March 19, 2023 - With the sounding of the danger sirens in the morning, ten minutes after six, the complex operation of the Rijeka bomb removal and neutralisation began.

As Index writes, the residual anti-ship mine from the Second World War from the port of Rijeka began. As announced by the Civil Protection Headquarters of the City of Rijeka, the mine will be transported by ship to the intended location at sea in the Gulf of Rijeka and neutralized. Before the operation, a complete evacuation was carried out for the safety and protection of human lives.

On Saturday, around 500 residents were evacuated from buildings in the zone of immediate potential danger in case of mine activation. It all went without problems, most people organized their temporary accommodation themselves, and a smaller part was accommodated in the Youth Hall in Trsat, where beds and refreshments were arranged.

Division into zones

The work of all economic, entrepreneurial, hospitality and other activities has been suspended. On Saturday, parked vehicles were moved from the parking lot in the danger zone, all ships and boats were temporarily moved from the passenger quay in the port of Rijeka, and the Gulf of Rijeka was closed for sailing. The flight zone ban over the port of Rijeka is also in force, especially for drones.

For safety reasons, the area next to the port of Rijeka is divided into a red zone of immediate potential danger, from which residents have been evacuated, and a yellow zone. In the red zone are the streets around Putnička obala, from Žabica Square and Krešimirova Street in the west, through Adamićeva Street and Riva to Riva Boduli and the city market in the east.

In the red zone, all traffic is forbidden, so road traffic takes place in the so-called northern corridor through the center of the city. Tenants in the yellow zone were advised not to stay outdoors or near glass surfaces, and hospitality facilities not to plan work during the action.

Neutralisation of the mine is expected in the afternoon

The neutralisation of the mine is expected in the afternoon, and the end of the operation will be marked by the sirens for the end of danger. In the port of Rijeka, during infrastructure works, an anti-ship mine from the Second World War was discovered at the end of June, which had not been noticed until now because it was partially buried in the muddy seabed.

Due to the characteristics and the location where it was found, it was not possible to destroy the mine at the place of discovery, so a relocation and neutralisation plan is being carried out, in which the Civil Protection Headquarters of the City of Rijeka, the Police Department of Primorje-Gorski Kotar, the Regional Anti-Explosion Unit Rijeka, the City of Rijeka, utilities and other services are taking part.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated News section.

March 4, 2023 - Sibenik archaeologist Andrija Nakic, employed at the Sibenik Fortress of Culture, discovered the remains of the American warplane B-24 Liberator, which crashed near Brnjica in the hinterland of Sibenik after an unsuccessful attempt to bomb Vienna and Graz in 1944 in the Second World War. The story of the landing near the unsuspecting airport on Pokrovnik is quite fascinating, and it all started with Nakic's great-grandmother.

"It's a story that has followed me since childhood, but I kind of ignored it until a few years ago. In fact, my great-grandmother hid one of the pilots at her house for a few days. The pilot of the plane headed towards the island of Vis but still decided to land somewhere in the hinterland of Sibenik on solid ground because of the bombs that were supposed to be dropped over Vienna. As the plane was damaged, the entire crew jumped out with parachutes near Brnjica and Pokrovnik on October 13, 1944. That area was a plain and became an improvised airport. As soon as the people from the surrounding villages saw the plane crash, everyone rushed there to collect valuable loot. So there was a clash between the Ustashas and the partisans. Part of the crew was taken away by the Ustashas and part by the partisans after a few days. My great-grandmother kept one, similar to the event in the series 'Allo allo!' - reported the Sibenik archaeologist for Sibenikin.

In short, some of the crew members were taken to Drnis and later transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp, and those who were injured during the parachute landing were transferred to Vis by the partisans. There were 11 of them in total.

There was a Jewish surgeon in the crew as well.

"Leslie Caplan was an American surgeon of Jewish origin, but the Germans still treated him humanely and transferred him to a military camp in Germany. Everything went well, and he returned home. I am in contact with his daughter, who is delighted with this whole story", says the Sibenik archeologist.

Nakic returned to this topic later, sometime around 2020.

"At that time, Americans had a habit of giving airplanes female names, and they named this one from Brnjica 'Nancy Jane 2'. It collapsed right next to the current road that leads from Brnjica to Sibenik, and my son found the first piece of metal. I talked about it, so he went to explore a bit. They were just pieces of metal, but when we dug a little deeper, we also found pieces with engraved names and rivets. I collected about seven or eight bags. And all that without a metal detector, which means there is much more there - explains Nakic.

There are no witnesses to the event.

