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WWII On This Day: December 29

What happened on December 29 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1940, 1941 and 1942, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
St Paul's standing in the smoke of the City of London raid, 29 December 1940.
St Paul's standing in the smoke of the City of London raid, 29 December 1940. Herbert Mason, Daily Mail · IWM HU 36220 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence Source
The Blitz

The Second Great Fire of London

On 29 December 136 German aircraft attacked the City of London in a raid weighted heavily toward incendiaries. High explosive damaged roads and water mains before fires multiplied among offices, warehouses, churches and narrow streets. Imperial War Museums records 163 civilians killed. Material destruction was enormous: eight Wren churches were among the buildings lost or damaged, and fire threatened the area around St Paul's Cathedral. The raid exposed weaknesses in fire watching during a holiday period and showed how water supply, access and staffing could magnify an incendiary attack. Herbert…

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1941
German troops in the ruins of Sevastopol, 1942.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-231-0703-27 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Sevastopol and the Crimea

The Feodosiya landing creates a crisis behind Eleventh Army

Soviet warships entered Feodosiya harbor before dawn and landed nearly five thousand troops during the first two hours. Further echelons followed as the Kerch bridgehead expanded from the east. The new Soviet lodgment threatened the rear of the forces attacking Sevastopol. Manstein stopped the fortress offensive and transferred formations toward the Kerch Peninsula, giving Sevastopol several additional months.

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1942
A converted cable ship laying pipeline across the English Channel, 1944.
Pipeline laying in the Channel, 1944 ·
Operation PLUTO

Holdfast lays the Bristol Channel test line

HMS Holdfast laid a two-inch HAIS line from Swansea across approximately thirty miles of the Bristol Channel toward Watermouth. The principal deep-water lay succeeded, although making the shore connection exposed handling and manoeuvring problems that required new equipment and procedures.

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