Operation Bestrafung

punishment

'Bestrafung' was the German 'terror bombing' offensive, otherwise known as 'Castigo' and 'Strafgericht', against Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, intended to break the political and psychological back of Yugoslav resistance to the German 'Unternehmen 25' invasion, and thus 'punish' the Yugoslavs for the royalist coup d'état which had ousted the pro-Axis regency and led to the Yugoslav 'defection' from the Axis alliance (6/8 April 1941).