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WWII On This Day: December 19

What happened on December 19 during World War II? This date brings together 5 events from 1942 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1942
Red Army soldiers carrying a Soviet flag through the ruins of Stalingrad in 1943.
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R76619 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Battle of Stalingrad

LVII Panzer Corps reaches the Myshkova

By 19 December the spearheads of LVII Panzer Corps had reached the Myshkova River, bringing the relief force to within roughly fifty to sixty kilometres of the pocket’s southern edge. The advance had outrun some supporting formations and now faced increasingly strong Soviet resistance, including 2nd Guards Army. Manstein’s headquarters urged Sixth Army to prepare for movement toward the relief force. A breakout required Paulus to concentrate armour, fuel and infantry while giving up parts of the perimeter. Sixth Army reported that its fuel stocks permitted only limited movement and…

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1944
Men of the 101st Airborne Division moving toward Bastogne on 19 December 1944 as Allied reserves enter the Ardennes battle.
101st Airborne Division on the road between Bastogne and Houffalize, 19 December 1944 · US Army Signal Corps SC 329953 · NARA · Public domain · Source
The Battle of the Bulge

St Vith

The 7th Armored Division and elements of several infantry formations assembled around St Vith as the central German penetration expanded. The town mattered because a network of roads and rail lines converged there. The defenders formed a projecting horseshoe rather than a neat line. Holding it disrupted Fifth Panzer Army's traffic and forced German formations onto poorer routes while the American command tried to understand which units still existed east of the town. St Vith could not be held indefinitely once the salient developed around it. Its operational value lay…

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The Battle of the Bulge

The Verdun conference

At Verdun on 19 December Eisenhower met the senior commanders responsible for the response. He framed the penetration as an opportunity to attack an exposed German salient once its shoulders were stabilised. Patton said Third Army could turn north and attack with three divisions on 22 December. His staff had already begun contingency work, which made the promise possible; Eisenhower insisted that the initial blow be strong enough to avoid committing formations piecemeal. The significance is often distorted by measuring the promise against the date Bastogne was reached. Patton's three-division…

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Men of the 101st Airborne Division moving toward Bastogne on 19 December 1944.
Men of the 101st Airborne Division moving toward Bastogne on 19 December 1944. T/5 Wesley B. Carolan, 165th Signal Photo Co. · U.S. Army Signal Corps SC 329953 · Public domain Source
The Battle of the Bulge

The 101st reaches Bastogne

The 101st Airborne Division arrived in the Bastogne area on 18–19 December and joined Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division, artillery, engineers and remnants of units already falling back through the road centre. The defence therefore was never the 101st alone. Armoured teams fought delaying actions on the eastern and northern approaches while airborne infantry established positions around the junctions and villages that controlled entry to the town. Bastogne mattered because several useful roads met there and because denying them complicated Fifth Panzer Army's southern traffic. German armour…

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The Battle of the Bulge

Two regiments of the 106th Division surrender

The 422nd and 423rd Infantry Regiments of the 106th Division had been encircled east of the Our after German forces passed around the Schnee Eifel. An ordered breakout toward Schönberg began too late to reopen a secure route west. By the afternoon of 19 December ammunition was running short and German forces were firing into the pocket from several directions. The two regimental commands surrendered separately, with approximately 7,000 men becoming prisoners in the principal capitulation and additional groups captured later. The loss was one of the largest mass surrenders…

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