Hans Strassburger

On one occasion Hans spent five days and four nights continuously on the front line with his Dragunov sniper rifle. He spent his days in position, returning only after nightfall to sleep in one of the line bunkers, returning to his firing position before first light. On the fifth evening he came off duty to rest in his billet at the canal pumping station between Tolica and Domaljevac. Whilst there Hans was informed that he had a confirmed kill; a Serb Army captain had died in hospital of wounds inflicted two days previously.

On the 11th September 1995, with two new German volunteers who had recently joined the HVO, Hans organised and led a reconnaissance out of the lines at Ostra Luka. After resting up they moved off in the small hours of the 12th in order to take up a sniping position. It is not known how or why but Hans had allowed one of the inexperienced volunteers to lead off; he quickly wandered off the reconnaissance route and detonated an anti-tank mine, killing himself instantly. Hans was blown clear off his feet by the blast only to land on another mine close by; it too detonated and he lost both his legs. The third German survived without a scratch.

Hans died in the Slavonski Brod hospital ten days later on the 22nd September as a consequence of blood loss and system shock from his injuries, the last International Volunteer to die in the war for Bosnia. The following day, his body was laid to rest in the village cemetery at Ostra Luka with full military honours. The depth of feeling the people of Ostra Luka had for this volunteer was such that it was said at the funeral:

ﾓHe had no family in Germany, except a sister, but he has a big family here. The old people think of him like a son, the younger like an older brother or a cousin; and the children loved him and were the only ones allowed to insult him. He was a big man, he was a hard man, he was a real fighter; he was our fighter and he fought for us, his family.ﾔ

Because of the esteem in which he was held, Hans was laid to rest alongside the dead of the village and not away to one corner as with other (non-Catholic) International Volunteers in other cemeteries. The residents of the village, 4. Guards and 106. Brigades HVO together raised over 8,000 Deutschmarks to provide a black marble headstone and surround for Hansﾒ grave. Within a month every villager had visited the site at least once, bringing fresh flowers, candles and to tend the grave. Two years later the gravesite was still spotless, the flowers were all fresh and almost covered the grave.