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WWII On This Day: June 26

What happened on June 26 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1941 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
Fighting in Daugavpils (Dünaburg), photographed by a German soldier on 26 June 1941.
Fighting in Daugavpils (Dünaburg), photographed by a German soldier on 26 June 1941. Werner Laudon / Familienarchiv Laudon-Kibelka · CC BY-SA 4.0 Source
Operation Barbarossa

German mobile troops seize Daugavpils crossings

Elements of Manstein's LVI Motorized Corps reached Daugavpils and seized crossings over the Dvina before the Soviet command could establish a stable defence on the river. Army Group North had covered the distance from East Prussia to one of the campaign's first major river barriers in four days. The bridgehead gave Fourth Panzer Group an intact route beyond the Dvina. Infantry, engineers, fuel columns and neighbouring formations still had to reach the crossing before the army group could sustain another deep advance. The capture of the crossings preserved several days…

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1944
The fall of Cherbourg: the quayside and Fort du Roule, 28 June 1944.
The fall of Cherbourg: the quayside and Fort du Roule, 28 June 1944. IWM ART LD 4466 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence Source
Operation Overlord

Cherbourg surrenders and is unusable

General von Schlieben surrendered the city, with resistance in the arsenal and outer forts continuing for several more days and the Cap de la Hague only cleared on 1 July. Overlord's original plan had counted on Cherbourg as the lodgement's deep-water port. German engineers had demolished the harbour with exceptional thoroughness: cranes toppled into the basins, quays cratered, the approaches sown with mines and blockships. Cherbourg handled almost nothing until late July, and the Mulberry at Arromanches carried the campaign in the meantime.

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Sherman tanks passing through Bayeux, 17 June 1944.
Sherman tanks passing through Bayeux, 17 June 1944. IWM B 5685 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence Source
Operation Overlord

Operation Epsom opens

VIII Corps attacked south-west of Caen to cross the Odon and the Orne and turn the city from the west. The offensive drove a narrow salient, the Scottish Corridor, as far as Hill 112, in rain that grounded much of the air support. Epsom did not take Caen and was closed down on 30 June. Its more important result was that II SS Panzer Corps, brought all the way from the Eastern Front to deliver a decisive counterstroke, was spent instead plugging a defensive hole.

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The crossing at Bénouville as it stands today. The bridge was replaced in 1994.
The crossing at Bénouville as it stands today. The bridge was replaced in 1994. Wikimedia Commons · Creative Commons Source
Operation Deadstick

Renamed Pegasus Bridge

The canal bridge was renamed Pegasus Bridge on 26 June after the winged horse of the British airborne shoulder flash. The Orne bridge became Horsa Bridge, after the gliders. The men who took the river bridge had asked for it to be called Light Infantry Bridge. It was not.

Continue in Operation Deadstick →