The bombing of Bulgaria is a series of air raids by Western Allies on cities and objects on the territory of Bulgaria during World War II.
| Bombing of Bulgaria | |||
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| Main Conflict: World War II | |||
 bombing of Sofia (1944) | |||
| date | April 1941 - April 1944 | ||
| A place |  Bulgaria | ||
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| Losses | |||
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Content
Event
The first airstrikes on the territory of Bulgaria were carried out on April 6, 1941, after the start of the German invasion of Yugoslavia - on this day four Yugoslav Do.17Kb-1 bombers bombarded Kyustendil [2] . Another Yugoslav plane drove bombs to the western outskirts of Sofia at about 3 p.m., but they did not explode [3] .
On the night of April 6-7, 1941, six English Wellington bombers flying out of Greece dropped bombs on Sofia. The dropped bombs fell in the area of the railway station and in residential areas [3] . Air raids were made without declaring war [2] . There was no continuation of the bombing, as hostilities in Yugoslavia and Greece did not develop successfully for Great Britain, Yugoslavia and Greece.
At a conference in Casablanca (January 14 - 24, 1943) , US President F. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister W. Churchill decided to launch strategic bombing of Bulgaria [2] .
On August 1, 1943, the US bomber command launched Operation Tidal wave, which aimed to strike at oil fields and refineries in Romania. Bomber flights passed through the airspace of Bulgaria [2] .
On the very first day of the operation, on August 1, 1943, the Bulgarian Air Force fighters shot down the first American bombers - four B-24Ds , returning to the base after a raid on the Romanian oil fields in the Ploiesti area.
Strategic bombardment plans of Bulgaria were developed by the strategic aviation command of the US and British air forces at the Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Force [2] . At the political level, the decision on the bombing of Bulgaria was confirmed by US President F. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister W. Churchill at the Quebec Conference (August 17 - 24, 1943) [4] . On August 23, 1943, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States and Great Britain approved the decision to launch air strikes on the territory of Bulgaria.
On November 24, 1943, 17 US Air Force B-24 bombers, accompanied by fighters in heavy cloud cover, bombed Sofia and were attacked by enemy fighters. During the operation, three B-24 bombers were lost [5] .
On December 10, 1943, 31 US Air Force B-24 bomber, accompanied by fighters, bombed the Sofia railway junction; crews noted hits, numerous fires and explosions [6] .
On December 20, 1943, 50 B-24D bombers of the 15th US Air Force bombed Sofia, causing significant material damage, the number of victims was 67 dead and 250 wounded [7] .
On January 4, 1944, a bomb was struck in the city of Dupnitsa , the number of victims was 50 people killed and 40 wounded [7] .
January 10, 1944 the Anglo-American Air Force conducted another massive bombardment of Sofia [7] .
March 30, 1944 the US Air Force carried out the most massive airstrike on Sofia [7] .
Results
In general, during the war, Bulgarian pilots shot down 117 aircraft of the Western Allies, which made air attacks on targets in Bulgaria and oil fields in Romania [1] .
As a result of air raids of the Western allies on the territory of Bulgaria, 12,567 buildings and structures were destroyed and seriously damaged (10,002 residential buildings, 128 industrial enterprises and 288 public buildings) [7] . The total number of victims of air raids was about 10 thousand people who died, disappeared, wounded and injured [8] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Dr. Lyubomir Ivanov. Essential history of Bulgaria in seven pages . Sofia, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, March 2007
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Flying for Greater Bulgaria // Frank Joseph. The Axis Air Forces: Flying in Support of the German Luftwaffe. Praeger, 2012. pages 83-94
- ↑ 1 2 Ivan Nikolov, Colonel. According to the war in the Balkan, 1941 year (Military Library 117). Sofia, Pechatnitsa on Armyysky Military Publishing Fund, 1942. pp. 25-26
- ↑ “ The following is the decision we reached during our just-concluded meeting in Quebec regarding the military operations to be carried out during 1943 and 1944. ... In the Balkans, operations will be limited to supplying the Balkan partisans by air and sea, small raids of landing troops and the bombing of strategic targets ”
No. 106. F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill to I.V. Stalin (received on August 26, 1943). // Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with the Presidents of the USA and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain during the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945. Volume 2. Correspondence with F. Roosevelt and G. Truman (August 1941 - December 1945). 2nd ed. M., Politizdat, 1989. pp. 86-87 - ↑ World War II: a chronology, November 1943. Washington, DC: Military Intelligence Division, War Department, 1944. page 35
- ↑ World War II: a chronology, December 1943. Washington, DC: Military Intelligence Division, War Department, 1944. page 23
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Countries of Central and Southeast Europe in the Second World War. / ed. Colonel M.I.Semiryaga. M., Military Publishing, 1972. p. 37-38
- ↑ Countries of Central and Southeastern Europe in World War II. / ed. Colonel M.I.Semiryaga. M., Military Publishing, 1972. p. 50
Literature and Sources
- Rumen Rumenin. American Terrorism over Bulgaria. Sofia, ed. “The Firebird”, 2004. (Bulgarian)
Links
- Mikhail Zefirov. Bulgarian aviation in World War II / Sky Corner website