"Almost all of them passed away. However, as I was very interested in this topic, I managed to get in touch with several people in Croatia who helped me a lot. During the Second World War, more than 700 aircraft fell in our country. Radovan Zivanovic from Opatija certainly knows the most about this. He is a true lover of the subject. Through him, I also got in contact with the Americans. In 1944, they regularly kept diaries about every airplane flight. That helped me a lot. I also found some German documents about the event. Simply by Googling it", says Nakic.

A more detailed text about this research should be published in the journal Miscellanea Hadriatica et Mediterranea, published by the University of Zadar, in Croatian and English.

"Many think this is not a remarkable discovery in the world of archeology because less than 80 years have passed since the plane crash. However, this type of archeology is increasingly popular, and the number of people who love everything related to the Second World War is growing. Let's call it some kind of 'dark tourism.' Since there have been more than 700 such plane crashes in Croatia, it is a specific but promising branch of tourism", concludes Sibenik archaeologist Andrija Nakic.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 8 May 2022 - The Network of Antifascist Women and the Alliance of Antifascist Fighters and Antifascists lit bonfires on the bank of the River Sava in Zagreb on Saturday evening in tribute to the Partisan units that liberated the Croatian capital on 8 May 1945.

The event was attended by Mayor Tomislav Tomašević, who said that it was the seventh year now that the liberation of Zagreb from Ustasha and fascist occupation had been commemorated by building bonfires by the Sava.

"During the Second World War and the difficult times of occupation, Zagreb was never subdued. Numerous residents of the city, together with Partisans from throughout Croatia, joined the National Liberation Movement and the Women's Antifascist Front, engaging in subversive operations against the occupying army and quislings. They were also hiding people who faced deportation to certain death, and put up resistance," the mayor said.

He said he was paying tribute to the 30,000 residents of Zagreb who had sacrificed their lives or had been the victims of the Ustasha and fascist terror.

"The units that liberated Zagreb did so on the wings of social justice, faith in equality and internationalism, which are the values that we should promote today," Tomašević said, adding that society should be built on class and gender equality.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 22 April (2022) - President Zoran Milanović on Friday held a separate commemoration at the Jasenovac concentration camp site on the occasion of the 77th anniversary of Jasenovac Breakout Day.

The breakout was made on the morning of 22 April 1945 by the last 600 prisoners and about 100 survived.

The Jasenovac Memorial Centre has documented the names and details of 83,145 people killed at Jasenovac where the Nazi-style Ustasha regime had run the camp for 1,337 days during the Second World War. Most of victims were ethnic Serbs (47.627), Roma (16.173) and Jews (13.116).

During his commemorative event held at 9 am Friday, Milanović laid flowers and pebbles in front of the centre's monument "A Stone Flower".

On Thursday, commenting on the planned separate commemoration, Milanović said that he would go there with his aides rather than with government officials, whom he accused of encouraging Ustasha-related outbursts and then pretending to be liberals.

Friday's commemorative ceremony, which is being organised by the Memorial Centre, will be attended by government officials and representatives of the Antifascist Alliance and the Serb and Roma minorities, while the Jewish community, dissatisfied with the authorities' treatment of the Ustasha salute and insignia, will again organise a separate commemoration a few days later.

Milanović said that he would join the Jewish community in its commemorative event on 28 April.

For more, check out our politics section.

December the 16th, 2020 - The area of Poljana in Mali Losinj is even safer following yesterday's removal of old WW2 ordnance that had been lying undisturbed ever since the 1940s.

As Morski writes, yesterday in the area of Poljana in Mali Losinj, a complex action of the removal and subsequent destruction of two explosive devices left over from the second world war was carried out. The ordinance included an MC-500 LB aircraft bomb, made in England, and a RKT 152 MM, 60 Lb polyvalent rocket.

The action was attended by police officers of the Anti-Explosion Department of the Police Administration of Primorje-Gorski Kotar, in cooperation with police officers of the Anti-Explosion Service of the Police Directorate and the Mali Losinj Police Station, along with the Cres branch and with members of the Croatian Army. The removal was done successfully with the logistical and organisational support of the Town of Mali Losinj and the participation of employees of both HMP and JVP Mali Losinj.

The aforementioned bomb, weighing about 300 kilograms in total, was safely deactivated and removed from its place of discovery before being transported by a helicopter belonging to the Croatian Air Force to the Mali Losinj heliport. From there, it will be transported to the military range where it will be destroyed according to professional rules. The polyvalent rocket, weighing about 30 kilograms, was destroyed by police officers at the scene according to the rules of the profession.

During the action near Poljana in Mali Losinj, which took place from 10:30 to 11:30, some of the population living near the area were evacuated from their homes, and other residents were instructed not to leave residential and other buildings, ie not to stay out in the open until the end of the action.

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