August 8, 1940. Battle of Britain
For the first time in two weeks the British send a shipping convoy of about 25 merchant ships with armed Royal Navy escorts through the English Channel. However, the German Freya Radar at Cap Gris Nez had picked them up, and it was a gift that was not to be missed. German Torpedo boats attack before dawn sinking three steamers, then out went the order to the 8th Flying Corps at Abbeville to send out all available Ju87 Stuka dive-bombers and the fighters based at the Luftwaffe 27 Group at Carquebut and Crepon, with orders for all aircraft to set course for the British convoy CW9 codenamed “Peewit”. In all, some 300 Ju87’s and 150 Bf109s take to the air with orders to destroy this convoy.
Spitfires of 41st, 64th, 65th and 610th Squadrons scrambled immediately and headed for the Channel to intercept the German formation. A dogfight of huge proportions then took place between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe as several hundred aircraft fought over the English Channel. Later that day the convoy was again attacked off the Isle of Wight and another huge air battle took place. With the Luftwaffe planes low on fuel it was a short but hard fought exchange with heavy loses for both sides. This was a bad day for the Royal Air Force with several pilots Killed although losses for the Luftwaffe were also heavy.
August 11, 1941. Battle of the Mediterranean
The Luftwaffe bombs and badly damages Royal Navy net-layer Protector with an aerial torpedo while en route from Port Said to Alexandria. Corvette HMS Salvia takes Protector in tow back to Port Said, where they arrive in the evening.
The Red Sea is full of German mines, and US ships have been traversing it since the last Italian port in East Africa fell. Today, one of those US freighters, 5685-ton Iberville, hits one and is damaged. It makes it to port.
Operation Guillotine, the British reinforcement of Cyprus, continues as Australian sloop HMAS Parramatta departs from Port Said for Famagusta.
At Malta, Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-87 reappear over the island for the first time in weeks. Nine Stukas attack the Ta Qali area and Grand Harbour, damaging some warehouses and private dwellings. The RAF claims two of the Stukas. Rome radio claims that this small raid is a massive success, stating “A veritable shower of bombs was rained down on [Luqa] aerodrome” and “The attack on the naval base of Valletta was extremely effective. Loud explosions were heard and huge fires visible from a great distance were started.”
Nice Capt walker. I have always loved the Stuka. MY fav being the, 37mm cannon armed, G1 model, naturally.
August 13, 1941. Battle of the Mediterranean
The British continue replacing worn-out Australian troops with Polish soldiers at Tobruk. This is done at night throughout the week with the usual fast nightly supply runs.
Royal Navy 1267-ton schooner Kephallinia makes a supply run from Alexandria to Tobruk, but sinks for unexplained reasons not far from Alexandria. HMS Hero is nearby and picks up survivors.
Operation Guillotine, the British reinforcement of Cyprus, continues as Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Neptune, minelaying cruiser Abdiel, and destroyer Jackal take troops to the island.
An Italian departs from Naples bound for Tripoli. The convoy is composed of five freighters escorted by five destroyers and a torpedo boat.
The Luftwaffe attacks Alexandria during the night.
At Malta, a Maryland sent to drop propaganda leaflets on Tunisia is shot down.
Source: worldwartwodaily
Photo: “Australian troops occupy a frontline position at Tobruk, 13 August 1941. Between April and December 1941 the Tobruk garrison, comprising Australian, Polish, Indian and British troops, was besieged by Rommel’s forces. It fell to the Germans after the battle of Gazala on 21 June 1942 but was recaptured five months later.” © IWM
August 13, 1941. Eastern Front
OKH Chief of Staff Franz Halder on 13 August 1941 has a conference with Chief of Staff for Army Group South at Uman and the army generals under Field Marshal von Rundstedt’s command. Afterward, Halder writes: The consensus is that the projected missions can be carried out. At present we have no clear plans yet for solving the Kiev problem and for swiftly occupying the Crimea. Considering that the capture of Kiev and the Crimea, in fact, are the two primary missions of the Army Group, not having a plan for achieving these objectives is not overly reassuring for the Army Group’s prospects.
Halder also sets down his impression of Hitlers most recent Fuhrer Directive, “Supplement to Directive 34.” Halder writes: Attack on Moscow by Army Group Centre is approved, but approval is made conditional on so many factors… that the freedom of action which we need for the execution of the plan is severely restricted. Note that Halders says the army does not have the full freedom of action “which we need.” Not want, need. Already, doubt is creeping into the high command as to whether Moscow will or even can be captured.
In the Far North sector, The Finns continue making slow progress around Lake Ladoga. However, the advance toward the Murmansk railway at Loukhi has slowed to a crawl as the Soviets bring in reinforcements by rail - a luxury the Finns do not have.
In the Army Group North sector, there are fierce battles at Luga, where Panzer Group 4 is attempting to blast out of a bridgehead, and Staraya Russa, where the Germans are pulling back. In effect, for the moment the German offensive has run tight and the Soviets are giving as good as they get.
