April 4, 1944 fell like today, Tuesday. At 1:45 p.m., a dark cloud of American planes invaded the sky of Bucharest. It was a clear and warm day with perfect visibility for the bombers.

Part of Victoria Palace (left) and Foreign Office headquarters (right) after the bombing on April 4, 1944Photo: AGERPRES PHOTO/ARCHIVE

When the alarm went off, the people of Bucharest thought it was just another routine exercise and went about their lives on that beautiful spring day at lunchtime.

Almost 3,000 dead and 2,500 wounded, hundreds of historical buildings destroyed, civil infrastructure destroyed. At noon on April 4, 1944, 220 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers and 93 Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers entered Romanian airspace from southern Italy. Strategic bombers were loaded with conventional and incendiary bombs.

North station was bombed six times, Triage four times, Chitila station eight times and Baneas station four times. In Triage, 1,000 wagons were set on fire, and the nearby Botanical Garden was almost completely destroyed.

It was an unprecedented disaster in the history of the city. Read on B365.ro the story of the day that became the “Black Tuesday of Bucharest”, a story compiled from testimonies.