During the early phase of the Croatian War of Independence the Croatian army lacked any form of armoured vehicles. The Croatian Ministry of Defense asked local firms to provide solutions. Many companies that normally produced for the civillian market hastily came up with improvised armored vehicles of different quality (some made with weapon grade ballistic steel plate other using normal steel plates for instance)., mostly based on already existing trucks, buses and tractors.
Some of them might be quite rare or non existant on the open internet.
Pics related a T-55 with fake Iron cross to mimick a German Leopard I/II tank. Legend has it that that was enough to make Chetniks withdraw at that location in panic because they thought German army is intervening, when of course in reality outside of Serbian propagada
Germans weren't even part of the conflict.
It was a symbol that Croatia had the will and the means to resist the Serbo-Yugoslavian Army occupation plans. The vehicle was made by the company "Dalmacija" near Split and was a bit later in the war destroyed in the Zadar region. The same factory also made the HOT-011 and HOT-111 armoured vehicles in autumn of 1991.
