WWII Balkan Operation. Zara Bombing
dalma
At the end of WWII Balkan operations, 52 allied bombers raids were
operated in support of the Yugoslavian partisan on the small town called
Zara (or Zadar) along the coast. The town, laying on a peninsula 700 meters
long and 400 meters width had some small extension along the coast
Northward and Southward.
At the beginning of the WWII there were about 12.000 inhabitants. By the
end of the operations the 98% of population was dead or dispersed all
around the world.
The question is why? The town had a small harbour with a capability of a
max of 1 ship no more than 4.000 tons. No road or railways capable to
support the military operations inland. The military presence was about the
same than any other village at the times: few military police, less than an
infantry battalion, a couple of armed motor boats (max 100 ft.), etc.
Politically there were no primary targets too, and the local industries
were all based on the fishery and the liquors production.
I searched the archives but nothing seems to justify the massive bombings
(abt. 100 kg / 200 lbs bombs each 10 sq. meters of land). Even the bombing
reports refers to minor secondary explosions, and large fires among the
civilian buildings. Nothing else. It seems the intelligence was operated by
the partisans, but there is no evidence of any analysis by the Allied HQ.
Does anybody have any idea, document or info about the Zara raids?
dalma
Oleg Mastruko
2 Mar 1997 18:05:05 GMT, "dalma" <da...@farm-it.com> je napisao:
> At the end of WWII Balkan operations, 52 allied bombers raids were
>operated in support of the Yugoslavian partisan on the small town called
>Zara (or Zadar) along the coast. The town, laying on a peninsula 700 meters
>long and 400 meters width had some small extension along the coast
>Northward and Southward.
This is not entirely true. First, I think that "official"
number of raids was 72. Secondly, this was not done to support
Yugoslav partisans, but simply as allied bombers went back to their
Italian bases from raids on Austrian, Hungarian, Romainian, South
German or whatever-their-primary-targets-were, they flew over Zadar
and dropped whatever bombs remained in their planes on Zadar. Zadar
was solitary Italian (and later German) enclave on eastern adriatic
coast, and thus was ideal as "dropping ground" for bombers on their
way home to Italy. This explains relatively very high number of
bombing raids on such a small and not important town. The city itself
had no military importance whatsoever.
Of course, city of Zadar is (and was) much, much bigger than
"700 x 400 meters" on the peninsula. I am from Zadar, I was born
there, and lived there for 19 years. It was not such a small town at
the time, and neither is today (70.000 inhabitants).
> At the beginning of the WWII there were about 12.000 inhabitants. By the
>end of the operations the 98% of population was dead or dispersed all
>around the world.
This is very much over-estimated. Zadar (or Zara, in Italian)
was solitary Italian enclave on eastern adriatic coast between two
wars, entirely surrounded by territory of Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Italian territory extended a bit over city limits, and remnants of
Italian border bunkers are still in good shape on what are today Zadar
suburbs.
It is interesting to point that those very bunkers were used
in '91. during war in Croatia, when Serbs and Yugoslav army came
dangerously close to the city.
When Germans and their allies attacked Yugoslavia in April of
'41. some Italian units (Truppe di Zara) attacked from Zadar, finally
advancing to Knin at the time Yugoslavia capitulated (after 12 days of
very poor resistance).
I don't know the number of inhabitants before WW2, but I
suspect that it was higher than 12.000. (Today Zadar has cca 70.000
inhabitants.) They were mostly Italians, or Dalmatians (Croats) that
had no problem speaking Italian. After Italian capitulation in 1943.
German army took the town. When Yugoslav partisans marched into city
(November 1944.), most of Italian citizens fled by ships to Italy.
They were not killed or terrorized in any way by Partisans, they
simply fled, because of fear, and because they saw that the city will
be annexed by Tito. Some Italians remained, and many families in Zadar
have Italian family names. Interestingly - Italians that fled from
Zadar kept the "city council in exile" and are having regular meetings
even today! I think that famous fashion designer Missoni was "mayor of
Zadar in exile" for some time, but I'm not entirely sure about this.
To say that "98% of pre-war population was killed or dispersed
around the world" is very much over-stated. According to Yugoslav
data, Zadar in '48. had 12.000 inhabitants. This is same as your
pre-war number.
> The question is why? The town had a small harbour with a capability of a
>max of 1 ship no more than 4.000 tons. No road or railways capable to
>support the military operations inland. The military presence was about the
>same than any other village at the times: few military police, less than an
>infantry battalion, a couple of armed motor boats (max 100 ft.), etc.
