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WWII On This Day: March 2

What happened on March 2 during World War II? This date brings together 2 events from 1941 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
A reconnaissance detachment of the German 5th Panzer Division entering Athens on 27 April 1941.
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1979-123-32 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
German Invasion of Greece, April 1941

German forces enter Bulgaria and move toward the Greek frontier

German troops officially entered Bulgaria during the first four days of March after Bulgaria joined the Tripartite Pact. Twelfth Army began moving through the country toward assembly areas opposite Greece and southern Yugoslavia. The deployment removed the remaining ambiguity for Athens and London. Greece had previously resisted a large British landing while German forces remained north of the Danube; once German formations crossed into Bulgaria, the condition set for accepting substantial British assistance had been met. The movement therefore triggered two converging deployments. German formations prepared the invasion from the…

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1945
Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945.
Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945 · Imperial War Museums B 14422 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence · Source
The Rhineland Battles

The pincers meet

Ninth Army reached the Rhine at Neuss opposite Düsseldorf and pushed north to make contact with the Canadians. The trap that had been designed for early February closed at the beginning of March. A great deal less was inside it than there would have been, because the two weeks of flood had also given the Germans two weeks to get men across the river. Around 53,000 were still taken in this pocket.

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