldiers had serious problems in terms of material and technical supply, moreover, the units did not submit to any single center. Due to the absence of a single headquarters, the Bosnians could not take decisive action. On July 29, 1992, by order of the Headquarters of the High Command of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was decided to form the Unsk Task Force, which appeared on August 13 ^[2] . She assumed command of all units and was later renamed the Unsko-Sanskoy group. On August 18, 1992, the Government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina decided to form an army corps ^[3] and at the same time appoint Ramiz Drekovich as commander of the group, and Ramiz Durakovich ^[2] as deputy and chief of staff.

On September 29, 1992, the Headquarters of the RBiH High Command issued Decree 02-111-738 / 92, according to which the 5th Army Corps of the RBiH Army was formed with headquarters in Bihach ^[2] . Due to the state of emergency in the vicinity of the city and in the community, the order was executed only on October 21 , which is considered the official date of the formation of the corps. It included all the soldiers and officers from the Unsko-Sanskoy task force, which included all the infantry brigades and parts of the District headquarters of the Bihach Territorial Defense. Initially, Major Khayrudin Osmanagich was supposed to become the commander, but this order was soon canceled ^[4] and appointed commander Ramiz Drekovich. The assistant for moral training was Eyub Topić, the head of the security service - Sakib Butkovich, the head of the logistics department - Bechir Sirovina ^[2] .

In the days of the formation of the corps, the Bihach district was in a difficult situation due to a critical shortage of weapons, ammunition, food and medicine. The shortest distance from Bihac to the territory liberated by the Bosnians was 100 km at 30 km to the Great Kladushi held by the Croatian Army , but the Croats did not even try to help break through the blockade of Bihac ^[5] . After the appointment of General Drekovich to the post of commander of the 4th Corps , General Atif Dudakovich, who was the commander of the corps until his disbandment on November 28, 1997 , began to command the 5th Corps.

The 5th Corps participated in a number of the most important operations of the Bosnian army, among which are operations Tiger 94 (the rout of the forces of the Autonomous Region of Western Bosnia ) and Storm (the crushing defeat of the troops of the Republika Srpska). Very often, the 5th Corps was called by the foreign media out of respect for soldiers the 5th Army ^[6] .

Headquarters: 28 senior officers, 2 junior officers, 42 soldiers.

• 1st commander: 1st class captain Ramiz Drekovich ( October 21, 1992 - November 1, 1993 )
• 2nd commander: Brigadier General Atif Dudakovich ( November 1, 1993 - November 28, 1997 )
• 1st Chief of Staff: Major Ramiz Durakovich
• 2nd Chief of Staff: Major Mirsad Sedich
• Moral Assistant: Eyub Topić
• Security Assistant: Sakib Butkovich
• Head of Logistics Department: Bechir Syrovina

At the time of formation

The corps included the following units on the day of formation ^[7] :

At the end of the war

• Anthony Loyd (February 1, 2001). My War Gone By, I Miss It So. Penguin (Non-Classics). ISBN 0-14-029854-1 .
• Bejdo Felić: Peti korpus Armije RBiH 1992-1995. Sarajevo, 2002

• Composition of the 5th Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Hor.)
• Composition of the 501st brigade of the 5th corps (Horv.)
• Composition of the 505th Brigade of the 5th Corps (Croatian)