Operation Essential Harvest (or Task Force Harvest) was a deployment mission in the

Republic of Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

, officially launched on August 22, 2001, and effectively started on August 27. Because national contributions were larger than expected, the force ultimately grew to approximately 4,800 troops. Troops from 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, 9 Parachute Squadron RE and members of the SAS working in the A.O.R. The operation was headquartered in a fruit processing plant called Tri Kruši in Dracevo.

Background

"Although France was not a member of the NATO integrated command structure, then President Chirac had begun to reintegrate into the military structure of the Alliance in order to allow for French participation in combined operations in Bosnia under NATO command. . . . At the summit in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

on 12 June, Chirac's suggestion for military cooperation with German units within NATO was confirmed by Schröder and put in place by the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries on 5 July. Both countries cooperated in NATO Operation Essential Harvest – two German, two French and one Spanish companies were placed under the overall French Command."

Battle of Tetovo

The Battle of Tetovo occurred in the beginning of January 2001 which also involved NATO and the Macedonian Armies to disarm Albanian insurgents who had occupied a number of cities, towns and villages in the

. This battle lasted until November 2001. During the operation, Sapper Ian Collins of 9 Parachute Squadron RE was killed when a concrete block thrown at his vehicle by Macedonian youths struck him on the head.

Operation Amber Fox

Following the conclusion of Operation Essential Harvest and at the request of the Macedonian President, NATO established Operation Amber Fox, to allow for a continuing NATO presence in the country.

Background

Battle of Tetovo

Operation Amber Fox

See also

References

Further reading