Bombing of Zadar in World War II

The bombing of Zara (Croatian: Zadar) during the Second World War by the Allies lasted from November 1943 to October 1944. Although other large cities in Dalmatia and in Italy were also bombed, the bombing of Zara stands out because of the number of attacks and the number of fatalities. Reports vary greatly; the Allies documented 30 bombing raids, while contemporary Italian accounts claim 54. Fatalities recorded range from under 1,000, up to as many as 4,000 of the city's 20,000 inhabitants.

Over the course of the bombing, 60% of the city's buildings were destroyed. Zara has been called the Dresden of the Adriatic because of perceived similarities to the Allied bombing that city. In both cases, Allied bombs devastated a city rich in artistic and historical treasures but with no apparent industrial or military targets.

It is the most significant historical event in Zadar after the Siege of Zara in 1202 by forces of the Fourth Crusade.

Background

The Italian Enclave of Zara

[1] Zara became part of the Kingdom of Italy as a result of the Treaty of Rapallo of 1920, which settled the status of former Austro-Hungarian territories. It had a large Italian majority and was an Italian enclave in Dalmatia [2]. From the 1920s on, many more Croats^{[citation needed]} were pressured to leave the city while their place was being taken by ethnic Italians resettling there from within Yugoslavian Dalmatia—such as the famous fashion stylist Ottavio Missoni [3], who moved with the family from Dubrovnik. The 1910 census in Austria-Hungary placed the Italians at 69.3% of the population, which consistently rose in the decades that followed. Public functionaries, teachers, and policemen were transferred from the mainland.

During this time, there was also a significant presence of military personnel.

Up until 1941, the city was surrounded by Italian fortifications, of which the bunker behind Gaženice and in the area of Ploče and Crnog were the most notable. At the same time as preparing a defense from the sea, an attack was planned against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia^{[citation needed]}.

Zara in the Second World War until the capitulation of Italy (1941–1943)

The Axis powers attacked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. On April 17, the Yugoslavian government surrendered. Zara held a force of 9,000 commanded by General Emilio Gilioli that after bloody fighting on April 15 reached Sibenik and Split. Arriving in Dubrovnik and Mostar on April 17, they met troops that had started out from Albania.

It is known that on April 8, the Yugoslavian air force bombed Zara. Although this resulted in some damage, it cannot be compared to the bombing that the city would endure two years later. The civilians had been previously evacuated towards Ancona and Pola (Croatian Pula) . The Treaty of Rome in 1941 between the newly-formed pro-Axis Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Italy handed over a large part of northern Dalmatia to Italy including the cities of Split and Knin.

Capitulation of Italy

After Mussolini was removed from power, the new government of Pietro Badoglio declared an armistice, and on September 8 1943, the Italian army collapsed. The NDH took advantage of this chaotic situation by proclaiming the Treaty of Rome to be void and occupying Italian Dalmatia with German support. However, the Germans entered Zara first, and on September 10 the German 114 Infantry Division took over. This avoided an occupation by Partisans, as happened in Split and Šibenik where several ethnic Italian civilians were executed. The city was prevented from joining the NDH on the grounds that Zara itself was not subject to the conditions of the Treaty of Rome, whether it was void or not. Despite this, the NDH's leader Ante Pavelić designated Zara as the capital of the Sidraga-Ravni Kotari County, although its prefect was prevented from entering the city. Zara remained under local Italian administration with German military protection, and in this unsure climate that the Allied bombing began.

The bombing of Zara

The first large Allied aerial attack on Zara was carried out on November 2 1943 by the USAAF 12th Air Force, during which an orphanage was destroyed, among other buildings. Larger attacks followed on November 28 in which 200 people were killed, and on December 16 and December 30. The first attacks caused many civilian casualties, but the city continued to function despite the damage. The attack on the 16th was especially harsh, as the shelters at Cereria (now Voštarnica) and at the city's centre were hit. Between 150 to 200 people were killed. Fifty American B-25 medium bombers participated in the strikes, dropping 90 tonnes of bombs.

Besides these main attacks, the city was bombed to a lesser degree on other days. Through the use of carpet bombing, entire neighborhood blocks were destroyed. The city centre was hardest hit, especially around the Forum and Calle Larga (Croatian: Kalelarga street) where no buildings were spared. As with other cases of urban bombings the damage was not caused by the initial explosions but the resulting fires, which turned the city into a pile of skeletons of burnt-out houses. Each attack targeted a specific part of the city. On the 16th, the area from the Church of Our Lady of Good Health to across the Calle Larga to the Piazza delle Erbe (today's People's Square) was targeted, while on the 30th the area from the Riva Nova waterfront to Giuseppe Verdi Theatre was attacked. On December 31, the city hospital and the majority of the industrial machinery was destroyed. The Luxardo factory [4] (manufacturer of the famous Maraschino cherry liquer) was set on fire and burned for three days.

