What happend on this day?

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#21

Warsaw Uprising 3-4 August 44

Heinrich Himmler, head of SS and Gestapo, dispatches relief troops to Warsaw headed by SS Lt. Gen. Heinrich Reinefarth and consisting of SS and police units from Poznan, Dirlewanger penal brigade, Kaminski RONA brigade, Azerbaijan infantry battalion, and others. Units of Hermann Göering division are also arriving.

SS General Erich von dem Bach assumes command of all German forces suppressing the Uprising.

Himmler’s gives the order to kill all of the city’s inhabitants, not take prisoners, and level Warsaw as an example for the rest of Europe.

The first German aerial bombardment by Ju-87 Stuka which will bomb the city daily. The insurgents have no anti-aircraft weapons to defend the city from the attack.

The uprising in Praga, (suburbs on the left side of Vistula river), fails because of the overwhelming size of the German forces and the end of the Soviet offensive. The remaining insurgents units return underground or crossing into insurgent-controlled areas inside the city.

In the liberated districts, civil administrative structures operating within the framework of the Polish Underground State start functioning.

#22

Warsaw Uprising 4-7 August 44

A major German offensive with fresh relief troops sent to open east-west thoroughfares begins with attacks on the Wola and Ohota districts.
German troops conduct mass executions of approximately 65,000 civilians in the captured districts. Poles, without regard for age or gender, are rounded up house by house and shot. More than 1, 360 patients and staff of Wola and St. Lazarus hospitals are murdered. The Special Group ‘verbrennung-kommando’ is collecting and burning the bodies.

In Mokotow, female civilians are used as shields in front of tanks that are attacking insurgents’ positions. This practice will continue throughout the Uprising.

The insurgent battalion Zoska, aided by two captured Panther tanks, liberates 350 Polish and European Jewish prisoners from the Goose Farm concentration camp. Many of the freed Jews join the insurgents.

Making a round-trip from Brindisi, Italy the first Allied nighttime airdrop of supplies by Halifax and Consolidated B24 Liberator planes reaches Warsaw.

The siege of Brühl Palace, a government complex near Saxon Garden is lifted by German forces breaking through Wola district. The German Governor of Warsaw region Ludwig Fischer, and Warsaw garrison commander general Reiner Stahel leave the building escorted by tanks. With the fall of Wola, the Old Town quarter is cut off from the City Centre and surrounded.

In Warsaw’s Pruszkow suburb, a Durchgangslager 121 selection camp is established. Before the end of 1944, 600,000 deported inhabitants of Warsaw will pass through.

In the liberated areas, Scout Postal Service starts distributing mail, newspapers, and messages even to the areas under German control.

#23

On this date in 1900, Ernie Pyle was born. “In an era before television, Ernie Pyle brought World War II home to millions of Americans. At the time of his death on an island near Okinawa in 1945, his work appeared in over 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers.”

http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=72

Today, he is considered one of the best journalists in the WW2-era.

#24

Warsaw Uprising 8-16 August44

Home Army clandestine radio station ‘Lightning’ (Blyskawica) starts broadcasting at the frequency of 32.8 and 52.1 meters, followed on August 9 by a civilian Polish Radio at the frequency of 43.4 meters. Both stations will remain on the air until the end of the Uprising.

The first communications links through sewers are opened between isolated districts of Mokotow and City Centre. They will serve as vital transportation and evacuation lines for the duration of the Uprising.

A German leaflet titled ‘Ultimatum’ and signed by a Supreme Commander is dropped from planes. It urges the Warsaw inhabitants to leave the city, promising accommodations, jobs, and medical care, while threatening ‘consequences’ to those who disobey the call.

The main German offensive against the Old Town starts with 8,000 soldiers; it will continue unabated until the quarter falls on September 2. The offensive’s objective is to isolate insurgent defenses, push them away from a strategic area overlooking one of the city’s bridges, and liquidate them.

The first of four Home Army newsreels produced during the Uprising is shown to insurgents and civilians in the Palladium theatre.

In City Centre, insurgents repel a major tank attack. Nine tanks and other armed vehicles are destroyed. Heavy fighting occurs around Gdansk train station in an attempt to link up insurgent forces in Zoliborz and Old Town. The attacks are repelled with the use of an armored train.

Germans shut down the water supply after taking over the city’s water filtering station. Water rationing and well digging begins. By the end of September, the City Centre district has more than 90 functioning wells.

