Chapter 44: Bombardment
Even with broken wings, the soul must soar toward the horizon like wings-a Yugoslav poet.
On the evening of March 27, Yugoslav forces shot down an American stealth aircraft. Oitanich, chief of the Yugoslav General Staff, held a press conference to announce the news, adding, "Please don't ask how we shot it down. That is a military secret."
At the candlelight concert on the evening of the 28th, people could only be described as jubilant. One speaker took the stage and said, "Sorry, Americans, we shot down your plane. We didn't know it was invisible."
On April 1, the bombing by the United States and NATO intensified, entering its fourth phase. Besides continuing to bomb military targets and destroy Yugoslav troops, they began bombing Yugoslav federal government agencies and important civilian facilities.
NATO, which declared that it would completely destroy the Southern Alliance's "war machine" during this phase, began increasing the number of bombing waves, their intensity and frequency mounting until the bombardment continued almost twenty-four hours a day. It targeted Southern Alliance and Serbian government agencies and administrative departments, launched destructive strikes against civilian facilities, demolished bridges, and cut off power and water supplies. Attacks on the capital, Belgrade, intensified. The city began losing water and electricity, plunging into darkness at night. Shipping along the Danube to the Black Sea was completely severed. Fleets caught between two destroyed bridges could neither advance nor retreat, helplessly cruising back and forth and bitterly lamenting their plight.
Oil depots were bombed, leaving the city completely shrouded in smoke for nearly a week and causing severe pollution.
A train bound for Thessaloniki, Greece, was bombed and derailed, killing several people.
The Serbia Socialist Party headquarters, on the left bank of the Sava River in New Belgrade, was the tallest building