Croatian HS-91: A Mystery Hybrid of M56 and PPSh-41
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
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The HS-91 is a Croatian-made submachine gun form the Homeland War period of the early 1990s. This is the only example known, and it was seized well after the war by the Croatian Police (and currently resides in the Police Museum in Zagreb). Nothing is known about the details of its origin or production.
Mechanically, the HS-91 is a hybrid of Yugoslav M56 and Soviet PPSh-41. The barrel, magazine, and magazine well are from the M56, while the bolt, safety, receiver construction, and firing system are from the PPSh-41. It is chambered for 7.62x25mm Tokarev, and uses standard M56 magazines.
A big thanks to the Croatian Police Museum (Muzej Policije) in Zagreb for giving me access to film this rare piece for you! Check them out at: muzej-policije...
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It's incredible to think about the engineering and craftsmanship that went into creating this firearm during such a tumultuous time in Croatia's history.
The Springfield XD is another example, only in a alloy frame.
Those were difficult times. The 3rd army of Europe was knocking on our door and we were without weapons. Fortunately, Croats are skilled craftsmen and skillful imaginative warriors. The rest of the world gave us 3 weeks of resistance and of course an arms embargo. President Bush gave Yugoslavia the green light to crush us. And when someone compares the war in Ukraine with the one in Croatia, I just laugh
@@Baky6 yep👍
@@Baky6Why do you laugh? I’ve not seen many compare the two, I’m interested in your thoughts on it.
@@Baky6Do you mean the war criminal Bush? The republican war hawk that started shit just to send young men from several nations into the meat grinder for completely selfish and unsubstantiated reasons?
In 1991, even hunting shotguns were enlisted. They fought with anything they found: K98 from museums, Maxim HMG, mortars made with plumbing tubes...
Speaking of said shotguns, a movie called(translated from croatian) "when the dead sing" has ppl armed with them near the end of movie(takes place right before the war started). Another movie "how war started on my island" is also a good one to watch if able. To be clear, both are comedies tackling serious situations.
Edit to add: translated name is "when the dead start singing".
Even the Madsen LMG chambered for 7.62x54R was used.
@@skyguard155 Now that would be a sight to see (my guess would be 20 or 25rnd capacity mags for that).
Yeah,old and unusual weapons and equipment were used in the early months of Croatian war for independence. I've seen a photo of a Croatian soldier armed with a Lewis MG,soldiers armed with various WW2 SMGs such as MP40, PPSH and Thompson,soldiers armed with hunting rifles and shotguns,a soldier wearing a WW2 Stahlhelm,and I've even heard a war veteran claim he was armed with a crossbow back in 1991,saying something along the lines of "it takes time to reload,but it's silent and deadly".
@@ZP1993 One could say last ditch in reverse, old and improvised weapons at start, then production ones later.
I'm wondering if someone found some M56 spares in storage. You wouldn't likely bother building something like this if you had a supply of working M56s, but if you had some spare barrels and stocks and a familiarity with the PPSh-41, this is exactly the sort of thing you might come up with.
More likely stole from army stockpiles or workshops
Not impossible. YPA was taking all functional arms out of the country at the time so it's entirely possible they overlooked a cache of parts or non-functional guns before they had to scram. Not to mention, there is also precedence for it. RT-20 was made from leftover Praga cannon barrels, for example.
@@joza3592not to forget so-called YPA members were mostly iliterate morons.
I'm not sure you'd bother without magazines as well. Not to insult the engineer, but magazines are hard enough to make when you have all the plans.
You're spoiling us with the homeland war era equipment lately. As you said - it was not exactly an era of standard procurement processes and is a gold mine of war-emergency designs and production examples.
For people wondering "Why copy a PPSh41, but use M56 barrel and magazine?", there's a simple answer:
1. The *Submachine Gun Designer's Handbook* was published by Desert Publications in 1981, and one of the two SMG designs it gave detailed and dimensioned drawings for (the other being the Sten) was the PPSh41. And those drawings, interestingly enough, show the selector as a solid part, not bent sheet metal.
2. The *barrel* and *magazine* are going to be the two hardest parts for a small shop to design and fabricate. Using an existing store of those parts would dramatically reduce production time and cost, even if you have to tweak the design you're making parts from scratch for. And, after all, the M56 and PPSh41 and M56 are, after all, both 7.62x25mm Tokarev already - tweak the dims of the mag well to fit the M56 mags and tweak the bolt to feed from a double feed mag.
