Skip to content
WW2 Theatres Theatres of the Second World War
Home

World War II calendar

WWII On This Day: July 19

What happened on July 19 during World War II? This date brings together 2 events from 1941 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

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

The strategic argument moves from planning into orders

Directive No. 33 shifted German attention toward the flanks while the Smolensk battle continued. Army Group North was to press toward Leningrad, and operations in Ukraine gained greater weight as German leaders considered the Soviet forces still active south of Army Group Centre. Army leaders continued to press for concentration on the Moscow axis, while Hitler revised priorities as the northern and southern situations developed. The mobile forces of Army Group Centre had become the principal resource over which the strategic argument was fought. The next decisions would determine whether…

Continue in Operation Barbarossa →
1944
American armour moving through the ruins of Saint-Lô during the breakout, July 1944.
American armour in the ruins of Saint-Lô, July 1944 · US Army Signal Corps · NARA · Public domain · Source
Operation Cobra

The argument about the approach

Bradley asked the heavy bombers to run parallel to the front, along the straight Saint-Lô to Périers road, so that any error would fall on German ground. The airmen objected: a parallel run meant a long exposure to flak over a narrow corridor and a slower delivery. The meeting ended with each side believing the other had agreed. The air plan was written for a perpendicular approach. Bradley did not know that until after the bombs had fallen on his own troops.

Continue in Operation Cobra →