The Croatian Armed Forces were the first to arrive to Petrinja and the nearby locations hit by the earthquake on 29 December 2020 within less than an hour later, to provide assistance to the local population and handle the effects of one of the strongest earthquakes ever measured  in the Republic of Croatia. Over the two weeks after the earthquake till 12 January 2021 the General Logistics Support Battalion (BzOLP) has contributed greatly to the stabilisation of the situation in the area, successfully executing a number of tasks and engaging an important number of its personnel.

The Commander of the General Logistics Support Battalion, Colonel Bruno Špoljar, an officer with 30 years of military service and a member of the “Tigrovi“ Guards Brigade, has been in the field with other members of the unit around the clock. He talked to us visibly tired, between the two phone calls and meetings, issuing orders and reviewing the field reports. In his words: “While logistics has a series of capabilities, it first and foremost has to be flexible and adapt to the situation and the needs in the field; if they change quickly we have to respond quickly too“. 

On receiving the order after the earthquake, the army responded instantly and set to helping the people whose lives were ruined. On the arrival to the spot the members of the General Logistical Support Battalion, organised in teams, explored the area and provided help to the residents of remote and cut-off villages. They distributed sleeping bags, blankets and tents  and took the people willing to leave their destroyed homes to the barracks in Petrinja.  The first night after the earthquake, the soldiers stayed out in the field until 4 a.m. and were the first to reach the remote villages and set up the first tents.

There was an increasing needs for tents, container homeas and mobile homes and field kitchens, and hence for the engagement of members of the Croatian Army. The New Year’s Eve and seeing in the 2021 was for all “an ordinary working night“, says Colonel Špoljar. The soldiers pitched a heated 20-person tent in the village of Hrastovica, and unloaded the first delivered container homes, for the rest of the night.

Army brings order to chaos

Two weeks after the earthquake, the wider area and Petrinja itself leave the impression of an organised system and life amidst the chaos left by the earthquake. People knew where to get cooked food, medical care, who has or needs a mobil  home, and who will deliver and unload it; which roads are passable and the movement directions.  

All emergency services, volunteers and associations are engaged and assist; however, to enable them to give their contribution it was necessary to clear the roads and ensure road passability, to set up field kitchens and to transport aboard the low-load trailers and unload the container homes to the locals in need; potable water tanks had to be put in place, as well as fuel tanks. Roads had to be cleaned again as the damaged houses collapsed due to the aftershocks. Finally, it took hundreds of busy and disciplined hands, defying the freezing cold in Petrinja until all the work was done.

The Armed Forces were there to bring order to chaos and restore life

The General Logistics Support Battalion is manned by many young officers assigned in the summer of 2020, for whom the disaster in Petrinja is the first concrete field experience. Many of them have faced the real challenges of the military profession and the capabilities of the military system. Colonel Bruno Špoljar says: “I am proud of them. They display exceptional reactions, attitude to tasks, and also empathy for the people and their understanding of the situation in the field. They find no task difficult, because they see the people in need they are helping and they want to help. They are brilliant young people and in any future difficult situation I would rely on them again”.

The General Logistic Support Battalion has been manned by a number of young officers who joined in summer 2020, for whom the situation in Petrinja was the first and striking field experience

It is difficult to list all the logistical support provided by the Support Command and how many people it has helped through the activities in the earthquake-hit area within the fortnight time.

During that period, members of the General Logistics Support Battalion of the Support Command set up some 60 M70 tents at fourteen locations across the Sisak-Moslavina County. Three tents of the expedition camp with beds were set up at two locations, two tents with ten beds in front of the General Hospital “Dr. Ivo Pedišić” in Sisak, a 20-person tent at Hrastovica and a large civilian tent with a structure (24 x 10 m) for the needs of the Croatian Red Cross in Glina.

Field kitchens were also set up in front of the school in Topusko and in Petrinja to enable the civilian protection headquarters to prepare food for the locals.

At the same time, the members of the Battalion were transporting swans on a daily basis and unloading Kalmar shipping container homes and mobile homes by crane or lorry with a container lifter. Container houses were set up in the wider area of ​​Petrinja, Glina and Sisak.

To ensure normal life in the barracks the General Logistics Support Battalion and the Support Battalion provide daily support through delivering meals to the elderly and persons with reduced  mobility accomodated in the Barracks and the supply of the units of the Croatian Armed Forces engaged in the assistance to the affected population. Busy  logisticians have supplied fuel for the engineer machines and took care of refueling the installed power units in the Sisak Hospital and in the village of Hrastovica.

It is only a part of the tasks carried out by the members of the General Logistic Support Battalion.

The logistic system is highly complex and essential for the functioning of the Croatian Armed Forces. The comprehensiveness and importance are most visible in crisis situations, when the logistic units and well developed logistic system capabilities have a critical role.

Croatian version:

Logistika se mora prilagoditi potrebama na terenu