MILITARY AND WAR HISTORY MUSEUM

      Hrvatsko vijeće obrane (HVO) je bio službena oružana snaga Hrvatske Republike Herceg-Bosne (HRHB) i glavna oružana snaga hrvatskog naroda u Bosni i Hercegovini. Osnovan je 08.04.1992. godine što se slavi kao Dan utemeljenja HVO-a. HVO je nakon Daytonskog mirovnog sporazuma definiran kao hrvatska komponenta Vojske Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, a nakon reforme obrane 2005. godine, transformiran je u 1. pješačku (gardijsku) pukovniju, jednu od tri pukovnije u okviru Oružanih snaga Bosne i Hercegovine.

      The Croatian Defence Council (Croatian: Hrvatsko vijeće obrane, HVO) was a military formation of the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during the Bosnian War. The HVO (Croatian Defence Council) was established on April 8, 1992 in Grude by the political leadership of Croats, mainly members of Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica) as a military formation of Herzeg-Bosnia. HVO was divided into four operational zones: South-Eastern and North-Western Herzegovina, Central Bosnia and Posavina. While first three zones were grouped more or less together, Posavina was completely isolated in northern Bosnia on right bank of Sava river around Orašje and was entirely dependent on support from Croatia.

      Prema istraživanju Večernjeg lista, izdanja za Bosnu i Hercegovinu, izrađeno je preko 500 različitog ratnog znakovlja HVO-a. Znakovlje HVO-a nastajalo je usporedno s utemeljenjem postrojbi. U pravilu, središnji je motiv grb Herceg-Bosne, a najčešći drugi motivi su oružje (od mačeva do suvremenih pušaka, pištolja, topova i raketa), povijesna (šahovnice, pleteri, viteški oklopi) i vjerska znakovlja (raspela, lica svetaca), likovi životinja i biljaka, ali i likovi velikana iz hrvatske povijesti te lica poginulih junaka iz Domovinskog rata.

      According to research by newspaper Večernji list, a publication for Bosnia and Herzegovina, over 500 different HVO war insignia were made. The insignia of the HVO was created in parallel with the establishment of the units. As a rule, the central motif is the coat of arms of Herceg-Bosna, and the most common other motifs are weapons (from swords to modern rifles, pistols, cannons and rockets), historical (chessboards, plaits, knight's armor) and religious symbols (crucifixes, saints' faces), characters of animals and plants, but also characters of greats from Croatian history and the faces of fallen heroes from the Homeland War.