Context - Destruction of Podgorica during the Second World War

Italian bombing, on the 6th of April 1941, marked the beginning of the Second World War for the inhabitants of Podgorica. Between WWI and WWII the city had over 14 000 inhabitants and was formed of two parts: the old Ottoman part with a XIV century fort and a new, which was built in the late XIX and early XX century, and was conceived in a more Central European style. Eleven days after the first bombs have fallen on the cities of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav army was in complete surrender and the country divided between the Axis powers and their allies. Little more than a week after the Italian army took control over the town, first plans were made for an armed uprising against the occupation. On the 8th of July 1941, in a village near Podgorica, the Regional Comity of the Communistic party of Yugoslavia brought a decision on the beginning of the uprising of the Montenegrin people which started on the 13th of July. In the first days of the uprising the rebel forces took a series of successful operation in the surroundings of the city. After the arrival of Italian reinforcements from Albania, Podgorica was entrenched and surrounded by barb wire thus turning it into a camp, while the fighting rage in the countryside. The situation remained unchanged after the replacement of Italian by German troops in 1943.The city suffered the biggest destruction during the Allied bombing in 1943 and 1944. It was bombed 72 times, making it one of the most bombed cities in the region during the Second World War. The most intense bombing of Podgorica occurred on the 5th of May 1944. Allied bombers dropped 270 tons of bombs on the city. The attack resulted in only four German soldiers' casualties and approximately 100 Chetnik soldiers' deaths, while 400 Montenegrin civilians were killed. During the course of bombing a Catholic church, Orthodox cemetery and the Glavatović mosque where destroyed among other buildings. Bombing caused craters 10 meters in diameter and 2-3 meters in depth on the main street in Podgorica.  The final direct consequences of bombing were the death of more than 2000 Podgorica citizens and almost the complete destruction of the town. There are information that less than a dozen of buildings where left standings. Additionally, 1599 citizens of Podgorica died in the antifascist struggle on different fronts. Partisan units liberated Podgorica on the 19th of December 1944. After the liberation, work started on the revival of the city's economy, organization of provisions and trade network, opening of schools and traffic communications. Podgorica was renamed to Titograd during the mass rally organized in the town on the 13th of July 1946, in presence of the Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito.