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

World War II calendar

WWII On This Day: June 23

What happened on June 23 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1941, 1942 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
A burning Soviet BT-7 and a dead Soviet tanker during the fighting in southern Soviet territory, June 1941; the file is categorized with the Battle of Brody.
A burning Soviet BT-7 and a dead Soviet tanker during the fighting in southern Soviet territory, June 1941; the file is categorized with the Battle of Brody. Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-020-1268-36 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Source
Operation Barbarossa

The Soviet mechanised counterattacks develop around Dubno and Brody

Southwestern Front committed several mechanised corps against First Panzer Group around Lutsk, Dubno and Brody. The fighting developed over the following week and became the largest armoured concentration of the frontier battles. Soviet corps marched long distances under changing orders, lost vehicles to mechanical failure and fuel shortage, and entered combat at different times with weak radio communications and incomplete reconnaissance. T-34s and KVs could overpower German tanks locally when they arrived in coherent groups. The counterattacks slowed and complicated the German advance while consuming much of Southwestern Front's mechanised…

Continue in Operation Barbarossa →
1942
German troops in the ruins of Sevastopol, 1942.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-231-0703-27 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Sevastopol and the Crimea

The north shore of Severnaya Bay is cleared

LIV Corps finished clearing the principal Soviet positions north of Severnaya Bay. The loss of that ground unhinged the outer defensive system and brought German troops directly opposite the city across the water. The Soviet defence still held the southern side of the bay and the Sapun approaches. Manstein now prepared a night crossing designed to place infantry behind the remaining line.

Continue in Sevastopol and the Crimea →
1944
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

The Vitebsk, Orsha and Mogilev attacks open

1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian Fronts expanded the battle around Vitebsk and along the Orsha axis, while 2nd Belorussian Front attacked Fourth Army toward Mogilev. Artillery and air support were concentrated against selected sectors rather than spread evenly along the front, and infantry-engineer groups opened passages for the mobile formations waiting behind them. Third Panzer Army's southern and northern shoulders began to separate under the converging attacks. Around Orsha the Germans still held the main road and railway toward Minsk, and Fourth Army retained substantial forces east of the Dnieper,…

Continue in Operation Bagration →