A German B-IV vehicle mine abandoned near an Old Town barricade is brought inside the Polish defensive positions. Its sudden and massive explosion kills over 300 insurgents and civilians.

#25

Warsaw Uprising 17-23 August 44
German forces introduce new types of weapons into Warsaw: Karl Morser heavy mortar, Wufrrehmen incendiary rockets, and Goliath, a remote-controlled vehicle mine. These weapons will play a crucial role in the German offensive: isolated areas are bombarded non-stop by planes, heavy artillery and rockets, then Goliaths and tanks are sent in, followed by the infantry.
Von dem Bach issues a proposal to surrender, which is ignored. Additional German forces attack Old Town. Artillery and armored train are shelling the district. During heavy aerial bombing some buildings are completely destroyed; the Polish Bank is struck by 10 bombs.

Insurgents capture isolated German strongholds in the City Centre district. The strategic high-rise telephone exchange building ‘PASTA’, a significant number of weapons, and 115 German soldiers are captured.

A 750-strong insurgent group breaks into the city’s northern Zoliborz district. Another group enters the city from the south. The cargo train station, the Church of Holly Cross, the Police Headquarters, and another telephone exchange building are taken. However, an attack upon the Warsaw University campus, launched with the help of two armored vehicles (one of them insurgent-made ‘Kubus’) fails.

Two Home Army attempts to break the siege of Old Town by attacking the Gdansk train station defended by an armored train, fail.

A Ju-87 Stuka plane is shot down by a insurgent heavy machine gun crew which violates the official ban not shoot at planes in order to conserve ammunition.

#26

During this month, the Danzig Crisis boiled on in Poland in 1939.

http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=162

While Germany continuously pressured Poland to concede to demands that seemed impossible, negotiations dragged on. That was what Germany wanted, of course, for that by Aug 1939 she was no longer satisfied with territorial concessions like she had gotten from Lithuania half a year prior. She was ready for war. While the world watched the negotiations with a close eye, the German military geared for invasion that was to come in the next month.

#27

This is from the history channel. They this day in history covering most things we would find interesting

Here is the link http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?month=10272960&day=10272982&cat=worldwarii

August 17th

1942 Carlson’s Raiders land on Makin Island On this day in 1942, Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson and a force of Marine raiders come ashore Makin Island, in the west Pacific Ocean, occupied by the Japanese. What began as a diversionary tactic almost ended in disaster for the Americans.
Two American submarines, the Argonaut and the Nautilus, approached Makin Island, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands, which had been seized by the Japanese on December 9, 1941. The subs unloaded 122 Marines, one of two new raider battalions. Their leader was Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, a former lecturer on postrevolutionary China. Their mission was to assault the Japanese-occupied Makin Island as a diversionary tactic, keeping the Japanese troops “busy” so they would not be able to reinforce troops currently under assault by Americans on Guadalcanal Island.
Carlson’s “Raiders” landed quietly, unobserved, coming ashore on inflatable rafts powered by outboard motors. Suddenly, one of the Marines’ rifles went off, alerting the Japanese, who unleashed enormous firepower: grenades, flamethrowers, and machine guns. The subs gave some cover by firing their deck guns, but by night the Marines had to begin withdrawing from the island. Some Marines drowned when their rafts overturned; about 100 made it back to the subs. Carlson and a handful of his men stayed behind to sabotage a Japanese gas dump and to seize documents. They then made for the submarines too. When all was said and done, seven Marines drowned, 14 were killed by Japanese gunfire, and nine were captured and beheaded.
Carlson went on to fight with the U.S. forces on Guadalcanal. He was a source of controversy; having been sent as a U.S. observer with Mao’s Army in 1937, he developed a great respect for the “spiritual strength” of the communist forces and even advocated their guerrilla-style tactics. He remained an avid fan of the Chinese communists even after the war.

#28

Warsaw Uprising August 24 - Sept. 2

The battle for Old Town, which begin on August 14, continues until September 2. With heavy fighting and air bombardment, as often as every 30 minutes, the perimeter of Polish Old Town defenses is reduced to 10 square miles. The State Mint falls into German hands. The fighting becomes ruthless. Some buildings are repeatedly captured, lost , and recaptured; tanks fire at point-blank range.
Insurgents’ attempt to break through the Old Town siege into the City Centre overnight fails. Only one group, disguised in Wehrmacht uniforms, marches in three soldier column through the German positions in Saxon Garden into City Centre.

With the Old Town military situation becoming critical, between September 1 and September 2, insurgents escape through sewers into City Centre and Zoliborz.

