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WWII On This Day: June 19

What happened on June 19 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1942 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1942
British and Commonwealth prisoners gathered near Tobruk following its surrender, June 1942.
Koch / Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B21459 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
Gazala and the Fall of Tobruk

Air and artillery preparations intensify before the assault

Axis formations completed the concentration and prepared artillery and air support for an attack against the Tobruk perimeter. The defenders had to hold a broad fortified line with forces still being assembled and reorganised after the defeat at Gazala. The approaching battle placed exceptional weight on the ability to locate the assault, maintain communications and commit reserves. The Axis intended to achieve a breach fast enough that defenders could not restore the line before tanks moved toward the port.

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1944
The Mulberry artificial harbour at Arromanches, June 1944.
The Mulberry artificial harbour at Arromanches, June 1944. IWM A 24675 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence Source
Operation Overlord

The Great Storm

A north-easterly gale, the worst in the Channel in forty years, blew for three days. It wrecked Mulberry A off Omaha beyond repair, damaged Mulberry B at Arromanches, drove some 800 craft ashore and stopped unloading almost completely. More tonnage and more landing craft were lost in the storm than on D-Day itself. Reinforcement fell days behind schedule at the exact moment the armies needed to build up for Cherbourg and for the offensives around Caen.

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German prisoners of war captured during the Soviet summer offensive march through Moscow on 17 July 1944.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-696-0426-14A · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Operation Bagration

Partisan attacks disrupt Army Group Centre's communications

Partisan formations opened a coordinated sabotage wave against roads and railways behind Army Group Centre, planting thousands of mines and forcing German security and railway troops into an immediate repair effort. The attacks did not seal the army group off from its rear, but they struck the communications network just as formations at the front were beginning to report increased Soviet reconnaissance and engineer activity. The importance of the rail war was cumulative rather than theatrical. German reserves already had long distances to cover across a 488-mile front, and damaged…

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