World War II calendar
What happened on July 27 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1943 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.
A concentrated attack on densely built districts produced thousands of separate fires that merged into a firestorm during the night of 27–28 July. Between roughly 30,000 and 40,000 people died in the Hamburg raid series. The precise total remains uncertain, but the overwhelming majority of deaths occurred during the firestorm.
Continue in The Combined Bomber Offensive →
On the night of 27–28 July Bomber Command concentrated its attack on eastern Hamburg. High explosive and incendiaries struck densely built districts after a period of hot, dry weather. Thousands of separate fires merged into a firestorm. The flow of heated air drew powerful winds through streets and shelters while smoke, heat and carbon monoxide killed people who had survived the initial blast. The phenomenon depended on bombing pattern, fuel load, weather and city structure, which is why firestorm conditions appeared only in particular raids. Hamburg's historical records place the…
Continue in The Bombing of Cities →
On 27 July the German authorities ordered 100,000 Warsaw residents to report for fortification work. Colonel Antoni Chruściel, acting on his own assessment of the danger to the underground, ordered Home Army units in Warsaw to a higher state of readiness while the population largely boycotted the German call-up. The alert brought thousands of underground soldiers toward assembly points. On 28 July, after the expected German reaction failed to materialise, Home Army headquarters cancelled the immediate mobilisation and returned the Warsaw District to readiness. The episode exposed how quickly a…
Continue in The Warsaw Rising →
Kluge, commanding in the west, reported that the left wing had collapsed and that there was no longer a coherent line in the American sector. Reserves that might have plugged the gap were held east of Caen, facing the British, where Montgomery's operations had drawn and fixed the bulk of the German armour. That is the argument about Normandy in one sentence, and it is still running: whether the British battles around Caen were a deliberate anvil for the American hammer or a series of failed attacks that happened to…
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