The other design adjustments are fairly straight forward and look simple enough to incorporate into the PPSh end of the hybrid, possibly even easier to make consistently and reliably by the manufacturer than the original design.
I'm also quite swayed by the suggestion above that this may have been a shop that did airguns before the war. I can see the pivot and latch systen, as well as the stock overall, being from spring piston break barrel air rifles from a small manufacturer.
HS probably stands for "Hrvatska Strojnica" or "Croatian Machine Gun"
I think it's Hrvatski samokres, first pistol was called PHP (prvi hrvatski pištolj) "first croatian pistol" then after 1995 they produced better model and called it HS (Hrvatski samokres) that what in US it's sold under XD.
@@Theb819 honestly, it can be both. "samokres" is old Croatian for basically flintlock(mechanism)... and during those times a lot of old Croatian words tended to be used.
"Do you want a PPsh or an M56?"
"Yes."
At a glance, it looks fairly well made, almost "factory-made" -- impressive for the circumstances
Love these Croatian Homeland war guns
That looks like work of Dubravko Matakovic from Vinkovci . He and he's cousin Tuna were doing stuff like that back in 1991 and 1992 .
If I recall correctly there was an article in the Croatian MOD Magazine "Hrvatski Vojnik" during the war about the gun. I'll see if I still have it somewhere. During the first year of the war every machine shop was trying to produce guns. HS Stands for Hrvatska Strojnica - Croatian Submachinegun.
if you can find that article, please send me a copy :)
I just realized that I’m the first generation of Croat’s in 100 years not drafted to some war. My father was in the national guard, my cousin was in conscripts, both of my grandfathers were in the second war and probably one of my great grandfather in the first world war. It’s good to live in peace.
yet
The HS-91 reminds me of the German MP41:
The barrel and magazine housing of an MP40 mounted on the action and stock of an MP28.
Always interesting how some of the most simple of firearms actions like straight blowback, open bolt can just be fashioned together in time of need and just work sometimes just being one step above a crude zip gun
Yeah, i think a lot of people underestimate how simple blowback smg's are. almost any half decent machinist could probably build one in a day if he had some references or a couple weeks from scratch
@@jameskazd9951 Exactly and in my experiance they tend to underestimate accuracy too just because its blowback SMG. Also when I hear/read "zip gun" I always think about those damn gyrojet pistol in Vietnam which are garbage at close range firing in combat.
No I don't have first hand experience there, but I certainly heard about them and their issues when I did foot recon in the 80s which made me always keep my specially made machete/falcata on back of my webbing in case of firearm issues or melee and shit hit the fan.
There is actually a good chance that the gunsmith is still alive.
@@matthewspencer972 I know.
Was there for quite some years...
@@matthewspencer972 no he doesnt ehy would he so what if there were militia gangs he made the gun for protection of the country which in the end was sucessful always in times of crisis there are people that will use the situation to make chaos but majority wasnt like that
It’s the Balkans so maybe not. My great uncle stepped on a Landmine in Bosnia and died 3 years after the war was over
@@MumwaW Sorry to hear that about your great uncle.
I had the very scary experience of finding myself and my men inside a minefield a couple of times.
It stays in your body...
@@iberiksoderblom thankfully they say the countryside is free of mines a couple of years ago
Aside from the selector lever and rear catch this truly looks like someone took the front of an M56 and mated it with a PPSH-41 receiver. Really cool gun.
I remember a case in 1991 when group of men armed with hunting rifles captured army barracks.
Strategy was that 10 guys with hunting rifles would spread out ,shoot once in one spot then run 30 m to next spot so the the commanding officer though he was attacked with greater force.😆
He surrendered finally.Not uncommon in those times.
Name origin: Holy Shit it's '91 and we are at war.
Kind of reminds me of the MP41.
When you're short on parts: Just stick the upper on a spare rifle stock.
I have hunch that someone scored a crate of spare M56 parts and they were completed with available machinery
I think someone else mentioned this too. The stock looks like it's from a pellet rifle.
Now THAT is a badass conversion...
Essentially the Croatian K-50M (same feel, only the stock is different).
I always love seeing weapons like this. Designed purely out of necessity because of a war. This is very impressive and looks like it could have been an actual factory production weapon, which makes it weird that you have no records about its history
Argentina ilegally shipped a lot. of armament to Croatia in the nineties. I would love to see More Argentine guns on FW, lots of interesting SMGs were made here.
