World War II calendar
What happened on August 27 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1942 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.
Volkhov Front opened the main phase of the Sinyavino offensive on 27 August, following Leningrad Front attacks that had begun on 19 August. The breakthrough south of Lake Ladoga forced German formations assembled for Operation Nordlicht into the defensive battle. The planned assault on Leningrad could no longer open on its intended timetable.
Continue in The Siege of Leningrad →
Another Fifteenth Air Force strike reached Blechhammer on 27 August, as the loss of Romanian oil made synthetic capacity in Germany and occupied Silesia more consequential. A dated USAAF target photograph records the raid. Local repairs could restore individual units, but the expanding campaign drew in building firms, technicians, guards and anti-aircraft batteries. These resources were required at many facilities at once, a cumulative demand that plant output figures alone cannot show. At Blechhammer the labour force included Auschwitz prisoners whose daily work placed them in the industrial target zone.…
Continue in The Oil Campaign →
The first attempt to lay HAMEL pipe failed because marine growth on the submerged Conundrum prevented the drum from rotating. A later attempt broke when the pipe fouled on the drum flange before reaching Cherbourg.
Continue in Operation PLUTO →
The bridges and major installations had survived, and the new authorities now had to feed, police and govern a capital emerging from occupation while the Allied armies continued east. The weeks that followed also brought the purge of collaborators, summary violence and the public humiliation of women accused of relationships with Germans. Celebration, state restoration and retribution overlapped in the same streets.
Continue in The Liberation of Paris →
