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WWII On This Day: April 30

What happened on April 30 during World War II? This date brings together 9 events from 1941, 1943, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
An abandoned German Panzer II struck by a burning bottle near Tobruk, photographed 30 April 1941; associated with the fighting around the salient.
An abandoned German Panzer II struck by a burning bottle near Tobruk, photographed 30 April 1941; associated with the fighting around the salient. Australian War Memorial 007479 · public domain Australia Source
Tobruk and Operation Crusader

The Salient fighting tests the defended line again

German and Italian forces attacked the Tobruk perimeter at the end of April and established a limited salient. Over several days Australians and supporting artillery fought attempts to expand the position while using patrols and local action to contain it. A photograph dated 30 April records a German Panzer II disabled outside the fortress. It establishes a contemporary vehicle loss, not the entire sequence of the attack. The outer positions were badly contested, but the attackers did not force the garrison out of the port.

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German paratroopers descending on Crete during Operation Merkur in May 1941.
Bundesarchiv Bild 141-0864 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Battle of Crete

Freyberg takes command of Creforce

Major-General Bernard Freyberg assumed command of the Allied force on Crete as troops evacuated from mainland Greece continued arriving on the island. The garrison exceeded 42,000 British, New Zealand, Australian and Greek troops by the end of April, but numbers overstated its usable combat power. Many evacuated formations had abandoned vehicles, artillery and signals equipment in Greece. Crete also had limited engineering stores, ammunition and transport, and the island could not be given sustained fighter protection. Freyberg therefore organised the defence around the three northern airfields and Suda Bay rather…

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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

Organised fighting on mainland Greece ends

By 30 April the last organised British groups on the mainland had either escaped or been captured, and German records treated hostilities there as ended. German and Italian forces controlled the principal mainland routes and occupation arrangements followed the advance. The evacuation did not remove everyone. Scattered Allied soldiers remained behind, some entering captivity and others evading with Greek assistance. The campaign totals therefore describe organised embarkation and formed units rather than every individual who eventually escaped Greece. The surviving expeditionary force was divided between Egypt and Crete. More than…

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1943
Brigadier Orde Wingate in India after returning from Chindit operations in Japanese-occupied Burma in 1943.
Brigadier Orde Wingate in India after returning from Chindit operations in Japanese-occupied Burma in 1943. Imperial War Museums, IND 2237 · UK Government public domain Source
The Arakan and the Chindits

Longcloth survivors return to India

During April and into May, dispersed Longcloth groups crossed back toward India, reached China or were recovered by air where landing grounds could be improvised. Many men arrived exhausted, underweight or sick after weeks of marching and inadequate food. Government figures later summarised the losses as 818 killed, wounded or missing from an original force of about 3,000. The expedition had damaged communications and forced a Japanese response, but its immediate military return remained limited. Wingate argued that the operation proved a larger force could work behind Japanese lines if…

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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

Tiger feeds back into the invasion plan

Exercise Tiger ended with a list of practical failures in communications, timing, convoy protection, rescue and beach organisation. Training continued before D-Day. The next rehearsals refined procedures while the 4th Infantry Division and Force U prepared for Utah Beach.

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1945
U.S. Fifteenth Air Force B-24 bombers flying over a smoking oil refinery at Ploiești, Romania, on 31 May 1944.
Richard R. Ganczak / USAAF · Library of Congress cph.3b43591 · Public domain (US)
The Oil Campaign

The oil offensive ends as the plants are overrun

During April 1945 Allied ground advances captured or isolated the remaining major fuel installations, and Germany’s capacity to restore wartime production disappeared. The oil bombing campaign had progressed from temporary stoppages in May 1944 to a prolonged destruction of processing capacity and the supply system built around it. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey later treated oil as one of the most successful areas of strategic attack. Its production figures derive from postwar records and interviews, not from perfect knowledge available to Allied commanders during every raid. Germany’s military defeat…

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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 last relief report leaves no army coming to Berlin

By 30 April the answer to Hitler's repeated questions about Wenck, Ninth Army and the northern relief forces was unambiguous. Wenck's spearhead had stopped south of Schwielow Lake, Ninth Army was encircled and fragmenting, and the other proposed thrusts had made no progress toward Berlin. The report removed the final operational premise behind continued resistance in the capital. No field army was about to reopen a corridor, and ammunition inside Berlin was expected to run out within roughly a day. Hitler then allowed the possibility of escape in small groups…

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Soviet troops fighting in Berlin on 30 April 1945. This is a same-day street-fighting photograph, rather than a photograph of the first assault inside the Reichstag.
Soviet troops fighting in Berlin on 30 April 1945. This is a same-day street-fighting photograph, rather than a photograph of the first assault inside the Reichstag. Viktor Temin · Russian Ministry of Defence · CC BY 4.0 Source
The Battle of Berlin

The Reichstag assault

On 30 April the 150th and 171st Rifle Divisions attacked the Reichstag after fighting through the government district. Soviet troops entered the building during the evening, but German defenders remained in parts of the structure and surrounding positions overnight. Several Soviet banners were placed on or inside the building during the fighting. The sequence is difficult to reconstruct from later claims because the symbolic value of being 'first' produced competing accounts almost immediately. Yevgeny Khaldei's famous photograph was made on 2 May, after the principal battle for the building. It…

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The Battle of Berlin

Hitler dies

Between about 15:00 and 15:30 on 30 April Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun died by suicide in the Führerbunker while Soviet troops fought in the government district. Their bodies were carried into the Chancellery garden and burned as far as the available fuel allowed. Hitler's political testament named Karl Dönitz head of state and Joseph Goebbels chancellor. The bunker leadership initially concealed the death while trying to preserve a successor government and obtain terms from the Soviet command. His death ended personal command from the bunker but did not automatically…

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