In the Army Group Centre sector, the Soviets continue beating against the exposed German Yelnya bridgehead. General Guderian refuses a request for a pullback there. At Krichev, XXIV Corps (General of Panzer Troops Geyr von Schweppenburg) subdues a pocket of Soviet troops and takes 16,000 prisoners, 76 guns, and 15 tanks.
In the Army Group South sector, leader Ion Antonescu orders the Romanian 4th Army to stop its offensive at Odessa. He orders the generals to build up a position along the Khadzhibey Estuary to the northwest of the city before proceeding further. The halt doesn’t really affect the battle because the Soviet troops in Odessa are under orders to stay put anyway - and anyone who disobeys a Red Army order to hold their position usually winds up wishing they had regardless of what would have happened to them in the position.
German 11th Army captures Cherson (Kherson), a key crossing over the Dneipr. While still over a hundred miles from the Crimea, Cherson controls the main line of communications to it. Soviet destroyers and gunboats are used in the defence.
Source: worldwartwodaily
August 13, 1940. Battle of Britain. Eagle Day.
The Luftwaffe launch their first major offensive against Britain under the codename Adler Tag or Eagle Day. The two previous days the Luftwaffe have bombed British Radar installations and believing them to be crippled launch massive bombing attacks against the airfields of the Royal Air Force in an attempt to clear the skies over Southern England in four days.
From first light until dusk wave after wave of Luftwaffe formations attack several targets along the South coast of England and the airfields of the RAF further inland. The RAF engage the enemy and huge air battles take place all over Southern England with the Luftwaffe losing several aircraft. Goring has ordered his fighters to stay with the bombers thus putting the Luftwaffe fighters at a serious disadvantage against their RAF counterparts. As Gunther Ball, a Luftwaffe pilot of 8/JG52 explains, “We in J52 were very inexperienced, in just two months, our strength fell from thirty-six pilots to four. We really wasted our fighters. We didn’t have enough to begin with, and we used them in the wrong way, for direct close escort. We were tied to the bombers, flying slowly - sometimes with flaps down - over England. We couldn’t use our altitude advantage nor our superiority in a dive. Of course, the Spitfire had a marvellous rate of turn, and when we were tied to the bombers and had to dogfight them, that turn was very important”.
Eagle Day does not go well for the Germans as all Radar Stations were back up and running by this time and detected the huge enemy formations in plenty time for the RAF to be scrambled and get to a high enough altitude that they could swarm down on the enemy aircraft. Luftwaffe bombers also became vulnerable as they bombed targets further inland as this was beyond the range of their fighter support, who had to return to their airfields in France to refuel. The Spitfires and Hurricanes as can be imagined had a field day and shot down over 40 Luftwaffe bombers and 36 fighters while the Royal Air Force lose only 13 aircraft with most pilots bailing out over England and back with their squadrons by that evening.
August 14, 1941. Eastern Front
OKH Chief of Staff Franz Halder notes in the war diary on 14 August 1941 that Finnish achievements so far in the war are “truly remarkable.” Morale is good in the army, but he notes that “Losses in the armoured and rifle units considerable.” Due to tank losses, the armoured divisions have “an abundance of personnel,” while the rifle divisions are short of men. Field Marshal von Bock, commander of Army Group Centre, complains that Reichsmarschall Goering is shifting air support without consulting him, and a fierce debate rages whether Yelnya is worth keeping due to the heavy losses there.
Reports in other army commands are a little more direct about the actual situation than Halder. Generalleutnant Hans Reichsfreiherr von Boineburg-Lengsfeld, commander of the 4th Panzer Division which is with XXIV Panzer Corps, notes in his war diary that: “Battles on 13 and 14 [August] very costly, also in material. There was little benefit [in the fighting] because the enemy mass had already evacuated. Trucks in bad condition. Men tired. Division increasingly more worn out…Russian tanks, especially the heavy ones, are good”. The troops may be tired, but there is a lot of fighting left, with no end in sight.
In the Far North sector, Finnish 18th Division of II Corps captures the key town of Antrea (Kamennogorsk) in the centre of the Karelian Isthmus on the left bank of the Vuoksa River. The Finns now are 170 km (110 miles) northwest of Leningrad. Antrea is important strategically because it controls one of the few bridges across the river, and taking it traps Soviet 115th Rifle Division on the wrong side of the river. The Soviet division now must either succumb or find a way to cross the forests and river to re-join Soviet 19th Corps near Vyborg (Viipuri), the prime target in the sector.
Going is slow in this region due to the harsh terrain with few roads, which slows down even the Finns who are experts at going across country. Already, some Soviet units such as 142nd Rifle and 198s Motorized Divisions are backed against Lake Ladoga with no way out except by boat. Finnish I Corps also is making good progress to the east, with 2nd, 7th, and 19th divisions on the verge of taking Sortavala, where the Soviets also have no landward line of retreat.
