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WWII On This Day: April 23

What happened on April 23 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1941, 1942, 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 final Greek surrender agreement includes Italy

On 23 April a new capitulation agreement was signed by Tsolakoglou for Greece, Alfred Jodl for Germany and Alberto Ferrero for Italy. It replaced the earlier German-only arrangements made after Tsolakoglou’s initiative on 20 April. Italian inclusion mattered politically because the Greek armies had spent months pushing Italian forces back into Albania. Mussolini refused to accept a settlement that allowed Germany alone to receive their surrender, and hostilities on the Italian front continued while the revised terms were negotiated. The agreement formalised the end of organised resistance by the Greek…

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1942
Searchlights and anti-aircraft tracer over Cologne during Operation Millennium, 30–31 May 1942.
Royal Air Force official photographer · Imperial War Museums C 2615 · Public domain
Area Bombing Begins

Rostock extends the incendiary method over four nights

Clear moonlight led Bomber Command to Rostock, another Baltic target outside Gee range. The city combined a vulnerable built-up centre with a port, submarine facilities and the Heinkel aircraft works. Selected crews were assigned the factory while the main force was directed against the town. Weather remained favourable and the attack was repeated on three further nights. Across the four operations, 521 aircraft were dispatched and twelve were lost. The official history records 305 tons of incendiaries and 442 tons of high explosive dropped, severe damage to the Heinkel works…

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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

Fighters attack a concentration at Namur

Eighth Air Force fighter pilots returning from Germany reported an unusually large concentration of rolling stock at Namur. More than 100 Ninth Air Force Mustangs and Thunderbolts were sent against it, showing how reconnaissance and opportunity attacks were being folded into the planned rail-centre campaign.

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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

Weidling is appointed

On 23 April Hitler ordered LVI Panzer Corps into Berlin and placed its commander, Helmuth Weidling, over the eastern and south-eastern defence. He was subsequently made commandant of the entire Berlin Defence Area. The same corps had been wanted by Busse to protect Ninth Army's northern flank. Pulling it into the city strengthened parts of the urban defence but helped make the separation between Berlin and Ninth Army irreversible. Weidling inherited a command structure already breaking down. Regular formations held some sectors; elsewhere the defence depended on Waffen-SS remnants, police,…

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