Left behind are 7,000 gravely wounded soldiers and 30,000 civilians. Advancing Germans forces execute most of the wounded, old and disabled. Some wounded insurgents are burnt alive in field hospitals.

Polish casualties in Old Town are 30,000 civilian dead and 7,500 dead and wounded insurgents (77 percent), German casualties were 3,900 dead and wounded (54 percent).

After much delay, the governments of Great Britain and the United States grant Allied combatant rights to the Home Army. It was hoped to end the summary executions of Polish POWs by German troops. The Soviet Union refuses to issue a similar statement.

#29

I know that August 19 was 4 days ago but Ill still post this anyways.

August 19, 1941- Krasnogvardeysk, USSR.

Lt. Zinoviy Kolobanov destroyed 22 tanks at Krasnogvardeysk in his KV-1. His tank was hit a total of 135 times during the firefight, but not one German shell penetrated the tank’s heavy armor.

#30

Today in 1883 is the late General Jonathan Wainwright’s birthday. Wainwright dutifully led the American contingent at Bataan even knowing he could not win the fight. He was eventually defeated and imprisoned in Manchuria. He was released in the final days of the war, and was present on USS Missouri for the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=78

Happy birthday general! We have not forgotten you.

#31

Warsaw Uprising September 3 - 10

After the fall of the Old Town, the brunt of the German attack centers on the Riverside district; its objective is to push the insurgents away from the Vistula River. Heavy artillery barrage and air bombardment concentrate on the Warsaw Power Plant—the insurgents’ central stronghold. Its destruction cuts off the electricity for the City Centre. After four days of bloody fighting, the Riverside district falls; insurgents and civilians withdraw to City Centre.
Airplanes drop leaflets signed by General von dem Bach urging civilians to leave the city on September 9 and September 10. The Polish Red Cross opens negotiations with Germans regarding the evacuation of elderly, wounded and underage civilians. Several thousand civilians leave the city during a two-hour cease fire.

A German offensive concentrates on the northern section of the City Centre, which is shelled by a 600mm mortar every eight minutes, inflicting in heavy casualties. Bombing destroys the City Centre printing plant, interrupting the publishing of Information Bulletin and other newspapers. Civilians flee into City Centre south.

#32

The Battle of the Bzura (also known as the Battle of Kutno) was a World War II battle of the Invasion of Poland and was fought September 9 – 19,1 1939, between Polish and German forces.
This was the largest battle of the Invasion of Poland and took place west of Warsaw, near the Bzura River. A Polish counterattack failed after initial success.

Opposing Forces

Polish forces consisted of Army Poznań and Army Pomorze.
German forces consisted of Armies 8 and 10 from Army Group South (Heeresgruppe Süd).

The Battle

The battle can be divided into 3 phases:

* Phase I - Polish offensive on Stryków (9-12 September)
* Phase II - Polish offensive on Łowicz (13-16 September)
* Phase III - Polish defeat and retreat towards Warsaw

On September 9, the Polish Poznań Army made a counterattack from the area south of the Bzura river, its target was the German divisions advancing between Łęczyca and Łowicz. The Polish forces’ main effort was concentrated in the area of Stryków.
On the right wing of the offensive there was the Podolska Cavalry Brigade,
and on the left, in the area of Głowno - Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade.
Due to a Polish advantage in numbers and German surprise, the Poles managed to cause considerable losses among their enemies, killing about 1,500 German soldiers. Also, German forces were thrown back approximately 20 kilometres south and the Poles recaptured several towns, including Łęczyca and Piątek. The German 8th Army also suffered heavy casualties. On September 10, the Polish 17th Infantry Division met the German 17th Infantry Division at Małachowicze and a bloody fight ensued.
A day later, Army Poznań, continuing its advance with the forces of the 25th Division and Podolska Cavalry Brigade, engaged the German 221st Infantry Division south of Łęczyca. Meanwhile, the remnants of Polish Army Pomorze arrived in the area of Włocławek, Brześć Kujawski and Koło, keeping strong German forces alert.