You are again going a bit too far. Zadar harbour is bigger,
and there were roads and railroads to inland. Of course, city was not
at all important politically or economically or military, but it
wasn't _that_ small and isolated.
> I searched the archives but nothing seems to justify the massive bombings
>(abt. 100 kg / 200 lbs bombs each 10 sq. meters of land). Even the bombing
>reports refers to minor secondary explosions, and large fires among the
>civilian buildings. Nothing else. It seems the intelligence was operated by
>the partisans, but there is no evidence of any analysis by the Allied HQ.
>
> Does anybody have any idea, document or info about the Zara raids?
Well, as I said, it seems that they simply dropped remaining
bombs when returning to Italian bases from raids on primary targets in
Austria etc.
Regards,
Oleg Mastruko
www.bug.hr - BUG Computer Magazine
Paolo Pizzi
dalma wrote:
> Does anybody have any idea, document or info about the Zara raids?
I don't know much of the specific operation but I can take a guess.
Tito's communist troops truly hated Italians, they even ganged up
with Italian communists to massacre thousands of Italians in the
"foibe" caves near Trieste (a fact very well hidden in the official
histories...) People allegedly involved with fascism, as a matter of
facts thousands of innocent civilians, including children and women,
were slaughtered in cold blood. I wouldn't be suprised if they passed
out false intelligence reports on Zara to get the Allied command to
bomb the city and kill some more Italians.
Needless to say those bastards got away with it, like almost all
communist war criminals (including General Mradovic and his gang,
whom I guess learnt the fine art of human butchery from their
fathers...)
--
Paolo Pizzi
Cypress, CA
IPMS #35423
Orange County Chapter
California - U.S.A.
--------------------------------------
"Plastic Ship Model Page"
also featuring Naval Aviation
http://home.earthlink.net/~timeelapsed
Oleg Mastruko
3 Mar 1997 05:06:11 GMT, Paolo Pizzi <timee...@earthlink.net> je
napisao:
>I don't know much of the specific operation but I can take a guess.
>Tito's communist troops truly hated Italians, they even ganged up
>with Italian communists to massacre thousands of Italians in the
>"foibe" caves near Trieste (a fact very well hidden in the official
>histories...)
"Foibes" in Istria and around Trieste and whatever massacres
happened there have absolutely no connection whatsoever with Zadar
(Zara) which was solitary Italian enclave in Dalmatia, cca 300 kms to
the south. There were no war crimes or alleged war crimes or massacres
done in the Zadar area that involved Italians as victims. Of course -
if we don't count repeated allied bombing of Zadar as "war crime".
>out false intelligence reports on Zara to get the Allied command to
>bomb the city and kill some more Italians.
This is ridicolous. I remind you - it's the Allies who did the
bombing, and you attribute alleged "war crime" to partisans who -
according to you - gave "false intelligence raports"!
I repeat what I already said in one earlier posting:
relatively high number of allied air raids on Zadar came as allied
bombers went back to Italian bases from missions in Austria, Hungary
and South Germany and dropped whatever bombs remained in their planes
on Zadar. As the solitary Italian city on the eastern coast of
Adriatic, and later taken by German army (and thus - enemy), and
because of geographic position and (probably) weak air defences -
Zadar was ideal for such raids.
dalma
Oleg Mastruko <omas...@zg.tel.hr> scritto nell'articolo
<5ffkvh$g...@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>...
>
>
> 2 Mar 1997 18:05:05 GMT, "dalma" <da...@farm-it.com> je napisao:
>
> > At the end of WWII Balkan operations, 52 allied bombers raids were
>
> This is not entirely true. First, I think that "official"
> number of raids was 72.
The death official score is 54 bombings (approx 800 tons of bombs, but I
have the exact ammount for just 27 of them), plus the daily passage of a
solitary fighter called by the inhabitants "pippo", using its machine guns
all around.
Secondly, this was not done to support
> Yugoslav partisans, but simply as allied bombers went back to their
> Italian bases from raids on Austrian, Hungarian, Romainian, South
> German
I already answered to you about your posting to Paolo Pizzi. Just approx.
one third of the missions dropped on a secondary target. Pilot's reports
and eyes witnesses refer to a SSW - NNE courses and, sometimes W - E ones
for the largest part of the raids.
> Of course, city of Zadar is (and was) much, much bigger than
> "700 x 400 meters" on the peninsula.
I visited the town to complete my studies, and right now you're right. I
you wish I can exhibit the aerial photos of Zara in 1944, and you could
confirm my data. The inhabited area out of the peninsula (700 m. x 400 m.
still now) was from 15 to 100 m. along the North and South coasts.
