Evening star., 1941-04-18
By ROBERT ST. JOHN,


SOMEWHERE IN MONTENE-
GRO WITH THE REMNANTS OF
THE YUGOSLAV ARMY (Vis
Athens, Greece, April 16 Delayed)'
Mass German air attacks that
killed at least 10000 persons in Bel
grade alone and turned Yugoslavia' s
principal cities into smoking sham
bles struck the paralyzing blows
opening the Balkan war.
Men, women and children lay by
the hundreds in the debris of their
homes after concentrated Nazi
bombing attacks on cities.
These civilians were ordered by
their government not to clog the
roads by wild flight, hampering the
military as refugees did in France
but to die on their thresholds il
necessary. And there they died.
CThe death toll from the Ger
man bombing of Belgrade may
reach 10000, Reuters, British
news agency, said early today in
a dispatch from somewhere in
Yugoslavia. The dispatch quoted
observers in the little kingdom
and declared that men who saw
Rotterdam and Warsaw laid in
ruins said the onslaught on Bel
grade was more severe" Three
hundred men were reported
killed in one barracks)
Army Lacked Communications.
For nine days I rode across Yugo-
slavia behind the lines, watching the
army try vainly with rifles and oxen
drawn artillery to repel the over
whelming mechanical force of Hit
ler's panzer divisions and screaming
Stuka bombers.
Almost from the first hour of the
German invasion, the army was
without communications. One divi-
sion seldom knew what the one next
to it was doing.
Individually the Serbian forces
fought with great bravery, and re-
ported inf1icting heavy losses on the
Germans. In one days attack the
military claimed destruction of 200
Eazi tanks.
In spite of the furious resistance,
however, the German wedges bit
deeper into the country and the
fighting became hopeless.
I say the Serbian army fought
because in travelling about I have
seen many Croatian deserters, and
in the critical hours of the fighting
officials announced the Croats had
fevolted in the North.
was in Belgrade the morning the
German air force attacked. The
citizens, who had not yet learned
the nation was at war, poured into
the streets when the sirens screamed
and the bomber squadrons roared
overhead. They stood and stared
curiously up at the planes and did
not take shelter-though there
weren't enough shelters for all.
1t was a massacre. At least 10000
died in the capital alone. In one
square I counted more than 200
bodies after the first morning raid.
Almost at the start the water
supply failed and huge fires ragged
unchecked until the city was man
tied with heavy smoke pail.
u. s. Legation Destroyed.
The United States, British and
Greek Legations were among the
first buildings destroyed, along with
most of the government quarters.
Bombers swept over in waves for
two days until the city was a shat
tered, flaming shambles.
With several companions I fol-
lowed the government toward the
interior. We slept in bitches and
barns, and lived on handouts from
the hospitable peasants who refused
to accept our money. Nazi bombers
strafed villages and roads.
We arrived in Sarajevo in time
to meet another air blitzkreig. This
city, where the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand marked
an event leading to the World War,
was blasted and burned to ruins.
The fimsy, crowded wooden build
ings of the bazaar in this most
Oriental city in Europe" were turned
into a flaming mass by the first in
cendiaries, and smoke rose toward
the towering mountains from the
burning minarets of the many Mos
lem churches.
Heading toward the Adriatic from
Sarajevo We reached Montenegro.
Here we found army leaders putting
down. an abortive fifth column up
rising. Traitors were lined up
against wall and shot.
BY the time we reached the Adri-
attic coast it was apparent that
further Serbian resistance would be
confined to guerrilla warfare.