{"id":175529,"date":"2025-04-16T17:40:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T15:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=175529"},"modified":"2025-04-16T17:40:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T15:40:58","slug":"bloody-easter-1944-how-the-allied-bombing-shrouded-belgrade-in-mourning-photo-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/bloody-easter-1944-how-the-allied-bombing-shrouded-belgrade-in-mourning-photo-video\/","title":{"rendered":"BLOODY EASTER 1944: How the Allied Bombing Shrouded Belgrade in Mourning! (PHOTO, VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On April 16, 1944, 600 bombers took off from Foggia in southern Italy. It was a Sunday, it was Easter, and it was the day Belgrade was draped in black. It was a day that would be remembered as Bloody Easter 1944.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 11:56, the sky above the Serbian capital was filled with Allied B-17 planes under the command of the 15th U.S. Air Force. Belgraders waved at them, thinking they were returning from battles with German troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a moment later, the first explosions rang out, and horror wiped the smiles from the faces of people in the streets who were desperately trying to find shelter. Thousands never reached safety from the 2,739 tons of bombs the Allies dropped on the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bombs Also Fell on Military Targets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Instead of bombing the oil refinery in Ploie\u0219ti, Romania, to cut off the German army’s fuel supply, the \u201cflying fortresses\u201d brought death to Belgrade. Victims were everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the war diaries of the U.S. Air Force that day, the following was recorded:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMission to Ploie\u0219ti aborted due to heavy cloud cover over the target. Secondary targets in Belgrade attacked\u2014airport, marshalling yard, and aircraft factory. A total of 178 crews filed reports. More than 500 tons of bombs dropped. Two planes lost: B-17 \u2018El Diablo,\u2019 serial number 42-32065 from the 99th group, William Headrick pilot, 2 captured, 8 killed; and B-24 \u2018Little Jesus,\u2019 serial number 42-52395, from the 461st group, hit by anti-aircraft guns, crashed near Belgrade, pilot Lieutenant Floyd W. Woodard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officially, legitimate targets included the Belgrade-Sava rail lines, Zemun airport, the Rogo\u017earski and Ikarus aircraft factories, the Danubijus, Zmaj, and Teleoptik factories, Zemun railway station, and the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in addition to these targets, on Bloody Easter 1944 bombs fell on the maternity hospital \u201cQueen Marija\u201d in Krunska Street\u2014today the Student Polyclinic\u2014on Bajloni Market and its surroundings, where 200 people lost their lives, as well as on Kaleni\u0107 Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palata Albanija was bombed, and the shelter inside it was hit, killing everyone inside instantly. At the same time, Terazije was practically leveled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Targets included the Technical and Law faculties, several hospitals\u2014among them one housing recuperating Serbian prisoners from Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Church of Alexander Nevsky, the Central Hygiene Institute, the Children\u2019s Hospital, the Pediatric Dispensary, the Infectious Disease Hospital, the Home for the Blind, the Orthopedic Institute, the State Home for Boys, the State Home for Girls, and two homes for Serbian refugee children from the NDH (Independent State of Croatia) were all hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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