Initially underestimating the Polish advance, on September 11 the Germans decided to redirect the main forces of the German 10th Army, German 4th Army and the reserves of the Army Group South, as well as aircraft from 4th Air Fleet, towards the Bzura. The following day, the Poles reached the line Stryków - Ozorków. Also on this day, General Tadeusz Kutrzeba was informed that the units of Army Łódź had retreated to the stronghold of Modlin. Upon hearing this, Kutrzeba decided to stop the offensive and try to reach Sochaczew and Kampinos Forest. On the morning of September 14,
General Władysław Bortnowski’s group started the action. The 26th and 16th Infantry Divisions crossed the Bzura in the area of Łowicz and the Polish 4th Infantry Division reached the road linking Łowicz with Głowno. Then, General Bortnowski was informed that the German 4th Panzer Division was withdrawing from the outskirts of Warsaw. Fearing that this unit would enter action against his forces on the same day, he ordered the 26th Infantry Division to retreat.

On September 15 and 16th, Army Pomorze took up defensive positions on the northern bank of the Bzura. General Stanisław Grzmot-Skotnicki’s group was located between Kutno and Żychlin, General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski’s units in the area of Gąbin, and divisions of Army Poznań - by the Bzura near Sochaczew, were ready to commence their drive towards Warsaw. To encircle and destroy the Polish forces, the Germans
used most of the 10th Army, including two armoured, three light and one motorized divisions - equipped with some 800 tanks altogether. The attack from all sides on Polish positions started on September 16, with the support of the Luftwaffe. The German 1st Panzer Division, after crossing the Bzura between Sochaczew and Brochów and engaging the Polish 25th Infantry Division, managed to capture Ruszki, but its advance was then halted.

During the night of September 17, the main forces of Army Poznań attacked the German forces in order to break out of the German encirclement between Witkowice and Sochaczew. The 15th Infantry Division and Podolska Cavalry Brigade again crossed the Bzura in Witkowice. in Brochow, the 25th and 17th Infantry Divisions crossed the Bzura river. The 14th Infantry Division was concentrated in Łaziska. At the same time, Army Pomorze marched towards the villages of Osmolin, Kiernozia and Osiek.

In the morning, the Germans started their drive towards the south on both banks of the Bzura, supported by more than 300 aircraft and heavy artillery. German howitzers, taking advantage of its position on the higher right bank of the Vistula, shelled Polish positions for the whole day. After two days of heavy fighting, and having used up all of their munitions and food, further attempts at breakout became impossible.

Only a few Polish units managed to break out of the encirclement.
These groups entered Warsaw and Modlin, crossing the Kampinos Wilderness.
Among them were Generals Kutrzeba, Knoll-Kowacki and Tokarzewski, two cavalry brigades, the 15th and 25th Infantry Divisions. The remainder, together with General Bortnowski, capitulated from 18 to 22 September and were captured.

Aftermath

After the battle, German divisions rushed towards Warsaw and Modlin,
encircling these strongholds. Even though Bzura campaign was a defeat for the Poles, its strategic importance has to be emphasized. Due to this battle,
the German advance was stalled for a few days, which enabled Polish units
in Warsaw and other places to organize their ultimately failed defense.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bzura

#33

I think that Kovalsky’s description of Bzura battle, once branded by Germans the “biggest battle of modern history”, which this battle really was, before Blitzkrieg in France and in soviet Russia dwarfed it…

To honour Warsaw Uprising I will continue with it’s Timeline…
Just to give us a feeling that we started to read this Timeline on the
1-st of August … please look backwards, how many things happened? We are still on it. That’s how long was Warsaw Uprising…

Warsaw Uprising September11- 23, 1944

Between September 11 and September 14 Red Army resumes its offensive towards Warsaw. German and Soviet airplanes engage in dog fights over the city. Soviet artillery shells German positions in Praga, Saxon Garden and Okenche Airport.
With the fall of Praga to the Red Army on September 16, German forces evacuate to Warsaw proper and dynamite remaining Vistula bridges. The Red Army is relieved by Soviet-sponsored General Berling’s Polish First Army.

Retreating from Praga, German front line troops augment Gen. von dem Bach’s forces. To prevent the establishment of bridgeheads, the main German effort concentrates on shattering the resistance in Czerniakow and Zoliborz districts along the the river.

From September 14 to September 16, bloody fighting erupted in Zoliborz with General Hans Lallner 19th Panzer Division. Berling’s troops cross the river between September 16-17 in an abortive attempt to link up with Zoliborz insurgents. Civilians are executed in Marymont, a quarter of the Zoliborz district.

15-09/23. For three consecutive nights, 1,600 soldiers from Berling’s army cross the Vistula and join insurgents in the Czerniakow district. The attempted landing between September 17-18 in the Riverside district fails with most of the 1,050 soldiers killed or captured. Heavy fighting in Czerniakow continues until September 23. Some defenders evacuate across the river, others reach the City Centre. Germans execute all captured insurgents and take Berling’s soldiers as POWs.

