Gubici osovinske avijacije u Aprilskom ratu
The Losses Of The Axis Aviation In The April War 1941

Summary/Abstract: The war in April 1941 was short and ended with the defeat of the Yugoslav Kingdom. This was the beginning of an chain of events whose consequences are felt to this day. A large number of Yugoslav casualties in the aerial attacks and superiority of the enemy, whose air forces had a significant role in the Yugoslav defeat, created the impression among the contemporaries about the impotence of the Yugoslav aviation and anti-aircraft defenses. Insight into the archives of the (former) enemies provides somehow different picture. More than 200 aircraft struck off charge (permanently or temporarily disabled), 164 of those during the 12 days of the April War just over and around Yugoslav soil, definitely is not the greatest loss of the Axis air forces in the Second World War. In Balkan campaign, on operation against Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete in April and May 1941, Axis air forces lost (permanently or temporarily disabled) approximately 700 aircraft. When compared with the German losses in campaign against Poland in September 1939 (some 400 airplanes) or during the attack on Low countries and France in May and June 1940 (some 1500 airplanes) the efficiency of the Yugoslav defenses can be judged with some approximate. Members of the aviation and anti-aircraft units, like the members of the army of the Yugoslav Kingdom as a whole, were neglected and forgotten after the war mainly by political reason, only to be remembered by their fatherland les than ten years ago, when some of them received long deserved decorations, in most cases posthumously.

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