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WWII On This Day: April 16

What happened on April 16 during World War II? This date brings together 7 events from 1940, 1941, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
A child survivor of SS Athenia is carried ashore from the Norwegian rescue ship Knute Nelson at Galway on 6 September 1939.
Press Agency photographer · Imperial War Museums HU 51014 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence
The Opening Convoy War

Eight torpedoes from U-47 fail to hit

U-47 finds British transports at anchor in Vaagsfjord and attacks at close range. Four torpedoes fail to produce a hit. Prien attacks again and another four fail. Dönitz records the report with alarm: eight unsuccessful shots by one of his most experienced commanders make it increasingly difficult to explain the failures as bad firing solutions or isolated crew error. Other boats are reporting similar problems with magnetic pistols, depth-keeping and impact firing. The Norwegian operation, which had appeared likely to give the U-boat arm concentrated naval targets, instead becomes the…

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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 Platamon rearguard is forced from the coastal pass

On the morning of 16 April, 2nd Panzer Division renewed its attack against the 21st New Zealand Battalion on the castle ridge at Platamon. German artillery preparation began at 09:00 before infantry and armour attacked the position from the front and flank. The New Zealand battalion had been told that the ground ahead was unsuitable for tanks. German engineers and crews nevertheless brought armour into the fight, and the western end of the ridge was taken after close combat. The battalion withdrew toward the Pinios Gorge by dusk. Platamon had…

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1944
German troops in the ruins of Sevastopol, 1942.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-231-0703-27 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Sevastopol and the Crimea

Seventeenth Army reaches the fortress line

The German rear guard entered the main Sevastopol defence system as Soviet armies closed from the north and east. The fortress offered prepared ground, but the defending army had lost men, transport and cohesion during the retreat. The strategic dispute inside German command continued. Jaenecke argued that the position could not be held indefinitely and that evacuation should begin before Soviet artillery and air power made the beaches unusable.

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1945
Vasily Chuikov at an 8th Guards Army observation post during the fighting at the Seelow Heights in April 1945.
Vasily Chuikov at an 8th Guards Army observation post during the fighting at the Seelow Heights in April 1945. Russian Ministry of Defence · CC BY 4.0 Source
The Battle of Berlin

1st Belorussian Front attacks

Before dawn on 16 April, 1st Belorussian Front opened its attack from the Küstrin bridgehead with a massive artillery preparation. Searchlights were directed horizontally across the battlefield in an attempt to illuminate the route and disorient the defenders. The ground defeated much of the intended effect. Smoke, haze, dust and reflected light reduced visibility, while infantry and armour compressed on the wet approaches across the Oderbruch. German fire came from the main positions beyond much of the ground struck first by the bombardment. Zhukov had overwhelming strength, but the first…

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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

1st Ukrainian Front crosses the Neisse

Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front attacked across the Neisse between Forst and Muskau under artillery fire and smoke. The German sector was less strongly held than the direct approaches at Seelow, and Soviet bridgeheads expanded during the first day. The opening success mattered because the northern tank armies did not have to drive directly at Berlin to endanger it. Once they reached the Spree they could turn north behind Ninth Army and approach the capital from the south. From the first day the Berlin operation therefore contained two different clocks: Zhukov…

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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

The predominant colour is white

The mass surrender became general on 16 April. Handkerchiefs, sheets, table linen and shirts appeared as improvised flags while entire staffs and formations entered captivity. Prisoner cages were overwhelmed. German soldiers sometimes walked for miles before finding an American unit able to process them.

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The Battle of Berlin

The tank armies enter before the breakthrough

With the infantry still short of a clean break through the Seelow system, the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies were ordered forward. Their columns entered roads and passages already carrying infantry, artillery, engineers and supply traffic. Armoured mass added pressure but could not create manoeuvre where the ground and the unbroken German line denied it. Tanks that should have exploited open country were instead committed into the same congested tactical battle as the rifle formations. The decision is important because it shows the difference between numerical superiority and usable…

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