Hoping to lay the foundation for peace agreements and to minimise the humanitarian consequences of fighting, the UN deployed peacekeeping forces to Bosnia shortly after the onset of conflict.

Additionally, UNPROFOR was faced with the fundamentally contradictory task of carrying out traditional peacekeeping activities in an area with no peace to upkeep, but rather plagued by ongoing violence.

Responsibility for the protection and management of the Tuzla Safe Area was placed on NORDBAT 2, a combined force of 1,246 Danish, Norwegian and Swedish troops.

[6] As the fall of the Soviet Union had essentially left Denmark for the first time in its history without a potential military adversary,[3] the worsening situation in the Balkans and the establishment of UNPROFOR operations in the region provided a new peacekeeping application for Danish defences.

Under this mandate, a main assignment of NORDBAT 2 was to ensure the continuing ability of the international community to provide military equipment and humanitarian aid for distribution throughout the country by protecting the large airfield just outside of Tuzla.

[3] The situation in Bosnia deteriorated in the beginning of 1994 as Bosnian Serb forces began launching a number of offensives against the UN Safe Area in Goražde, ultimately ended by a NATO airstrike.

[8] In response to the increased shelling, the Danish squadron developed an emergency plan—Plan Bøllebank—in order to be able to quickly mobilise troops in defence of the airfield at Tuzla.

[7] It was soon relayed to the tank commanders, however, that they were to rescue the observation post TANGO 2, manned by Norwegian and Swedish troops, which had come under heavy fire by the Bosnian Serb forces they were surveilling on a nearby mountaintop.

As the column of tanks neared the village of Sarači 8 kilometres east of Tuzla, they came under heavy shelling by Bosnian Serb forces using mortars and anti-tank rockets, among other forms of artillery.

While parts of the column awaited further orders in Sarači, the first two tanks again came under heavy artillery fire as they reached the outskirts of the village of Kalešija, the closest settlement to the observation post.

[9] Rounds struck an ammunition depot and several bunkers[10] as well as three T-55 Bosnian Serb tanks, according to other source,[2] causing a great deal of destruction and thwarting the ambush in an instance of what Møller describes as "the mouse who ate the cat".

Those in the UN who had always been skeptical of the deployment of tanks by the Danish government claimed that the mere presence of the armoured vehicles in Tuzla was a provocation and caused an increase in aggression on the Serbian side.

Internally, the last commander of NORDBAT 2, Brigadier General Per Hvidberg, stationed in Tuzla from 1995 to 1996, described Møller’s use of force to be unnecessary, "provocatory" and "wrong" as it breached the strict Rules of Engagement set in place by the UN.

In the aftermath of Operation Bøllebank, UN headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, began investigating whether the Danes had broken the “Rules of Engagement” in place through excessive use of force.

[11] In recent years, the incident has again received media attention after a nearly 600-page book by Lars Møller entitled “Operation Bøllebank” recounting the events was published in 2016.