page_title: Siege of Varaždin Barracks
section_title: Peak of the fighting
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Varaždin Barracks / Timeline / Peak of the fighting
caption_attribution_description: Hrvatski: Izložba ratne tehnike iz Domovinskoga rata, iz fundusa Vojnoga muzeja MORH-a. Izložba se održava povodom dvadeset godina hrvatske neovisnosti i dvadesete obljetnice ustrojavanja Zbornog područja Rijeka.
context_page_description: The Siege of Varaždin Barracks, also referred to locally as Varaždin's Days of War, was the blockade and capture of the Yugoslav People's Army barracks and other facilities in and around the city of Varaždin during the Croatian War of Independence. The blockade began on 14 September 1991, quickly escalated into fighting, and ended on 22 September with the surrender of the JNA garrison. It was part of the Battle of the Barracks—an effort by Croatian armed forces to isolate JNA units based at barracks in Croatia, or capture the barracks to provide arms for Croatia's nascent army.
  The besieging force outnumbered the JNA garrison in Varaždin, which was divided among several barracks, storage depots and other facilities, but the JNA possessed substantially greater firepower. The balance shifted in favour of the Croatian forces after smaller JNA posts were captured in the first few days of the siege, until only one barracks along with the headquarters of the JNA 32nd Corps remained under JNA control.
context_section_description: On 17 September, the commander of the 104th Brigade, Colonel Ivan Rukljić, took command of all Croatian forces in Varaždin. The Yugoslav Air Force attacked an airfield in Čakovec, mimicking the strike carried out in Varaždin a few days earlier. That evening, the heaviest fighting of the siege erupted in Varaždin, and the 104th Brigade reported it was uncertain how long it would be able to maintain the blockades. Croatian forces received additional weapons that day, after the JNA garrisons in Čakovec, Križevci and Virovitica surrendered to the ZNG. In Varaždin itself, corps-level units of the JNA 32nd Corps based at the 15. maj barracks also surrendered to the ZNG that day. The following day, fighting intensified again, as Croatian forces captured several minor JNA facilities in Varaždin itself—leaving the Corps headquarters, the Kalnički partizani barracks and the Jalkovečke žrtve barracks as the only JNA-held military bases in the city. In the course of this fighting, the ZNG suffered one fatality and captured nine JNA officers and 30 soldiers.
  On 19 September, Croatian forces managed to interdict radio communications between the 32nd Mechanised Brigade artillery and its artillery observers, and set up their own transmitter to direct JNA artillery fire against the Jalkovečke žrtve barracks. This deception was designed to deceive Davidović into thinking that the ZNG had much greater firepower than it did. The plan worked and when ZNG troops entered the barracks compound that day, the 32nd Mixed Artillery Regiment (four officers and 196 soldiers) surrendered. Late in the evening of 19 September, Croatian police and elements of the 3rd Battalion of the 104th Brigade secured the Varaždinbreg weapons storage facility located in the village of Banjšćina near Varaždin, after its JNA commander surrendered the facility and its garrison of 60 without resistance. The capture of JNA weapons greatly improved the Croatian position in negotiations when trying to convince JNA commanding officers of the 32nd Corps to surrender.
caption: Croatia acquired 48 BVP M-80 infantry fighting vehicles from the capture of the JNA barracks in Varaždin.
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