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Belgrade Yugoslavia bombed...
Belgrade Yugoslavia bombed...
Item # 558981
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April 06, 1941
THE SUNDAY STAR NEWS, Wilmington, North Carolina, April 6, 1941
* Nazis bomb Belgrade Yugoslavia
* World War II German Luftwaffe
This 24 page newspaper has a nice banner headline on the front page: "GERMANY INVADE YUGOSLAVIA, GREECE" with subheads and related map. (see photos)
Other news of the day throughout. Light browning with small stain within headline, otherwise good.
wikipedia notes: The bombing of Belgrade on April 6 was the last stand the Kingdom took against the Axis powers. Although information is mostly sketchy, many sources say that Axis countries (in this case, Germany, Italy, and probably Hungary) deployed up to 2,000 combat aircraft during the bombing of Belgrade. The Royal Yugoslav Air Force's defenses were mostly obsolete. Many of its fighter planes were obsolete, some even with World War I-era technology. Out of 487 operational combat aircraft in the inventory of the Yugoslav Air Force in 1941, less than 150 of them were fit enough to pose a threat to modern Nazi fighters. During April 6th and 7th of 1941, the Yugoslav Royal Air Force only downed about 90 to 100 enemy aircraft.
When the bombing began on the morning of April 6, 1941, many flak defenses near Belgrade were destroyed by Nazi bombers. Even though the strength of the German bomber force was great enough to kill several thousand Belgrade civilians, it took as long as several hours for many of the Yugoslav Air Force squadrons to find out that the country was actually being bombed. However, their finest hours were to be met. On April 6, a group of 18 Yugoslav fighters (6 Rogozarski IK-3s, and ironically, 12 German-made Messerschmitt Bf 109s) downed 12 German Messerschmitts. [3] .Anti-aircraft defense downed 57 planes in first day of war. On the next day, 16 German planes were shot down.
Milisav Semiz was the leading Yugoslav combat pilot of the war, downing four German planes before he himself was shot down in his IK-3.
Category: The 20th Century
No Longer Available