>
> > At the beginning of the WWII there were about 12.000 inhabitants. By
the
That's a mistyping as the exact number is 22.000
>
> This is very much over-estimated. Zadar (or Zara, in Italian)
> was solitary Italian enclave on eastern adriatic coast between two
> wars, entirely surrounded by territory of Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
> Italian territory extended a bit over city limits, and remnants of
> Italian border bunkers are still in good shape on what are today Zadar
> suburbs.
Right, the border was from 3 km. to 15 km.
> When Yugoslav partisans marched into city
> (November 1944.), most of Italian citizens fled by ships to Italy.
> They were not killed or terrorized in any way by Partisans, they
> simply fled, because of fear, and because they saw that the city will
> be annexed by Tito.
Please refers to my posting in ref to your answer to Paolo Pizzo. I found
an incredible ammount of documents saying something different. In the above
mentioned posting I refer to the exact documents of court sentences to
death for teachers, postmen, police officers, common civilians, by the 8th
corpus military court.
> Zadar kept the "city council in exile" and are having regular meetings
> even today! I think that famous fashion designer Missoni was "mayor of
> Zadar in exile" for some time, but I'm not entirely sure about this.
He his still the major, the exiliated still meet once a year mostly to
count the survived. To witness their links to their homeland, during the
last conflict they raised founds to buy aids they sent to the Dalmatian
polpulation. The aids were organized by Dr. Franco Luxardo, nephew of Mr.
Niccolň drowned into the Zara bay with his wife by the Tito's forces. I've
been in contact with Mr. Missoni and Mr. Luxardo to collect data. I found
two men with a deep love for their home land and no political nor human
wishes of revenge. Just one sad personal note, it seemed to me they were
afraid their people's story was destinated to be forever misread and forgot
because of the military and political events that followed.
> To say that "98% of pre-war population was killed or dispersed
> around the world" is very much over-stated. According to Yugoslav
> data, Zadar in '48. had 12.000 inhabitants. This is same as your
> pre-war number.
Correct. A large number of inland inhabitants gathered to the coast in
search of better life conditions. But in my documents I have not found any
infos about which buildings they lived in. By the photographs analysis it's
an underestimation to set at the 72% the distruction of the civilian
buildings of the town.
> Zadar harbour is bigger,
> and there were roads and railroads to inland. Of course, city was not
> at all important politically or economically or military, but it
> wasn't _that_ small and isolated.
In width it's a nice bay, but the sounding was poor. The 4.000 tons ship
max. capability has been set by the Asburgic Navy (1914), Royal Italian
Navy and Allied Intelligence reports (1942 - 46) I have consulted. The sole
road useful for engine vehicle was a North to South coastal road. To the
inland the roads disappeared after few miles. I do confirm, military maps
(Italian, German, Yugoslavian and Allied) do not have trace of a railroad
passing by Zara and serving the port. The only modern communication mean
was the Zemonico airstrip, approx 6 miles East of the town, unuseful for
anything bigger than a light plane because of the ground's characteristics.
> Well, as I said, it seems that they simply dropped remaining
> bombs when returning to Italian bases from raids on primary targets in
> Austria etc.
12 months bombings, the count of deaths is impossible to keep (I have
documents precisely referring something less than 600 civilians deaths,
then just diaries notes (astonishing the resignation on them...) about 20,
50 or 60 or 100 more per raid. The daily visit of a fighter or a recon
plane using to machine gun around. The pilot's mission reports. All these
informations seem not to confirm your point.
dalma
dalma
Oleg Mastruko <omas...@zg.tel.hr> scritto nell'articolo
<5ffkm5$9...@nina.pagesz.net>...
> "Foibes" in Istria and around Trieste and whatever massacres
I wouldn't like to start an unuseful polemic about the victims. The
question was just why the 54 bombings (and not 52 as I wrote), with over
800 tons of bombs. The pilots' reports tell about less one third of the
missions were dropping on a "secondary" target. The witnesses reports talk
about a SSW - NNE course for the largest part of the raids. For this and
all the rest of my posting I'm ready to give all the official documents
list.
