Bombing of Belgrade in World War II
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The bombing of Belgrade happened twice during World War II, first by the Luftwaffe in 1941, and later by allied air forces in 1944.
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[edit] German bombing
At the end of March 1941 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was forced to join the Axis, which ignited a popular revolution in the country; this led to a coup d'etat and a switch in foreign policy with a re-orientation to join the Allies. This happened in a crucial moment, when Hitler was about to launch Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. To subdue Yugoslavia and Greece the invasion of Soviet Union was delayed.
Operation Punishment was the code name for the German bombing of Belgrade during the invasion of Yugoslavia. The Luftwaffe bombed the city on April 6 (Orthodox Easter) without a declaration of war. The Luftwaffe bombed Belgrade from April 6 to 10, 1941. More than 500 bombing sorties were flown against Belgrade in three waves coming from Romania where German forces were assembled for the attack on the Soviet Union, and killing more than 17,500 civilians. Most of the government officials fled, and the Yugoslav army began to collapse.
The attack on Yugoslavia was one of the earliest terror bombings of World War II. In following days Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Italy and Albania joined Nazi Germany in partitioning Kingdom of Yugoslavia, with the support of Independent State of Croatia. The country was absorbed within 12 days, and Greece fell a week later, which made the Third Reich the master of most of continental Europe and ready for launching the attack against Soviet Union.
In German bombing of Belgrade around 17,500 people were killed. Several hundreds of buildings were destroyed. The most important cultural institution that was destroyed was the National Library of Serbia, with 300,000 books, including invaluable Medieval books.
German feldmarshal von Kleist said on the trial after the war: "The air raid on Belgrade in 1941 had primarily political-terrorist character and had nothing to do with the war. That air bombing was matter of Hitler's vanity, his personal revenge." The bombing without a declaration of war become one of the prosecutions charges which led to the execution of the commander of the Luftwaffe formations involved, General Löhr.
[edit] Allied bombing
Belgrade was bombed by Anglo-American air forces on April 16 and 17, 1944, which by coincidence was Orthodox Easter as in 1941. The most important unit that took part was American 15th Air Force, based in Foggia in the south of Italy. This carpet bombing raid was executed by 600 bombers flying at high altitude. Civilian casualties were 1,160, while German military losses were 18. Bombing of the city was repeated on April 21, April 24, May 18, June 6, July 8, and September 3, 1944.
[edit] External links
- Belgrade 41: Hitler's Attack by Carl Savich, Serbianna, August 31, 2006
- Bmbing of Belgrade 1941 (Serbian)
[edit] Reference
- Churchill, W. S. The Grand Alliance. Volume 3, seventh impression, page 146, (1954).
