page_title: Operation Retribution (1941)
section_title: Aftermath and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Retribution (1941) / Aftermath and legacy
caption_attribution_description: Српски / srpski: Споменик пилотима браниоцима Београда, априла 1941. године, на Новобеоградском кеју, код хотела Југославије
context_page_description: Operation Retribution, also known as Operation Punishment, was the April 1941 German bombing of Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, in retaliation for the coup d'état that overthrew the government that had signed the Tripartite Pact. The bombing occurred in the first days of the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia during World War II. The Royal Yugoslav Army Air Force had only 77 modern fighter aircraft available to defend Belgrade against the hundreds of German fighters and bombers that struck in the first wave early on 6 April. Three days prior, VVKJ Major Vladimir Kren had defected to the Germans, disclosing the locations of multiple military assets and divulging the VVKJ's codes.
  Three more waves of bombers attacked Belgrade on 6 April, and more attacks followed in subsequent days. The attacks resulted in the paralysis of Yugoslav civilian and military command and control, the widespread destruction of Belgrade's infrastructure, and many civilian casualties. The ground invasion had begun a few hours earlier, and air attacks were also made on VVKJ airfields and other strategic targets across Yugoslavia.
context_section_description: The bombing of Belgrade paralysed communications between the Yugoslav military and its headquarters, and contributed decisively to the rapid collapse of Yugoslav resistance. Civilian casualties were significant, but sources vary widely from 1,500 to 17,000 killed. They were worsened by the disclosure of air-raid shelter locations to the Germans in the days preceding the attack. The official casualty figure released by the occupation authorities soon after the bombing was 2,271 killed. Other sources mention 5,000 to 10,000 fatalities, and later Yugoslav estimates ranged even higher. The historian Jozo Tomasevich writes that the higher estimates were downgraded following "careful postwar investigations", and indicates that a figure between 3,000 and 4,000 is more realistic.
  Belgrade was occupied on 13 April 1941, and four days later, Yugoslavia capitulated. Afterwards, Luftwaffe engineers conducted a bomb damage assessment in Belgrade. The report stated that 218.5 metric tons (215.0 long tons; 240.9 short tons) of bombs were dropped, 10 to 14 percent being incendiaries. It listed all the targets of the bombing, mentioned that seven aerial mines were dropped, and that areas in the centre and north-west of the city had been destroyed, comprising 20 to 25 percent of its total area. Some aspects of the bombing remain unexplained, particularly the use of the aerial mines. Significant damage was done to Belgrade, particularly to the water and electrical systems. Pavlowitch states that almost 50 percent of housing in Belgrade was destroyed. After the invasion, the Germans forced between 3,500 and 4,000 Jews to collect rubble that was caused by the bombing. Unexploded German bombs continue to be unearthed in the 21st century.
  Löhr was captured by the Yugoslav Partisans on 9 May 1945, escaped, and was recaptured on 13 May. He was intensively interrogated, after which he was tried before a Yugoslav military court on war crimes charges, one of which related to his command of Luftflotte IV during Operation Retribution. Löhr was convicted by the Yugoslav military court and sentenced to death. He was executed on 26 February 1947. Following the invasion, Kren was appointed head of the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske, ZNDH). He was arrested in Italy in March 1947 and extradited to Yugoslavia, where he was tried on unrelated charges of war crimes for his role in the targeting of civilians by the ZNDH. He was found guilty on all counts and executed in 1948.
  The bombing of Belgrade was depicted in the 1980 Yugoslav feature film Who's Singin' Over There? (Serbo-Croatian: Ko to tamo peva) and the 1995 feature film Underground (Serbo-Croatian: Podzemlje). It is also the subject of Miodrag Pavlović's poem Belgrade 1941 (Serbo-Croatian: Beograd 1941). The Serbian American poet Charles Simic, a survivor of the bombing, wrote a poem titled "Cameo Appearance" recounting his experiences. A monument commemorating the Yugoslav pilots killed during Operation Retribution was inaugurated in New Belgrade on 6 April 1997. It was designed by the sculptor Miodrag Živković. On 6 April 2016, the 75th anniversary of the bombing, a memorial service was held for the victims, attended by the Serbian Minister for Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, Aleksandar Vulin. In June 2017, it was announced that the site containing the ruined foundations of the National Library of Serbia would be made into a memorial garden.
caption: Monument to the Yugoslav pilots killed during Operation Retribution, located in New Belgrade
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