The bombing of Podgorica in World War II was carried out by the Allies from 1943 to 1944 at the request of the Yugoslav Partisans.
The bombing of Podgorica in World War II was carried out by the Allies from 1943 to 1944 at the request of the Yugoslav Partisans.
Between the two World Wars, Podgorica had a population of 13,000. [1]
On 6 April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers. The state was de facto dissolved, and Montenegro, in which Podgorica was the largest city, became independent as a protectorate of the Kingdom of Italy. That arrangement lasted until the Italian armistice on September 8, 1943, and the fascist Italian forces capitulated. Germany then occupied Montenegro. Until Germany's involvement, the city had not been bombed. During the last years of the war, Podgorica was one of the largest cities on the route of German troops withdrawing from Greece]] and so the decision was made by the Allies to bomb the city.
The Podgorica airfield was bombed by P-39 Airacobras of the United States Army Air Forces's Twelfth Air Force on 25 October 1943. [2] By December, the German troops had begun setting off bomb sirens in the city, which resulted in many citizens taking shelter in nearby caves. [3]
The most intense bombing of Podgorica occurred on 5 May 1944. 116 USAAF B-24 Liberators participated in the attack, which dropped 270 tonnes of bombs on the city. [4] The attack resulted in only four German casualties and approximately 100 Chetnik deaths, and 400 Montenegrin civilians were killed. [5] Chetnik casualties included major Đorđije Lašić. [6] During the course of the bombing, a Catholic church and an Orthodox cemetery were damaged, and the Glavatović mosque was destroyed. [5] [7]
The Allied bombing was of questionable legality. [8] International law dictates that a country's recognized government has the right to bombard any of its cities that is occupied by enemy forces. However, when Anglo-American forces bombed the city, they still officially recognized the Yugoslav royal government-in-exile as the legitimate national government, not Tito, who ordered the bombings. [8]
On 6 November, 72 Royal Air Force planes bombed the city. [9] Reportedly, 700 German troops were killed and 150 German vehicles were smashed during the attack. [9] On 7 November, 124 P-38s strafed Axis troop concentrations in and around the city. [10]
The Allied bombing almost completely destroyed the city. [9] Approximately 4,100 people died in the attacks. [1] Partisans took over Podgorica on 19 December 1944. Damages were estimated in 1946 as 1.06 billion Yugoslav dinars. [11]
The Chetniks, formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist movement and guerrilla force in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. Although it was not a homogeneous movement, it was led by Draža Mihailović. While it was anti-Axis in its long-term goals and engaged in marginal resistance activities for limited periods, it also engaged in tactical or selective collaboration with Axis forces for almost all of the war. The Chetnik movement adopted a policy of collaboration with regard to the Axis, and engaged in cooperation to one degree or another by both establishing a modus vivendi and operating as "legalised" auxiliary forces under Axis control. Over a period of time, and in different parts of the country, the movement was progressively drawn into collaboration agreements: first with the puppet Government of National Salvation in the German-occupied territory of Serbia, then with the Italians in occupied Dalmatia and Montenegro, with some of the Ustaše forces in northern Bosnia, and, after the Italian capitulation in September 1943, with the Germans directly.
The Yugoslav Partisans, or the National Liberation Army, officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia, was the communist-led anti-fascist resistance to the Axis powers in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. Led by Josip Broz Tito, the Partisans are considered to be Europe's most effective anti-Axis resistance movement during World War II.
Case Black, also known as the Fifth Enemy Offensive in Yugoslav historiography and often identified with its final phase, the Battle of the Sutjeska was a joint attack by the Axis taking place from 15 May to 16 June 1943, which aimed to destroy the main Yugoslav Partisan force, near the Sutjeska river in south-eastern Bosnia. The failure of the offensive marked a turning point for Yugoslavia during World War II. It was also the last major German-Italian joint operation against the partisans.
World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was invaded and swiftly conquered by Axis forces and partitioned among Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and their client regimes. Shortly after Germany attacked the USSR on 22 June 1941, the communist-led republican Yugoslav Partisans, on orders from Moscow, launched a guerrilla liberation war fighting against the Axis forces and their locally established puppet regimes, including the Axis-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and the Government of National Salvation in the German-occupied territory of Serbia. This was dubbed the National Liberation War and Socialist Revolution in post-war Yugoslav communist historiography. Simultaneously, a multi-side civil war was waged between the Yugoslav communist Partisans, the Serbian royalist Chetniks, the Axis-allied Croatian Ustaše and Home Guard, Serbian Volunteer Corps and State Guard, Slovene Home Guard, as well as Nazi-allied Russian Protective Corps troops.
According to the 2012 U.S. Global Leadership Report, 26% of Montenegrins approve of U.S. leadership, with 48% disapproving and 26% uncertain.
Pavle Đurišić was a Montenegrin Serb regular officer of the Royal Yugoslav Army who became a Chetnik commander (vojvoda) and led a significant proportion of the Chetniks in Montenegro during World War II. He distinguished himself and became one of the main commanders during the popular uprising against the Italians in Montenegro in July 1941, but later collaborated with the Italians in actions against the Communist-led Yugoslav Partisans. In 1943, his troops carried out several massacres against the Muslim population of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the Sandžak in which an estimated 10,000 people were killed between January and March, including thousands of women, children, and the elderly. He then led his troops during their participation in the anti-Partisan Case White offensive alongside Italian forces. Đurišić was captured by the Germans in May 1943, escaped, and was recaptured.
