BASE MILITAIRE DE GLAMOČ

At the northern exit of Glamoč, the national road runs along military installations (Vojarna Glamoč), which of course are strictly off-limits, but are an important site of the Second World War. This former Yugoslav Air Force base has been used since 1995 for the destruction of mines, ammunition and weapons from the last war that continue to be unearthed throughout the country. Heavily polluted, the site is the object of criticism from local residents, environmental groups, and the association Ivo Lola Nije Sam ("Ivo Lola is not alone"). The latter is campaigning for the rehabilitation of an abandoned monument located in the base. This is the memorial erected in 1978 in honor of Ivo Lola Ribar (1916-1943), a Croatian pilot from Zagreb who died here at the controls of a plane stolen from the Germans. For from October 1943, the Glamoč and Livno poljes became the nerve center of Tito's air force. The Yugoslav partisans were indeed the only European resistance movement with an air force during the Second World War. Initially made up of aircraft stolen from the Axis armies, it was gradually equipped with British, American and Soviet aircraft flown by Yugoslav, Greek and South African crews alike. The monument of Ivo Lola Ribar of Glamoč is one of the few testimonies of this epic. It can be seen in the wooded area at the intersection of the M15 and R415b, just south of the current military base.