Even if not the purpose of my posting, I cannot agree with the statement
about no Italian victims of Tito's forces in Zara, just because in my
studies I found the following evidences:
Nov 10th 1944: Military Court of the 8th Corpus (partisans), pubblic notice
posted up on the town's walls, death sentence for the "people ennemies",
list of 17 + 10 (italian names) (I've copy of the notice)
During the last months of the same year 100 civilian "disappeared" and no
trace of them was found. Same destiny for 49 - 50 police officers. The
witnesses (even some among those that passed on yhe partisans' side)
reported of a large number of Italians drowned into the bay. Among my
documents I found almost always two names the owner of the Maraschino
Factory (Liquor) Niccolò Luxardo and his wife Bianca.
Feb 7th 1945: the same court of the 8th Corpus annouces by the same way 15
more sentenced to death. (I've copy of the notice)
I still consider unuseful to keep on counting the death and/or deny, for
political reasons, the evidences nowaday available to everybody into the
military archives. I really would like to concentrate di research and the
attention to the main question. Is it possible to drop approx. 800 tons of
bombs on a "town" of about 1 sq. kilometer, just because it's there? I have
no trace of similar behavior in none of the other theaters.
dalma
Oleg Mastruko
5 Mar 1997 10:33:58 GMT, "dalma" <da...@farm-it.com> je napisao:
>Nov 10th 1944: Military Court of the 8th Corpus (partisans), pubblic notice
>posted up on the town's walls, death sentence for the "people ennemies",
>list of 17 + 10 (italian names) (I've copy of the notice)
You sent me a copy of the notice.
I must note, with absolutely no intention of hurting anybody's
feelings, for the truth sake, that most of the names on the notice are
not Italians. Many have Slavic names, and whether they served in
Italian army or were civil servants during Italian rule is another
question. Please, understand that I'm not trying to justify those
shootings in any way, I'm just saying that they were not at all aimed
at Italians, but at what Partisans considered "people's enemies".
Also, many people on this list are from Arbanasi, as you
surely know is Zadar suburb with inhabitants of Albanian origin (they
were catholics that came fleeing from Turks in 17th century, I think)
that were infamous for being very supportive of Italian rule, but they
were not Italians in any way.
Whole Yugoslavia, nearly every city and village at those days
was covered with similar "public notices" and victims were of all
sorts of nations, being accused for all sorts of crimes. Especially
hated by Partisans were soldiers of Independent State of Croatia
during the war, and those that served in German army.
I can accept that "foibes" in Istria were perhaps aimed
particulary at Italians (I don't know much about that), but this
shooting certainly wasn't as most of the names are Croats (or Slavs,
if someone is more happy with this term).
>documents I found almost always two names the owner of the Maraschino
>Factory (Liquor) Niccolr Luxardo and his wife Bianca.
I know about this. Luxardo was owner of biggest factory in
Zadar/Zara and as such was very "prone" to be hated by new partisan
communist government, but it could be as well because he was
"capitalist" and owner of the factory and not because he was Italian.
In fact - we may never know the true reasons for his
killing...
> I still consider unuseful to keep on counting the death and/or deny, for
>political reasons, the evidences nowaday available to everybody into the
>military archives.
I completely agree that counting of the dead is useless. I
just tried to clear few details.
O.M.
dalma
Oleg Mastruko <omas...@zg.tel.hr> scritto nell'articolo
<5fmqpc$d...@nntp1.u.washington.edu>...
> 5 Mar 1997 10:33:58 GMT, "dalma" <da...@farm-it.com> je napisao:
>
> >Nov 10th 1944: Military Court of the 8th Corpus (partisans), pubblic
notice
> >posted up on the town's walls, death sentence for the "people ennemies",
> >list of 17 + 10 (italian names) (I've copy of the notice)
>
> You sent me a copy of the notice.
>
> I must note, with absolutely no intention of hurting anybody's
> feelings, for the truth sake, that most of the names on the notice are
> not Italians. Many have Slavic names, and whether they served in
> Italian army or were civil servants during Italian rule is another
> question. Please, understand that I'm not trying to justify those
> shootings in any way, I'm just saying that they were not at all aimed
> at Italians, but at what Partisans considered "people's enemies".
Partially correct. You should have noticed the end of the "Slavic" names
writing: they do not end with the "c" having the little "v" on the top, but
with a -ch, which as you know is the ending for the Dalmatian family names
(as per Dalmatian I believe to talk about populations living on the coasts
and not emigrated from the inland).
They were mainly from Borgo Erizzo and Cosali having Croats and Albanese
origins.
In the second half of the notice there is a list of name of persons
sentenced because of their belonging to the 119^ legion. They were
militians of the "Milizia Volontaria Sicurezza Nazionale" created in Zara
as evrery where else in Italy by Mr. Mussolini. In my studies I've met a
lot of Dalmatians having their names ending with a plai -c or -ch (i.e.
