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WWII On This Day: July 16

What happened on July 16 during World War II? This date brings together 5 events from 1940, 1941 and 1942, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
A formation of Heinkel He 111s in the Battle of Britain
Imperial War Museums, MH6547 · Public domain · Source
The Battle of Britain

Hitler orders preparations for Operation Sea Lion

Hitler's Directive No. 16 ordered preparations for an invasion of England. The directive assumed that British air power would first have to be reduced to the point where it could no longer interfere effectively with the crossing. That requirement connected the air battle to a wider operational problem. Barges and transports would have to cross the Channel, unload troops and supplies, and continue doing so under the threat of the Royal Navy as well as the RAF. The Luftwaffe therefore did not have to occupy every part of British airspace…

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1941
A German infantryman beside a burning Soviet BT-7 tank and a dead Soviet soldier, June 1941.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-020-1268-36 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Operation Barbarossa

German troops enter Smolensk while the encirclement remains open

German mobile formations entered Smolensk on 16 July while the intended encirclement east of the city remained incomplete. Panzer spearheads were extended, Soviet forces held crossings and escape routes, and counterattacks struck the German shoulders. Soviet reserve armies had reached the Dvina–Dnieper sector. German mobile formations were now holding a broad salient while infantry and supply columns worked forward through congested roads and damaged communications. The battle continued as a series of pockets, breakouts and counterattacks around Smolensk. Army Group Centre had won another major territorial and operational success, but…

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Operation Barbarossa

Hitler sets a ruthless occupation policy

At a conference on 16 July, Hitler and senior officials discussed the administration, exploitation and permanent political control of the occupied Soviet territories. Conquest was being planned as a long-term reordering of territory and population while the army was still fighting around Smolensk. On the same day Hitler broadened Himmler's security authority in the east. Population removal, shooting and racial reordering appeared in the discussion as instruments of occupation, alongside economic extraction and the division of territory. Military advance and occupation policy were therefore developing simultaneously. Each new area taken…

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1942
German security-police instructions dated 4 July 1942 for the Paris mass arrest later known as the Vel' d'Hiv roundup.
German security-police instructions dated 4 July 1942 for the Paris mass arrest later known as the Vel' d'Hiv roundup. German security-police document · Public domain Source
Occupation, Collaboration and Resistance in World War II

French police carry out the Vel' d'Hiv roundup

Before dawn on 16 July 1942, French police began a German-directed mass arrest of Jews across Paris. Records give 13,152 arrests over 16–17 July. The operation formed part of the wider deportation programme from France to Auschwitz. German security officials and Vichy police leaders had negotiated the operation in advance. French police performed the arrests, while thousands of detainees were held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver or sent directly to Drancy before transfer through Drancy, Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande. Children were separated from their parents before later deportation. The roundup shows how…

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Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence.
USHMM
The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

French police carry out the Vel' d'Hiv round-up

French police arrested more than 13,000 Jewish men, women and children in Paris on 16–17 July 1942 within a German-directed deportation programme. Thousands of families were confined at the Vélodrome d'Hiver and other collection sites before transfer through transit camps including Drancy. Most of those arrested were later deported to Auschwitz. German deportation policy in France operated through French police, civil administration and transport systems working within the German-directed programme.

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