During World War II, the Romanian city of Timișoara was subject to several aerial bombing raids by both Allied and Axis forces.

[1] An exception occurred on April 3, 1944, when Allied aircraft dropped bombs over Periam, Becicherecu Mic, Sânandrei, Variaș, Pesac, and Saravale, but these raids caused no significant damage.

[12] A particularly devastating attack took place on July 3, 1944, where 110 USAAF B-24 Liberators dropped 227.75 tons of bombs, in 94 sorties,[13] leading to 90 deaths, 162 seriously injured and severe damage across the city.

The bombings, which also targeted the city's classification yards, caused extensive casualties and damage to industrial and local infrastructure and residential buildings too.

[14][5] After Romania switched sides to the Allies on August 23, 1944, Luftwaffe and Hungarian Air Force bombing raids on Timișoara intensified, primarily involving terror tactics such as intentionally targeting local civilians,[14] which resulted in dozens of deaths.

[12] The first American airstrike over Banat took place on the night of September 30/October 1, 1943, following a route that included Orșova, Buziaș, Lipova, Recaș and Timișoara, and was carried out by a USAAF B-24 Liberators, which launched leaflets in Romanian over the region.

[17] Allied planes flew over the northwest of the Timișoara region on April 3, 1944, and dropped bombs near several localities, such as Periam, Becicherecu Mic, Sânandrei, Variaș, Saravale and Pesac, without causing damage or human casualties.

[5][21] The low number of victims was due, according to the media of the time, to the discipline shown by the population, which took shelter immediately after the air alarms.

He photographed 410 objects affected by the air attack, including the Chain Factory, the Great Mill, the Tobacco Factory, the Horse Riding Club, the "Parc" Sanatorium, the General Credit Bank, the Romanian Nautical Club, the Notre Dame Institute, the Prohaska Mill, the Orthodox Church on Radu Rosetti street, School on Războieni street no.

Dispensary, Metropol and Doje hotels, Lyra cinema, Romanian Credit Bank, "Globus Transport S.A." Society, Knitting Factory and numerous homes.

110 B-24 Liberator aircraft,[13] taken off from Italy, attacked in successive waves Timișoara, Turnu Severin and other localities in Timiș-Torontal County, including Chișoda, Sacoșu Turcesc, Bucovăț, Sânmartinu Sârbesc or Peciu Nou, carrying out a total of 94 sorties during which they launched a total of 257 tons of bombs,[13] of which 227.75 tons on Timisoara, the main objective being the railway infrastructure.

[5] According to a statement from the Army Chief Command, Allied aircraft machine-gunned civilians on the outskirts of cities and in fields as people tried to flee the attacks.

Șoavă Petru, Dorner Mihai, Nicolaevici lustina, Schaffer Iosif, Marschetky Magdalena, Szanto Ecaterina, Korasch Gheorghe, sold.

[5] Due to the large number of deaths and destruction, military censorship prohibited the publication of articles about the bombing,[5] in the press of the time only communiques of the Army Chief's Command were published.

[14] On August 25, 1944, in Vienna, Horia Sima, the leader of the Legionary Movement, who had been released from a concentration camp, formed a government in exile that issued a proclamation against the coup d'état in Bucharest, broadcasting it through Radio Donau.

On August 27, German planes dropped leaflets signed by Horia Sima and General Arthur Phelps over Banat, attempting to rally the local population to their cause.

On August 29, at 1:30 PM, the Giarmata airfield was strafed, and Lieutenant Petre Negrescu, the commander of the intervention company, was seriously wounded and died a few hours later at the Military Hospital in Timisoara.