Battle for Hrašća on Pješčara

The battle for the Hrašće hill on Pješčari hill above Lašva Valley was a battle between the HVO and the ARBiH. The site of the battle was less than two kilometers from the main road Kiseljak-Busovača-Vitez-Travnik. In order to hold the HVO-held territories from the Bosniak and Muslim forces, it was important to occupy the Hrašće hill.

Battle for Hrašća on Pješčara
Part of the Croat–Bosniak War and Bosnian War
Date 8–13 June 1993 Location Pješčara hill above Lašvanska dolina, Bosnia and Herzegovina Result HVO Victory
Belligerents
Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia	Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Units involved
ZP Vitez	3rd Corps El Mujahid
Strength
300	3,000
Casualties and losses
69 killed +100 wounded	+300 killed

Strategic importance

From the Hrašće hill,there is a view of the largest part of the valley of the river Lašva. In addition, there were parts of Central Bosnia under the supervision of the HVO: parts of Travnik, Novi Travnik and Vitez. Holding Hrašće meant for the HVO to defend the Lašvan Valley. Conquering the Pješčara hill for the ARBiH would mean further dividing the areas of Central Bosnia under the control of the Croats. The defense of the enclaves of Žepče, Lepenica dolina and Lašvanska dolina, as well as a few other isolated pockets, was difficult in itself. Due to the importance of this elevation, the headquarters of the ZP issued special certificates of participants of this front to the members of the HVO Vitez Assembly Area, who were not obliged to go to other fronts for a one-day leave.

Before the attack

The HVO kept the hill under its control even before the beginning of the aggression of the ARBiH on Central Bosnia. After the fall of Travnik, this was the most important elevation in the Lašvan Valley. After the aggressor's successes, Pješčara was semi-encircled. On the eastern side is the valley of the river Bila and the village of Mehurić , where the Mujahideen detachment El-mujjahid, one of the many in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the 7th Muslim Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina were located. In the hinterland in the monastery in Guča Gora were the 1st and 7th Krajina brigades under the command of Mehmed Alagić and Fikret Ćuskić. The Third Corps of the ARBiH established a special unit for the purpose of conquering Pješčara. Its members were pre-war sports shooters from Zenica. In addition to the special units of the 3rd Corps, Pješčara was also attacked by the special forces of the Second Corps of ARBiH.

The Muslim-Bosniak conquest plans were judged by the conquest of Pješčara and have the prerequisites for the planned separation of Novi Travnik and the parts of Travnik that join Novi Travnik. Success would create favorable conditions for a further offensive and the capture of Vitez, Busovača, Kiseljak and Kreševo. For this, the forces of the ARBiH engaged 3,000 fighters and mujahideen. The location was defended by just over three hundred HVO defenders.

Battle

The attacking forces were the Third Corps of the ARBiH and the Mujahideen. Hrašće was defended in the first phase by units of the Zenica HVO, among others, and throughout the entire time it was defended by the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Frankopan Brigade, PPN Tvrtko, PPN Vitezovi and PPN Žuti. On June 8, 1993, there was a general attack by the ARBiH on all HVO defense lines in the area from Kiseljak to Novi Travnik. On that day, Hrašće fell into Bosniak-Muslim hands for the first time. On that day, the fiercest battle for Pješčara began, which lasted until June 13, 1993. The worst day was the penultimate day of the battle on June 12, 1993, when it changed hands several times and when 22 members of the HVO died that day. HVO managed to return Hrašće.

The battle lasted almost a full 12 months. Kota was under the supervision of one party, then another. The last major Muslim-Bosniak attack on Pješčara was after the crime in Križančevo village and the departure of the White Road convoy on Christmas Day 1993. In a fierce attempt to conquer the Hrašće hill, the HVO resisted, and 10 members of the HVO were killed in the defense.

The fighting took place in an almost extremely close distance, a distance in the air of 150 meters. Shooting teams of the ARBiH killed individual HVO soldiers through loopholes. Despite the hand-to-hand fighting, this was all the time the widest area in the Lašvan region under the control of the HVO.

The shameful failure of the ARBiH in an attempt to capture an apparently easy goal destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the ARBiH. ARBiH attacked the elevation for half a year. Three thousand soldiers and special forces of the ARBiH and Mujahideen, with enough fresh reserves, did not overcome the HVO without strategic depth and fresh reserves. They were defeated by a small group of 300 brave Croatian defenders, who, in order to preserve freshness, took turns at short intervals of only 48 hours. In the defense of the Pješčare hill, 69 members of the HVO Vitez Corps were killed and more than a hundred were wounded. The Muslim-Bosniak side hid its losses, but the numbers are in the hundreds. Due to its length, difficulty, intensity and strategic importance, the battle for Hrašće was nicknamed the Central Bosnian battle for Stalingrad.