Bloody Easter. Bombing in Belgrade in April 1944

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American bombs fell on the Serbian capital not only in 1999, but also in 1944 — during the occupation of Yugoslavia by Hitler’s troops. These attacks in Russia are less known than the events of the recent past. Meanwhile, even then the expediency of the raids raised great questions and was accompanied by a large number of civilian casualties. In the Yugoslav history those raids on Belgrade came in under the name "Bloody Easter" since the American aviation bombed the city during one of the most important Orthodox holidays.

Formally, the American command had reasons to bomb Belgrade, which was a major transportation center of communications and played an important role in industrial supplies. It was a major railway junction on the way from Greece, as well as a large river port on the important navigable river Danube. The Danube, in particular, was used to transport Romanian oil to Germany. For this used transport barges. In addition, it was an important sorting center on the supply chain of the Wehrmacht in Greece.

The main objectives of the bombing of Belgrade were industrial and transport facilities. However (recall the air war strategy and the “precision” of the American bombardments that the residents of Dresden and Tokyo felt on themselves), this operation ended with a large number of civilian casualties. In addition, for some reason, the American command did not take into account the fact (or did not know about it at all) that the raid took place during Easter.

Bloody Easter. Bombing in Belgrade in April 1944

Bloody Easter

16 April 1944, residents of Belgrade heard the sounds of an air-raid alert and saw American planes in the sky. These were the Libeater B-24 bombers (from the English Liberator). According to some reports, up to 600 bombers participated in the raid. The inhabitants of Belgrade were absolutely sure that the planes were simply flying through Belgrade in the direction of the Romanian front and the Romanian oil fields. Some residents joyfully greeted the Allied airplanes, but joy soon gave way to disappointment as soon as bombs rained down from American planes on Belgrade.

The raid began at 12 hours of the day, at which time many residents of the Yugoslav capital were in temples at festive divine services. According to eyewitnesses, the American bombs dropped haphazardly on the districts, which increased the scale of destruction with the destruction of ground objects. The plans of the Allied Air Command were to destroy the most important German military installations, as well as the largest communication hubs in Belgrade. However, for the most part residential areas, hospitals, temples turned out to be under the Allied bombs, and civilians prevailed among the dead.

The Serbian Patriarch Gavrila (Dojic) wrote then that the bombardment of allied aviation on the first and second day of Easter turned Belgrade into a desert. After those victims that the Serbian people suffered in the fight against the fascist invaders, as well as the Ustashi, the allies destroyed the capital. The Serbian patriarch noted that the Americans and the British seemed to have lost the feeling of Christian love, without which a person cannot live in the world. Even during the fighting with the Germans at Easter and Christmas, the fighting stopped. However, the allies for some reason chose the days of the holy holiday for the Orthodox to attack Belgrade.


From the attacks on the city, which took place on 16-17 on April 1944, its center suffered the most - Terazia and Slavia, the central city streets (Princess Natalia, Milos the Great, Nemani, Saraevskaya), the New Market, the People’s Theater and Zeleny Venaz. Bombs also fell on the territory of a prisoner of war camp in Old Saimishte. Here the Germans kept prisoners of war of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, as well as partisans. 24 bombs fell in the camp, 150 people suffered from these bombs. As a result of the raid, none of the major German military installations were destroyed, with the exception of the Gestapo building on Dorol.

The next day, April 17, the Allied bombing resumed. On this day, the raid on the city began in 13: 00. At the same time, almost all parts of Belgrade were subject to air attacks. In the following days, the railway station was destroyed, as well as the buildings on Vasina Street, which were a residential complex.

Only on the first day in Belgrade, 1160 civilians died in fires and under the rubble of buildings, the losses of the German occupiers were estimated at approximately 200 people. As part of the US bomber unit, equipped with B-24 aircraft that could carry two-ton bombs, fought with the Germans and four Serbian crews. Before the raid on Belgrade, all Serbian crews received leave and could not even imagine such barbarism. During the American bombardments, residential areas of the city, hospitals and maternity hospitals, cultural facilities, bridges across the Danube and Sava, and city factories suffered.


