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WWII On This Day: August 30

What happened on August 30 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1940, 1941 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
WAAF operators taking Observer Corps reports at Duxford, September 1940.
WAAF operators taking Observer Corps reports at Duxford, September 1940. Imperial War Museums CH 1404 · Public domain Source
The Battle of Britain

The sector stations come under sustained pressure

In the last days of August, attacks on 11 Group's fighter stations began to produce the most serious strain of the battle. Biggin Hill was hit repeatedly and its control facilities were damaged, while other sector stations and satellite fields absorbed continuing raids. The vulnerability was organisational rather than simply physical. Fighters could use alternative grass surfaces, but a damaged operations room or broken communications could disrupt the controller who had to assemble the local air picture and direct squadrons. Fighter Command was also losing experienced pilots faster than it…

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1941
A German infantryman beside a burning Soviet BT-7 tank and a dead Soviet soldier, June 1941.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-020-1268-36 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Operation Barbarossa

Reserve Front attacks the Yelnya salient

Zhukov's Reserve Front opened a concentrated offensive against the German salient around Yelnya, southeast of Smolensk. Soviet armies attacked the shoulders of the protruding position with the aim of forcing the defenders to abandon it. The fighting was costly for both sides. German divisions were defending a salient that consumed supply and reserves while Army Group Centre was already redistributing mobile forces toward other objectives. Sustained Soviet pressure widened penetrations around the salient and made a planned German evacuation increasingly attractive. The operation showed that Soviet commands could concentrate artillery…

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1944
American soldiers recovering the dead after the landings.
American soldiers recovering the dead after the landings. US Army Signal Corps · NARA · Public domain Source
Operation Overlord

Overlord closes at the Seine

Allied forces crossed the Seine and Operation Overlord formally ended, eleven days ahead of the phase line the planners had drawn for D+90. The cost was roughly 210,000 Allied casualties in Normandy, including some 37,000 ground forces killed. German losses are estimated at around 400,000 killed, wounded, captured or missing. Between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians died, most of them under Allied bombing.

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Warsaw Uprising: Two medics and a soldier (right) from "Parasol" battalion after coming out of sewers at Warecka Street near Nowy Świat (North Śródmieście district). In the center Maria Stypułkowska-Chojecka "Kama". On the right Krzysztof Palester "Krzych".
Warsaw Uprising - Soldiers from Parasol on Warecka Street 1 September 1944 · Jerzy Chrzanowski · Public domain · Source
The Warsaw Rising

The surface breakout fails

The Old Town garrison attempted to break through German positions and reopen a route to Śródmieście. Coordination failed and the attacking groups were driven back with heavy loss. After the failed breakout, evacuation through the sewer system became the only way to save the organised garrison.

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