WWII On This Day: July 9

War damage in Minsk photographed in June 1941. Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-137-1008-09A · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Source

July 9, 1941 · 12:00 Operation Barbarossa

The first great encirclements end

By 9 July organised resistance in the principal Białystok–Minsk pockets had been crushed or dispersed after repeated Soviet breakout attempts. German headquarters reported more than 300,000 prisoners from the battles. The figure records the German captor accounting and uses different categories from later Soviet personnel-loss studies. Western Front had nevertheless lost much of the force with which it had begun the campaign. Army Group Centre was already moving toward the Dvina–Dnieper line, where newly deployed Soviet armies were taking over the defence. The next battle would be fought by a…

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A motorised column. Fuel, not opposition, set the pace of the advance. Bundesarchiv Bild 101III-Cantzler-026-11 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Source

July 9, 1942 · 06:00 Case Blue and the Drive to the Caucasus

The second phase begins early

First Panzer Army was ordered into the next phase on 9 July before its refit and concentration were complete. Fourth Panzer Army was still disengaging from the Voronezh area and moving more than a hundred miles across ground already traversed by other German formations. The timetable now contained a paradox. Territorial progress had run well ahead of the plan, but vehicle condition, fuel delivery and unit readiness lagged behind it. Several panzer and motorised divisions halted simply to receive enough fuel to continue south. German headquarters was accelerating the campaign…

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A Das Reich Panzer III crew halted during the fighting in the Belgorod–Orel battle area, July 1943. Bundesarchiv Bild 101III-Zschaeckel-208-25 / Friedrich Zschäckel · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Source

July 9, 1943 · 18:00 Battle of Kursk 1943

Hoth turns the SS armoured axis toward Prokhorovka

The direct route toward Oboyan had become increasingly difficult under Soviet defence and counterattack. Hoth shifted the main direction of II SS Panzer Corps northeast toward Prokhorovka, where the terrain offered another route around the strongest resistance on the Oboyan axis. The movement also brought the corps toward the Soviet reserves arriving from the east. German and Soviet operational plans were now converging on the same sector, while Army Detachment Kempf continued trying to advance far enough on the eastern flank to support the SS corps.

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Troops of the British 51st Highland Division unload stores and vehicles from landing craft on the Sicily coast on 10 July 1943. — Lt C. H. Parnall / Royal Navy / Imperial War Museums A 17916 · UK Government public domain

July 9, 1943 · 18:00 Operation Husky: The Invasion of Sicily

The convoys close on Sicily and the wind strengthens

Allied naval forces brought their assault convoys toward beaches spread from Licata to the southeastern peninsula. Strong wind and high seas disrupted the timing of some airborne and landing-craft movements during the approach. The invasion involved separate American and British naval commands whose ships had to arrive on station during the night. Weather and navigation became immediate operational problems, particularly for aircraft seeking small targets inland.

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July 9, 1943 · 23:30 Operation Husky: The Invasion of Sicily

Airborne forces cross the coast in scattered formations

American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division and British glider troops flew toward road and bridge targets behind the invasion beaches on the night of 9–10 July. High winds and navigation errors scattered aircraft and gliders across southern Sicily; numerous British gliders came down at sea. Small British parties reached Ponte Grande south of Syracuse and held the bridge for a time. Other airborne troops fought in isolated groups, hindering some Axis movements while losing the planned concentration needed to hold their objectives.

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The British Army in Normandy, June 1944. IWM B 5910 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence Source

July 9, 1944 Operation Overlord

Northern Caen taken in Operation Charnwood

British and Canadian troops entered the northern half of Caen after a heavy bomber attack that killed several hundred French civilians and choked the streets with rubble, hindering the advance it was meant to assist. The Germans held the southern bank of the Orne and the Colombelles works. Caen, a D-Day objective, had taken thirty-three days, and roughly three-quarters of the city was rubble by the time the fighting ended.

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Smoke from Ploiești refineries as Fifteenth Air Force B-17s depart after the 9 July 1944 raid. U.S. Army Air Forces / NARA NAID 204918695 · Public domain (US) Source

July 9, 1944 · 11:30 The Oil Campaign

Repeated bombing strikes the Romanian refineries

On 9 July the Fifteenth Air Force again attacked oil installations around Ploiești. An aerial USAAF photograph shows smoke rising from the refinery district as B-17s cleared the target area. Romanian refining capacity remained important because German synthetic fuel production was already being reduced. Repeated attacks forced plant management to move equipment, repair distillation installations and redirect scarce transport capacity to emergency work. The refinery district was heavily defended, but the bombers could approach from the south in sufficient strength to keep pressure on production. The Romanian strategic position would…

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