4th Guards Brigade (Croatia)
| 4th Guards Brigade "Spiders" | |
|---|---|
Sign of the 4th Guards Brigade
|
|
| Active | 1991 – 2008 |
| Country |
 Croatia
|
| Allegiance | Croatian National Guard Armed Forces of Croatia |
| Branch | Croatian Army |
| Type | Motorised Infantry |
| Size | Brigade |
| Nickname(s) | Spiders |
| Motto(s) | In hoc signo vinces |
| Colors | Black, scarlet |
| March | Poklonimo se Domovini |
| Anniversaries | 28 April |
| Engagements | |
| Disbanded | 2008 |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Ante Kotromanović |
4th Guards Brigade, also known as The Spiders (Croatian: Pauci) was a brigade of the Croatian Army which took part in the Croatian War of Independence. It was one of the best-known units in the war, and it was active until a 2008 reorganization when it was merged into the Motorized Guard Brigade.
The brigade was named after one of its commanders, general Andrija Matijaš Pauk, who was killed by Serb forces in Mrkonjić Grad, Bosnia and Herzegovina on 9 October 1995, during Operation Southern Move, the final action of the Croatian army in the war. The 4th Guards Brigade took his nickname for the unit soon after. Pauk means "spider" in Croatian.
The 4th Guards Brigade was founded on 28 April 1991 as part of the formation of a Croatian National Guard at the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence. At first, the brigade was composed of young policemen (130 of them) who had left the police to receive military training for special purposes in Kumrovec under the command of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A majority of them were from Livno, Tomislavgrad, Kupres, Široki Brijeg, Trebižat, Ljubuški, Stolac and Bugojno in Western Herzegovina and Central Bosnia. They arrived in Split on 30 May 1991 and settled in Hotel Split. From Hotel Split they moved their headquarters to Hotel Resnik in Resnik. There, the brigade's first battalion was founded, under the command of Gento Međugorac, whose deputy was Ivan Zelić. Within the battalion, a first company (named the "2nd Company") was formed from the first members of the brigade, under the command of Ilko Pavlović, while the commander of the second company (named the "1st Company") was Joško Macan. Soon afterwards, they received volunteers from Kaštela and other places, which enabled the formation of a 3rd company commanded by Mario Udiljak. Part of the brigade went to Imotski to form and reinforce the 3rd battalion, part of them went to Vrlika and Sinj to form and reinforce the 2nd battalion, and the other part went to Metković and Dubrovnik to form a unit in those two towns. The 2nd Company was, formally, without soldiers, who got an order to disband Yugoslav People's Army, form a unit and go to their first task in Kruševo near Zadar.
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