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WWII On This Day: May 15

What happened on May 15 during World War II? This date brings together 7 events from 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
German troops in northern France during the campaign of 1940.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-299-1808-10A · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Battle of France 1940

Paul Reynaud tells Churchill that the battle is being lost

French prime minister Paul Reynaud telephoned Winston Churchill on 15 May as German columns expanded beyond the Meuse bridgeheads and the central French front deteriorated. The government was receiving reports from a command system whose reserves were already being committed piecemeal against penetrations growing in depth and width. The northern Allied armies remained heavily engaged in Belgium. The exchange marked the moment when the operational rupture became a political crisis between allied governments. Britain now had to consider the preservation of the BEF while France sought forces capable of restoring…

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Battle of France 1940

Stonne changes hands repeatedly

French and German troops fought repeatedly for Stonne south of Sedan between 15 and 17 May, turning the village and surrounding ridges into one of the campaign's most violent local battles. Char B1 bis tanks, infantry and artillery demonstrated the combat power available in French formations, while German units kept the connection to the Sedan bridgehead under pressure. The fighting remained south of the principal German westward axis. German mobile formations continued toward the Oise and Somme while Stonne absorbed strong French units in a battle whose tactical intensity exceeded…

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1941
New Zealand infantry and Matilda tank crews meeting outside Tobruk during Operation Crusader, photographed 2 December 1941.
Captain Geoffrey Keating / No. 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit · Imperial War Museums E 6918 · UK Government public domain
Tobruk and Operation Crusader

Operation Brevity fails to relieve Tobruk

British forces attacked Axis frontier positions around Sollum, Fort Capuzzo and Halfaya in May. The intended limited gains could not be held against mobile counter-attacks, and the operation did not reach Tobruk. The outcome reinforced the need for more armour, transport and coordinated support before another attempt. Tobruk continued to be supplied by warships and smaller vessels while its garrison defended the perimeter.

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1942
Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival and the British surrender party walking to the Ford Motor Factory in Singapore on 15 February 1942.
British official photographer / Imperial War Museums HU 2781 · UK Government public domain · Source
The Fall of the Southern Empires

Stilwell's Party Reaches India

Stilwell and his headquarters party reached India on 15 May after the overland march from Burma. Other Allied formations were still withdrawing by different routes, and the campaign had not yet formally ended. Reaching India mattered because the Allied rear area had shifted. The old system had run from the port of Rangoon north to Lashio and China. With that route gone, India became the base from which forces would be rebuilt and new supply arrangements for China attempted. The geography of the future campaign was being established while the…

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1943
A famine photograph documenting the sale of household belongings as distress deepened; reproduced in Bengal Speaks in 1944.
A famine photograph documenting the sale of household belongings as distress deepened; reproduced in Bengal Speaks in 1944. Bengal Speaks · public domain in India Source
The Bengal Famine

Starvation deaths and distress sales spread across Bengal districts

By May 1943 reports of starvation and severe undernutrition were coming from several districts. Families sold jewellery, livestock, tools, cooking vessels and other possessions to keep buying rice as prices rose. Asset sales were a stage in the process of destitution. Once household reserves were exhausted, people who had lost work or purchasing power had fewer ways to remain in their villages and increasingly sought relief in towns or Calcutta. The pattern helps explain why the famine struck occupational groups unevenly. Exposure depended on the relationship between income, food ownership,…

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1944
Jews deported from Carpathian Ruthenia arrive on the Birkenau ramp during the Hungarian deportations in May 1944.
Jews deported from Carpathian Ruthenia arrive on the Birkenau ramp during the Hungarian deportations in May 1944. Auschwitz Album / Yad Vashem · Public domain Source
The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

About 437,000 Jews are deported from Hungary

German SS personnel under Adolf Eichmann worked with Hungarian officials and gendarmerie to concentrate and deport Jews from the provinces between 15 May and 9 July 1944. About 437,000 people were deported in 147 trains. About 420,000 were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the majority were murdered after arrival. Regent Miklós Horthy halted the deportations from the provinces in early July amid international pressure, military developments and growing concern over Germany's position.

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Three Horsa gliders on the landing ground beside the Caen Canal bridge at Bénouville, photographed in July 1944.
The three Horsa gliders of the coup de main force beside the canal bridge, 12 July 1944 · Imperial War Museums · IWM Non-Commercial Licence · Source
Operation Deadstick

Fifty-four practice landings

The company rehearsed on canal bridges in Devon, on the Exeter ship canal and at Countess Weir, running the assault again and again until the sequence could be carried out by men who could not see. The glider pilots flew fifty-four training sorties in every weather. Howard also had them fight at night after long marches, on the reasoning that the real thing would happen to tired men in the dark. The company was widely thought to be over-trained. It was about to do the job in ten minutes.

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