Air raid on Kyustendil
On April 6, 1941, the Yugoslav Air Force carried out the air raid on Kyustendil . Although Bulgaria was not at war at the time , the Wehrmacht was operating from Bulgarian territory and attacked Yugoslavia and Greece on the same day (→ Balkan campaign ).
background
Kyustendil belongs next to Sofia , Vratsa and Karlovo to those Bulgarian cities during World War II by Allied air raids were affected.
In Kyustendil there were no important military objects of neither the German nor the Bulgarian army. However, the strategic location of the city and the railway lines that led through it to Thessaloniki and the Yugoslav border were important. Because of this, there were German soldiers in the city.
course
The air strike was carried out by four Dornier Do 17 aircraft of the 64th Air Unit of the Third Yugoslav Army, which was stationed at the "Stobul" airfield near Pristina . They were led by Major Branko Fenedl. They reached the city at 8:35 a.m., at a time when the population was out on the streets and watched the Wehrmacht pass by.
The attack surprised the Bulgarian and German interceptors who were not used. The city's air defense could not be used adequately either. First the station was attacked, where trains with German soldiers were waiting for further transport. The attack on a residential area later took place. During the whole air strike, 58 Bulgarian citizens, eight German and two Bulgarian soldiers died, while 59 citizens, 31 German and five Bulgarian soldiers were injured. After the air strike, panic spread in the city, which was abandoned by the citizens.
A second wave of attacks followed at 10:30 a.m. The nearby town of Gjueschewo was hit. However, there was only minor property damage here.
literature
- Ivan Sapundziev: Германските войници в Кюстендил април 1941 , Kjustendil, 2008.
- Rumen Rumenin: Летящи крепости над България , 2nd edited edition, Verlag Tschitalitsche Zora, Kyustendil, 2009, pp. 36–37 and pp. 260–262
- Todor Dimitrov: Небе в пламъци , Kjustendil, 2006, pp. 8-10.