The vast, terrible beauty inherent in the rituals and machinery of warfare began to reveal itself on the wide northern plain of Macedonia.
A column of military vehicles, headed by British soldiers including the SAS, Paras and Ghurkas, ponderously took shape and will probably stretch to more than 70 impressive miles.
More than 17,500 soldiers were last night poised on the Macedonian border waiting for the order from Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the British commander of NATO forces, to move into Kosovo, devastated by 78 days of bombing and Serb military activity.
Operation Joint Guardian was thus expected to commence this morning with the dispatch of British military elite into Kosovo ahead of the main forces. Thousands of international troops and equipment will follow within hours. Gradually, over the next days and weeks, the international force will reach its 50,000 peacekeeping strength.
British Challenger tanks will lead an armoured column of up to 2,500 vehicles which will cross from the border town of Blace. At the same time, German troops will enter from the town of Tetevo and head for Prizren. French forces will go to Pec, US troops to Gnjilane and the Italians to Leposavic.
British forces, commanded by Maj Gen Richard Danatt, will be given the task of securing Pristina, the Kosovan regional capital, and they could be there by this evening. They will travel along the main €65 road, passing over road bridges and through eight tunnels. Maj Gen Danatt, who had flown in to command the 11,000 British, even compared the operation yesterday to D Day.
It is an impressive sight, a historic event. But beneath the glamour lie real worries in the form of Serb landmines, displaced refugees and the threat posed by rebel Kosovo Liberation Army fighters and Serb soldiers.
It is a finally-tuned military machine and one which could be floored by a single tank breaking down in a narrow gorge at the start of the journey to Pristina, holding up the column of vehicles which is expected to stretch back for up to 12 miles at one point.
He said NATO had made it clear to the Serbs that the force would be impartial and would act firmly if KLA rebels failed to abide by their undertaking to cease fire if the Serbs pulled out as agreed. Maj Gen Danatt said: "It is not just a Serb issue, the KLA is part of this."
British military sources in Skopje yesterday played down the risk posed by thousands of land mines and booby traps which may lie along the route. But there was still some caution. A NATO source said: "Obviously, we'll not be speeding to Pristina but we'll move carefully, slowly and deliberately forward."
He added: "Any ordinance that we encounter will be dealt with in a proper manner and with the relevant expertise. We have prepared carefully but in any conflict we must be prepared for the unexpected. Nothing can be taken for granted and it would be foolish to do so."
Detailed information and maps have already been provided to NATO by Serb military leaders. Members of the 2.1 Engineers Battalion will be the first into action, clearing roads of land mines and laying down bridges for the military convoy to cross over. They will also remove any other obstacles that they encounter along the 80 km route to the capital.
Other British forces, which last night numbered 11,000, include the Fourth Armoured Brigade of 2,000 infantry to patrol areas of Kosovo once they have been secured by K-FOR. The Irish Guards will join them in armoured troop carriers.
Brig Jonathan Bailey, who yesterday headed the first NATO-Serb liaison meeting at the Blace border crossing, said talks about Serb withdrawal times and their exit routes had gone well. "This was a strategic military transfer, not a negotiation," he said.
The Yugoslav army began its withdrawal yesterday under the agreed 11-day timetable, crossing into Serbia proper as Belgrade's generals began to implement the terms of the NATO-enforced peace plan.
NATO jets flew overhead yesterday, still armed but this time witnessing the Serb withdrawal, as 150 trucks, other army vehicles and cars carrying NATO forces crossed over at the northern Kosovan border town of Merdare. Two-and-a-half hours later NATO announced the end of its bombing campaign.
Earlier, Maj Gen Danatt said the peacekeeping force would not stop hundreds of thousands of refugees living in Macedonian camps from trying to return to their homes. "We would not countenance stopping them going home," he said.
To return under the guardianship of NATO is an understandable instinct but one which may mean a further loss of life and distress to people who have already suffered too much. Other hazards stack the odds against a swift and untroubled repatriation. Mines are an obvious problem, but an equal one is the lack of drinking water in a baking Balkan summer and dwindling food supplies.
The return of the refugees will be co-ordinated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. It is estimated that 1.5 million people have been displaced during the conflict. Ms Alice Spring, a spokeswoman for the World Food Programme in Skopje, said it expected to feed most of them.
"We have a fleet of trucks, mobile warehouses and mobile bakeries waiting to go in. Four bakeries are still operating in Pristina and it is hoped to use these as distribution centres."
She said food, water, shelter, medical help and counselling would be required in large quantities to support the internally displaced and those who will soon return. She added: "As you can imagine, there will not be a harvest this year in Kosovo. We expect to need up to 1,000 tonnes of food per day."
The hope must be that their preparations will avoid a repeat of the chaotic scenes which linger in the memory from the height of the Kosovo exodus. But just in case, quietly waiting in the wings, is the 101 Logistic Brigade. These are the men that erected canvas cities and literally fed a displaced nation when the UNHCR was found wanting. They are ready to do it all again.