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WWII On This Day: February 11

What happened on February 11 during World War II? This date brings together 2 events from 1940 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
Finnish ski troops moving through forest during the Winter War.
Imperial War Museums, HU 52936 · Public domain · Source
The Winter War

The Mannerheim Line is penetrated at Lähde

The Soviet main assault on 11 February broke deeply into the Finnish position in the Summa-Lähde sector after prolonged artillery preparation and repeated attacks against the same defensive system. Soviet troops widened the penetration over the following days as Finnish units fought to hold adjoining sectors and organise a withdrawal. The breach threatened the coherence of the main position across the western Isthmus. On 15 February the Finnish command ordered the main forces back toward the intermediate position. The strategic question shifted from preserving the Mannerheim Line to preserving an…

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1945
Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945.
Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945 · Imperial War Museums B 14422 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence · Source
The Rhineland Battles

Schlemm gets a free hand

With Grenade stalled behind the flood, Alfred Schlemm could move everything he had against Veritable, including three parachute divisions and two panzer divisions, into a corridor narrow enough that they could hold it in depth. It is the reason an operation planned to take a few days took a month. Schlemm fought the battle as well as it could be fought, and it changed only the price the Allies paid, not the result.

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