Tuesday, April 06, 2010

69th anniversary of bombing of Belgrade in World War II // April 6, 2010

BELGRADE, April 6 (Tanjug) - The Day of Remembrance of the victims of the German aggression on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which began on April 6, 1941, with heavy bombing and mass destruction of Belgrade, is being marked in Serbia Tuesday.



The attack of Hitler's Third Reich began without the declaration of war, despite the fact that several days earlier the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia declared Belgrade an open (undefended) city.


The first bombs were dropped on Belgrade on Sunday morning, April 6, 2941, at 6.30 a.m., while a large majority of the inhabitants of the capital was still asleep.


The German bombers released destructive and flammable bombs on Belgrade four times on that day, and around 4 p.m. around thirty bombers came from the direction of Romania shooting refugees who were leaving the ruined city in panic.


The then capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was again attacked on April 11 and 12. The attacks were also performed at night and a total of 440 tons of bombs were dropped on the city.


The exact number of victims was never precisely determined.


There were 2,274 people listed as killed in Belgrade, which then had 370,000 inhabitants, but it is believed that the real number was around 4,000 people.


The city sustained considerable material damage - 714 buildings were completely destroyed, 1,888 were severely damaged, whereas 6,829 were partly damaged. The densely populated parts of the city, hospitals, market, the railway station, the main post office and Zemun airport were bombed.


By April 17, 1941, when the army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia capitulated, the towns of Kraljevo, Leskovac, Kragujevac and Novi Sad were bombarded, as well as several other towns in which mostly strategic objects such as infrastructure and airports were targeted.




http://bsanna-news.ukrinform.ua/newsitem.php?id=12784&lang=en




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