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WWII On This Day: November 27

What happened on November 27 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1941, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
A Soviet 122 mm A-19 gun crew firing during the defence of Moscow on 3 December 1941.
RIA Novosti archive #46802 / Viktor Temin · 3 December 1941 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
The Battle for Moscow

The northern spearheads reach their operational limit

By 27–28 November German formations had reached the Moscow–Volga Canal around Yakhroma and positions west of Krasnaya Polyana, creating the most dangerous northern penetration of the campaign. German strength was falling sharply as fuel, maintenance, frostbite and infantry losses accumulated. Stavka was assembling new armies behind the front. On 29 November Stalin released First Shock, Twentieth and Tenth Armies for Zhukov's use, and on 30 November the Western Front submitted its counteroffensive plan. Later stories placed isolated German reconnaissance elements at Khimki; the evidence for those claims is inconsistent, so…

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New Zealand 19th Battalion infantry linking up with the Tobruk garrison, 27 November 1941.
New Zealand 19th Battalion infantry linking up with the Tobruk garrison, 27 November 1941. National Library of New Zealand / unidentified official war photographer · public domain NZ Source
Tobruk and Operation Crusader

New Zealand troops link up with the Tobruk garrison at Ed Duda

On 27 November men of the New Zealand 19th Battalion made contact with Tobruk forces near Ed Duda as New Zealand brigades fought for Belhamed and Sidi Rezegh. The meeting briefly opened a corridor through which troops, transport, wounded and stores could pass. The National Library of New Zealand photograph records 19th Battalion men meeting a tank of the Tobruk garrison on 27 November. This was the first important physical link-up, but it did not yet constitute permanent relief. The ridges around the corridor remained contested.

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A Crusader tank passes a burning German Panzer IV in the Western Desert on 27 November 1941.
A Crusader tank passes a burning German Panzer IV in the Western Desert on 27 November 1941. Lieutenant L. B. Davies / Imperial War Museums E 6752 · UK Government public domain Source
Tobruk and Operation Crusader

Crusader tanks pass a burning Panzer IV

A British official war photographer captured a Crusader tank passing a burning German Panzer IV in the Western Desert on 27 November. The photograph documents the continuing armoured losses while the infantry battle for Tobruk’s approaches was underway. The wider fighting had already cost the Eighth Army many tanks, and both forces repeatedly rebuilt temporary combat groups from surviving vehicles. The photograph documents a tank loss but cannot by itself determine which formation controlled the adjoining ridge.

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