Skip to content
WW2 Theatres Theatres of the Second World War
Home

World War II calendar

WWII On This Day: April 22

What happened on April 22 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1940, 1941, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
German mountain troops landing in Norway, April 1940.
Photo: Bagn Bygdesamling – Valdres Folkemuseum, Norway · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Operation Weserübung

Norway begins placing its overseas merchant fleet under state control

Temporary provisions issued on 22 April authorised Norwegian control over large parts of the overseas merchant fleet for national and Allied service. The fleet had been dispersed across global trade routes when the invasion began. Shipping interests and Norwegian authorities in London now built a central organisation able to charter, insure, crew and direct vessels beyond German reach. Nortraship developed from this emergency measure into a fleet of about one thousand ships and roughly four million gross register tons. The occupied state therefore retained an economic and maritime instrument capable…

Continue in Operation Weserübung →
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

Thermopylae and Brallos hold the approaches to the evacuation routes

German flying columns reached the Thermopylae area as Australian troops held Brallos and New Zealand troops covered the coastal route around Molos and Thermopylae. German probing attacks on 22 April met artillery, infantry and a small number of tanks in prepared positions. The defenders were under orders to delay rather than become trapped. Their ground offered strong fields of fire, but German mountain troops could seek routes around the western flank and the main British force was already moving toward Attica and the Peloponnese. Through 23 and 24 April the…

Continue in German Invasion of Greece, April 1941 →
1944
American troops landing on a beach in England during Exercise Tiger in April 1944.
U.S. Signal Corps · Library of Congress cph.3c32795 · Public domain · Source
Exercise Tiger

More than 30,000 men move toward the ports

Over 30,000 soldiers began moving into embarkation and assembly areas for the exercise. The movement itself rehearsed the concentration of troops, vehicles and supplies that would have to remain concealed and ordered before D-Day.

Continue in Exercise Tiger →
1945
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 Steiner order collapses

Hitler ordered Felix Steiner to attack south from the Finow Canal area and restore a front north of Berlin. The headquarters assigned to Steiner did not possess the divisions in the usable condition implied by the order: some units were tied down, others incomplete, and others still moving. Steiner reported that the mission could not be executed as ordered. When Hitler learned on 22 April that the attack had not taken place, he acknowledged during the afternoon conference that the war was lost, yet he continued issuing plans for relief…

Continue in The Battle of Berlin →