Bombardiranje Senja zrakoplovima u Drugom svjetskom ratu
Air Bombing of Senj During World War II

Summary/Abstract: This article between October 1943 and February 1945. According to the census held in 1931 the town of Senj had 3,072 inhabitants in a territory of only 3 square kilometres. The town was a concentration of private and public buildings and the medieval style streets were very narrow. This large concentration of buildings and the over population of the town was lethal during the bombing of WWII. During the war (from 6th April 1941 to 9th April 1945) Senj was an important administrative, traffic and economic centre as well as an important port. Any of the armies who conquered the town for a short or for long period transformed it into a military stronghold, building bunkers and fencing it with barbed wire. The German airplanes heavily bombarded Senj during 7th and 8th October 1943 and destroyed almost half of the buildings in the town and killed 48 people. British and American planes bombarded Senj 13 times in the period between July 1944 and the end of February 1945, which brought more civil victims and destroyed more buildings. In that period 9 people were killed. The numbers of German soldiers and those of the Croatian Independent State killed are unknown. At the end of WWII Senj was almost totally destroyed. Private and public buildings, business buildings and churches were laid waste along with the whole of cultural and urban life. The author of this article pleads for more research about this subject because many facts haven’t been investigated and/or clarified.

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