There is a story of a Western volunteer to help hold the Serbs back, being issued an Argentine Para FAL.
Ian do you have good time in Croatia? How do you like our country?
I have a very good time. :)
interesting SMG you covered today. I love that it's homemade like
Wonder if Springfield armory is going to start importing these also.
A real Forgotten Weapon.
Museums really should recognise that they can temporarily de-activate any modern weapon by rmoving one or two springs. They don't have to mutilate their exhibits to make them as safe as a plumbing fixture. All they have to do is keep the springs separate.
That is until someone breaks in steals the gun and uses it to commit another crime
that depends entirely on the legal requirements for each nation. it doesn't matter that you can stop a gun from functioning by removing one or two small parts if the legal requirement is, for example: six holes in the barrel of caliber size, chamber welded closed, bolt cut at 45° angle.
EU regulations turn historic weapons into tin cans. Soon to prohibit even the butter knives.
@@Canhistoryismylife Yeah, I'm heartbroken at the thought of having to permanently deactivate a historically significant firearm, but also if word got out that all you had to do was replace a spring or two to get one running again it'd seem like a much more viable option for criminals to steal
@@CanhistoryismylifeYeah, because criminals would have a serious problem obtaining firearms if it wasn't for museum-collections...
That garage was well fitted on account of not being a smoldering crater
YEARS WATCHING! You JUST PULLED another! Forgotton Weapon! out of your Hat!
Thanks!
As you said, if that was built in someone's garage, they had a very nice garage.
Importing guns during war was very difficult due to arms embargo... so people did what they could. That is reason why you see so much crazy looking weapons from Croatia. Cheers
Good point!
What a cool blend! I imagine in a pinch on a modern battlefield, you would be better served by a SMG like this than an old M44 5 shot bolt action.
I have 2 sar-80s and an ultimax mk2 that came out of Croatia
That's a super cool weapon that actually looks effective. Definitely made in a professional machine shop. It's a pity it's plugged so you can't shoot it.
Now that's a book I'll be ordering
As far as bastard guns go, this one is actually really professional.
I was messing around with a PPS stick mag the other day and some inert 9mm. Obviously I already knew the 9mm round would fit as it’s ostensibly the same case head. I was thinking about the 9mm conversions that the Wehrmacht would produce though, and I wondered: would it have been cheaper, easier or maybe even more effective if the Wehrmacht had simply fit a block into the magazine to effectively shorten in, rather than producing a new mag well/ejection port design and taking the magazines from MP40s? I guess there are arguments for and against in logistical terms. And it’s probably all just as easy as adding 7.62 Tokarev ammo into the procurement process! Still, interesting to consider.
Standardizing magazines makes sense when you're already set up to stamp put millions of that model of magazine.
It might literally have been easier, logistically, than setting up mass production and installation of magazine conversion kits for enough captured Soviet magazines (and way easier than tooling up to build Soviet magazines, to account for capturing fewer magazines per gun than you'd want for issue and replacement stock).
9mm works fine in most 7.62x25 magazines. Not sure about PPSH41 mags but it feeds fine from PPS43 mags and I've fired 9mm out of a 7.62x25 Tokarev pistol with a barrel and barrel bushing swap using the original mag. Sten mags can have the indentation cut off the back so they will fit and feed 7.62x25. I've wondered about that German mag conversion too and if it was really needed
@@brasstard7.627 I thought that it seemed to feed ok too to be honest. My only thinking was if the rounds shift forward under recoil or just the shooter moving around in general, then they may be in a less ideal position when they get to the feed lips being as they’re specifically shaped for the bottlenecked round. I thought a block with a slight ramp at the top of the mag would make it feed perfectly. Maybe lol.
Hey I'd love to see you ha e a look at the H&R M16A1 rifle that PSA has started producing. Maybe compare for clone accuracy and then show us how it handles on the range. Your videos are great! Keep up the good work!
Ian's appeal for information on the maker reminds me of an occasion when Norfolk Police did an appeal via Anglia TV news for the rightful owner of a gun they had recovered from a suspected burglar to come forward and claim it: it had been a rifle, but the butt had been cut-off to just a pistol grip, there was a low-power, long eye-relief optical sight, shortened barrel and silencer. My brother and I turned to each other and we both expressed some doubt whether the hard-working deer poacher whose tool this clearly was, would ever come forward to claim it! (and he didn't!)
