ABSTRACT
Belgrade was the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a country that managed to stay outside the Second World War until April 1941. After the unsuccessful Italian invasion of Greece in late 1940, the Axis pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Tripartite Pact mounted. Germany needed safe communications from Central Europe to Greece in order to help Italy in their campaign. Rising pressure resulted in Yugoslav submission and, on 25 March 1941, Yugoslavia joined the Tripartite Pact. However, the popular reaction to this act was extremely negative. Huge crowds protested all over the country and, on 27 March, a group of officers sympathetic towards the United Kingdom staged a coup and seized power, ousting Prince Regent Pavle and forming the new government. The Germans saw this as an act of treachery and immediately put into motion plans for the military submission of Yugoslavia. 1 Belgrade was bombed on 6 April 1941 and the resistance of the Yugoslav army was crushed in eleven days. 2 Thousands of buildings were destroyed or damaged, infrastructure was crippled and between 2,000 and 4,000 people were killed. The country was fragmented and Belgrade left as an administrative center of the reduced Serbia under the rule of the German Military Commander. 3
