| Battle for Belgrade | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Balkans Campaign of World War II | |||||||||
 Citizens of Belgrade viewing buildings destroyed by bombing (April 1941) | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Nazi Germany |
 Kingdom of Yugoslavia | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Maximilian von Weichs Ewald von Kleist |
 Borivoje Mirković | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
|
Panzer Group 1 XLVI Tank Corps XLI Tank Corps 51st Bomber Group |
Yugoslav guerrilla forces Eighth Bomber Regiment | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
439 bombers Unknown tank amount | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 32 bombers and escort fighters destroyed |
2,271-17,000 killed by bombing ~9,000 buildings destroyed 20 fighter planes destroyed, 15 damaged | ||||||||
The Battle for Belgrade was a battle taking place during the German invasion of Yugoslavia. The battle mainly took place in the air, as there was no major military presence in Belgrade at the time of the invasion. After bombing raids from the German Luftwaffe, German tank divisions reached Belgrade on 12 April 1941, and subsequently captured the city.[1][2] there were some small attempts to deter the German troops, but all proved unsuccessful.[3] The capture of Belgrade was a major factor in the surrender of Yugoslavia on 17 April 1941. After the end of this battle, Belgrade was occupied by Nazi Germany until 24 November 1944, a period of over 3 1⁄2 years.
References[]
- ↑ Radovanovic, Sasa (2023-01-01). "Bombardment of Belgrade 1941 - 1945". https://www.academia.edu/102552668.
- ↑ "How Yugoslav aviation attacked the Third Reich: The response to the bombing of Belgrade". 6 April 2021. https://en.vijesti.me/BBC/527539/how-Yugoslav-aviation-attacked-the-Third-Reich%27s-response-to-the-bombing-of-Belgrade.
- ↑ says, Slobodan (2021-01-18). "Belgrade Blitz" (in en-US). https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/belgrade-blitz/.
The original article can be found at Battle for Belgrade and the edit history here.