Serbian Hiroshima - horrible blast in Smederevo!

On June 5, 1941, at 14:00, the train station was full of passengers, because in those factories the first shift shift ended at two in the afternoon, and the train to Velika Plana, which took workers to the village of Moravia, left u 14:12 sati. Between the station and the fort, there was a ringspil that worked and entertained children and youth.

At about 2:12 pm, the firing of ammunition began to fire from the fort, followed by a single grenade blast, and at about 2:14 pm a massive explosion occurred. The severity of the explosion was so great that it toppled two city towers and part of the fortress canvas towards the train station, or towards Smederevo city. From parts of the fort, stones and bricks, parts of the railway composition, explosive materials and air strikes in Smederevo, three quarters of the houses were disabled for housing, killing about 2,500 people.

It is the number of registered victims by name and surname, but the exact number will never be known, because it is not known who from other places in Serbia happened to be in Smederevo or traveled by rail. The number of wounded was certainly several times higher.
The bodies of the dead passengers were located several hundred meters away from the train station. Beside them were found the bodies of unhappy people along with the ring-cap baskets. Of the 2393 houses of the then Smederevo, only 25 remained undamaged.

And when, on that June 5, 1941, 400 wagons of ammunition exploded, 4,000 tons of rock came crashing into the city from the walls of the Fortress, the shock wave was moving at 5,000 meters per second, and the detonation had a force of about ten million horsepower - which is the strength atomic bombs dropped four years later on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This is the inscription to all the victims of that explosion. The list of victims is at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Monastery. You can read about Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Monastery in my mail here.