Kozara Spomenik / Monument:
This #spomenik at #Kozara is dedicated to the Partisan fighters, fallen soldiers and civilians victims who died in the bloody Kozara Offensive in the spring of 1942. […] The spomenik complex here at Kozara consists of three main elements, the primary monument structure, a memorial wall to the rear of the monument and a small museum. The primary monument is a cylindrical monolith approximately 33m tall, comprised of 20 vertical fins with intermittent polished stainless-steel covered bulges. The construction of this sculpture required 1000 tons of cement, 4000 cubic meters of aggregate and 200 tons of structural steel to create. It is situated at the center of Kozara National Park on a plateau near the top of Mrakovica mountain, one of the highest peaks in the Kozara Mountains. Meanwhile, the memorial wall, located behind the main monument, consists of dozens of bronze plaques bearing the names of 9,921 fallen Partisan soldiers, which are all installed into a long concrete wall among the pines. […] In the Spring of 1942, #German and Ustaše leadership for the #Bosnia region in Banja Luka learned that Partisan forces had defeated regional Axis occupiers and liberated a number of towns in their nearby vicinity, such as Prijedor and Bosanski Petrovac. With these Partisan offensives against nearby strategic Axis/NDH strongholds, Banja Luka Axis command recognized that their regional headquarters and surrounding infrastructure could be under potential threat of attack and invasion from the Partisan resistance. In response to these Partisan offensives, Germans mobilized their own offensive of 15,000 soldiers, which would be reinforced by 22,000 Ustaše soldiers, 2,000 Chetniks and 5 Hungarian monitor groups. This group would spearhead what would come to be known as the 'Kozara Offensive'. Meanwhile, the regional Partisan
resistance forces, headquartered around the Mrakovica region of Kozara Mountain, were made up of only 3,000 soldiers, along with 60,000 recruited untrained civilians (mostly ethnic-Serbs) from the surrounding freed land. (SOURCE: @spomenikdatabase )
resistance forces, headquartered around the Mrakovica region of Kozara Mountain, were made up of only 3,000 soldiers, along with 60,000 recruited untrained civilians (mostly ethnic-Serbs) from the surrounding freed land. (SOURCE: @spomenikdatabase )