I don't think the maker of the HS-91 is going to come forth into the limelight either. He might be afraid of retaliation more than prosecution.
What, you think Serbia will put a hit out on him? As far as the Croatian government would be concerned the gunsmith would be a patriot that stepped up to do his duty in a time of war.
@@adambielen8996 Possibly. But there was fighting with non-serbs, too, which the Croatian government would prefer everyone to forget, and not every group actually did what the Croatian government wanted it to do. (One group was inclined (prior to encountering Colonel Bob Stewart) to threaten NATO peacekeepers and even murder their interpreters, which is presumably something the Croatian government REALLY didn't ask them to do!) If it was a tale of undiluted heroism as per the official narrative and that which other commentators have tried to bully me into accepting, I am pretty sure that the Croatian Police would have been able to tell Ian what it was. Because people would have been telling the tale, probably in bars and veteran's clubs.
And the gun has been intentionally designed to a specification: maximum rate of fire in a very short dose, that isn't what most armies _want_ from an SMG in general use. Yet it's very high quality. If this was a special mission weapon, then I'd expect it that mission to be something like doing-in a VIP or two. (If you asked a gunsmith to design a gun for a drive-by, it might look like this because it's giving you MAC-11 firepower in a somewhat more controllable form.) Which is a legitimate tactic, but which does attract retaliation, perhaps long after the war is over so nobody names the men or even the group if they can help it.
My worry was that people seemed intrigued by the mystery of who made this weapon and oblivious to the possibility that it might be best not to try too hard to find out.
@@matthewspencer972 this gun and other similar shit was mostly used to fill in for the general lack of equipment. back in the day, Croatia had a lot of workshops, some factories and a lot of masters of the craft in regards to metalworking and machining. bunch of crap, some better, some worse, was churned out because the nation was armless when the war began. MO of these workshops were quick production, small costs involved, and a modicum of reliability inherent to using older designs that were well known (PPSh-41, M56, Sten etc). And ammo was not an issue. So yeah, simple SMGs with high rates of fire were pretty much a solid pick. Keep in mind, a lot of early fighting was either to bust the arms caches held by JNA, or defending besieged cities street-by-street, where such weapons are quite useful.
Later on, bunch of these guns were either kept privately or sold away on the black markets after the equipment got standardized, so a load of them ended up with organized crime across the entire Europe, because, again, they're practical, cheap and provide a high rate of fire.
Whichever workshop, or even factory, made this, I'm certain its workers nowadays would be proud of their contribution to the rearmament efforts. Some even put their name on such SMGs (for example, mr. Alar) and some, like Vugrek family, continued to produce and sell their weapons to criminals even after the govt ended their deals with em. There are some guns who were built in parts by several factories and assembled by someone else, too, so these often have no records of being *really* produced.
Best way to check it out is to see whether it was produced after mid-1992. If so, it was probably done so illegally for paramilitary or criminal purposes.
@@a7HKdAbmET Thank you for an intelligent response to what I wrote, rather than a defensive rebuttal of what I didn't write!
Having now seen more of the sort of weapons you describe being reviewed by Ian, this particular one seems better and more focused on some specific role than the others. And I take the point that _when_ it was made is a big part of _what_ it was probably made for:
In the summer of 1940, when things didn't look too good for anyone in the free world and only the Americans felt safe (they had a shock coming, too) engineering apprentices at Barnfield College in Luton were so outraged by Hitler's victory parade through Paris that they had a think about what they might do to spoil any similar exercise in London, assuming that Hitler might never come to Luton in person. They designed an air-rifle (and they may have built as many as three of them) which would be accurate and effective at up to 200 yards and completely silent.
It was .38" calibre, because they could easily (and legally) obtain 200 grain bullets meant for the standard service revolver cartridge which were actually ideal for the narrowly-subsonic velocities they thought they could achieve. (The only reloading component that needed a licence in _20th-century_ Bedfordshire was black powder because it could be used for blasting). They were certainly driving these faster than the revolver would have done! It was also in their minds that they needed a heavy bullet to deliver poison accurately at a sensible distance. (Strychnine used to be sold as little tablets in paper packets of ten, for mixing with rat-bait. A lethal dose is about 2mg; somewhat less than cyanide, or sarin, for that matter! Even when this was banned in the 1920s, nearly every household still had some. The solid, uniform little tablet would have been much easier to engineer into the bullet without spoiling accuracy than a cyanide capsule.)
