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WWII On This Day: July 15

What happened on July 15 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1942 and 1943, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1942
Jews board a deportation train at Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, 1942–43.
Jews board a deportation train at Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, 1942–43. Rudolf Breslauer / Yad Vashem archival collection · Public domain Source
The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

Mass deportation from the Netherlands begins

German authorities began systematic deportations of Jews from the Netherlands, using Westerbork as the principal transit camp. Trains carried deportees to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibór, Theresienstadt and Bergen-Belsen. More than 100,000 Jews were deported from the Netherlands by September 1944. The operation shows how the deportation system had expanded far beyond occupied Poland into the administrative and railway networks of western Europe.

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A German tank commander in southern Soviet territory in June 1942, shortly before the opening of Case Blue.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-218-0528-30 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Case Blue and the Drive to the Caucasus

The Millerovo pincers meet

On 15 July elements of First and Fourth Panzer Armies met south of Millerovo. The meeting technically closed the movement ordered against the retreating Soviet armies, but it did not create the continuous pocket anticipated by the planners. Gaps remained around the converging armour, and large Soviet columns had already escaped east and south. Fourth Panzer Army reported about 21,000 prisoners in its sector, while First Panzer Army was too intent on continuing the advance to stop and produce an equivalent count. The operational meaning was more important than the…

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1943
A German Messerschmitt Bf 110 attacks B-17F Flying Fortresses of the 91st Bomb Group over Europe in January 1944.
U.S. Army Air Forces / National Archives, NAID 204888701 · Public domain in the United States · Source
The Combined Bomber Offensive

Window is authorised for operational use

Portal recorded on 15 July that authority had been given for Window to be used operationally from 23 July. Bomber Command was informed the following day. The decision accepted that the immediate reduction of bomber losses outweighed the remaining value of keeping the aluminium-strip countermeasure secret from Germany.

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