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WWII On This Day: April 15

What happened on April 15 during World War II? This date brings together 9 events from 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
A reconnaissance detachment of the German 5th Panzer Division entering Athens on 27 April 1941.
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1979-123-32 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
German Invasion of Greece, April 1941

The Aliakmon positions cover the movement south

Australian, New Zealand and Greek formations held sectors around Servia and the Aliakmon while the main withdrawal continued. German armour had reached Kozani and was testing the crossings, but the defenders still occupied strong ground on the southern approaches. The road system carried troops, artillery and transport through limited bridges and mountain routes. Demolitions slowed German movement after each position was abandoned, while Luftwaffe attacks forced columns to disperse and made daylight movement increasingly hazardous. The line remained tactically defensible into 17 April. Its strategic danger came from the eastern…

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A German Panzer IV of the 11th Panzer Division advancing into Yugoslavia in April 1941.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-770-0280-20 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Invasion of Yugoslavia, April 1941

German panzer divisions enter Sarajevo

On 15 April, German pursuit groups converged on Sarajevo. The 14th Panzer Division approached from the west while the 8th Panzer Division came from the east, closing on one of the remaining centres of Yugoslav command in the interior. The German objective was to prevent field armies from withdrawing into mountainous areas where resistance might continue after the loss of Belgrade. Yugoslav formations were short of reliable communications, routes were being cut from several directions, and large groups had already surrendered. The Yugoslav Second Army headquarters capitulated as the German…

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London, 7th September 1940 · London's dock area. Tower Bridge stands out against a background of smoke and fires. New York Times Paris Bureau Collection.
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 541917) · Public domain
The Blitz

Belfast

On the night of 15–16 April about 180 German aircraft attacked Belfast. The city combined major shipbuilding and aircraft production with comparatively weak air-raid protection and limited experience of heavy bombing. Belfast City Council's commemorative record gives about 740 civilian deaths in the Easter Tuesday raid. Current memorial research identifies 952 people killed across the four principal Belfast raids of April and May 1941, so the larger total should not be assigned to this one night. The raid demonstrated the geographic reach of the late Blitz and the unevenness of…

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1942
A converted cable ship laying pipeline across the English Channel, 1944.
Pipeline laying in the Channel, 1944 ·
Operation PLUTO

Hartley proposes HAIS

Arthur Hartley proposed a continuous high-pressure pipeline constructed like submarine cable, with a lead tube protected by steel tape and armouring wire. Existing cable factories, cable ships and laying knowledge made the concept more practical than attempting to handle a conventional large rigid pipe.

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1943
A Tiger tank of the SS panzer corps during the battle of Kursk, July 1943.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101III-Zschaeckel-206-35 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Battle of Kursk 1943

Hitler issues the order for Operation Citadel

Operational Order No. 6 directed Army Group Centre and Army Group South to cut off the Kursk salient with converging attacks. Ninth Army would attack south from the Orel sector; Fourth Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf would attack north from the Belgorod sector. The order aimed for a rapid junction east of Kursk and the destruction of the Soviet forces inside the salient. Its success depended on breaking the tactical defence before Soviet front and strategic reserves could seal the penetrations.

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1944
Wrecked rolling stock in the severely damaged marshalling yard at Juvisy-sur-Orge after Allied air attacks in 1944.
Bridge B (Fg Off), Royal Air Force official photographer / Imperial War Museums, CL 4170 · Public domain · Source
The Transportation Plan

Tedder issues the full target list

Tedder sent the approved Transportation Plan target list to the American air forces and Bomber Command. A SHAEF advisory structure then coordinated reconnaissance, damage assessment and re-attacks. Targets were graded according to how much repair work remained possible.

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1945
British soldiers supervise the distribution of food to prisoners at Bergen-Belsen after liberation in April 1945.
British soldiers supervise the distribution of food to prisoners at Bergen-Belsen after liberation in April 1945. No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit / Imperial War Museums, BU 4242 · Public domain Source
The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

British forces liberate Bergen-Belsen

The British 11th Armoured Division and attached units entered Bergen-Belsen after an agreement for the camp's surrender. They found about 55,000 prisoners, many gravely ill, and thousands of unburied dead. British medical teams, soldiers, photographers and film units documented what they found. The liberation became one of the most widely seen bodies of evidence of the concentration-camp system in western Europe.

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Men of the 95th Division, US Ninth Army, patrolling Soest after its capture, 7 April 1945.
Men of the 95th Division patrolling Soest, 7 April 1945 · US Army Signal Corps SC 336817 · NARA · Public domain · Source
The Ruhr Pocket

Model dissolves Army Group B

Model ordered youths and older men discharged immediately and declared that Army Group B would cease to exist. He would not sign a formal surrender for a command he claimed had been dissolved. The order did not make the Americans recognise the discharge papers. It did, however, provide the remaining troops with authority to stop fighting without a capitulation bearing Model's signature.

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Yevgeny Khaldei's photograph of Soviet soldiers raising a Soviet flag over the Reichstag in Berlin on 2 May 1945.
Yevgeny Khaldei / TASS · 2 May 1945 · CC BY 4.0 via the Russian Ministry of Defence · Source
The Battle of Berlin

The forward screen is withdrawn

During the night of 15–16 April German troops in parts of the Oderbruch were pulled back from exposed forward positions toward the prepared main battle zone. Heinrici and Busse expected the Soviet offensive and wanted the opening bombardment to fall on ground that contained as little of Ninth Army's main strength as possible. The withdrawal did not leave the Seelow sector undefended. Security elements remained forward, and the principal defensive system lay on and behind the heights, where reverse slopes, anti-tank positions and roads from the Oderbruch gave the defenders…

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