The Only Time in History San Marino Was Bombed (or Attacked)
The UK might have had good reasons to bomb San Marino during WWII… but in hindsight, were they really good enough?
War is bad, neutrality is better
Conflicts are never easy.
And wars? One of the worst things that can happen to humanity.
We, as humans, are all brothers and sisters: so why attack each other over a flag?
That’s always been San Marino’s approach. We’ve remained proudly neutral throughout our modern history, keeping our heads down while the world around us spun into chaos. And that strategy?
It’s helped preserve our independence to this very day, even when figures like Napoleon were roaming Europe.
(But we’ll save that story for another time.)
So when World War II broke out, San Marino did what it always does: stayed neutral.
That didn’t stop us, however, from being bombed anyway - by the UK, no less - toward the end of the war.
And just for context: I’m not here to take sides.
I’m both a San Marino national and an acquired British citizen.
I lived in the UK for most of my young adult life, and I love the United Kingdom deeply. Very deeply.
So let’s take a look at both perspectives.
The 1944 bombing: what happened?
On 26 June 1944, Allied forces bombed San Marino.
Specifically, the Royal Air Force dropped bombs targeting rail lines, but civilian areas were hit as well.
63 civilians were killed.
Why?
According to the British government, intelligence reports claimed that German troops were using San Marino’s railway network to move weapons and supplies.
So, in classic better-safe-than-sorry fashion, the RAF bombed the rail infrastructure.
Except… the intel was wrong.
The British perspective
Let’s be fair.
From the UK’s point of view, San Marino - while technically neutral - had a fascist government, which had been in place since the 1920s.
And it was completely surrounded by Fascist Italy, a full-blown Axis power.
So suspicions? Totally understandable.
They thought German forces might be exploiting our tiny territory to transport goods undetected.
And in the fog of war, that was enough to push the button.
The San Marino reality
Yes, San Marino had a fascist government.
But let’s be honest: we didn’t really have a choice.
Being surrounded on all sides by Mussolini’s Italy, the regime was more about survival than ideology.
And despite that, San Marino:
Didn’t join the war
Didn’t host Axis troops
And most importantly: gave shelter to thousands of refugees, including many Jewish families fleeing persecution.
Some of those Jewish families rebuilt their lives here; and to this day, certain surnames found in San Marino were born from those new identities.
We wrote more about that in our Torta Tre Monti article.
The aftermath
You can probably guess how San Marino felt after the war.
We’d stayed neutral. Helped those in need.
And still got bombed, based on intelligence that was later proven false.
In the years that followed, the Republic formally asked the UK for compensation.
The British government eventually paid £80,000 in damages: an amount many consider largely symbolic.
It could be a fun (and slightly bitter) exercise to calculate what that would be today, adjusted for inflation - and see whether the sum was actually fair.
But here’s something we do know:
After the bombing, San Marino never rebuilt its railway.
That single day in 1944 reshaped our entire infrastructure, and helps explain why we now hold the world record for cars per capita.
(See our article on that here)
One small country, one painful chapter
To this day, 1944 remains the only time in history San Marino was bombed or attacked.
Not bad for a country that’s been around since the year 301.
Let’s just say... neutrality usually works.
