World War II calendar
What happened on April 4 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1942 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.
Combined Operations asked the Petroleum Department whether a submarine pipeline could reduce dependence on tankers and vulnerable shore storage after a landing in occupied Europe. Geoffrey Lloyd referred the question to the Petroleum Warfare Department and senior oil-industry engineers.
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In early April 1945 production at Leuna finally ceased. The plant had been attacked repeatedly since 12 May 1944, and engineers had restored portions of it again and again between raids. By this stage continuous damage, shortages of vital equipment and the breakdown of the wider economy had overwhelmed the repair effort. The timing of the final halt belongs to the works’ production record and should not be confused with the date of one individual attack. Repeated bombing created the accumulated damage; the collapse of transport and the approach of…
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Ninth Army began its deliberate attack southward on 4 April, the day it returned from 21st Army Group to Bradley’s 12th Army Group. First Army’s III Corps attacked north through the Sauerland on 5 April, and XVIII Airborne Corps joined on 6 April. The Ruhr River served as the interarmy boundary. The Allies committed the equivalent of four corps to reducing the pocket while other First and Ninth Army formations continued toward the Weser, Elbe and central Germany. This kept Army Group B contained without allowing the encirclement to halt…
Continue in The Ruhr Pocket →.jpg){kind=link}