09/18. First and last massive American day-time, high altitude airdrop; insurgents recover 16 tons, or 20 percent of the cargo; the rest falls into German hands.

Heavy bombardment of the City Centre by Karl Morser mortar on September 16 brings massive casualties, including 100 German POWs.

#34

I heared about Hitler’s order to completed destroy Warsaw. Was it true?
And have you any information about application 800 -mm “Dora” in Warsaw?
Some sources affirmed that Dora made in september-october about 30 shot to the Warsaw.

#35

Here you can see Dora shells in front of Polish Army Museum in Warsaw.

http://tanxheaven.com/zbc/shells/shells.htm

I will try to find more.

And yes, Hitler ordered 100% destruction of Warsaw. In reality they “achieved” 85% of left bank part of the city

Lancer44

#36

Were youse all there or has the combined brainpower of WWII forgotten about certain dates of late ?

#37

65 anniversary of soviet offencive on the Mocsow.

6-24 december of 1941

Klin - Solnechnogorsk offensive operation was basic during the first stage of the counterattack of Soviet troops in the environs of Moscow. Operation was carried out by the forces of troops of the right wing of Western Front (30th, 1st shock, 20th, 16th, 5th armies) under the command of General of the Army G. K. Zhukov in interaction with the Kalinin Front (colonel general I. S. Konev) for the purpose to destroy basic forces of the 3rd and 4th tank armies of Germans.
Offensive began on 6 December. Most successfully during the first days of offensive acted the right-flank 30th army of the General OF D.D. Lelyushenko: On 8 December its parts took Rogachev, on 13 December they approached the wedge and together with the parts of 1 army to 15 December freed city. Connections of the 1st shock and 20th army during the first days of operation freed the large populated areas - Yakhromu, Belyy Rast, red clearing. On 11 December the parts of the 20th army engaged Solnechnogorsk. Troops of the 16th army after heavy two-day it is combat they freed the settlement and Kryukovo station, converted by Germans into the powerful defensive line. On 11 December the parts of this army engaged g. Istra. South began the 5th army, in composition of which separately successfully acted the cavalry group of General l. m. Dovator. During the subsequent days Soviet offensive successfully was developed. To 25 December, when the first stage of Moscow offensive operation was completed, Soviet troops left to the boundary of rivers lama and Ruza, after rejecting German parts to the West on 90-100 km.


Red Army in the liberated Klin


Germans POWs in the forage caps smiles. It s really look very funny when -40 C .

Siberian troops taken from the Far East after the Soviet intelligence learn the desicion of Japanes to choose the “South direction” (i.e. USA and Britain).
This siberian armies saved the Moscow from the germans.

#38

I may add something to that.

In January 1942 through Warsaw, Germans were pushing many hospital trains with German soldiers wounded in soviet counter offensive.
My mother, her mum, sister and brother lived in a flat which had a balcony overlooking Gdanski Rail Station in Warsaw.
My uncle “Lech” was in Home Army intelligence.

He suffered from tuberculosis. Under pretext that he must stay in the open, he sat on the balcony wrapped in blankets. He was speaking perfect German which he never admitted.
Germans a couple of times visited their flat complaining about him on the balcony.
When they learned that he has got tuberculosis, they gave up and never come back. (Any other person from the block coming out on their balconies risked being shot. Germans even shooted to open windows).

My uncle listened to soldiers talk, memorised tanks and other equipment on lorries and every now and than coming to the flat “to have a piss” wrote notes - every day taken by the courier.
My mum told me, that January and February 1942 were the month when her brother told her that Germans will be defeated. He was convinced about it.

When trains with wounded German soldiers stopped on Gdanski, doors were opened and hundreds od German nurses and helferins entered trains to treat wounded.

Stench from the frozen limbs and infected, gangrenous wounds was so strong that my uncle womited many times and had to go to the flat.
In some cases Germans used cattle cars and when the doors were opened faecal matters mixed with blood flew on the platform…
Constant screaming of wounded filled the air…

This view was a sort of the symbol of dreadfull thing called EASTERN FRONT…

Well, No one invited Germans to it…

Cheers,

Lancer44

#39

That’s very interesting mate thanks. I didn’t knew your uncle was in polish Resistance. Your famaly right like alive legend :smiley:

#40

I have german ID card of my uncle. Will send it maybe tomorrow.
My scanner is dead and I have to combine a good light to shoot with my digital camera.