In early May 1944, the Allies again launched the bombing of Belgrade, this time they focused on the bridges and adjacent residential areas of the Serbian capital. 21 May 1944, due to the intensive bombardment of the city, the work of all higher educational institutions and schools was stopped. 6 June 1944, the Allies bombed the depot and railway station in Belgrade. During this raid oil storage was also destroyed, resulting in burning oil spilled on the Danube and Sava. The raids were repeated 9 times, until September 18 1944. Almost until the capital of Yugoslavia was liberated from Hitlerites by Soviet troops and partisans Tito.

The bombing of Belgrade, as well as a number of other cities of Yugoslavia during the Easter holidays of 1944, led to a large number of civilian casualties, as well as serious material damage. According to various estimates, directly in Belgrade, as a result of the Allied air raids, about 2000 civilians were killed, and about 1000 people were injured. The bombings provoked a mass exodus of people from the capital and made the city deserted.

There are some similarities between the Allied bombings in 1944 and the Hitler operation Kara, which was held in April 1941. This operation was carried out on the personal order of Hitler in retaliation for the fact that Yugoslavia 27 March 1941 refused to join the Tripartite Pact, hence the frightening name for the operation. During the bombing of the city of the Luftwaffe in April 1941, the destruction of the city’s civilian and cultural sites was unprecedented.


The German bombers attacked the building of the Ministry of Defense, the headquarters of the Yugoslav Army, the power station, the railway station, the royal palace, the military academy, the guard barracks, the gendarmerie command building, the Zemun airfield, the university building, as well as residential areas throughout Belgrade. In just one day the Germans dropped tons of bombs on the city of 360. As a result of this bombing, 682 buildings were completely destroyed, 1602 buildings were significantly damaged, and 8600 suffered minor damage. As a result of an air attack, 2271 civilians were killed, more than 10 thousands of people were injured.

The Allied bombings strongly influenced the Yugoslav population and caused mass protests. The inhabitants of Yugoslavia had the firm conviction that the British and Americans kill civilians, while the Russian brothers do not bombard even German cities, not that Serbian ones. There was a strong conviction that Russian soldiers howl only with an armed enemy, and not with a peaceful population - women, children and old people.

Every year a tragic date in the history of the Serbian people is celebrated with memorial prayers, which are held in all Orthodox churches in Serbia.

Information sources:
http://russdom.ru/oldsayte/2004/200404i/20040425.html
http://www.shambala.ru/serbia/Pasha.htm
http://alternathistory.org.ua/ubiistvo-zhitelei-belgrada-samoletami-ssha-i-velikobritanii-v-1944-godu
http://byzantine-way.livejournal.com/38292.html
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8 comments
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  1. +8
    24 January 2014 10: 35
    "The people of Yugoslavia have a firm conviction that the British and Americans are killing civilians, while the Russian brothers do not even bomb German cities, let alone Serbs."
    Americans have repeatedly shown their true mean animal face in history.
    1. +7
      24 January 2014 11: 01
      Quote: Jamal1974
      "The people of Yugoslavia have a firm conviction that the British and Americans are killing civilians, while the Russian brothers do not even bomb German cities, let alone Serbs."
      Americans have repeatedly shown their true mean animal face in history.

      it is necessary to give a link to this article to the director of the movie "4 Days in May" and to everyone who considers the Soviet army to be exclusively a collection of rapists.
      And what did the Yugoslavs do to the Americans, that they began to bomb them? After all, they were stopped only by the liberation of Yugoslavia by the Red Army.
      1. +4
        24 January 2014 11: 18
        What have you done? Never mind. It's just that the Americans treated the Serbs, apparently, like monkeys, or as such ... Natives, or what? After all, the USA, in fact, was a racist state, and it is not a fact that the American command did not share the views of the Germans on the Slavs (remember how American students, in the 30s, greeted Hitler with the words "Heil!"). So, oh, they are now fighters against the Nazis, but then aaa ... Oh, not a fact (in this regard, I recall the transition of our boats from the Pacific to the Northern Fleet in 1942, when our submariners were repeatedly attacked by "unidentified submarines", and the case when at one of the American naval bases, at a banquet, one American senior officer burst out at our, Soviet, sailors with abuse and threats ... we had such allies).
        so there is nothing surprising that for our allies - that Belgrade, that Berlin ........... Everything with the letter "B"))
    2. +2
      24 January 2014 11: 34
      The Germans (1941-1945) - no partisans broke into the village, tortured everyone, nobody knows anything, shot everyone.
      The Americans (1968-Vietnam) - We came to the village, didn’t like it, burned it, didn’t look for partisans because we still don’t understand what they are saying.
      Russia (1821-1853), a highlander killed a soldier, was arrested, his relatives were recaptured, a regiment was raised, they surrounded the village, they presented an ultimatum to issue gunshots in response, and the village was leveled with rocks.
      Similar in essence, but unequal in motivation, pay attention to the variation in the years in our country such episodes were traced only in the 19th century, while the Americans did not get off the branch until the end of the 20th.
      And most importantly, motives: here I have no questions only for ours, less for Germans, for Americans exactly one question - what for?
    3. Fin
      +5
      24 January 2014 20: 05
      Quote: Jamal1974
      Americans have repeatedly shown their true mean animal face in history.