Vojislav Lukačević was a Serbian Chetnik commander in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during World War II. At the outbreak of war, he held the rank of captain of the reserves in the Royal Yugoslav Army.
Lieutenant Colonel Zaharije Ostojić was a Montenegrin Serb and Yugoslav military officer who served as the chief of the operational, organisational and intelligence branches of the Chetnik Supreme Command led by Draža Mihailović in Yugoslavia during World War II. He was a major in the Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force prior to the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, and was involved in the coup that deposed Prince Paul of Yugoslavia on 27 March 1941. After the coup, he escorted Prince Paul to exile in Greece, and was in Cairo during the invasion in April. In September 1941, he was landed on the coast of the Italian governorate of Montenegro along with the British Special Operations Executive officer Captain Bill Hudson and two companions. He escorted Hudson to the German-occupied territory of Serbia and introduced him to the Yugoslav Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito at Užice, then accompanied Hudson to Ravna Gora to meet Mihailović. Ostojić soon became Mihailović's chief of staff, and after the German attempt to capture the Chetnik leader during Operation Mihailovic in December 1941, brought the Chetnik Supreme Command staff to Montenegro where they were re-united with Mihailović in June 1942. During the remainder of 1942, Ostojić launched a counter-attack against Ustaše troops of the Independent State of Croatia returning to the eastern Bosnian town of Foča where they were expected to continue their genocidal anti-Serb policies. As many as 2,000 local Muslims were subsequently killed in the town by forces under Ostojić's command. Ostojić later oversaw large-scale massacres of civilians and burning of Muslim villages in the border region between Montenegro and the Sandžak.
The Allied bombing of Yugoslavia in World War II involved air attacks on cities and towns in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and Royal Air Force (RAF), including the Balkan Air Force (BAF), between 1941 and 1945, during which period the entire country was occupied by the Axis powers. Dozens of Yugoslav cities and towns were bombed, many repeatedly. These attacks included intensive air support for Yugoslav Partisan operations in May–June 1944, and a bombing campaign against transport infrastructure in September 1944 as the German Wehrmacht withdrew from Greece and Yugoslavia. This latter operation was known as Operation Ratweek. Some of the attacks caused significant civilian casualties.
The Uprising in Montenegro, commonly known as the 13 July Uprising was an uprising against Italian occupation forces in Montenegro. Initiated by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia on 13 July 1941, it was suppressed within six weeks, but continued at a much lower intensity until Battle of Pljevlja on 1 December 1941. The insurgents were led by a combination of communists and former Royal Yugoslav Army officers from Montenegro. Some of the officers had recently been released from prisoner-of-war camps following their capture during the invasion of Yugoslavia. The communists managed the organisation and provided political commissars, while the insurgent military forces were led by former officers. The entire nation rejected the privileged position offered by its occupiers, rejected the capitulation in order to fight for Yugoslavia, together with "Russia".
Bajo Stanišić was a Montenegrin Serb officer of the Royal Yugoslav Army, who was one of the participants of the Uprising in Montenegro against the Italian occupation forces in 1941. After the suppression of the uprising, he became one of the commanders of the Chetnik units in Montenegro and openly collaborated with Fascist Italy until his death in 1943.
Đorđije Lašić was a Montenegrin Serb military officer of the Royal Yugoslav Army. During the Second World War he participated in the 1941 Uprising in Montenegro, but has soon turned to collaboration with Axis occupation forces until 1944, when he was killed during the bombing of Podgorica.
The National Army of Montenegro and Herzegovina was a military unit established by Colonel Bajo Stanišić in February 1942. It was composed of six battalions, some of them being Chetniks, with Stanišić being its commander.
The Battle of Novi Pazar was a battle fought between November and December 1941 during World War II, between the Chetniks and Albanian forces under Axis command in the city of Novi Pazar, Sandžak, in the German-occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Despite launching three assaults, the Chetniks failed to capture Novi Pazar.
Mullah Jakup Kardović was a Muslim cleric and during WWII a commander of a detachment of the Muslim militia in Rožaje, his native region. In November 1941, Kardović distinguished himself during the Battle for Novi Pazar, when he defended the city against the attacking Chetniks.
Ratko Parežanin was Austrian, Yugoslav, British and Western German writer and journalist of Serb ethnic origin.
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Vuk Kalaitović was a Yugoslav military officer holding the rank of captain who was commander of the Chetnik Mileševa Corps during World War II.
Radoje Pajović was a Yugoslav and Montenegrin historian who worked at the Institute of History at the University of Montenegro for forty years. He has been dubbed "the most prominent Montenegrin historian" of events in Montenegro during World War II by the Montenegrin historian Srđa Pavlović, and Professor Kenneth Morrison, author of the 2009 book Montenegro: A Modern History, asserts that Pajović is one of the most prominent Montenegrin historians in general.
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