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WWII On This Day: October 15

What happened on October 15 during World War II? This date brings together 6 events from 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1944, 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 government evacuates ministries as Moscow goes under siege rule

On 15 October the State Defence Committee ordered major government institutions, foreign missions and parts of the General Staff evacuated to Kuibyshev. The order reflected the danger created by the collapse west of the Mozhaisk line and preparations were made to move or destroy facilities that could not be retained. The following day brought panic and disorder in parts of Moscow as offices and factories prepared to leave and roads and stations filled with evacuees. Stalin remained in the capital. Military control tightened over the next several days, and the…

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Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence.
USHMM
The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

Systematic deportations from the Reich begin

German authorities began systematic deportations of Jews from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to ghettos and killing sites in occupied eastern Europe. The first transports in October 1941 went toward Łódź, Minsk, Riga and other destinations. Between October 1941 and October 1942 about 183,000 people were deported from the Greater German Reich in this programme. Deportation from the Reich developed alongside the rapid expansion of mass shooting and construction of the killing-centre system in occupied Poland.

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1942
Citizens of Leningrad queueing for water during the siege.
Leningraders queueing for water during the siege · RIA Novosti archive image 907 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
The Siege of Leningrad

The Sinyavino pocket is eliminated

By mid-October German counterattacks had destroyed or driven out the remaining Soviet forces trapped west of the Volkhov, restoring the front close to its pre-offensive line. The battle had consumed men, ammunition and assault formations earmarked for Nordlicht. Army Group North retained the blockade, while the planned capture operation had lost the force and timing required for execution.

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1943
Red Army troops crossing the Dnieper on the Kyiv axis in 1943.
Yefim Kopyt · Russian archival photograph · Public domain
The Dnieper Crossings

The Bukrin offensives fail

Voronezh Front launched major attacks from Bukrin in October in an effort to break toward Kyiv. Ravines, restricted deployment space and German defensive concentrations limited the use of Soviet armour, while the bridgehead's crossings remained vulnerable to fire and congestion. The attacks gained little ground at high cost. Their failure changed the operational problem: Vatutin now had to preserve enough activity at Bukrin to hold German attention while preparing a different main attack elsewhere.

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1944
Arrow Cross members march in Budapest in October 1944 after the movement took power.
Arrow Cross members march in Budapest in October 1944 after the movement took power. Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-680-8283A-13A / Faupel · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Source
The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

The Arrow Cross seizes power and terror resumes in Budapest

Germany forced Regent Miklós Horthy from power after he attempted to leave the war and installed a government dominated by the fascist Arrow Cross movement. The Jews of Budapest, temporarily spared from the summer deportations, were again in immediate danger. Arrow Cross militias carried out arrests, forced labour and killings in the capital. In November tens of thousands of Jews were forced west toward the Austrian border while neutral diplomats and Jewish organisations tried to protect people with safe houses and protective papers.

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Infantrymen of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division rest on a slope in the Hürtgen Forest on 18 November 1944.
U.S. Army Signal Corps / National Archives · 18 November 1944 · Public domain · Source
Aachen and the Hürtgen Forest

The relief counterattack fails

The 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division attacked the thin American arc east of Aachen with infantry and Tiger tanks. The aim was to widen the remaining corridor and reconnect with the garrison. The attack struck prepared infantry and concentrated artillery. It failed, and the German division lost roughly a third of its combat effectives in two days.

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