Noncovich), able to speak few more than the traditional Dobro Yutro (Good
Morning) in their alleged mother language.
> Also, many people on this list are from Arbanasi, as you
> surely know is Zadar suburb with inhabitants of Albanian origin (they
> were catholics that came fleeing from Turks in 17th century, I think)
> that were infamous for being very supportive of Italian rule, but they
> were not Italians in any way.
It would be nice to understand and establish the difference between
Dalmatians (I do believe Dalmatians at the times were all those families
having been born and raised West of the Dinaric Alps). Most of the islands
inhabitants, even keeping their Slavic language, where perfectly integrated
into the Italian speaking comunity and officially Italians by 1918. To be
considered "people enemy" to have been on the side they believed to belong
from can't be considered normal. It has to be considered too that Zara (at
the times such was the toponym reported by the official documents and the
maps in France, UK, USA, Germany, etc.), following the etnic disaster of
the London treaty 04.26.1915 (when officially the Allies promised to the
Italian Kingdom the sovereignity of Istria and Dalmatia, to unofficially
promise the same 2 years later to Serbs in change of a support against
Austria), at the end of WW1 and till the end of WW2, was considerated the
strongest enclave of "Italianity" into the area. One more "detail" Italy
was a winner of WW1 while Serbs and Croats had been operating into the
opposite field as subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the times
London did not negotiate with Yugoslavia, just because it did not exist,
but with the activists operating in exile (maily in Paris, France)
> >documents I found almost always two names the owner of the Maraschino
> >Factory (Liquor) Niccolr Luxardo and his wife Bianca.
>
> I know about this. Luxardo was owner of biggest factory in
> Zadar/Zara and as such was very "prone" to be hated by new partisan
> communist government, but it could be as well because he was
> "capitalist" and owner of the factory and not because he was Italian.
> In fact - we may never know the true reasons for his
> killing...
Strange change of mind, according to the direct e-mail I received from you,
where you said:
...Yes, this is true, I know about that one. I thaught that this
was an isolated incident. Luxardo's liquor factory was renamed
"Maraska" and is still very famous for it's cherry brandy
"Maraschino"...
> > I still consider unuseful to keep on counting the death and/or deny,
for
> >political reasons, the evidences nowaday available to everybody into the
> >military archives.
>
> I completely agree that counting of the dead is useless. I
> just tried to clear few details.
I guess the largest part of us is suffering his scholarship and the
education he/she received. I would be glad to keep on working even on this
subject, looking for the truth. If this newsgroup will assist us, it should
be important and historically correct to compare our knowledges and try to
understand what is just propaganda and which were the facts on a documental
base. 52 years by the end of the war should be enough to whash out the
political bonds,even if I understand that these bonds have followed us till
very few years ago.
dalma
Dragan Antulov
Paolo Pizzi <timee...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>dalma wrote:
>> Does anybody have any idea, document or info about the Zara raids?
>I don't know much of the specific operation but I can take a guess.
>Tito's communist troops truly hated Italians, they even ganged up
>with Italian communists to massacre thousands of Italians in the
>"foibe" caves near Trieste (a fact very well hidden in the official
>histories...) People allegedly involved with fascism, as a matter of
>facts thousands of innocent civilians, including children and women,
>were slaughtered in cold blood. I wouldn't be suprised if they passed
>out false intelligence reports on Zara to get the Allied command to
>bomb the city and kill some more Italians.
>Needless to say those bastards got away with it, like almost all
>communist war criminals (including General Mradovic and his gang,
>whom I guess learnt the fine art of human butchery from their
>fathers...)
Zadar (or Zara in Italian) wasn't the only Dalmatian town bombed by
Allies in 1944 without any particular reason. Split, the biggest city
in Dalmatia, was also heavily bombed (some of the buildings in the
center of the city still carry the marks of shrapnels). Unlike Zadar,
Split was undoubtedly Croatian town and the bombing simply couldn't be
explained by Tito's hatred toward Italians.
Of course, there are some Croatian revisionist historians who would
argue that Tito's Partizans wanted to kill as many Croats as possible
in order to put Serb population into their place. That theory also
doesn't hold because most of Partizans, at least in Dalmatia, were,
same as Tito himself, Croats.
The answer probably lies in bad coordination between Tito's Partizans
and Allies. It wasn't uncommon for Partizan boats or installations in
the area to be caught in Allied "friendly fire".
Dragan Antulov
E-mail: dragan....@st.tel.hr
dragan....@altbbs.fido.hr
Fido: 2:381/100