Today In History (April 16 1944)

[AustrianPainter]

TODAY IN HISTORY

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1944: Allied bombers, led by 600 aircraft of the US 15th Air Force, carpet-bomb Belgrade, wounding over 5,000 civilians, killing over 1,200 civilians, and killing 18 Axis soldiers. A large number of hospitals, schools, and kindergartens are hit, including a maternity hospital where many newborns and their mothers are incinerated. Some 1,500 tons of explosives are used. After the fall of Belgrade, the Allies install a brutal Communist dictatorship that ruled Yugoslavia for almost half a century.