The 53rd Border Battalion — The Young Men Who Took the First Blow

When we speak of the heroes of Košare, the first place belongs to the young men of the 53rd Border Battalion. They were the first under fire, they paid the highest price in the first days of the battle, and it was they who, through their perseverance, preserved the core of the defence until reinforcements arrived.

Guardians of the Border

The 53rd Border Battalion was a unit of the Priština Corps of the Yugoslav Army charged with securing a section of the Yugoslav-Albanian border in Metohija. Its border line comprised several permanent and summer outposts, Košare among them. The Košare outpost itself was held by the battalion's 2nd Border Company.

The composition of these units was typical of border forces — they were made up mostly of young soldiers serving their compulsory military term, lads in their early twenties, led by a smaller number of professional officers and non-commissioned officers. At the moment of the attack there were a little over a hundred men at the outpost.

First Under Fire

When, on 9 April 1999, the enemy opened artillery fire and launched an attack from three directions, it was precisely the soldiers of the 53rd Border Battalion who took the first, fiercest blow. With no time to prepare, faced with fifteen hundred attackers, they had to defend positions overlooked by the surrounding heights.

They fought from trenches and cover, repelling wave after wave of attacks. Although they lost the highest positions and suffered heavy losses, they were neither broken nor scattered. Their resistance slowed the enemy advance and bought precious hours and days — enough for reinforcements to arrive and for the front to stabilise.

Direct Command

The wartime commander of the 53rd Border Battalion was Major Duško Šljivančanin. As the battle began, direct command of the defence of Košare was taken over by Major Dragutin Dimčevski, the battalion's deputy commander, who as the senior officer organised the defence with around one hundred and thirty men in the most critical first hours.

Thanks to their leadership and the courage of ordinary soldiers, what might have turned into a swift collapse of the border became a firm point of resistance.

The Lads Who Became Heroes

Many of those young men were only nineteen, twenty or twenty-one years old. Most of them had never been in combat before. And yet, when the moment came, they remained at their positions and defended the border of their country.

Among the members of the 53rd Border Battalion was Sergeant Ivan Vasojević „Jaguar", who died defending a border stone and became one of the best-known heroes of Košare. But he was not alone — behind him stood nameless heroes, lads doing their military service, whose names today stand carved on monuments.

The 53rd Border Battalion took the first blow of the Battle of Košare. Its young soldiers deserve to be remembered as the first defenders — those who did not flinch when it was hardest. Lest it be forgotten.