Attacks which completely ravaged Zara followed from January to March 1944. On 16 January 1944, Liberator heavy bombers attacked Zara losing one bomber but claiming nine Luftwaffe fighters.[5] However, the number of casualties was much less because the population rendered homeless escaped to the less damaged outskirts (Arbanasi and Stanovi) as well as Zara's islands. It is estimated that in the spring of 1944 there were fewer than 4,000 civilians left in the city including the suburbs ^{[citation needed]}. Even though the industrial plants and piers were crippled, so that the Germans were forced to establish a port in Zaton near Nin and Ražanac, bombing continued throughout of 1944. By the summer, the center of Zara had practically ceased to exist. The majority of houses were completely destroyed and their ruins buried the streets. The city was desolate. The period from June to the beginning of October was not marked by any large attacks, but they resumed in the middle of October as German forces abandoned the city. The worst attacks came on the 25th and 30th of that month when the areas of Borgo Erizzo (Brodarica), Jazina, and the Riva Nova waterfront were hit. The last attacks came on the 31st on the same day that the forces of the Yugoslav Partisans entered Zara. It is presumed that the attack was an accident as some of the Partisans were killed in the attack. Several summary executions, even of civilians, were performed by the Partisans. Among them, three of the four Luxardo brothers (owners of the Maraschino factory) were murdered. Nicolò Luxardo, as was many others, was thrown alive into the sea with a stone tied to his neck in front of his wife, who was executed immediately afterwards with a shot to the head. Most of the survivors left the city some time later.

Destruction and the number of casualties

The bombings resulted in a drastic change in the appearance of Zara. It is difficult to imagine that the Zara peninsula before the bombings was more built-up than other large coastal cities such as Split and Trogir. It is clear that the Allied attacks were the main cause of this, but the importance of the postwar restoration cannot be forgotten either.

The greater part of the core of the city was destroyed, including the entire Riva Nova with its 12 Austro-Hungarian palaces, its post office and neighborhood blocks around the Forum, the Calle Larga, the school near the Church of St. Chrysogonus, the churches of St. Mary, Our Lady of Health, and the baptistry of the Cathedral of St. Anastasia. Only the churches were restored. Many buildings which had burned were not rebuilt but demolished, with their stone reused in the rebuilding of the coastline and roads. A well-known example of this was the city theatre Teatro Verdi, which was only slightly damaged, but was plundered by Communist forces and destroyed. War and postwar damage occurred mostly in the western part of the peninsula, where the government offices and piers were located. The eastern part (the present Varoš), was one of the areas where the prewar appearance was retained.

Apart from the destruction caused by the Allies, the withdrawing Germans mined the Riva Nova slowing down postwar recovery as well as causing casualties. Exact numbers will likely never be known, as Zara saw a great deal of population change.

The local population moved out, replaced by South Slavic, mostly Croatian, settlers, and the number of military personnel is undetermined.

After the war, the number of casualties became a political question, especially within the community of Italians who had left the city for Italy. They placed the number at 3,000-4,000 deaths, claiming that a genocide had been carried out on them. Most sources place the count at 1,000 deaths, as a big part of the population escaped after the first attacks in fall and winter, 1943 ^{[citation needed]}. Even this figure would be the highest of any city in Dalmatia.

Controversy

The bombing remains controversial because the reasons for it are disputed.

Some Croatian sources point to the differences between Zara and other Dalmatian ports for the severity of the bombing. Zara, situated on a peninsula, was surrounded by port facilities and as a result the city center was surrounded by potential targets. Zara was also located on the flight route of Allied planes flying from southern Italy to targets in central Europe.

Italians claim that the city was destroyed for political reasons: the city had no military relevance, and it was bombed because of incorrect information that was supplied to the Allies by Marshal Tito's partisans. Their intent was to clear out the only remaining Italian enclave in Dalmatia.

Austrian census for the city of Zara

Just the city without the countryside:

1890: Serbocroat 2652 (24,6%), Italian 7423 (68,7%), German, others 164, sum 10800
1900: Serbocroat 2551 (20,7%), Italian 9018 (73,3%), German 582, others 150, sum 12300
1910: Serbocroat 3532 (26,3%), Italian 9318 (69,3%), German 397, others 191, sum 13438

The results of those census are disputed.

Pre-fascist census of 1921: