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Eighth installment

The plans for the attack were going well but we decided that we needed more info so we set up an observation post on the top of the Hotel Osijek, it was perfect as it was the tallest building in the center of Osijek and overlooked the terrain that we would have to cross to get to our objective. The men with local knowledge would man the op as they knew where and what they were to observe, the op would be manned twenty four hours a day in eight hour shifts. The plan that Mark and myself drew up was perfect all we had to do was carry it out. The recces were still going over our lines until something went wrong, over the radio came a report that a recce group consisting of Kevin, Mark and three Australians were in trouble so Ernie, four Croatians kitted up and rushed to the front line just incase we needed to go and help. We arrived any further contact so we went further looking for them but on our way out we saw them racing back and it looked as if they were ok. When we all got behind our front line we found out what had happened, they were on their way back when they stopped to check for noise or movement, everything seemed ok until Kevin stood up ready to set off, Mark caught sight of a sniper taking aim at Kevin and immediately opened fire on the snipers position, they had then decided to get back as soon as possible but not quick enough it seemed, on their way back they had encountered an enemy patrol doing the same thing as we were and had arrived to help their snipers, a fire fight ensued between us and them with ours coming out on top and managing to get back to our lines safely after they had told us all this we said that we should get back to the school and they could write a report so that we could send it to hq. The recces after that day were toned down as the enemy knew that we were observing them and they had seen the route that we were taking, it would be suicidal to continue after that encounter. We now had to rely on what information we already had gathered and what we were learning from the op, there was no way the attack would or should be called off. We decided that the next time Osijek was attacked we would give the enemy at the Velika Pumpa something to think about and retaliate with mortars from our side of the river, as it happened we didn't have long to wait. That night an attack started on the center of Osijek so we loaded two mortars forty eight shells onto the lorry and set off. We had already made our calculations for the attack and within fifteen minutes of arriving at the firing point we had sent our calling card to the enemy and were on our way back. A couple of hours later we were told by our artillery spotters in Osijek that a fire was raging in the area of the Velika Pumpa and they didn't understand why as none of their weapons had been fired at that area, our little attack had been successful and the enemy now knew that they were not going to get away with their attacks on Osijek. Why the Croatian government had insisted on the UN I didn't know as they didn't seem to be doing anything to stop the Serbians aggression, that night had been the first time in ages that I had felt like we had done something repay the merciless bombing of Osijek. The country had already lost about one third of it’s land and there was no way that we would get it back through negotiations we had to take it by force. Every night the attacks were continuing and more and more civilians were getting killed, how was this war going to end and when? Whatever happened in the future the people of Osijek would continue with their lives and hope that one day they would get the land back that rightfully belonged to them.

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