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

World War II calendar

WWII On This Day: May 9

What happened on May 9 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1940, 1942 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

Both sides wait behind their opening positions

On the night of 9 May the Allied armies stood ready to execute the Dyle-Breda plan as soon as Germany entered Belgium and the Netherlands, while German Army Groups A and B waited behind their start lines. The coalition's strongest mobile formations were positioned for the advance into Belgium. French Seventh Army would drive toward Breda, First Army toward Gembloux, and the British Expeditionary Force toward the Dyle. Across Luxembourg and the Ardennes, Army Group A had assembled the heaviest German armoured concentration. The opening movements would therefore carry the…

Continue in Battle of France 1940 →
1942
A Spitfire Vc prepares to launch from USS Wasp for Malta on 9 May 1942 during Operation Bowery.
A Spitfire Vc prepares to launch from USS Wasp for Malta on 9 May 1942 during Operation Bowery. U.S. Navy / National Archives · public domain Source
Malta: Air Siege and Convoy War

Bowery restores the fighter battle

USS Wasp and HMS Eagle delivered sixty Spitfires on 9 May. Malta's ground organisation had been changed after the losses following Calendar: the new fighters were dispersed, refuelled and armed within minutes, and RAF units flew 134 sorties that day as the reinforcement entered the battle before Axis raids could destroy it on the ground. The balance over the island shifted. The main sustained Luftwaffe assault ended on 10 May as units began moving to other tasks, while further fighters continued to arrive. Malta's airfields remained vulnerable and bombing continued,…

Continue in Malta: Air Siege and Convoy War →
1944
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

Soviet troops retake Sevastopol

Soviet forces entered and cleared the city while the surviving Axis formations withdrew west onto Cape Khersones. The principal battle was now concentrated on the beaches and approaches used for evacuation. The 1944 campaign had reached the same ground on which the Soviet garrison had made its last stand in July 1942. Shipping continued trying to remove German and Romanian personnel across the Black Sea.

Continue in Sevastopol and the Crimea →