There was once an article in "Guns Review" about these weapons, with a photo taken in the 1980s. So at least one of these rifles still exists. As long as it didn't come with any poisoned bullets, with would be a section-one "firearm" which could still be licensed today. Poisoned bullets would make it a section five prohibited weapon under both English law and international law. It was never clear if the poisoned bullets were ever made, or if they were merely thought about.
Papa Shaw would be proud his designs kept getting used 50 years later. Ha ha joking about that name ofc, wonderful looking little SMG and great that Ian got to show that historical piece even if not much is known about it yet.
Real cool, love these yugo wars guns. Just wish we could have cool guns like these without a war attached to them.
Yeah, looks awesome, thanks for sharing the rare pièce to us, seems to be a mistery weapon
"The PPSh is such a simply-designed gun, I bet not even the Swiss could over-engineer a copy of it!"
Yugoslavia: "Hold my rakia."
what yugoslavia? that country does not exist, nor it was involved in any matter with this project? it says: MADE IN CROATIA
@@jara1462 I guess the OP was referring to M56 SMG
@@oskngUvreda i Hrvat
@@oskng Šta klekni?Nauči se pisati.Valjda si završio osnovnu.
Zajeba si se ako misliš da sam trofazni.
@@jara1462he is talking about M56
Pre ordering that book
This looks like a generic ww2 smg that I've drawn in class so many times lol
Double feed mag in ppsh? Good upgrade
I expect that is the result of a brief production run based on stored parts and access to a real machine shop. the bolt serial number matching the reciever is probably and indicator of that.
wooden part was from air gun and front sight to
I wonder if the manufacturer only had parts kits of the weapons involved...?
Finde das ist eine Mischung aus der MP/18 und der PPSH41.
Vielen Dinge entsprechen technisch dem Schmeisser Patent für die MP/18.
Ein Vergleichsschießen wäre durchaus interessant denn durch die Verkleinerung des Gehäuses dürfte das Schussverhalten sich nicht gerade positiv verändert haben.
I low key like this gun. Very cool. Thanks mate
We all these m56 barrels but tooling for a ppsh what do we do now?
Inside the trigger well seems a very dangerous place to put your selector lever, be very easy to slip onto the trigger while switching to semi.
that's a cool little gun
HS produkt was founded in 1991. HS-91 maybe their first model .
0:36
Ian has visited HS produkt. They have a very well documented history of prototypes, letalone models.
Not so much a Forgotten Weapon as a "Never heard of it !"
Hard to believe my POS AK22lr conversion came from the same country
Re-blue that in a deep glossy blue and fit a nice walnut stock and that would be a very good looking SMG.
You should do a video on the Type 2 Paratrooper Rifle! Since you've already done the Type 1 and Type 0 Paratrooper
Why would they make something like this instead of using the PPSh-41 as is? Lack of magazines?
It looks like experimental model for zastava m52
Ian secretly on Shelby’s yacht trip both dropping Croatian videos on the same day
Very cool! Stock has a Ruger type vibe about it!
Looks like someone was trying to copy a ppsh-41
Cool gun. It would be great to see him shoot it.
I'm sure I've seen that sliding safety/bolt somewhere before. Can't think where...
Imagine enemy reaction when they capture few of these and they are sure that you had no wepons production month ago.
And it looks pristine, fit and finish are good, engraving is sharp and crisp.
How?
The HS91 marking isn't stamped its hand engraved. It looks just like the engraving I put on my flintlocks when I'm finished building them.
WE NEED GUNS. LOTS of guns. Anything that goes boom. We'll take so much as a bottle rocket on a pistol grip.
Meanwhile somebody sitting on a warehouse full of barrels and magazines, but had previously sent out the rest of the guns that were destroyed or otherwise lost in transit: "hey, my friend's got a big, fancy shop, I bet he could use my spare parts to make something..."
The friend: "Challenge accepted. But I'm a really HUGE fan of PPSH-41s, and I've got some...changes I want to make to the design..."
Reminds me of MP41
Ian, with all your knowledge and experience, please design your own unique firearm.
Would the receiver be stamped or milled? What caliber? Barrel length? Magazine, belt-fed, clip or all of the above? Please design a battle rifle - or discuss on a video what you would create, with manufacturing costs, and practicality in mind.
With the glued butt and nail you made me remember installing ducts in the 90s. Same time ... nvm
Someone should make something like this, but with Scorpion EVO mags
what type of bayonet will be suitable for a SMG like this 1
Thank you , Ian .