A little further north, Finnish Group J of III Corps today confirms that the Soviets have brought in the 88th Rifle Division from Archangel (Arkhangel’sk) to the north in order to block their advance to Loukhi. Thus, the Finnish advance to the Murmansk railway, a key strategic objective only 20 miles away along a spur railway line and improved road, is stopped for the time being.
In the Army Group North sector, the Germans make some forward progress at Luga and on either end of Lake Ilmen. The Soviets pierce the German line south of Lake Ilmen with a cavalry division, a reminder that the German line is being stretched thin with little behind the hard crust at the front.
In the Army Group Centre sector, General Halder notes in the war diary that there are “gratifying successes against the enemy in the Rogachev salient” but that “costly fighting continues” at Yelnya. “All quiet elsewhere on the front.” Panzer Group 2 approaches Bryansk, where the Soviets are concentrating in order to protect Kiev from exactly what the Germans have in mind - an attack south toward Kiev.
In the Army Group South sector, the German capture of Cherson on the Dneiper makes the Soviet position at Nikolayev (Nikolaev) untenable. Thus, after dark today the Soviets begin evacuating the port, and in the process destroy the unfinished 59,150-ton battleship Sovetskaya Ukraina and several other ships under construction. The Romanian 4th Army advance on Odessa is temporarily paused on direct orders from leader Ion Antonescu. The Romanians are busy bringing troops forward to reinforce their coastal positions along the Hadjibey bank, and the Soviets in the town are under orders to resist to the last man. The Germans advance to within sight of Krivoy Rog (Kryvi Rih) due north of the neck of the Crimea. It is a regional centre of iron-ore mining, one of the economic objectives that Hitler prefers over political objectives such as Moscow.
Source: worldwartwodaily
Photo: A German StuG III with 75mm gun carrying infantry across a swamp near the village of Berezhok in Ukraine, August 1941.
August 28, 1940. France
Admiral Karl Dönitz calls his U-boat commanders to a strategy meeting despite a severe stomach ache. “It’s alright, it’s just that I’m having a baby, his name is Sealion.”
17th Sept 1944, three Airborne Divisions ( or 2 1/2 to be precise) landed in the Netherlands. The plan was Monty’s and was audacious: capture all the bridges between the front lines and Germany.
British 30 Corps would speed the 65 miles to the Rhine, relieving the Paras and win the war before Christmas.
The Germans had other plans.
@wittmann:
The Germans had other plans.
And they also had a couple of units in Arnhem that weren’t supposed to be there, which is one reason why British intelligence overlooked their presence (they had been sent there get a bit of R&R after some hard fighting at the front). As a result, the light-armed paratroopers of the British 1st Airborne Division ended up landing practically on top of a couple of Waffen SS Panzer divisions. To their credit, the Paras lasted a lot longer than one could reasonably expect in such a mismatched situation.
That’s right. Was only the cadre of two divisions, but was enough on which to build a solid defence, then to reinforce with replacements so as to counter attack.
Men of No 3 Platoon, ‘R’ Company, 1st Parachute Battalion, 1st (British) Airborne Division armed with Bren gun and No. 4 rifles defend a large shell hole outside Arnhem, during Operation ‘Market Garden’, 17th September 1944.
Four prisoners thought to be of the SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 9/9.SS-Panzer-Division “Hohenstaufen” shortly before being handed over to the Military Police at Wolfheze, captured during Viktor Graebner’s ill-fated attempt to rush through the British defences around Arnhem Bridge on the morning of Monday 18th September 1944.
(Nb. the one second from left is a seventeen year old. All of them are wearing the pea dot 44 camouflage pattern)
Two British Airborne troopers dug in near Oosterbeek, Holland on 18 September 1944, showing the woodland fought in on the western side of the British perimeter.
A Dornier Do-17 (Fliegender Bleistift) medium bomber dropping a string of bombs on London, England, United Kingdom, 20th Sept. 1940
Source: ww2dbase
14th October 1944, FM Erwin Rommel committed suicide, rather than face a Court Martial. He was one of the most famous of all German commanders, revered by the Allies as the �Desert Fox� He commanded the 7th Panzer Division in Germany�s invasion of France. His last command was AG B, holding the vital Northern France and Belgium in 43:44. He was also a decorated WW1 Battalion commander, fighting the Italians (later to be his African Allies).
He was one of my first heroes as a child.
December 18, 1944. Battle of the Bulge
Troops of Kampfgruppe Peiper begin their attack on Stavelot, using several Tiger II heavy tanks. The attempt failed due to American resistance, who managed to destroy several German tanks.
Source: WWII Pictures
On the day after Christmas in 1944, C-47s drop provisions over the embattled area around Bastogne. Photo courtesy National Archives
On this day in 1944, Patton’s Third Army links up with the 101st Airborne at Bastogne.