      Belgrade-Dresden-Hiroshima-Nagasaki-city of Vietnam. Scoundrels.
      1. The comment was deleted.
      2. 0
        27 January 2014 13: 40
        Your resume is soft, but if you write it right, censorship will not miss a single word.
  2. +6
    24 January 2014 11: 10
    The similarities between the Allied bombing in the 1944 year and the Hitler operation called “Kara”, which was carried out in April 1941, are alarming.

    The war of the Reich against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (the German code name for the operation is "Operation Punishment") began on April 6, 1941. The commander of the 4th VF Oberst Alexander Ler personally received Hitler's order to erase Belgrade. As a result, in the first strike at 5:15 am, the planes first struck at the Petrovac airfield, then the Ju-87 "Stuka" at the government quarter and the royal palace. Well, the benefit was the blow of 160 Ju-88 and Do-17 on the power plant, the buildings of the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, the military academy, the command of the gendarmerie and other military facilities. Then they bombed all day until nightfall in smaller groups of aircraft. A total of 360 tons of bombs were dropped. 714 buildings were destroyed, almost 9000 were damaged. 2770 civilians were killed and over 10000 wounded. As a result of the attack of Hitler's "Third Reich" on Belgrade, which had the status of an open city, hospitals and densely populated areas were destroyed and the building of the National Library of Serbia, built in 1832, was completely destroyed. It was the only national library deliberately destroyed during the Second World War, and the entire library stock, which consisted of some 350 books, including priceless medieval manuscripts, burned down in a fire caused by incendiary bombs. The Library also contained a collection of Turkish manuscripts, over 000 printed books of the 200th and 15th centuries, old maps, engravings, paintings, newspapers, as well as all the books published in Serbia and neighboring countries since 17.
    Yugoslav pilots and anti-aircraft gunners fought bravely, but the forces were not equal, so the commander of the 112 fighter squadron, the son of Russian White emigrants Konstantin Ermakov, when he ran out of ammunition, rammed and shot down a German Bf110 from II / ZG26 with his outdated English Hauker Fury fighter.

    Konstantin Ermakov and his Hawker Fury fighter
  3. +3
    24 January 2014 12: 35
    They are simple creatures, that's all. Remember about Dresden, which was completely destroyed, and there wasn’t more than one industrial or military facility (do not count the commandant’s office). There are simply no words, but you can’t swear on the site.
  4. +7
    24 January 2014 12: 57
    Well, they not only bombed Belgrade in April 1944, but our columns, by the way, in the same Yugoslavia stormed from the air:
    On November 7 on November 1944 between Nis and Aleksinac (Yugoslavia), a convoy of Red Army troops was attacked by a group of American fighters in the 27 Lightning aircraft.
    The nine fighter jet on duty at the Nish airfield was also attacked by these Lightnings at the time of climb, despite the fact that the identification marks of the Red Army Air Force were clearly visible.
    Nevertheless, the American Lightning aircraft continued their attacks of Soviet fighters forced to defend themselves for 15 minutes.
    The attacks of the Lightnings stopped only after the leader of the Soviet fighter group, Captain Koldunov, at the risk of being shot down, adjusted to the leader of the group of American fighters and showed him the identification marks of his plane.
    As a result of a raid by American aircraft on a Soviet convoy, corps commander Lieutenant General Kotov, two officers and three privates were killed. 20 vehicles with property burned.
    Three planes were shot down from a group of Soviet fighters, two pilots were killed and, in addition, four people were killed by American planes in the area of ​​the airfield.


