Dubrovnik. On 26 September 200 rifles and four artillery pieces captured from the JNA on the island of Korčula were sent to reinforce the city. The guns were a mix of 76 mm and 85 mm Soviet World War II-era divisional guns. In addition, an improvised armoured vehicle was supplied to the city. Dubrovnik also received additional HV, Croatian Police and Croatian Defence Forces troops from other parts of Croatia. This brought the number of Croatian troops in Dubrovnik to 600. By November, about 1,000 Croatian troops were defending the city. On 19 September, Marinović was appointed commanding officer of the defences in Dubrovnik, at which time he assessed them as inadequate. The troops, initially organized as the Territorial Defence of Dubrovnik, were reorganized into the HV 75th Independent Battalion on 28 December 1991 and were later reinforced with elements of the 116th Infantry Brigade to form the 163rd Infantry Brigade on 13 February 1992. The Armed Boats Squadron Dubrovnik, a volunteer military unit of the Croatian Navy consisting of 23 vessels of various sizes and 117 volunteers, was established on 23 September to counter the Yugoslav Navy blockade. Timeline JNA advance On 1 October, the JNA started its offensive towards Dubrovnik, moving the 2nd Titograd Corps west through the Popovo field north of the city. The JNA 2nd Corps destroyed the village of Ravno before turning south towards Dubrovačko Primorje area, aiming to envelop Dubrovnik from the west. The second axis of the JNA advance was assigned to the 9th Boka Kotorska VPS. It originated in the Bay of Kotor about south-east of Dubrovnik and was directed through Konavle. The advance started at 5 am after preparatory artillery fire against Vitaljina and other targets in Konavle. The advance, using several roads in the region, was supported by the Yugoslav Navy and the Air Force. Croatian defences were nonexistent in Konavle and light in Dubrovačko Primorje—the only JNA casualties of the day occurred during a successful ZNG ambush in Čepikuće village. On the first day of the offensive, JNA artillery attacked Srđ Hill and the Žarkovica promontory just to the north and east of Dubrovnik, while Yugoslav Air Force MiG-21s raided Komolac in Rijeka Dubrovačka to the west, destroying supplies of electricity and water to Dubrovnik. Until the end of December, Dubrovnik relied on fresh water supplied by boats and electricity from a few electric generators. Over the next three