🐺 Loupis Canis .
HS... Hrvatska (Croatian) Strojnica (full-auto)?
I have a good friend, ex-Marine, that was 'feet on the ground' in that area 'back in the day'. He saw some sh1t that even he, with a LOT of experience, couldn't describe. Told me more than once he'd done some truly horrible things just to have an Instamatic camera, so people would believe him.
The one gun so far that the Lord of Arms knew nothing about.
It looks like someone took a break open air rifle and went hmmm...
I am getting MP41 vibes.
🤙🏽
Man, those Croats sure love making guns...
That's what a war does to you
It s bautifull. Thanks
Wherever it came from, it looks cool...
Short barrel long stock. So, the anti-bullpup.
Yep,we went one way came out in opposite.
Pupbull? Elbonian bullpup?
I am willing to bet that rubber butt pad came from a sandal factory.
I love Central European guns like this. The blend of wood and steel just give this dwarven vibe to these firearms.
Croatia is southern lol
Croatia isn't in eastern Europe,it's a central European and Mediterranean country.
Croatia is central Europe in one and mediterranean on other part. No east there.
@@agrameroldoctane_66 Aight, fixed it.
Another cro gun!!🎉
Incredible built quality considering that this was probably built by a random Croatian guy to protect his people.
The Mullet of SMGs
Where imbel A2?
No amount of people asking will make it happen before I can actually get my hands on one...
@@ForgottenWeapons god dang it
@@ForgottenWeaponslooks like your next destination is Favela
As a russian, i'm really glad to hear how Ian pronounce PPSh)
@@DJ-mb7ef formally - yes. But in WW2 soldiers sometimes used "PaPaSa", because it means "daddy".
This looks like something you'd make in MGSV after unlocking the gunsmith
Curious non- sequitor: how is the food?
delicious
Why didn't they make the PP 43 the ultimate in simplicity?
A 43 is only simpler if you can do stampings, which generally can be done by factories of a certain size. The 43 may be simpler in terms of raw material needed and hours of work, but the tooling required for something like this HS-91 is much more common.
Machine/technology to stamp is much more complex than to mill bar stock out . Russians took 5yrs to figure out how to stamp a ak
There is šokac smg copy of ppsh 43.
nice looking gun. however if its so rare the fact that it's been deactivated is criminal. in thi case, to misquote Indiana Jones "It DOESN'T belong in a museum" !
Will ask dad if they ever came across such a gun. Slight digression while keeping at the topic, while it is true serbia was in charge of, the country was still called yugoslavia, please keep that in mind for future reference, thank you.
Edit to add: if memory serves, croats used an smg called "ero", perhaps it might be worth a video if able, mind you, it was an uzi copy tho.
In 1991 Croatia already declared independence and was recognized by some countries,In the beginning of 1992 was recognized by the rest of the world.
Yugoslavia seized to exist in 1991.
@@mynick937Nope. It was in 1992.
The Ero video is coming. :)
@@ForgottenWeapons Interesting thing about Ero is that it was still used till the end of the war.
I've seen MPs with it in 1995.
@@ninoslavtrifunovic7038 Just google it.
Didn't the Yugoslavs put any arsenals in Croatia or why didn't they have weapons?
There were arsenals and storages but under the control of “people’s army” - Serbs.
I don't think there were any arsenals, and the only forces beside Yugoslav army and police were akin to US national guard and Yu army in preparation for upcoming outbreak of hostilities impounded all their weapons under some pretense (which, I do not remember)...Which makes the effort of winning the ensuing war fighting under weapons embargo even more remarkable.
@@guzimirHR There were many arsenals or weapon dumps strewn around. There was one near me which JNA commander surrendered and was then blown up by airstrikes from Serbian side. There’s even some footage on YT.
Croatia (and every other state in ex Yugoslavia) had teritorial defense,which was pretty much a stash of weapons and equipment that was owned by each state and was meant to arm conscripts in case either the Warsaw pact or NATO attacked Yugoslavia. However,when it became apparent that Slovenia and Croatia wanted to leave Yugoslavia in 1990,the Yugoslav government and military decided to disarm their teritorial defense. Slovenian politicians refused to disarm Slovenia and instead mobilised their men and prepared them to fight for their freedom,Croatian politicians at the time were traitors who complied with the Yugoslav government and gave up Croatia's weapons,forcing the people to arm themselves with whatever they could when the war started in 1991.
You are in Zagreb? 😁