    However, our fighters also did not remain in debt and shot down 5 American P-38 Lightning, of which 4 were shot down by the Twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Ivanovich Koldunov, who by the end of the war had personally shot down 46 enemy aircraft and 1 in a group. He also stopped this air battle, coming close to the leading Lightning and gesturing to show that we are our allies. The American finally understood the gestures and climbed south. The rest of the Lightnings followed.

    However, our most outstanding ace Ivan Nikitich Kozhedub also distinguished himself, who on April 17, 1945, meeting the Flying Fortresses of the allies in the air, with a barrage burst drove off a couple of Messerschmitts from them, but a second later he was attacked by American cover fighters. During a short battle, Ivan Nikitich flunked two Mustangs, so that his combat score is 64 enemy aircraft shot down (not including those shot down in Korea)


    La-7 I.N. Kozheduba, 176-th Guards and IAP, spring 1945
  5. +1
    24 January 2014 14: 31
    The Anglo-Saxons have always hated the Slavs. In their understanding, we are the "Golden Horde" that is not far from the truth. But the main problem is that for the Anglo-Saxon we are completely incomprehensible. Those. Hindu, he is understandably Hindu or, say, Chinese. A Slav, often outwardly similar to any other European, but inside is completely different. However, the latter is not likely to cause hatred, but an inexplicable fear of an incomprehensible Slavic soul. A person is always afraid of what he cannot understand.
  6. +2
    24 January 2014 14: 59
    - There was a STRONG conviction that Russian soldiers were fighting ONLY with an armed enemy, and not with a civilian population - women, children and the elderly.
    Do not decrease, do not add!
    -Al_lexx: Anglo-Saxons have always hated the Slavs.
    Namely Eastern, Orthodox Slavs. Slave-Slave, Slav-Slav ...
    1. +1
      24 January 2014 19: 28
      Funny ..
      I say: the Anglo-Saxons have always hated the Slavs.
      You say: No, the Anglo-Saxons have always hated the Slavs.
      smile
    2. +1
      24 January 2014 22: 36
      Slavs from the word - Glory from the same place and Orthodoxy (in the modern manner Faithful Glory). The names of our tribes we gave the Slavs, not the Anglo-Saxons. Anglo-Saxons simply engaged in fraud, and already in the late centuries 18-19
  7. kaktus
    0
    24 January 2014 18: 24
    Night over Belgrade
    Music: Nikita Theological Words: Boris Laskin


    Quiet night over Belgrade
    She replaced the day.
    Remember how brightly flashed
    The furious thunder of fire.

    Remember the year of horror
    Black cars flying ...
    Squeeze your heart, listen:
    Night sings a song!

    Chorus:
    The flames of anger burn in the chest!
    Flame of anger, take us on a hike!
    Prepare an hour of reckoning!
    Death for death! Blood for blood!
    In battle, the Slavs! Dawn is ahead!

    Whispering reeds in the bends ...
    The Danube is quietly singing ...
    In the corpses of people tortured
    Get to know your brothers!

    Croatia's sky is pretty
    Stones of the Carpathian mountains ...
    Grozny swear by force
    To repulse the enemy!

    Chorus.

    The people will wake up!
    A bold call sounds!
    Ashes of the Earth Shattered
    He is beating in our hearts!

    In the sky of war - a conflagration.
    Homeland is calling us!
    Together forward, comrades!
    Forward to the enemy!

    Chorus.



    1942
  8. +2
    24 January 2014 22: 31
    How is it in the spirit of the Anglo-Saxons to bomb a civilian population that cannot give change? And as soon as the likelihood arises that he might fly in the otvetka, all the Anglo-Saxons are not visible on the horizon. They are sitting and others from behind are being harnessed.
  9. Aleksandr2
    +1
    27 January 2014 11: 20
    Blondes are these Americans

"Right Sector" (banned in Russia), "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) (banned in Russia), ISIS (banned in Russia), "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham" formerly "Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in Russia) , Taliban (banned in Russia), Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia), Anti-Corruption Foundation (banned in Russia), Navalny Headquarters (banned in Russia), Facebook (banned in Russia), Instagram (banned in Russia), Meta (banned in Russia), Misanthropic Division (banned in Russia), Azov (banned in Russia), Muslim Brotherhood (banned in Russia), Aum Shinrikyo (banned in Russia), AUE (banned in Russia), UNA-UNSO (banned in Russia), Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (banned in Russia), Legion “Freedom of Russia” (armed formation, recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and banned)

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