NATO's Spring Campaign for Kosovo in 1999

Worries About the Balkans Winter Influenced the March Start Date

Feb 28, 2009

As British journalists discussed whether NATO should launch an offensive against Serbia in Kosovo during early 1999 many emphasised that it would have to start by spring.

Balkans winters can be harsh, and the mountains provide the perfect cover to fight a guerilla war: high ground offers an advantage over a chasing army, and difficult terrain means that tanks and planes cannot be used. It is therefore a great leveller, and many British analysts stated that NATO could not afford to be fighting a long drawn out war in the Yugoslav high ground during winter. If they were to wage war on the Serbs the Nato campaign would have to start by spring.

The Nato CampaignThe Nato air campaign began at 1900 Greenwich Mean Time on March 24th, 1999, and continued for seventy-eight days; 38,004 sorties were flown, with 1,618 of these undertaken by British planes.

Out of the above sorties, 10,484 were strike sorties, with 1,008 by British planes. 829 aircraft from fourteen countries were used.[1]

Peter Gowan wrote that ‘The Nato air war was overwhelmingly a US effort. The US flew over 80 per cent of the strike sorties, over 90 per cent of the electronic warfare missions, fired over 80 per cent of the guided air weapons and launched over 95 per cent of the Cruise missiles.’[2]

Spring Weather Not Beneficial to Nato

Nato were frustrated at the start of their campaign, as cloudy weather limited the effectiveness of their aircraft, and Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, refused to capitulate.

NATO pilots faced the dual difficulty of not being allowed to fly below 15,000 feet because of safety fears, and the low cloud preventing them locking on to targets with the required precision.

The Serb Ground Offensive

To add to Nato’s disarray at the start of their campaign, the air bombardment was the catalyst for a massive offensive by Serb forces on the ground in Kosovo.

The NATO campaign and Serb ground offensive resulted in thousands of civilians fleeing their homes in Kosovo, with ethnic-Albanians mainly heading south to Macedonia and ethnic-Serbs heading north to Serbia.

Refugees in the Spring Snow

Ethnic-Albanian refugees citing Serb atrocities became the main focus for the British and American media in the first weeks of April.

The exodus led to allegations of Serb ‘ethnic cleansing’ by NATO leaders, while the Serbs claimed the refugees were fleeing the NATO air campaign.

[2] P. Gowan., The War and its Aftermath, in P. Hammond., and E.S. Herman., Degraded Capability: The Media and the Kosovo Crisis, (London and Sterling, Virginia: Pluto Press, 2000), pp. 39-55, p. 39.

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