site.btaApril 17, 1944: Nedelcho Bonchev Became Second Bulgarian Pilot to Down an American B-17 Using Ramming Technique

Having joined the Axis, Bulgaria declared “token” war on the US and Great Britain in December 1941 but refused to sever its diplomatic relations with the USSR, to commit its army to actual combat, and to deport the Jews within its borders of 1941 to Nazi death camps. Between April 1941 and September 1944, Yugoslav, US, British and Soviet aircraft carried out more than 23,000 daytime and nighttime air strikes on 168 Bulgarian settlements, dropping nearly 50,000 aerial bombs, killing 4,208 people and injuring 4,744 (mainly civilians). Sofia was the prime target, with a death toll of 2,000-plus and over 12,500 residential, industrial and public buildings partially or completely destroyed or burnt, including numerous landmarks. Pictured: A building in central Sofia, then housing the Foreign Ministry (which incorporated BTA’s predecessor, the Press Directorate), was severely damaged by an Allied air raid, January 14, 1944 (BTA Archive Photo) (АК)