What happened in the bombing of Belgrade in 1941?
Early on Sunday, 6 April 1941, without a declaration of war, the Luftwaffe attacked Belgrade as Germany invaded Yugoslavia, in revenge for a pro-British coup in Belgrade. Waves of bombers hit the city center through 6 and 7 April. The official count was 2,271 dead, though other estimates are far higher. Some 714 buildings were destroyed and the National Library burned with its collections.1
On the morning of 6 April 1941 German bombers appeared over Belgrade before any declaration of war. The raids opened Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece, and they left the center of the Yugoslav capital in ruins. How many people died is still argued over.2
A punishment for a coup
Shortly before, a coup in Belgrade had brought down the Yugoslav government. Historian Brett Holman describes the German response as a surprise attack, launched before any declaration of war and intended as a punishment for this pro-British coup. Accounts differ on how it was meant to be carried out. Some say Hitler ordered the destruction of the city; others point to the operational orders of Luftflotte 4, which named military and communication targets in the city center.3 › Yugoslavia in World War II
History.com calls the operation Castigo and places it in a wider Balkan offensive. On the same day German divisions drove into Greece, and all of Yugoslavia's airfields were bombed, destroying most of its 600 aircraft on the ground.4
Palm Sunday morning
An eyewitness report by a French journalist, printed in the Scotsman on 11 April 1941 and quoted by Holman, describes the day. German planes flew over at 4 a.m. but dropped no bombs, so most people stayed in their homes. At 7:15 a.m. a new alert sounded, and some 150 Dornier bombers with Stuka dive bombers struck the city. Terazije, the main square, was badly hit, and the municipal buildings caught fire.5
History.com notes that people from nearby towns and villages had come into the capital for Palm Sunday, which made the slaughter worse. A second wave at 9 a.m. destroyed the central power and water stations, and fires broke out across the industrial quarter. Anti-aircraft guns and Yugoslav fighters fought back. In a lull between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., an unbroken stream of people left for the hills around the city.6
A city on fire
The government, which had met under the bombs, decided to move south. Belgrade was declared an open city; the Scotsman pointed out that this had already been done on 3 April. Further attacks fell on the center that afternoon and through the night of 6 to 7 April, and the last came at 3 p.m. on 7 April. By then, the journalist wrote, only a few thousand of Belgrade's 370,000 people were left in their shelters and cellars. With the water supply gone, nobody could stop the fires spreading from house to house.7
The Belgrade City Archives records that the Germans dropped about 600 tons of bombs between 6 and 12 April. Some 714 buildings were completely destroyed, 1,888 badly damaged and 6,615 lightly damaged, almost half of the city's housing. Water and sewage systems, electricity and the tram network were knocked out, more than half the city's transport was disabled, and the bridges over the Sava and the Danube were down.8
The National Library
German incendiary bombs hit the National Library of Serbia. About 350,000 books and some 500,000 other volumes burned, among them medieval manuscripts, charters, incunabula and collections of old books and newspapers of great cultural and historical value.9
How many died
The figures are far apart. The official count published by the city gave 2,271 dead, with a very large number wounded. Holman thinks this is probably too low and notes that British newspapers at the time reported 12,000. History.com gives 17,000 civilians, which it calls the largest number of civilian casualties in a single day since the start of the war. Even on the official figure, Holman points out, the toll was higher than any single night of the Blitz on Britain, although it was spread over several days.10
A blow that failed to knock out
Holman argues that the raids were less a knock-out blow against civilian morale than a true blitz, meant to wreck a command and supply center ahead of the ground advance, like Guernica in 1937 and Warsaw in 1939. Belgrade did not collapse: the French journalist reported that order was restored, food was being distributed at its old prices and hospitals were preparing vaccinations against cholera and typhoid.11
Notes
A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.
- Historical Archives of Belgrade, “World War II”; HISTORY.com Editors, “Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece”; Brett Holman, “The Belgrade blitz”. ↩
- HISTORY.com Editors, “Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece”; Brett Holman, “The Belgrade blitz”; Historical Archives of Belgrade, “World War II”. ↩
- Brett Holman, “The Belgrade blitz”. ↩
- HISTORY.com Editors, “Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece”. ↩
- Brett Holman, “The Belgrade blitz”. ↩
- HISTORY.com Editors, “Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece”; Brett Holman, “The Belgrade blitz”. ↩
- Brett Holman, “The Belgrade blitz”. ↩
- Historical Archives of Belgrade, “World War II”. ↩
- Historical Archives of Belgrade, “World War II”. ↩
- Historical Archives of Belgrade, “World War II”; Brett Holman, “The Belgrade blitz”; HISTORY.com Editors, “Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece”. ↩
- Brett Holman, “The Belgrade blitz”. ↩
Sources
- Historical Archives of Belgrade, permanent exhibition, “World War II: Bombardments of Belgrade”
- HISTORY.com Editors, “Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece”
- Brett Holman, Airminded, “The Belgrade blitz”
