WWII On This Day: February 7

Italian M13/40 medium tanks captured by British forces at Beda Fomm in February 1941. Australian armed forces / Australian War Memorial 128415 · public domain Source

February 7, 1941 · 08:00 Operation Compass

The final breakout fails

The remaining Italian armour made a last attempt to force the roadblock. Anti-tank guns and the surviving British tanks stopped the attack at close range, after which organized resistance collapsed and white flags appeared along the road. About 25,000 prisoners were taken in the Beda Fomm battle area. General Giuseppe Tellera was mortally wounded and General Annibale Bergonzoli, who had escaped Bardia, was captured. The Tenth Army had ceased to exist as an effective field force.

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German Type IXA submarine U-37 in dock at Lorient in 1940 after the French Atlantic ports became U-boat bases. — Mannewitz · Bundesarchiv Bild 101II-MW-1032-11A · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

February 7, 1941 · 12:00 The Happy Time and the Wolfpacks

Western Approaches moves to Liverpool

Western Approaches headquarters moved from Plymouth to Liverpool, placing operational control beside Britain's principal Atlantic convoy port and closer to the route north of Ireland. The move reflected where the convoy war was now being fought rather than a change in the existence of the command itself. Admiral Sir Percy Noble took over as Commander-in-Chief on 17 February. The reorganisation did not solve the U-boat problem in one stroke, but it concentrated convoy plotting, naval control and cooperation with the RAF in the headquarters that would direct the Atlantic battle…

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The first train from the Soviet mainland reaches Finland Station on 7 February 1943 after completion of the new railway through the Iskra corridor. Russian Ministry of Defence / Mil.ru · CC BY 4.0 Source

February 7, 1943 · 08:00 The Siege of Leningrad

The first mainland train reaches Finland Station

The first train from the mainland arrived after eighteen days of construction. The exposed railway increased supply capacity dramatically but remained within range of German artillery and required continuous repair.

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Infantrymen of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division rest on a slope in the Hürtgen Forest on 18 November 1944. — U.S. Army Signal Corps / National Archives · 18 November 1944 · Public domain · Source

February 7, 1945 · 15:00 Aachen and the Hürtgen Forest

American troops enter Schmidt again

The 310th Infantry occupied Hill 493 while the 311th advanced toward Schmidt. Infantry crossed the open ground after German antitank fire stopped the leading tanks and reached the northern houses during the afternoon. House-to-house clearing continued into 8 February. An 82nd Airborne regiment simultaneously crossed the Kall to cut the north-eastern escape route.

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Kleve photographed from a low-flying Auster a few days after the RAF raid of 7-8 February 1945. Royal Air Force official photographer · IWM C 4964 · public domain UK Government work Source

February 7, 1945 · 22:00 The Rhineland Battles

Kleve and Goch are bombed before Veritable

RAF Bomber Command struck Kleve and Goch on the night before the ground offensive to disrupt the towns, roads and German command system on XXX Corps' line of advance. Kleve was attacked by 286 heavy bombers and Goch by 448, leaving both towns heavily damaged before Allied troops reached them. The raids also killed civilians and forced labourers who remained in the target towns. A Lower Rhine local chronology records 58 German civilians and about 100 Ukrainian forced labourers killed at Kleve, and 30 civilians plus more than 200 forced…

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